I DNF at 19%. It’s very well written, but it is very very slow. This part that I read was heavily focused on the main character’s relationship and career aspirations, which I just didn’t really care about all that much. I didn’t read far enough to feel any aspect of horror, other than some chairs being out of place. 19% gives plenty of time to grab my attention, which this book unfortunately failed to do.

Loved this book I feel like it was a perfect spin on the “ghost or haunted” genre. I loved the married aspect of it all and the pregnancy it gave the characters depth and I wanted to see everyone come out of the end safely.

I would for sure recommend this book 100x over

✨ BOOK REVIEW ✨

Genre: Mystery / Suspense
Pages: 352
Goodreads: 3.7
Release date: September 12, 2023

This was just an ok read for me. I’m a sucker for dual timelines and short chapters where I can keep saying “One more chapter.. it’s only 3 pages” until I finish the book and getting nothing productive done in my life 🙃

It checks all of the boxes a suspense novel needs:

✅ creepy old house
✅ family curse
✅ ghosts

I would definitely recommend this book if you like mystery/suspense, but still want to sleep at night!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

There's something in the dark. And it's starting to whisper... Essie Kaur has defined herself by her ambitions, a fiercely independent woman whose only soft spot is her husband, Sanjay. She never imagined herself as a mother. It was never a part of the plan. But then she finds out she's pregnant. As her difficult pregnancy transforms her body and life into something she barely recognizes, her husband spends the nights pacing in the attic, slowly becoming a stranger, and the house begins to whisper.

As Essie's pregnancy progresses, both her and Sanjay's lives are warped by a curse that has haunted her family for generations, leaving a string of fatherless daughters in its wake.When she's put on bedrest, Essie trades the last aspects of her carefully planned life for isolation in what should be a welcoming home, but she isn't alone.

💭 What’s the creepiest book you’ve ever read? Trying to build up my TBR with some new recs!

Thank you @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress for the eARC. I appreciate it so much!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. I liked the different points of view. This book kept me engaged and wanting to know what was going to happen. I will look for books by this author in the future.

I enjoyed the creepy, dreadful, suffocating atmosphere the author succeeded in creating by weaving vivid descriptions of the feelings and thoughts of the main characters, changing POV and timeline seamlessly. Nevertheless, although I know that a thriller does not need to have twists to be good, I felt the chapters were a bit repetitive, nothing really changes or happens and I was a bit disappointed by the ending, which felt somewhat truncated, hurried, as if there was no other way out.

Thank you, Netgalley, and Poisoned Pen Press for an eARC in return for an honest review.

Married couple, Essie and Sanjay Kaur, have been together since they were teenagers. With hard work and determination, they almost have the life that Ellie yearns for. Sanjay has his dream architect job, and Essie is so close to graduating law school.
Essie becomes pregnant, and she knows that her dreams are over. As she struggles with pregnancy, she begins to hear whispers. Soon, Sanjay begins to act differently. She never believed in her family curse, a generation of women whose husband's leave their daughters fatherless. But, as she sees Sanjay slowly becomes unrecognizable to her, she knows she must do something to end the curse.

This book was good. There is LGBTQIA+ representation, which I LOVE! The story is beautiful and haunting, and to me, sad at times.. Told in past and present timelines, we follow Essie as she struggles with her pregnancy and all of the doubts that come with becoming a first-time time mom. The past timeline gives the explanation of how the curse came into fruition.

Okay. A book with a creepy house and a family curse is a definite must-read for me. This has a pregnancy thrown in to make it even more sinister. This was a very solid debut with generational storylines to flesh out the curse. Add this to your curl-up and read with a nightlight list.


Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

Essie Kaur is a fiercely independent woman whose only soft spot is her husband, Sanjay. Motherhood was never part of her plan, but she finds out she's pregnant. Her difficult pregnancy transforms her body and life into something she barely recognizes. Meanwhile, Sanjay becomes a stranger, pacing in the attic at night, and the house begins to whisper.
As Essie's pregnancy progresses, a curse that has haunted her family for generations warps both her and Sanjay's lives, leaving a string of fatherless daughters in its wake. Essie is put on bedrest and trades the last aspects of her carefully planned life for isolation in what should be a welcoming home. But something is there with her, something that means to take everything from her.

I ended up DNFing this 35% in so I can't comment on much, expect I was not feeling it and decided not to force myself and just put it down. It was a bit slow for my liking and I just couldn't get into the story, nor was I invested enough to see how it turned out. Writing was really good tho!

I don’t read a lot of horror, so the genre is pretty new to me. But I don’t think after finishing No Child of Mine I would say this was a horror story. Yes, it has ghosts, but was it scary? Not at all, more heartbreaking.

This book is a slow burn, with two timelines. I loved the two timelines, especially because they were so different from each other. Every time I got bored reading our main character Essies perspective, I could fell into the other timeline. Sometimes I wished there was more of it And that is mainly because Essie is such an unlikeable character. Which is a shame. I don’t think the author intended to make Essie so unlikeable. I think she wanted to portrait her as a strong, independent female, but in trying to do so she made her a cold hearted bitch. And that is such a shame, because I really felt for Essie, being a mother who struggled with a very difficult pregnancy herself.

The overall story is very good, but I think it needed a little bit more work. More editing, because some parts really dragged and were very repetitive. More horror, if you want your book to be called a horror novel. If not, then please marked this as a paranormal thriller. Because really it isn’t horror. For me that didn’t bother me, because as I have said, I am not a huge horror reader. But a committed horror reader will be very disappointed with this book.

Overall a good book for a debut!

