Tessa Markham finished up work and goes to the cemetery to visit her twins, just like she does every Sunday. She goes to her house that she lives alone in and walks into her kitchen to find a little boy colouring a picture he turns and asks “Are you my Mummy?” and that’s when Tessa’s life starts to fall apart. She calls the police and suddenly finds herself being accused of kidnapping. The press are camped out on her doorstep, her ex-husband doesn’t believe her and she starts to wonder if maybe she actually did kidnap the boy and is she imagining the woman that she has seen following her.
This book was a seriously unputdownable read. Midway through I got a feeling about where it was going and even though I was right I couldn’t see how the story could possibly end up there. The way the story weaved and turned until it came to its conclusion was fantastic. I wanted to slap her ex-husband and hug her boss. I loved the characters and how they developed through the story. This is a brilliantly well written book and well worth the read.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for a copy of this book to read and review

Bloody brilliant! I’m so glad I found this author

Thanks to Bookouture for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review

WoW, WoW, WoW What a Book. I just loved The Secret Mother by Shalini Boland. Its the first book I have read of hers and won't be the last. 10/10 read. This book had me glued to my chair and I could put it down. Parents worst nightmare I felt I was living her nightmare and could you trust anyone if it happened to you?
I found this book chilling and I couldn't put it down. Take a way for dinner that night as I was to busy reading to cook dinner!

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read and write an honest review.
If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would.
Just Excellent.

Here’s my 5 star review

This is the second book I have read by this author and once again I was instantly gripped from the start.

The Secret Mother is a superb psychological thriller told entirely through the main character Tessa Markham. A grieving woman, separated from her husband and trying to cope with the tragic death of her child when she returns home one afternoon from the cemetery to find a young boy in her kitchen asking “Are you my mummy?”.

And so begins the sad and heartbreaking tale of who this young boy is, why he has appeared in her kitchen and is Tessa responsible for abducting him as the press and police start to investigate.

The emotions Tessa experienced were so plausible that as a mother it was painful to read at times. Her loss and grief were so raw and her ex-husband couldn’t be less supportive if he tried.

This was a real page turner for me, I had absolutely no idea where the story was going and was left shocked by the reveal at the end.

A thoroughly fantastic book which I personally found hard to put down.

Loved this book from start to finish!!! I was able to connect with Tess and resllnfeelnthe struggle she was facing.
As the book continued, it kept me totally interested!!!

Like many of the books I own, it immediately became a shelf orphan, being repeatedly passed over for books that I had checked out from the library. I mean, they have a definite due date, where the one's I own can be read anytime, right? Of course the problem with this is that you miss reading some really good books sometimes

This is a brilliant thriller. It was so good that I read it in a day. There is plenty of drama with a big twist at the end. A must read book.

I've read all of Shalini Boland's earlier thriller style novels and I must say that she has a great knack of creating suspense and getting your heart racing.

Tessa Markham arrives home to find a little boy in her house who insists on calling her his new mummy. Her automatic reaction is to call her estranged husband, Scott, who she is secretly hoping to get back together with. Scott gives her short shrift and implies that she might have 'taken' a child and because of her mental state forgotten what she's done. Tessa has had a terrible few years following the death of one of her twins at birth and then the remaining twin son died at age three. She is in a sad place after her split from Scott and it's easy to say that she is emotionally unstable.

We feel the emotional heartache of Tessa's situation with the police seriously thinking she has abducted the child and the pressure is exacerbated by the media camping outside her house and workplace once the story hits the headlines. She does get a glimmer of a lifeline from the most unexpected of people, but at the same time I was screaming 'don't do it' as she pursued this lifeline.

This is one of those books that you don't want to put down, it really is a page turner and the suspense got my heart racing reading in bed – not a good time. I woke with the story so far in my head and couldn't wait to get into it the next day. Parts were a bit predictable and I did have a suspicion of the ending, but this didn't distract from the need to find out for myself how it ended.

A clever but bizarre storyline that I found difficult to buy into, unfortunately not for me

The secret mother by shalini boland.
Tessa markham gets home to find a boy sat in her kitchen colouring. What happens next in a series of events that will get her to find out the truth with a journalist neighbourhood. Can they calk a truce and work together to find out the truth about harry?
Omg an absolutely fantastic read. I ws hooked from page 1. I had my theory as to what happened. But I ws part right part wrong. This ws a twister of a read. Highly recommended. 5*.

A really dark story about a mother and the love you have for a child.

Tess has already suffered two heartaches, the death of one twin at birth and the death of a second a few years later. Her husband has left her and she's got no one else.

That is, until the day she comes home to find a boy sitting in in her kitchen.

But how did he get there?

No one believes that this boy arrived by chance, so Tess sets off to find the truth.

Fast paced, I really didn't know how this would end. Brilliant book.

4.5 stars!

Tessa Markham has just finished visiting the cemetery at the graves of her two twins. She visits them a lot, to try to get over her grieving. One twin dies at birth and the other dies a few days later. When she comes home, she sees a little boy in her kitchen, and he asks her, "Are you my Mummy"? Tessa lives alone. She no longer has any children. She then calls her ex-husband and he comes over and calls the police. She then becomes a suspect of abducting the child. She has to prove her innocence. Her ex husband thinks she is unstable and has just had enough of Tessa.
The only person who believes her is her boss. This has become a total nightmare for Tessa. She does not know how this child got there, and doesn't know him. Tess begins not trusting herself. Journalists are following her everywhere and harassing her. Her neighbor is also a journalist. She is trying to clear her name.
How did this little boy get there?

