Releases TODAY, September 3rd, 2013!
Description:
Lisa Kall is to— overwhelmed working mother —is the not-so-perfect model of the modern woman. She holds down a busy job running an animal shelter, she cares for three demanding children, and she worries that her marriage isn’t getting enough attention. During an impossibly hectic week, Lisa takes her eye off the ball for a moment and her world descends into a living nightmare. Not only is her best friend’s thirteen-year-old daughter missing, but it’s Lisa’s fault. To make matters worse, Lucinda is the second teenage girl to disappear within the past two weeks. The first one turned up stripped bare and abandoned on the main street after a horrible ordeal. Wracked with guilt over her mistake, and after having been publicly blamed by Lucinda’s family, Lisa sets out to right the wrong. As she begins digging under the surface, Lisa learns that everything is not quite what it first appears to be.
In Paula Daly’s heart-stopping debut novel, motherhood, marriage, and friendship are tested when a string of abductions tear through a small-town community. Gripping and fast-paced, Just What Kind of Mother Are You?
Introduces an outstanding new thriller writer with a terrifying imagination for the horrors that lurk in everyday lives.
My Take:
4.5 stars!
Imagine yourself being a mother of three, holding down a full-time job in an animal shelter, responsible for all of those animals lives while trying to care and adopt them out to good families and other people, too, and nurturing a marriage. As many of us may know from experience, or you may be going through this right now, life can be very stressful as we are pulled in a thousand directions when we have such a full plate like that. It's not easy. What is easy is to accidentally allow something to slip through the cracks. What doesn't help is when your kids don't help you remember something, or they don't talk about it or remind you, but is it the kids' responsibility, too? Good question. A lot of the time many of us put our marriages on the back-burner, which is not healthy for us as we can feel alone and that everything is on our shoulders.
One morning Lisa's daughter, Sally, 13, doesn't feel well, so Lisa has her stay home from school. A tad later, Lisa gets a phone call from Kate, and at the end of the call, Kate said something strange. She asked how the girls were. The girls? What did she mean about that? Much later that day and into the evening, Lisa finds out Lucinda, 13, daughter of her friend Kate, has been abducted. The worse part of it all is that is later that day Lisa finds out Lucinda was supposed to have stayed the night at her house with Sally the night before, yet she did not, and Sally did not go to school, so Lucinda would have been alone. Even then, Lucinda did not spend the night, so that meant she disappeared the night before. Lisa starts to rethink her life, her priorities, everything. Is she that busy that something like this can be her fault?
The police become involved, and things don't start to look good. If a child hasn't been found within the first 24 hours, well . . . now it's already been more than 24 hours. On top of that, Lucinda is the second girl within the last two weeks who has been abducted. The first was found, but the results were not good.
That night, Lisa tells her husband, Joe, what happened, and the horror of it all slaps her in the face for a second time as it dawns on Joe (that last part of the sentence was taken from the book).
Lisa beats herself up over and over and over about this. She feels responsible.
Kate's husband ends up blaming and hating Lisa immediately over this, and he does not hide it. Kate does not seem to blame Lisa at first, but Lisa feels she will once the realization sets in that Lucinda was Lisa's responsibility.
One morning Lisa went over to Kate's, and she finds Kate tried to kill herself by taking an overdose of pills. She frantically calls an ambulance.
Out of nowhere, a third girl goes missing, but is found quickly, but this still leaves Lucinda missing. As the story unfolds, we learn all kinds of lies and secrets no one could even begin to guess, but as Lisa goes around town picking up animals for the shelter from people, and from talking to Kate, we are shocked.
So much happens! Plot twists and turns, then again, and again. Just when you think you have it all understood and know where the story is going, it twists again, so many you could never guess what would happen next. So what mother, wait, what 'kind' of mother are we really talking/judging after all? Is a mother who works and is so busy right for us to judge as being incompetent just because they are so busy? Is it right for us to judge just 'any' mother . . . or all mothers, regardless of what they do?
The characters are regular people just like you and I, not to mention the confusion that happened to Lisa this could happen to ANY one of us. We really get to relate to Lisa, at least I did. I also liked the female officer, Joann. We get to hear from everyone involved in this book, which makes it nice. I like to hear from all the characters in a book, yet at the same time having a main character doing most of the story telling.
So much happens! Plot twists and turns, then again, and again. Just when you think you have it all understood and know where the story is going, it twists again, so many you could never guess what would happen next. So what mother, wait, what 'kind' of mother are we really talking/judging after all? Is a mother who works and is so busy right for us to judge as being incompetent just because they are so busy? Is it right for us to judge just 'any' mother . . . or all mothers, regardless of what they do?
The characters are regular people just like you and I, not to mention the confusion that happened to Lisa this could happen to ANY one of us. We really get to relate to Lisa, at least I did. I also liked the female officer, Joann. We get to hear from everyone involved in this book, which makes it nice. I like to hear from all the characters in a book, yet at the same time having a main character doing most of the story telling.
This book is action packed and full of shocking suspense. It was written so well you did not want to put this book down because anyone can relate to this story so easily. Everyone knows mothers are always being pulled in so many different directions. You are instantly drawn into it as soon as you open this book up and start reading it. This book is a straight read through if you want because it's written so down to earth that anyone can relate to it. Also, this book has no filler material at all. The story is fresh from the beginning, the middle and until the end. There are no lulls in this story! I guarantee you will not be skipping a single page!
By far an excellent read! I received this book for FREE from the Publisher, Grove Press and NetGalley (found in the Book Buss 2013 book!) in exchange to read and write a review about it. It is NOT required for this review to be either positive or negative, but of my own honest opinion. "Free" means I was provided with ZERO MONIES to read this book nor to write this review, but to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading it. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
By far an excellent read! I received this book for FREE from the Publisher, Grove Press and NetGalley (found in the Book Buss 2013 book!) in exchange to read and write a review about it. It is NOT required for this review to be either positive or negative, but of my own honest opinion. "Free" means I was provided with ZERO MONIES to read this book nor to write this review, but to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading it. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Grab your copy today! Today is the release day!
Print book: $18.63
ebook: $10.99
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