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an eARC. This is a good debut from this author, I enjoyed the thriller and supernatural elements and it kept me reading to find out how the links between past and present would come together. Unfortunately, it took a while to get there and I found that it dragged and was slightly repetitive in places, with characters repeating the same actions. There were a lot of good elements here, I just feel it could have been made great with some tighter editing. The sapphic historical love story told through letters was, I felt, more compelling than the present day narrative of the pregnant MC confined to her house and feeling like she is losing her mind and her husband. There was scope for it to go deeper into some kind of psychosis, and I feel like it could have been darker than what it was. Still, I enjoyed the story, the author is clearly talented and I would be interested in reading more of her work.

Book : No Child of Mine
Author : Nichelle Giraldes
Pub Date : 12 Sep 2023

Thank you NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press & the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I honestly could not set this book down. I had to but I didn’t want to. This went on a wild ride for sure! Spooky, mysterious and in the POV of Essie the MC. There were so many things and moments in this book that gave me the chills. The whispers in the dark 🫣 && nothing creepier than an attic.

The writing style of this book was 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻! I ate this book up to the very end. I don’t want to give anything away so I’m going to leave it at this. I can’t wait to put a physical copy on the spooky shelf!

No Child of Mine is an exciting gothic tale, mixed in with a modern story about unexpected parenthood and the joys (and terrors) that come along with it.

Nichelle Giraldes spun together a story with great characters that I was able to connect with. I found myself empathizing with Essie. I'm a mother of 3 and I know that I had my own fears especially since two of my pregnancies were unplanned. I definitely felt a lot of similarity with Essie seeing as I also wanted to focus on career over family, but as we know a baby changes everything.

I know some readers don't like books that jump perspective, but I personally dont mind. It was fun learning about Isabel and Ana and their forbidden love. I found myself soaking up every word and experiencing their thrill and excitement dancing and living in the face of danger. I applaud the author for creating a same-sex relationship between Isabel and Ana. It was honestly my favorite part of the book. I also really liked the correspondence between the girls via letters and journal entries.

But I also enjoyed reading about Essie and Sanjay. When dread set in and Sanjay was losing most of his sanity, I literally felt the atmosphere of the story change. A great story that brought out multiple emotions.

I generally enjoy books that have ghost stories and this one originally did not disappoint. I really liked the alternating timelines and felt the character development was fantastic, specifically with Isabelle and Ana. However, the ending was too abrupt. I was looking at the page count and could not believe that the book was going to be done within 10-15 pages. This book would have easily been a four or five star if the ending would have been more drawn out; however, it felt almost wasteful to read an entire book and have it end so quickly.

I thoroughly enjoyed the multiple POV in this book and how they were both working for the same ending. A family curse and a pregnancy for a woman who never wanted kids what could go wrong! I was pulled in from page one!

For me it was more of a ghost story than a thriller. I found myself saying just one more chapter until the next thing I knew I didn’t have anymore chapters left!

I love a good ghost story with some modern twists! This book has multiple points of views and I really enjoyed it all! It was incredibly fast paced and just want I want in my books!

Essie Kaur never really wanted children, and after an accidental pregnancy is still not coming around to the idea. Making matters harder is the knowledge of a family curse, and the increasingly odd behavior of her beloved husband Sanjay. No Child of Mine was a pretty good thriller, but was missing some key horror elements to really push it to a 5 star rating for me. There was some building dread but nothing truly terrifying, although the setting was nicely described. I liked that the 'past' plotline was driven by back and forth letters, and felt that it added more intimacy to the character development.

Note: I received a free ebook copy of No Child of Mine from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hello my buzzing book loving pals !

I have a problem …

I know everyone loves to tease me on how every book I post is a 5 ⭐️ review and and I must get really lucky. The truth is, I only share the ones that I obsess over . Why post something on my page I didn’t enjoy ?

Anyway, the last 3 books I read really left me frustrated . Thrillers that weren’t thrillers, suspense novels that were straight up boring and murder mystery’s that lacked mystery .

That is until No Child of Mine, entered into the picture.

This book is IT! Everything I could ever want in a book soaked up within 336 pages.

I never knew how badly I needed a 5 star book until I read this one.

Nichelle Giraldes has arrived and she sure does deliver! How is this a debut?

I felt this storyline in my cramped up little toes. My entire body was tense. I could not flip the pages fast enough .

No Child Of Mine is brilliant and will be well loved by all.

Teaser :

There's something in the dark. And it's starting to whisper...

Essie Singh has defined herself by her ambitions, a fiercely independent woman whose only soft spot is her husband, Sanjay. She never imagined herself as a mother. It was never a part of the plan. But then she finds out she's pregnant. As her difficult pregnancy transforms her body and life into something she barely recognizes, her husband spends the nights pacing in the attic, slowly becoming a stranger, and the house begins to whisper.

As Essie's pregnancy progresses, both her and Sanjay's lives are warped by a curse that has haunted her family for generations, leaving a string of fatherless daughters in its wake. When she's put on bedrest, Essie trades the last aspects of her carefully planned life for isolation in what should be a welcoming home, but she isn't alone. There's something here that means to take everything from her…

Such an unusual storyline that drew me right in. I enjoyed both sides of the story and how they were working towards merging by the end.

I was provided with an advanced copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a slow build that I considering giving up on. There are sinister notes from early on but it takes a while for the plot to build.

But I was very intrigued by the seemingly disconnected two story lines and wanted to see how they eventually intertwined. Overall, I enjoyed it but thought there was only so much detail about Essie’s nausea and pregnancy that was needed and this section was a bit overdone.

My favorite parts were the letters between Ana and Isabel and waiting to learn how it all connected back!

This book was so good! The story was excellent, there was suspense, mystery, love, sadness…it had it all. For sure 5 stars. I love the beck and forth of the characters, like from Essie and Sanjay to Isabel and Ana. It really gives you a deeper and more in depth dove into the story and I love seeing both present and past. Highly recommend this book!