This was surprising in many ways. The first 50 pages were a little slow and boring but after that the story quickly became engaging and suspenseful.

Breathtaking!!! I could not put this book down. It’s a beautifully written book about the life of a mother who’s son has gone missing and her quest to find out the truth. It’s a heartbreaking read rushing to a dramatic conclusion but I could not put it down

Eerily written tale with a complex leading lady. This one seems to have it all...ghosts, psychics, fortune-tellers, hallucinations - all of which is exquisitely handled by MS. Parkin. A haunting tale of a mother's love and the depths she goes to in order to find her missing son. This was my first time reading anything by CP, but it certainly won't be my last.

**Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley in exchange of an honest review.**

Cassandra Parkin has a Masters degree in English Literature from York University, and has been writing fiction all her life - mostly as Christmas and birthday presents for friends and family. She is married with two children, has so far resisted her clear destiny to become a mad old cat lady, and lives in a small but perfectly-formed village in East Yorkshire. Her first book "New World Fairy Tales" was published back in 2011 (complete with a very creepy cover featuring a porcelain doll) and won the 2011 Scott Prize for Short Stories. Her work has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. "The Summer We All Ran Away" was Cassandra's debut novel published by Legend Press and nominated for the Amazon Rising Stars 2014. Her next three novels were also published by Legend Press, including "The Winter's Child" and her fifth novel "Underwater Breathing" was published in May 2018.

"The Winter's Child" is a heartbreakingly poignant book that follows Susannah Harper as she comes to terms with the loss of her son, Joel and then later, her husband, John, but the book mainly focuses on Joel. Having disappeared without trace, nobody knows whether he is still alive or if he has met his end and this lack of certainty means closure is not possible. Despite the lack of information, Susannah still holds on to the hope that Joel may still be alive and well somewhere but has come to realise that after five years of him being missing she may never know what became of him, so she resolves to try to help those who like her must learn to live without hope. Somewhat understandably she turns to clairvoyants and psychics to see if they can shed any light on the matter, it is a last resort before she tries to work through her thoughts and feelings and attempts to move on but what she is told changes that forever.

The story pulled me in from the beginning and I found it captivating and tender but that unfortunately didn't last. I felt Susannah's blog posts added little to the story and were quite tedious and long-winded and there was a lot of drama which I felt was unnecessary. I also felt the ending was rushed and didn't answer the questions most readers would've had. It was also a rather predictable read and the twists and turns didn't surprise me at all. However, it was well written and I loved the distinctive gothic flavour and the winter aspect added to the tension. It doesn't take long to work out that the story we are being told does not add up and as a reader who enjoys an unrealiable narrator, I liked this element too.

All in all, a decent read that I appreciated to a point. I would try another book by Parkin and may go and have a look at the synopsis for her new book and see if it sounds like something I would enjoy.

Many thanks to Legend Press for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

An uncomfortable but captivating read following a mother who is grieving for her lost child. I loved this book and can't wait to read more from this author.
thanks to Netgalley and the author for the ARC

A lost child. A grieving mother. Her anguish and increasingly desperate search for him. I enjoyed this up to a point, but for my own taste it was all a bit overstated and dramatic. Her alliance with another grieving mother didn’t ring true for me, and her dabbling with clairvoyants and psychics, although perhaps understandable, didn’t work for me either. An OK read but not one which gripped me.

I finally finished this book last night and couldn’t wait to get started on a review. When I was initially approved for this book I was expecting a fairly standard missing child orientated thriller, but I was so wrong in my assumption! I’m afraid I felt like I couldn’t review this book without some spoilers so apologies in advance for that.

This book follows the story of Susannah, whose son went missing five years ago. It has two timelines – the time Joel went missing and the present day. These timelines are also interspersed with blog post entries. All of these are from the perspective of the protagonist, Susannah, who is trying to deal with the fall out of her son going missing.

Susannah’s life revolves around routine and trying to keep everything the same should Joel come home. One night, when she’s at a fair, she has an encounter with a psychic who tells her Joel will return on Christmas Eve and Susannah seems to come apart. She’s unable to recall things that she’s done and starts to have visions, during which time she becomes more and more convinced that her husband, John, murdered their son.

The character development of Susannah is phenomenal. As with most protagonists, I started off taking anything she said as being true. I felt pity and that she had been hard-done-by. I felt John was the bad one – he was too harsh with Joel. He should’ve been more patient, more loving. But the story slowly reveals new parts to Susannah’s personality – is she just a bit spoilt and used to having her own way, or is she ruthlessly manipulative?

One way or the other, it quickly becomes apparent that not everything is real – some of it is and some of it is in Susannah’s head. The space between reality and fantasy becomes progressively blurred.

All this leads to the question of what happened to Joel.

The Winter’s Child is truly chilling. I am not someone who is easily creeped out by books but some of the scenes where Susannah is hallucinating really gave me the heebeejeebees! I saw on Amazon that one of the genres this book is listed under is ‘gothic’ and I think there’s an element of truth to that – there is a modern gothic feel to this book.

