Hmmm. So I didn’t love this, unfortunately. I ended up being a little meh about it?

This was *mostly* about pregnancy which is a subject that doesn’t interest me *at all*. I wanted more spooky haunted house stuff and less… it’s terrifying to grow a human.

I was honestly shocked to discover that this is billed as horror? I didn’t find it terrifying in the slightest. It felt more like a slow burn thriller, than anything?? So I think this was also mismarketed….?

My biggest problem with this, though, is that I read a book earlier this year that was *veeeeery* similar to this one and I couldn’t help but compare them. The other one just seemed to do this story better, imo. It had a lot more horror, for one thing, and didn’t just go all in on the pregnancy.

I also enjoyed this book’s second storyline, with Ana and Isabel, a lot more than the main story. So every time we went back to Essie, I was bored and annoyed.

I am also a very firm believer that people who do not want children, should not have them. And Essie spent this entire book not wanting a child but having one anyway and it just rubbed me the wrong way?

So this was just a big ole meh from me? It did ~some creepy spooky vibes well? But it just needed to focus more on those and less on the pregnancy? At least to seem like a horror novel, to me.

Anyway. Thank you to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the dual timelines but at certain points I wasn't too interested in the past because I just wanted to see what was going to happen in the house and get to the scary part. It didn't feel much like a horror book which was a bit disappointing. It was an interesting read but I was hoping for some creepier vibes than what it was. I would've liked to have more of Sanjay's conversations with the whispers included or even his pov. I was so interested to see how it would all end & even the end felt too peaceful & calm for a horror book. I did like the relationship between Essie & Sanjay & how much they cared for each other but even that felt too peaceful lol. Overall, I did enjoy this read I just would've loved for it to be scarier.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press & Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

I enjoyed this. The pacing was good. It's unique and well written. Overall, I liked it. Special Thank You to Nichelle Giraldes, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️BOOK REVIEW⭐️⭐️

No Child of Mine by Nichelle Giraldes

Essie, a hardworking woman who put her career on hold to further her loving husbands’ finds out she’s pregnant as she’s nearly at the end of her law school journey. She struggles with family versus career, having already put so much on hold that the timing of this pregnancy is often the center of her thoughts. Also adding elements to the story is this family curse that has involved generations of women on Essie’s side.

There were few things that I really loved about this book. The writing was very well done, I found myself rewinding to audio to just relisten to passages because of how easily the words flowed and conveyed the plot. The narration was also phenomenal. I will be seeking out other narrations by this cast as they all did an incredible job.

For me, the dual timelines just didn’t work for the first 90% of the book, and once the connection was made it was almost too late for me to forgive that. The stories were so disconnected for a majority of the time, and Anna and Isabel’s voices weren’t distinct enough for me to really be invested in that part of the story.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I may retry this one later, but for now it was a DNF for me. I could not connect to the characters and due to the story primarily being about a husband’s affliction, I felt that the title was misleading.

I will try and come back with more thoughts if I am able to finish this title, but for now, due to boredom and a general lack of interest conceptually I felt it wasn’t the right book for me.

“And in a way, the babies were right; who were they but pieces of their mother stitched together into a tiny, new body?”

Essie has never imagined herself as a mother. Children were never a part of her plan. But when she finds herself pregnant, even though she is scared, she surprisingly finds herself loving her unborn child fiercely. As pregnancy transforms her body and she tries to keep up with her law school classes, her husband Sanjay becomes increasingly anxious and distant. Meanwhile, her grandmother insists that their family is haunted by a curse that has left generations of daughters fatherless. And the house that Essie is confined to on bed rest whispers to her at night.

What a creepy and atmospheric read! From the very beginning of the story, you could feel the stillness of the house radiating off the pages, as if there was something else living there. I also really appreciated how the author was not afraid to address how much sacrifice goes into motherhood. From how much a pregnancy changes a mother’s body, to the fact that the health of the mother at times comes second to that of the baby, I found a lot of it to be very relatable. Thankfully, during my pregnancies I did not have a generational curse to worry about though! Told in dual timelines and from alternating points of view, the secrets of the past unfold as Essie struggles to make sense in the present. Perfect for spooky season, this was a fantastic debut and I can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next!

“No Child of Mine” is out now! Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC! This review will be shared to my instagram blog

This book wasn’t quite what I expected but it was still good. It was well written. Thank you #NetGalley for letting me read it.

I really liked the historical parts of this novel. I found this part to be compelling and engaging. It was easy to fall for Ana and Isabel and I wanted the best for them.
When it came to the present day, I found Essie to be a hard character to root for. There was a lot of repetitiveness with the pregnancy nausea/vomiting, the not wanting a baby, and the anxiety without communicating. I found this to be a slow burn, and it just wasn’t my favorite, unfortunately.

