Thank you, NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for this advanced reader's copy of The Perfect Baby by Sam Vickery

What a bunch of messed up people.

Elise meets Mia at a support group for surrogacy. Mia is carrying a baby for Nina and Will. Elise tells everyone that her sister Julia is carrying a baby for her but didn’t want to be in the spotlight so she won’t attend meetings.

Mia realizes that she knows Elise from her past but Elise has no idea who Mia is and she doesn’t offer any information just wants to be friends.

Then came the shocking twist I new saw coming. It was a crazy ride.

Title: The Perfect Baby
Author: Sam Vickery
Format: 🎧
Narrators: Sofia Zervudashi and Katy Sobey
Publisher: Bookouture Audio
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Audiobook Release Date: September 27, 2024
My Rating: 3.8 rounded up
Pages 267


Story is told then and now from the POV of Elise and Maya who meet at a surrogacy support group
Maya is a surrogate for Nina and Will who are super excited about the baby.

Elise’s sister Julia reluctantly agrees to be her surrogate; however Julia seems to be avoiding Elise.

The blub got my attention – story starts out slow and as someone who has a low tolerance for unnecessary foul language I feared I made a mistake. The more I read the more I found not only the profanity annoying but the characters were so unlikeable.

However!
This is one of those stories where I am GLAD I hung in to the end.
I love psychological thrillers and expect twists and a big reveal.
Yikes I was totally clueless with what was going on in this one!!!

I want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for this early audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for September 27, 2024.

I only gave three stars only because when the story line picked up, it became more interesting. The first half of the book was extremely difficult to get through and I felt obligated to keep reading due to my copy being an ARC. There were so many characters it became difficult to keep up with who was who, and which character was the one narrating. When the story finally started to get interesting, it did have a McFadden feel which I enjoyed.

What a great read! I listen to and read a lot of domestic thrillers these days and while some are interesting and reflective, this was all that and more. It seemed like a simple enough premise...two main characters meeting at a support group for surrogates and adoptive parents. But this story is way more than meets the eye. The dialogue and events kept my attention throughout, but there was no predicting the dark and twisty turns that just kept coming!
The two narrators did a fantastic job with not only pleasing accents, but expert expression and tone.
Highly recommend for those looking for an engrossing listen!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARL. All opinions are mine.

Oh my! This book.... this book had everything... a plot, a subplot, more of the plot, jaw-dropping twists, and a nicely wrapped ending that blew my mind! I sympathized with the characters, I gasped and, by the end, I was so mad at the characters too. It's a multiple-POV story taking you through the last moments of pregnancy for Julie and Maya, both surrogates for different families. The story takes you through the tall weeds, submerges you into the depths of the lake, and brings you back out the other side, all gasping for air with a smile on your face! The audio narration was done so well - I felt all the raw emotions the characters were experiencing. Highly recommend!

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture Audio for the advanced copy for an honest review. Sam Vickery has been added to my list of favourite authors!

🎧Audio Book Review🎧

The Perfect Baby
Sam Vickery

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Firstly, this book deals with some really tricky topics, so please do check the content warnings before diving into this one.
But if, like me, you're all good with all things relating to a title like this, then this was such a great read.

We follow the story through Elise and Maya's pov. They meet at a surrogacy group and become friends.
As we are fed the story bit by bit, this seems like a standard drama about the intricacies of such a topic and the different feelings and emotions on both sides of the surrogacy coin.

However, as the story develops and we learn more about the main characters, it becomes clear that there's more to this story than we first thought.

So, I never read the blurb before reading a book and only check it after finishing, to make sure I don't include any spoilers in my reviews.
This blurb, I feel, is pretty misleading and really doesn't give you much idea of the true story going on here.

This was a super twisty and emotional thriller that had me racing through the pages to find out what was going to happen - not only in the present - but also, the hints about a past trauma that quite honestly, I did not see coming at all!

I loved the characters and the way they built up a friendship, neither knowing the true motives of each - I loved their development and shocking twists and reveals - the only thing I wasn't keen on was the very ending which totally left me dangling - I'm really trying not to overthink this too much in the hope that there will be a sequel and I don't have to conclude it all in my imagination!
Please, please let there be another book coming!?

