Eliza has the perfect life, Bethany does not,
Bethany becomes obsessed over Eliza and wants to be the best of friends, but Eliza doesn't want too. Eliza is withholding a family secret. Bethany learns the secret and Eliza doesn't want it exposed. How will the situation unfold? What would you do? Gotta read this spectacular book to find out what happens.

Thanks to inkubator, netgalley, and the author in exchange for a review.
Publishing date Sept 11, 2022

Emily Shiner's latest intense darkly comic thriller, THE STOLEN CHILD, explores a blogger influencer's secret life when an obsessive unhinged stalker fan uncovers her dark secrets and threatens to expose her.

From the Prologue, we meet Eliza (blogger/influencer) and her husband, James (doctor). They are in Canada checking on Eliza's drug addict younger sister, Camilla.

Her sister has thrown her life away on drugs. They find her passed out but alive in a nasty house with no power or plumbing with a filthy mattress on the floor. They thought about calling the police, but she knows cops do not like druggies.

Eliza had not seen her sister in years, and her guilt had led her here to hunt her down. They were both in the foster care system before they aged out, and she told herself she would stop her from spiraling out of control. This is her last attempt.

She is passed out but appears to be breathing. Then all of a sudden, they see a little blonde-haired boy in a sagging diaper sucking his thumb with a dirty stuffed animal. She did not know about a child? Where did he come from, and what is he doing here? The boy says nothing. They must get him out of this environment.

Her husband wants to call the authorities. Eliza is against it due to her background. She cannot have this little boy in the system. This boy is filthy and needs a bath. She will not put another child in the foster system.

Eliza wants to take him home with them. James is against it. Eliza kidnaps him and leaves her sister without a word. Now she must hide him away and keep him safe. (this part makes no sense)

From here, they are back home in Tennessee. There is no mention of the relationship with the little boy or character development. We jump to Eliza and her life as a blogger and influencer, posting photos and worried and excited about getting sponsors. She loves to put her daughter Penelope in the limelight of her perfectly curated life.

However, they call the little boy Knox, and he does not get to leave the house. Very unrealistic. They keep him hidden away. We hear nothing from their relationship with him except they must keep him a secret. Eliza is also unhinged, obsessive, and crazy.

What she did NOT consider. One of her stalker fans.

Meet Bethany: She sees everything. She is obsessed with Eliza and wants to be her friend. She sees a photo in the background on Instagram with a sippy cup, and she knows that her idol has only a daughter. So why is she keeping a toddler a secret? The sleuthing begins. OBSESSION.

Of course, she stalks her everywhere she goes and even shows up at her house, and the door opens, she sees the little boy. BAM! Sorry, the secret is out. Bethany wants Eliza's perfect life.

The blackmail begins, but Bethany does not want money, she just wants to be friends. Good close friends. Meaning— they tell each other EVERYTHING!

From alternating POVs, we hear from Bethany and Eliza. Each chapter becomes more insane and unbelievable as the book progresses. Bethany is delusional, wanting to move in with the family, vacation together, shopping, and be their BFF.

On the other hand, Eliza plans how she will MURDER Bethany. She cannot have her secret exposed.

The book turns almost comical and unbelievable. Little does Eliza know that Bethany knows more than appears about her secret and has a file on her.

However, when Bethany takes off with Knox, the chase is on. (no spoilers) From here, the novel takes a rather creative, darkly funny, unexpected turn, which makes for a jaw-dropping twist and then another twist that leaves you flipping the pages when you realize this is THE END, leaving you with your thoughts.

I like the idea, but it is a short book; however, would have liked more character development for Knox, Camilla, and Eliza and less of the crazy banter between Bethany and Eliza.

Also, you need to suspend your disbelief to enjoy this one as over the top and has that Gone Girlish ending. However, you may enjoy the wild ride if you go into it more expecting a funny, darkly sinister humor versus a gripping psychological thriller. However, it is entertaining.

Otherwise, a creative idea if it was done something like Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan series or Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. It could be an ongoing series which would have been fun, and then we could get more from each character.

James is a dull character with no backbone. Bethany is completely nuts, and Eliza is narcissistic and thinks of only herself. No likable characters here, but lots of laughs.

I enjoy NC authors, and the last book by Emily was great, so I look forward to reading more from her.

Thank you to #InkubatorBooks and #NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Blog Review Posted @
www.JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pub Dat: Sept 11, 2022

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Inkubator Books and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A fast-paced thriller with twists and turns.

I received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. This book was absolutely amazing. Told in parts by Eliza and Bethany, it is a story of a stalker and what someone will do to be a part of their life. Crazy and twisted!!!!