This was a very gripping and addicting read. I finished it in two days. It was full with twists and turns. I could not put it down. It is a page turner. Once you start this make sure you have a lot of time because you won't want to put this down. I did find it a little predictable but I didn't figure out the motive and the story behind it. It was so shocking. I was glued to the pages. It was like a thrill ride.

I loved the characters. I really became to know them very well. My heart went out to Tessa and I couldn't stand her ex husband Scott. I also loved the writing style. I have read a lot of psychological thrillers lately and this one is one of the best thrillers. If you don't believe me look at the ratings. 4.15 rating with 305 reviews. That should be able to tell it all.

I want to thank Netgalley, Bookouture and the author for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Secret Mother was the first book I've read by Shalini Boland. I really enjoyed it. The characters were well written and the story kept my interest.

Great book from start to finish, I literally could not put it down.

Guaranteed to keep you interested. You'll start to question everything as you read this book. And it will be worth every page.

Tessa comes home one Sunday evening, full of heartache and loneliness, with few plans other than a warm drink to chase away the cold. But her world is turned upside down when she finds a small boy in her kitchen who claims she is his mommy. But Tessa doesn't have children, Not anymore. She calls in the police and her nightmare begins as she is accused of child abduction. Who is the boy? And how and why did he turn up in her kitchen? And why hasn't anyone reported him missing?

To say my reading mojo has been lacking recently is an understatement. It's not that the books have been bad....I just haven't settled. But thanks to the mighty Bookouture this is my second in two days and of course it's a fantastic read. Told in the first person you vet a real sense of Tessas desperation and growing paranoia as it seems the world turns an accusatory faze upon her. With only a few people she can trust left, none of them the ones she should have been sure she could rely on, she begins her own investigation. But she soon begins to wonder if people are right about her - has she lost her mind? This is a gripping and compulsive read from beginning to end.

I’m conflicted about how I felt about this one. As a psychological thriller it fell flat because there was little to no suspense, I can’t imagine there’s a reader who will pick this up and not work out the plot before the halfway mark and if there is then they mustn’t read many psychological thrillers. Even from the opening scenes it was kind of obvious what might have happened, but I was surprised at just how obvious it was as the story progressed.

Character wise I actually felt like the book was very strong in terms of our main character Tessa. Her disbelief at finding a child in her home and then her shock at the police and seemingly everybody around her assuming that she stole the child was palpable. The journey that she goes on for answers though is full of so many plot holes I lost count of them. It all just became a bit of a cliche and whilst I can’t go into detail about why, I was annoyed that the basis was there for a really strong story and we had a great character in Tess, but those around her were just so predictable. The ex who refuses to believe her. The typical reaction from members of the public. The news hungry journalist. And her knight in shining armour boss. It was all just very much a typical thriller but without the thrill and with nothing original to set it apart from others in the genre.

Having said all that I did have this read in just over a day and I enjoyed reading it and wanted to read on. At times the writing was strong and because I mostly liked Tess (and knew what was going to happen) I wanted to get to that point. I didn’t want the time I’d spent reading this book so far to be wasted. Witnessing everyone being horrible to her, seeing the pain and confusion that she was in made me want to read on and reach the end. I am glad that I did, but of course can only rate a book in terms of the enjoyment I took from it and the thrills it provided as a psychological thriller and unfortunately they were few and far between. I would not hesitate to pick up another book by Shalini Boland but wouldn’t recommend this one to fans of psychological thrillers.

A brilliant read. Full of twists and turns that kept me up reading late into the night and had me gripped to the last page. One of those books that really messes with your head. Would highly recommend . My thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

I’m a big fan of Shalini Boland’s psychological thrillers and I have literally devoured each and single one (The Girl From The Sea, The Best Friend and The Millionaire’s Wife) so far. It’s easy to say I had very high expectations for The Secret Mother, and those expectations were more than met. This newest psychological thriller is without doubt another winner. I was hooked from page one and the plot was intriguing. The suspense building and introduction of plot twists are both well handled and I found myself flying through the story. I wasn’t a huge fan of the main character, but I also have to say this didn’t affect my reading experience all that much as I was too busy wondering about the what, who and why. If you like well written and suspenseful psychological thrillers, definitely give The Secret Mother a go!

The opening chapter of a woman coming home to find an unknown boy in her kitchen who thinks she's her mother is a great hook. The novel is narrated in the present tense over a continuous shortish stretch of time by this woman, Tessa, who's both moved and mystified by the appearance of this boy, and seeks to find out where he has come from. This drives the plot, which is easy to follow, fast paced and quickly builds momentum and suspense.

The narrator is relateable and sympathetic, a separated ex-landscape architect who now works in a simple job at a garden centre, her life shattered and childless after the earlier loss of her two small children. Tessa is at a vulnerable stage in her life, forced to deal with her unfriendly ex and his most unlikeable new partner, along with their suspicions (and others) that in her mentally fragile state she may have somehow abducted the mystery boy... This leads her to doubt herself, and what she may have done. All this is intriguing and got me turning the pages quicker and quicker.

The reader slowly learns more of the narrator's back story and what happened in the past, which unsurprisingly turns out to be the key to who the boy is. Close to the end we find out the truth, which fitted with my suspicions.

I'm not sure how likely some aspects of the plot are, but that didn't detract at all from my enjoyment. (There are some particularly realistic, well described scenes involving the unhelpful attentions of the press, by the way.) All in all, I would recommend The Secret Mother if you like a pacy, suspenseful psychological novel without confusing flashbacks and multiple characters to keep track of.