This was so well planned out and written with the perfect characters and best use of unreliable narrators that I've read in a while!
Can't wait to see more from this author (even if it isn't a sequel! 😉)


💕Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my ARC copy - this is my honest review 💕

I wasn’t expecting this to all come together so amazingly well!!!! I will be looking for more by this author.

I feel like I can’t say much without giving away the ending but wow! This was fantastic

I was expecting a typical women steals baby….does she get caught? storyline and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

This will probably be the first book I listen to a second time just to be able to take more notice of all the little hidden bits that become apparent at the end. Such a clever plot! Right up until the last 8 chapters I had no idea which way this was going to go. It was the perfect length and there wasn’t ever a time when I wanted the storyline to hurry up and move along. It was perfectly paced and easy to pick up and put down. Not that I really did, I smashed this in 2 days which is quite a feat for me!
I loved the characters, loved the narration, loved it all. 10/10! I’ll be reading more Sam Vickery that’s for sure.

Thanks to Netgallery and Bookouture Audio for this ARC

I am really not sure what I thought of this audio

I would say, it’s different from my normal range of reading books, but will give it 4 stars. I felt excited listening though and enjoyed the rollercoaster., got twisted by the minute and at the end - wow - was that a cliffhanger?

Thank you to Netgalley

Wow, this is so dark and hard to listen to. It really makes you wonder about what’s right and wrong and how you would react in the situations that occur.
When the twists dropped, they just kept coming!
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read and review.

The Perfect Baby, written by Sam Vickery, is an unstoppable thriller that I greatly enjoyed! This book tells the story of Maya and Elsie; Maya is a surrogate mother for a family, and Elsie's sister is a surrogate mother for her. The two meet at a support group where they hit it off. This books chapters alternate between being told by the two characters, and also have some chapters where we learn about each young woman's past as well. And through the book the reader learns about connections, and that each woman has s0me experiences that they would rather keep in their past.
I loved the character and plot development in this book, and also really enjoyed how you saw the experiences of both a surrogate mother and a woman working with a surrogate. There were plenty of questions that this book answered, and yet it still left the reader guessing a bit at the end. I definitely recommend this book! Thank you to the author, narrator, publisher, and NetGalley for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an absolutely fantastic book that had a dynamite twist. There's enough connections between characters that you can't really tell where the twist is going to come from until it jumps out at you. Think you know what's going to happen? Just wait...

This is a great thriller!

The story follows two woman that meet at a surrogacy support group. Both woman are keeping secrets and the twist you wont see coming.

4 stars.*

I confess I selected this because the cover looked a lot like the thrillers by AJ McDine that I have listened to and enjoyed. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this story was!

The Perfect Baby tells the story of Maya and Elise, two women on opposite sides of the surrogate relationship who meet at a surrogate support group. As the novel wears on we learn that both women have trauma in their pasts that lead them to where they are. Maya's relationship with the couple whose baby she is carrying becomes more prickly the closer she gets to her due date. Elise's relationship with her sister, who is carrying her baby, becomes untenable and Elise's sister cuts off contact.

The climax of this story is unreal. I generally can predict most endings and this one blew my mind!! Highly recommended!

*with thanks to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for this honest review.

This high quality audio had me gripped from the first word. A perfect 5 star physiological thriller told from the pov of the 2 main female characters. It was full of twists and turns and red herrings. The narration for me made the story really raw and real. It cleverly touched on some difficult issues of surrogacy, survivor guilt and paitent doctor relationships. This gave me plenty to feel and think about. The real action was towards the end. However the ending left me hoping there might be a sequel as I felt there was much more mileage in this complex story. Thank you so much netgallery and publisher and author and narrators for this highly recommend 5 star listen.

Elise, joins a surrogacy group where she befriends Maya. Elise’s sister Julia is her surrogate, she is distant and cold to Elise, and avoids involving Elise in the pregnancy. This makes Elise join the group, befriending Maya, both of whom have secrets from each other. Maya is a surrogate to Nina and Will, who are controlling and don’t give Maya the space she needs. Both these women have some dark tangled secrets that make them behave and choose to do certain things. While Maya feels that she deserves to repent, Elise feels that she deserves the baby, constantly anxious that Julia would decide otherwise.