My only minor criticism, and I deliberated over this, is that the ending didn’t entirely satisfy me. I feel bad saying it because I asked myself what I wanted from the ending or what I would like to have seen happen, and the honest answer is I just don’t know. I was reading it on my Kindle which showed I was 95% of the way through, and when I (unknowingly) reached the end of the book I went to the next page because I was expecting more.

That could very much be me, and I would say to anyone considering reading this book please do not let me put you off! Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book but I have a responsibility as a reviewer to be honest and critical. Four stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Legend Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A missing child; a broken marriage and a series of Gothic occurrences lead to an interesting and well-written if slightly predictable read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Winter's Child by Cassandra Parking is a clever thriller that takes a mother's love and uses it to great advantage to keep the reader guessing. Still reeling from the disappearance of her teenage son several years ago, Susannah uses several coping mechanisms, ranging from consulting psychics to writing a blog about her life. When a comment on the blog seems to suggest her son is trying to get in touch, her hopes are raised , and her most recent visit to a fairground psychic seems to be egging her on.
As the story of her family is revealed, its not difficult for the reader to surmise that the story we are being told does not entirely hold up, and that her relationship with not just her son, but also her husband may not be quite as her memories suggest. The device of using an unreliable narrator is used to great effect in the book, and though the ending may have been a little predictable, the journey to that point was certainly enjoyable. A clever page turner, this book seeks to turn conventional relationships on their head and examine the darker side of love and obsession.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

A well written tale about a lost child, which unravels itself alongside Susannah, a grieving mother. The demise of her mental state throughout the book is uncomfortable to read; testament to Parkin’s excellent writing.

If this were real life, I imagine Oprah walking in to pretty much any scene in the book, pointing at each character, and saying "You get a therapist. You get a therapist. You get a therapist. EVERYONE gets a therapist!!!" Because, oh my gosh, the only person who didn't need a therapist was Susannah's sister. And she might too, just to deal with handling Susannah the whole time. Probably about a quarter of the way through the book I started shaking my head with that deep dread that I knew where the story was headed. I will admit, it wasn't as devastating as I expected, but the reader knows the train track they are traveling on the entire time and they know there is going to be an unavoidable big crash at the end. Ms. Parkin also makes a really strong point for therapy. I think this whole story could have been avoided with the aid of a couple good therapists!

It's been five years since teenager Joel Harper went missing. Although no signs about what has happened to him have ever been uncovered, his mother, Susannah, firmly believes that her only child is still alive. So, when a fortune teller predicts that her son will come back to her on the night of this Christmas Eve, Susannah will start having eerie encounters. Maybe the fortune teller was not a con artist, after all.

The Winter's Child is a thrilling, heartbreaking story of a mother that has lost the most precious thing in the world: her child. The reader follows the life of a family before and after the loss, consequently witnessing more and more secrets getting revealed. And while everyone else has stopped searching, a bereaved mother refuses to quit hoping that her child might still be alive.

Cassandra Parkin has proved once more that once you've started reading one of her stories, you can't put the book down until it's finished. This is an unpredictable story that you will probably read in one sitting, not being able to put it down. Full of love, agony and loss, this story has a lot of secrets to tell, and it tells them all so well that the plot will have you hooked in no time.

Readers are treated to an old fashioned gothic tale that depicts a woman whose husband and son have both disappeared. While she accepts that she will never see either of them again, she’s shocked when a fortune teller informs her that her son will soon return. This took me back to the golden days of Phyllis Whitney and Victoria Holt, sheer escapist fun

5* review for The Winter's Child by Cassandra Parkin that i downloaded on NetGalley.

Five years ago, Susannah and John Harper's son Joel went missing. Susannah tries to accept that she may never know what actually happened after her 15 year old son Joel walked out that morning. But then, on the last night of Hull Fair, a fortune-teller makes an eerie prediction that she sees 3 people waiting for her: "1. A woman who you come to love like a sister, she gets close, then you push her away and break her heart, 2. A man who belongs to someone else gets close, then you push him away and break his heart, 3. your boy will come back to you on Christmas Eve you will see his face, know where he has been and why. Then you will never be apart again". Following this, she is haunted with visits to psychics eager to know more, wondering if her now ex-husband had anything to do with it, and visions and voices in her head that are nearly driving her insane.

I had no idea what to expect from this book or even the cover, but I was intrigued straight away and was certainly not disappointed. It is a mixture of so many things, a ghost story, a thriller, a family torn apart by loss and grief and ultimately a dark suspense novel that is a real page-turner. I devoured it as quickly as i could, but having to stop several times to digest what I had just read, but the Author Cassandra Parkin manages to lead you up and down several garden paths, but at the same time giving nothing away about the ending, which is superb.

The chapters mostly wander between 2012 when Joel disappeared and the present day 2017 leading up to Christmas Eve when everything comes to a head, but it is very easy to follow the timeline and I certainly could not wait to get to the end of the book, and would love to read any others by this Author.