This book is exactly that of the title, a custody battle. I have never read a book at this so I must say that I was intrigued. I feel like it did a good job of detailing the nitty gritty of a custody battle and how sometimes the parents become so wrapped up in their side that they forget about what’s most important, the child. I will say that I didn’t particularly care for either parent and found myself feeling very empathetic towards the child. The ending was surprising and I throughly enjoyed reading this book. I highly recommend you read it for yourself!

Marilyn want to divorce her husband Greg. She proposes a very amicable and clean divorce, yet Greg wants to fight for his marriage. He refuses to let go easily. Things started out very friendly, but soon take a turn for the worse. The supposedly amicable divorce soon becomes full of tension and DRAMA! The tension and drama starts at the beginning and builds and builds and builds.

The ugly shows in both of the main characters in no time, and they were characters I loved to hate! Their dislikable factor made the plot that much better. There were dual timelines narrated by Marilyn and Greg, and I enjoyed them both. I found myself dying to know what going to happen. The writing was very descriptive without being boring, and the character development was on point. There were many real life components to this book which made the plot seem real.

This was such a great popcorn thriller!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Just wonderful! Thrilling and absolutely gripping. I read this in one sitting. A wonderfully written, fast paced stunner of a read. Do not miss this one. i promise, you will love it.

This book immediately sucked me in and had me wanting more. This was a book I was unable to put down until I was completely finished with it. I will be recommending this to all of my family and friends - especially because it is coming to Kindle Unlimited!

This was a great book to read and I couldn’t put it down. There was so much tension over what was supposed to be a simple divorce. I didn’t like Madeline's character from the beginning - everything had to go her way which wasn’t fair as she'd clearly been planning it for months. Greg had my sympathy because he’d been totally hoodwinked, but by the end I wasn’t feeling much kindness towards him either. The one person who I did feel for throughout the whole book and who was stuck in the middle as the title suggests was poor Lola, their daughter. There was a very interesting ending which I didn’t see coming. Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

First, I want to thank Ellie Monago, Bookouture, and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.

Ohh the emotional rollercoaster I went on with Ellie Monago’s latest The Custody Battle! Divorce is hard but having a child in between the two I can’t imagine it. Even as an adult the divorce of my parents was hard on me. My heart went out to Lola who was put in the middle of all of this!

One aspect of the book that I really enjoyed reading was the journal entries of Madeline and Greg. Each of them telling the readers how they met and how they were feeling at the time. I gravitated more to Greg's journal entries as he was more open than Madeline.

There is just so much going on in this book with the emotions up and down, the secrets, the bombshell revelations, the betrayal and the backstabbing. Ellie threw some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming.

The Custody Battle by Ellie Monago is a phenomenal suspenseful story.
One of those books that was legit hard to put away.
The characters are engaging and the story will hook you from the start.
The cast of supporting characters was real and raw.
This mystery/thriller will keep you enthralled.
There is suspense, intrigue, twists and turns and a compelling story.

Thank You NetGalley and Bookouture for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Holy cow! The level of toxicity in this book was more than a nuclear waste site!
The writing was absolutely spot on and totally believable as I’m sure many couples have navigated this same nefarious path during divorce.
Madeline was delusional with how she thought everything should go according to her plan.
Greg was a wreck and I kept waiting for him to wise up.
Both of them were super selfish and made idiotic choices. I felt the sorriest for Lola who had to be their pawn.
I liked the lawyers the best because at least they weren’t hiding their true natures.
I shook my head the entire time while reading because of the questionable actions of the main characters.
It was a good book.

The Custody Battle was gripping, it started off as a simple divorce then things turned messy! I would recommend this book, however, I'd say it's more drama than psychological thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookoture for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book officially publishes on 2/21/24!

To me, this book left a lot to be desired. The reader gets dual POVs, but throughout the book I felt myself disliking both of the MCs more and more. This was a slow burn in my opinion, with a lot of back and forth between the MCs. The twist in this one also missed the mark for me, and the ending was wrapped up in a bow despite the messiness of the novel throughout between the characters. The main tropes in this are family drama, divorce, and manipulation.

Madeline and Greg find themselves at the beginning of divorce proceedings. Madeline has fallen in love with someone else and wants a clean cut divorce, quickly. What starts out as an amicable split quickly turns very nasty. They enter a legal battle for custody of their daughter Lola that has a huge impact on her. How far are they willing to go to obtain custody, and what will they put Lola through to there.

This was an enjoyable story with a few unexpected twists. I found both main characters unlikable, especially as the story continued to unfold.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of The Custody Battle by Ellie Monago. Well, where to begin? I enjoyed the book and it was fast paced to keep me interested. The title was very accurate as in the book was about a custody battle. It was written as a drama. It did have some secrets within but I would not refer to it as a thriller. There was a bit of suspense at times and the ending was a shock for me. I would recommend this book but not for thriller readers. I enjoyed it anyway. A 4 star rating from me.