Thank you Netgalley and Inkubator Books. I wanted to give this book a 4/4.5 out of 5 stars because I was hooked, and the characters were not that complicated.
....."I am still on the staircase, which leads straight down to the front door. I now have perfect view of who is standing on my welcome mat, who had the gall to come up and ring the bell, who my daughter let into the house."... Just imagine someone so obsessed with you that they track every move and come straight to your door. The story is about Eliza who is a blogger and struck famous overnight over a post that went viral. Now meet Bethany who is so obsessed with Eliza and wants to be her best friend and wants to move into Eliza's perfect life and home. However, Eliza is hiding a secret which Bethany made sure she found out and started blackmailing her. Up until the end it was a perfect book with simple language, but it didn't have a WOW or an OMG factor. Throughout the book, I had a rollercoaster of emotions but because of how rushed it was at the end with no "OMG I didn't see that coming!" I give this book 3.5 stars.

How far would you go to save your family? This is the question that the main characters of this book, Eliza and James must ask themselves as their lives become invaded by a stalker. The book starts out with the couple seeking to find Eliza's drug addicted sister in Canada. They find her barely conscious in a drug filled abandoned house and also find her toddler son wearing a dirty diaper and looking neglected. A spur of the moment decision to take the boy back with them rather than call authorities was decided by Eliza because she and her sister were raised in foster care and she does not want the boy having the same fate. Considering that this couple is very wealthy and educated, they keep making unbelievable decisions throughout the book and I wish we had more of an insight as to their choices.

We then flash forward to the boy being three years old and along with Eliza's six year old daughter, they are a happy family although the boy called Knox is never allowed outside and will not be allowed to attend school, go on vacations, see a doctor or every have a playdate. Eliza also doesn't show any particular affection for the boy and instead decides to be a mommy influencer, posing for endless photos with daughter Penelope and pretending she is an only child. Then we meet Bethany, who works at a bar and becomes obsessed with Eliza and her posts. We are given no background information on Bethany and there is no reason she would be attracted to Eliza as opposed to a single woman who posts but somehow she becomes determined to be Elizas best friend. After the two meet, Bethany finds out Eliza's secret and blackmails her into being her friend as she becomes more and more intrusive into Eliza and James' life. Lots of bad decisions and lack of background made this seem kind of unbelievable. It was a quick, fast paced read and I liked the general subject matter. The end was abrupt and left lots of questions. Thank you to NetGalley and Inkubator books for a free ARC in exchange for a review.

Wow! Holy creep factor! Another great read by Emily Shiner. These were crazy obsessive characters that had me hooked from the beginning to the last bizarre paragraph!
Lots of secrets, lies and serious twists and turns.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

I had mixed feelings about this book. I loved the concept and I was intrigued by how the author would go about things. We are introduced to Eliza and her husband, who find themselves having to commit a crime in order to help family. The book had me hooked from the start because of this. However, Bethany comes into their lives, obsessed with Eliza and determined to be her best friend and forces herself into Eliza's life - especially because she knows Eliza's secret and Eliza would do anything to keep that secret safe. But my God, Bethany is annoying and I started to not want to read anymore because of her. Her constant threatening and saying that they will be friends became so monotonous and I wanted to bang against the wall. Eliza becomes a little whiny too constantly thinking why Bethany wants to be her friend, and how much she needs to keep her secret. I was surprised by the ending, and overall a good read.

This tale of suspense alternates between the POV of Eliza, a mommy blogger with a perfectly curated beautiful life, and Bethany, one of Eliza’s fans who truly believes they were meant to be best friends. When Bethany discovers a secret Eliza is desperate to keep hidden she begins to blackmail Eliza into a very twisted friendship.

The two female characters are extremely unlikable here and I didn’t find myself rooting for either of them. Bethany is simply delusional, and Eliza is just plain mean. It is telling that there are barely any secondary characters, since really no one else would want to be involved with these two! Eliza is married but her husband doesn’t have much of an effect on any part of the story other than complaining often that she needs to quit using social media. Both women are willing to go to extreme lengths to get what they believe they deserve.

The story is told in very short chapters which fly by, and it has a quick pace. The ending went a little crazy for me, and there was a bit too much repetition in the character’s thoughts. I would give it 3.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for the ARC of this entertaining book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you Inkubator books and Emily Shiner for allowing me to read an arc of The Stolen Child for an honest review. During the prologue of the Stolen Child Eliza and her husband James are checking in on Eliza's sister who is a drug addict. Eliza sister is passed out. While at the house" Elise and James find a young boy. They decide to take him home because he has not being taken care of very well. Next we find out that Eliza has a daughter named Penelope that she takes photos of and puts on her blog and Instagram. We then meet Bethany who is a fan of Eliza's. She desperately wants to become Eliza's friend. When it doesn't work out like she hopes she blackmails Eliza into becoming her "friend".
The Stolen Child has a fast- paced plot. The story was intriguing. There were multiple twists. Some of the twists I saw coming and some were quite shocking. Overall I like this book. I do think it was a little long.