What I liked:
• The narration by Sofia Zervudachi and Katy Sobey, was mindblowing. From the little trembles and sighs, everything felt very real. Even the way Elise talked in a trembled quiet voice, or when Julia panicked.
• The writing was smooth and extremely immersive. I binged this book to the point I didn’t charge my phone for two days.
• The plot twist!! Just as I was getting the idea that I knew what was going to happen, the plot flipped on me, and everything made sense. I had to process not what was going on, but how the plot tricked me in a good way.
• How real the characters and their motives felt even though, I had no idea what they were hiding(Maya’s ex, her blaming herself, Elise’s pain at not being involved).
• The open ending!! I want more.

What I disliked:
• Honestly, no notes.

This was a short, fun listen, with immersive writing and amazing narration. Loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for this one!

I love how this book unfolded. The way the secrets were revealed had perfect timing. I kept thinking I knew where the story was gonna go and then another twist got thrown in. The description of this book doesn’t give much information away and I think that’s good because going into this book with very little info made the reading experience unpredictable and exciting. The narration was great also.

Out of all of the surrogate movies and books I’ve ever watched/read this is the first one I didn’t predict the outcome. It was a phenomenal read and i thoroughly enjoyed every second of it and now I need more. This could easily have a second book and I really hope it does someday!
The whole time you really feel for both main characters, but especially Elise whose sister Julia is her surrogate. But while her sister is offering her this amazing opportunity to be a mother, she’s also leaving her out of the whole experience; not telling her about appts, being very cold to her, ignoring her calls, not inviting her in when she shows up. This creates tension causing Elise to be so afraid that Julia is going to change her mind and keep the baby in the end so she’s desperately trying to stay in the loop without pushing too hard.
Then we have maya who is acting as a surrogate for another family Nina and Will who hover over her every second trying to bond with their baby while in the womb but can maya handle how many rules are set into place per Nina and Wills contract that she signed without another glance or is she forced to follow through their every command? Because of her past she feels this is something she has to do for another family to right her wrongs but can she go through with it? I mean the baby is her blood since it’s her egg and donor sperm since Nina’s eggs were bad and Wills sperm was no good so can she really give away HER baby?
These two women meet in a surrogacy group and soon become friends. As their friendship evolves Elise starts to suspect Maya may want to keep her baby which frightens her because it makes her think more about how cold Julia has been to her and how she may do the same thus creating this little bit of tension in the friendship but none the less she’s still there for maya when it matters most.
And then we get to the twist… the twist I did NOT see coming and would have never suspected!! I could barely put it down before but after that my tired eyes popped right open and I was not putting it down until it was finished.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me this opportunity to read this twisty thriller!

As someone with ADHD, it can be difficult to get immersed in a new book with all of life’s distractions. However, Sam Vickery’s The Perfect Baby had me drawn in from the moment I hit play on the audiobook. I found myself making up chores just to have an excuse to hear more of the story. Like mowing the lawn until my grass was begging me to stop. And then mowing the neighbor's lawn. And their neighbor’s lawn. You get the idea. But hey, at least the neighborhood looks nice!
The Perfect Baby delves into relationships between surrogate mothers and those who wish desperately to become parents, creating emotional twists and turns similar in style to authors like Freida McFadden and Stacy Willingham. Vickery introduces plot twists, suspense, and emotion in a way that keeps the plot constantly moving and shifting, keeping readers on their toes. I was on my toes so much I considered taking up ballet classes.
Vickery has a way of making you care about the characters. You feel like you know them rather than knowing of them. You become involved in their lives, their needs, and their flaws. The characters in this novel aren’t perfect and that is what makes them so interesting. They feel human and very real. The characters are brought to life in the audiobook version by the two wonderful narrators that do a fabulous job of portraying emotion and personality at just the right moments.
Overall, this is one of the best books I have read this year. Even though I typically find it difficult to get immersed in a new book, the unique theme of surrogate mothers and their dynamics with those waiting for a family, the character development, and the phenomenal narration of the audiobook kept me hooked. I’ll be planting grass seed in preparation for Vickery’s next novel.
Thank you Bookouture Audio for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. And a huge thank you to Sam Vickery for writing this fantastic novel!

Wow. What a breathtaking story with a surprising twist at the end! I listened to the audiobook version of this book and I just couldn’t stop listening! I loved the story and the narrators too make it such a great listen!
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for letting me listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.