I saw this book all over bookstagram and it sounded amazing. I just couldn't get into it like I usually would. I hated the letters between the two sisters. I felt myself wanting to skip past them. I couldn't really connect with the characters but the saving grace was the plot.

The plot was EXCELLENT! I had to know what was going to happen which is the only reason I finished it.

Maybe it was my mood who knows, but I do know, if you don't mind the style of writing, then this one would be epic for you

No Child of Mine is less of a horror/thriller and more of a look into pregnancy, identity and grief.

Essie comes from a line of women who, shortly after giving birth, lose their husbands. When she starts hearing voices and noises in her house, she starts to believe the curse could be real.

Although a very easy read, I didn't feel any connection to the plot and it failed to keep me in any sort of suspense. The short chapters kept the pace but the plot felt sluggish.

I did enjoy Essie's struggle with pregnancy, losing her own identity in the process, and the idea of putting your life on hold for having a family. There's a lot of interesting discourse on this, and I think it's something that most women feel but don't vocalize as it would make us seem "self centered" (as Sanjay so nicely puts it).

Dark family curse added with pregnancy and motherhood. Such a touchy subject, but I liked this nonetheless.

Essie is a fiercely indoctrinated woman, who loves her husband adoringly, but never really imagined herself as a mother. But as the pregnancy progresses, there’s just something a bit sinister lingering in the family. Isolation can make a person go mad.

We pretty much are first person just feeling the feels of Essie and her thoughts. So we’re seeing things as if her eyes are ours. So it can make the story tense. Essie just wants to be happy and to have a healthy baby, but tight secrets make it hard .

There were parts that confused me. Like connections or why this curse is there.. maybe I missed it. It is a bit slow moving and more of a tension building story. But all in all, I liked the concept and how pregnancies can be a nightmare.

Initially I like this book. It was intriguing and the well written however, about half way through it became very repetitive. I realize this book is about Essie’s pregnancy, but it just became too much too much for me. I found it was the same thing over and over again just on a different day. Essie feels nauseous, she’s tired, she hates pregnancy, she’s having weird dreams (which are all sooo similar) and Sanjay never comes to bed and spends the nights in the attic.

It is also told in multiple POVs with the other characters being Ana and Isabel and maybe it was just me, but I kept mixing those two up. Also again maybe I missed it, but I have no idea what year Ana and Isabel’s story took place.

All in all, this book just missed the mark for me and I think it would have worked better as a novella.

Thank you to Poisioned Pen Press & Netgalley for a copy of the arc. This review is my own.

Basically going into this book blind, I was delighted to realize it involved a creepy haunted house.
A newly wed couple buys a fixer up and happily plans a future for themselves and their potential careers. A surprise pregnancy, has Essie struggling to come to terms with all she has to give up by being pregnant. She is also reminded of their families curse by her grandmother, as every previous generation has lost the love of their life.

Essie refuses to believe in the curse and will stop at nothing to ensure her husband has a long life.

Combining a nightmarish pregnancy and a haunted house this was a great debut novel.

Thank you PoisonedPen Press for the gifted EARC.
3.5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up** No Child of Mine follows Essie Kaur, an ambitious young woman who has recently found out that she is pregnant for the first time. Essie is in a very loving marriage with her husband, Sanjay, whom she adores, but in spite of that, Essie is less than stoked about the news. In fact, privately, she's pretty upset about it. Essie is currently in law school, almost through, ready to take the bar exam early the following year, how is she going to make that work now? The baby will be three months old when she is supposed to sit for the bar? Essie keeps a lot of her feelings to herself; well, most of them honestly. She's afraid people will judge her for not having the ecstatic, happy reaction society teaches us we are supposed to always have. She wants to be happy. She loves the little being growing inside her, she really does, but that love is being shadowed by a lot of other darker emotions right now. As the Reader, we sit inside Essie's head as she struggles with these emotions, her changing body, her changing relationship and her ever changing reality. While some of it borders on repetitive, I feel like as a person who frequently suffers from repetitive thoughts, it still made sense to me. I could imagine being Essie and having these same exact thoughts over and over. In addition to Essie's perspective, we also get a historical perspective following two women, Isabelle and Anna. It's unclear initially how these women are connected to Essie and her story, but as their narrative evolves it becomes clear where it is going. This aspect adds the impetus behind some of the darker elements in the present perspective. Particularly, what's going on with Sanjay. As a soon to be 45-year old woman, who made a conscious decision at a very young age to never have children, these types of stories revolving around pregnancy and early motherhood either drive me crazy, or I end up connecting to them in a powerful way. Regardless of the final outcome, I do enjoy picking up stories that involve these themes, because I like to see what sort of new elements, or perspectives, various authors will bring. I think Giraldes did a great job of writing Essie's perspective. To me, Essie's concerns and emotional struggle was 100% believable. She was a woman who had a plan for her future, who had sacrificed to reach her goals, and so close to the finish line had everything up-ended while her husband still got to live his dream. I was nodding along in many parts, even yelling words of support for her. The only issue I had with this story really, and it's a minor one, was the connection between the historic perspective and Essie's present perspective. For me, there were times, when it felt a little too disjointed. By this I mean, the transition between the two sometimes seemed jarring; like it wasn't as fluid as I would hope. Essie's sections felt so straight forward, but for Isabelle and Anna, my brain was working overtime trying to figure out why it was even included. Because of this, for at least the first half, every time it switched perspectives, it kicked me out of the story. At times, I felt a bit like I was reading two separate books. With this being said, there is a certain reveal that happens, where after that, it started making sense. Plus, additional things were happening in the current perspective, where you could feel that distinct influence from the past. Giraldes brought it around. It was eventually cleared up and tied together by the end. Although, one final nit-pick is the ending was too abrupt for my tastes. Overall though, this is a very solid story. I think it provides a lot of food for thought, as far as a women's role in the modern world, as well as interesting commentary on women's issues spanning generations. Thank you to the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press and Dreamscape Media, for providing me copies to read and review. I found this quite absorbing and am looking forward to picking up more from this author. Also, I would definitely recommend the audio format. The narrator did an incredible job bringing it to life and making it compelling. I feel like it's a great way to take in this story.