Edgy Suspense..,
The perfect life? Does it really exist? Well Eliza thinks so and she thinks she has it. Bethany thinks so too but she certainly doesn’t have it - yet she sees Eliza. As Bethany becomes more and more obsessed, Eliza worries more and more about her own perceived earth shattering secret. What will happen when Bethany finds out what it is that Eliza is so desperate to hide? With overtly, yet quite rightly, unlikeable characters this is an edgy, immersive psychological suspense with plenty of surprises along the way.

Ugh . . . Eliza is the most annoying woman. I absolutely loathed every chapter of her. She and her 'doctor' husband (glad o have no chance of being one of his patients) are complete morons. Bethany was so over the top that she annoyed me too. Just a bunch of irritating personalities all mixed into one story. Which was really frustrating because I was intrigued by the story line, wondering what would come of Knox. And that was quite satisfying with some fantastically unexpected twists. A pretty decent thriller.

This one kept me turning pages! The chapters alternate between Emily, a blogger with a carefully curated life, and Bethany, one of Emily's online fans. Bethany has gotten just close enough to her idol to discover the one thing that Emily is hiding from the world and she's determined to use that thing to force her way into her new best friend's life. It was fascinating to watch the whole thing play out, even though I don't think the situation was all that plausible. People can make up explanations to explain things. They can out and out lie...but Emily doesn't. She just panics.

Emily thinks of herself as a successful influencer, even though she's only managed a couple of brand details and her husband asks her to stop sharing so many details online. Success is just a viral post away! She definitely doesn't want to be friends with Bethany, who wears an unflattering shade of lipstick and faded clothing. In case you can't guess, I didn't care for Emily much. Underneath that pretty exterior, she's mean. And she doesn't seem too bright. Bethany, on the other hand, is just plain nuts.

Watching the two interact was completely entertaining. The author lost me at the very end, but I had so much fun getting to that point that I don't mind one bit.

This book is definitely a page turner! I feel very emotional, angry and tense while reading. It was fast paced and an overall quick read.

Both main characters are so insane and undeniable very dislike characters. But I also understand that a good book isn't always about having likeable characters. rather, it's about how the characters can exist in the plot while continuing to grow and change so that we, the readers, can experience it.

The pacing was excellent, steadily gaining momentum as the plot progressed. Unfortunately, I think it could have been longer since I want to learn more about the backstories of each character, and I thought the execution was lacking at the end.

The story has so many potential. Although the events are not entirely the case, they do draw you in and make you want to know what happens next, which is one of the key elements of thrillers in my opinion.

If you can handle it and are searching for a psychological thriller, this is still well worth reading.

Thank you NetGalley & Publisher for an ARC in exchange for honest review.

If you’re looking for a book that you’ll stay up way past your bedtime to finish, then look no further. This razor sharp comment on the dangers of posting our lives on social media is told from two perspectives. Shiner’s ability to capture these different voices to distinctly is what kept me most engaged. The tone, the words, the pace — it brought the two perspectives to life in a very captivating manner. This is an unputdownable thriller!

This book was intriguing from the start. I was a bit nervous with the aspect of the child - but it ended up being okay. It was a pretty quick read and I found myself wanting to uncover the secrets from our main characters.

3.5 stars rounded up

Eliza has the perfect life. A beautiful home, a hugely successful blog, a lovely husband and two adorable children. Bethany barely scrapes by in a dead-end job. Her only happiness comes from reading Eliza's blog. Obsessed with her, she believes they are destined to be best friends. But Eliza doesn't want another friend.... especially one as pushy as Bethany. Because Eliza is hiding a family secret. One that would shatter her whole world if it was ever revealed.

It took me a little while to get into this book, but once I was about a third of the way in, I was hooked, and the pace picked up. The story is told from Eliza and Bethany's perspectives. You do have to suspend your beliefs whilst reading this book. The characters are interesting but not all that likeable. This book should make people more aware of what they put on social media and the consequences that can occur. The ending was a bit abrupt, so I took of half a star.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #InkubatorBooks and the author #EmilyShiner for my ARC of #TheStolenChild in exchange for an honest review.

Description of this book sounded just like my kind of book but I found it very slow and a bit repetitive. It was an ok read but not one of the better ones I have read this year. This is only my opinion as I realise that other readers may love it

This book was slow going for me at first but then by 30% into it I didn’t want to put it down! I had to keep reading to see how it all played out! I was shocked by the ending, I wasn’t expecting that!

Emily Shiner is one of my favorite authors. I have read some of her books and loved them all, this one included!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

I enjoyed this fast paced thriller read with plenty of twists and turns which kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, seemed a bit abrupt but I suppose it would be opening a can of worms if the author elaborated more than she did and it didn't deter it for me for being a thoroughly good read.

I have read a few books from this author and enjoyed them all, some more than others but all a good read and I have no hesitation in recommending this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Inkubator Books for this ARC.