Madeline and Greg have decided to separate, when Lola asks what’s going to happen with her, Madeline explains that they both still love her very much, that hasn’t changed. They agree the best thing is to divorce amicably to ensure Lola doesn’t get dragged down with it all, just like Madeline was with her parents divorce when she was young. But then things start to get nasty, Greg isn’t sticking to the plan. Does Lola now hate her mum?

This book is devastating and you are hooked right away, I went through something similar when I was little with my parents so this story really hit home. Highly recommend if you enjoy a fast paced read.

Greg and Madeline divorced and now they have to manage the custody of their daughter - Lola.

It has lots of potential in the book, while there are room to be more suspenseful and twisty. The storyplot is something like argument between a pair of couple.

I found Lola was emphatic, where I majorly put my emotion there in the book.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my copy.

Pub date: Feb 21, 2024

From the blurb I thought this would be my type of listen but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. It felt like I was caught in the middle of a couple who were having the most boring, uneventful divorce and I was listening to each of there inner thoughts and rants and I just found it such a bore. I kept waiting for the twists and turns but they never came. There was just no suspense, no mystery and really no plot if I’m honest. I found the characters to be really unlikeable. The narrator did a good job with such unlikeable characters and it’s really the only positive for me. I honestly don’t like to not have some positives but I just didn’t find any for this listen.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to listen to and review #TheCustodyBattle

Paediatrician Madeline has decided to divorce her husband Greg but wants all their affairs sorted quickly and amicably to spare their 10-year-old daughter Lola.
The plan is for them to share custody, with Madeline remaining with Lola in the family home, which architect Greg designed.
All seems to be going to plan until Greg appoints his lawyer, and soon the couple are enmeshed in legal battles, pointscoring and co-parenting therapy.
This domestic suspense novel centres around divorce and dirty tricks, with neither character emerging well from the experience. The climax seemed a bit over the top (literally).

Madeline and Greg start off with the intent of having an amicable divorce. As far as Greg was concerned, they had a good marriage. In fact, he is gobsmacked when Madeline wants to dissolve the marriage. She is a pediatrician and he is an architect and they wanted for nothing. In fact, their home was a $5 million dollar showplace. The couple has a young daughter, and they decide on custody issues.

Greg soon realizes that Madeline was pretty much the manager in their marriage, and made some of the more critical decisions over the years. In fact, she gives him a list of names of divorce attorneys for him to choose from. Then there is Sidney, Madeline's best friend. Sidney just might find herself caught in the middle of Madeline and Greg.

This book by Ellie Monago was heavy on drama, with a few surprises thrown in. The custody battle made me think of the decades-old movie, Kramer vs. Kramer, to the tune that no matter how amicable things start out they won't necessarily stay that way. Things can change on a dime and that is what kept me riveted to this dramatic read.

I enjoyed the narration of this book when it came to Madeline's and Greg's points of view. Some of the additional dialogue by other characters was rather unimpressive, odd in one character's case to be sure. Nonetheless, I really could not put this book down and listened to it in one siting.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this Advanced Reader’s Copy of The Custody Battle by Ellie Monago due to be published February 21, 2024.
When Greg and Madeline decided to separate, they were going to keep it civil for the sake of their daughter, Lola. That didn’t last long.
Oh, my. This book. I know some people get carried away and turn into completely different personalities when a divorce is imminent, but - wow – they carried it too far. It was sort of a combination of the two old movies – Kramer vs. Kramer and The War of the Roses (look them up if you need to)!
I found myself loathing them both at different times throughout the book. It made me sad to think how many times this happens in “real life” to get what you want from your spouse with no consideration for your child or children and their feelings. So, in the end, do you win or lose?
The Custody Battle was very thought-provoking – it needs a sequel!

.#NetGalley #EllieMonago #Bookouture #TheCustodyBattle

This story was so true to life that it had me gripped from the beginning! What starts out as a fairly straightforward and simple divorce plan devolves into a war with a ten-year-old child caught in the middle. This one will stay with me for some time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

This story grabbed me from the very beginning, with the two dramatically different perspectives from Greg and Madeleine surrounding an absolutely relatable issue. I could really see their personalities from the outset- though there were lots of layers that evolved with time and surprised me.

The book was beautifully written with great characterizations. I loved that the author never underestimated the reader’s ability to grasp the complexities of the plot, and used language commiserate with the characters’ occupations and level of education while still being quite easy to read (or devour!)

I also loved the way the author made the setting come alive and used it to enhance the tone and plot. Anyone who knows the steep, narrow streets in the San Francisco area can appreciate the description of driving them as a “mano a mano” experience. And the description of the home Greg designed as being terraced into a hillside with a sheer drop that felt like “the end of the world” gives an immediate sense of danger and menace that permeates the entire book.

The tension starts at the beginning and deepens and deepens, never letting up until you are left chilled and breathless. An absolutely fabulous read!!