Rating: 2.29 leaves out of 5
-Characters: 2/5
-Cover: 5/5
-Story: 2/5
-Writing: 4/5
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Suspense
-Horror: 1/5
-Thriller: 1/5
-Suspense: 1/5
Type: Ebook
Worth?: No

Want to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.

Where do I even start in this shit storm? Well the MC is unlikeable in the beginning or hell a good chunk of the book. She is rude for no fucking reason. Besides that you know those people who just shove in your face over and over again about them being pregnant or wanting babies and it gets to the point where you snap? Yeah, she does this about NOT wanting a baby. Look, I don't want kids of my own but you just did way too damn much. I don't know how many times in each chapter you have to freaking remind the damn reader you don't want kids. WE FREAKING GET IT. She clearly had options. It was RIGHT THERE and you decided to let her keep it and just... drag on and on and on about it.

Besides that we had two women back in the day who didn't want to be married to men, which we all can understand. They were more bearable. Hell I always looked forward to their chapters.

In the end the concept of the story could have been SO GOOD if she would have dialed the MC back.

3.5 stars

I really liked the premise of this book. It seemed interesting. I think this would’ve been better if it had focused more of the horror aspect of the story than Essie’s pregnancy. I was wanting more jump scare moments or creepy revelations from the past, and this book have minimally in this area. There was so much backstory to Isabel and Ana, which I believe was important, but I think before we find all of this out there could’ve been more happened within the home with Essie and Sanjay.

What an amazing book - I loved it! I was holding off on reading this closer to the publish date, especially since it is around spooky time, and I am so happy I did. For a debut novel, this was so well written! I cannot wait to get a physical copy as well!

This is scary, creepy, and intense story. I love the two different timelines from past to present intertwined with each other. Giving you bits and pieces of the puzzle. It had me at the edge of my seat. I would love to read more from this author.

Wow! This was great! I’ve been pregnant twice in my life and this was a creepy way of writing about pregnancy. The slow build of erie-ness and the dual timelines make for a pleasant page turner.
Definitely recommend adding this to you list of reads for spooky season!

Thank you for letting me read this ARC.

Through generations of women in their family, upon the birth of their daughters, their lives are ripped from them. It’s a curse that Essie’s mother and grandmother have told her all about. But, it is okay because Essie has never wanted children. All she wants is Sanjay, her amazing husband, and her law career.

When she is surprised by news that she is pregnant, her body immediately begins to feel like not her own. She is going to have to rethink her law career timeline, and she is always so sick, but she knows she wants this baby after all.

Quickly, nightmares plague her, and the curse that she never gave any real thought to becomes a glaring problem. Sanjay is increasingly looking worse and acting strangely and panic begins to overtake her.

Meanwhile, we get interspersed chapters of a love between two women decades upon decades ago. We see slowly, how their lives impact the life of Essie and her family.

I loved this. I thought the slow crescendo of fear was well done. I thought the story was great, the characters all very well formed. The pacing of this was perfection, creating a truly ominous atmosphere. The only thing I didn’t like was the portrayal of Essie when it came to how strongly she felt about not wanting children juxtaposed with how instantly she came to terms with it. It felt like a commentary on the ideology that women who don’t want children would change their mind when becoming pregnant. Like that’s all it would take for a woman to realize that she was mistaken about knowing herself and what she wanted from her life. I do get that it happens, but that just isn’t always the case. It felt a little pushy. Even still, for the sake of the story, I could get past that and really enjoy the entirety of the book.