Diana is dead. There’s a suicide note in an odd location, “suicide materials” found near the body, and a host of evidence that the death was not in fact a suicide. What happened? Who is responsible? Did she actually kill herself?

I mistakenly thought this was a thriller when I requested it, but it’s so much more than just the story of a mysterious death. What I got was a layered story about a wealthy, well-to-do, flawed family and their strange and tense dynamics. It centers on the always-complicated mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship and is told through both perspectives, past and present tense. While Diana comes across to the people in her life as cold, distant, and unhelpful, through her side of the story, we learn so much about her complicated life and why she raised her children the way that she did. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I think fans of Liane Moriarty will love this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy!

I loved this book. I devoured it in 2 sittings, interrupted only by work and couldnt put it down until I was done in the wee hours of the morning. It wasnt a feel good book by any means, but it was interesting to get to hear the story from the perspective of not just the protagonist Lucy, but also her “evil” mother-in-law who we learn throughout the course of the book is just somewhat socially awkward and strong in her conviction that she won’t let her kids grow up spoiled bu wealth they didn’t earn (what a concept!). The mystery kept the pace of the book moving but what had me so invested was watching the relationship between Lucy and Diana develop into something that you secretly wanted for them all along, even after Diana had crossed a serious line. The story made me laugh, made me angry, made me frustrated and ultimately moved by what developed. But I hate that it wasnt a happy ending, even though that is made clear in the first pages. Great read, and thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!

Just amazing. The Mother-In-Law had me at the first chapter! Sally Hepworth is a new favorite.
I was in the twist and turns and was wrong every time. The family of dysfunction and only the
Mother-in-Law could see it brewing. Absolutely an amazing ride.
Thank you, Sally Hepworth and NewGalley for the chance to read.

Hepworth kept me on my toes. As each character was revealed along with their issues, I kept vacillating between who I believed might have been part of Diana’s passing. I had no idea until the very end what exactly took place with Diana.

The characters were captivating, and with their past and present I found it difficult to stop reading. The potential reasoning of how each could possibly been involved truly snagged my interest and curiosity.

Clever plot paired with intrigue. I felt a kinship with Lucy, her personality, situation and voice. Lucy serving as narrator was smart and a curiosity factor.

Good story with a mighty clever plot. Would definitely suggest this read to all. Very fast paced.

I enjoyed this book. I received and ARC copy and once I started reading, I didn't want to put it down. At times I thought it was a tad slow, but I still couldn't put it down. I'm glad I kept reading. Just when I thought I knew the outcome, it changed!

By rule, mother-in-laws must be complicated. Sally Hepworth delivers an engaging story with family dynamic complications and a twisty plot. What more do you need?
Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was such an interesting book! I loved the alternating viewpoints of Lucy the daughter-in-law and Diana the mother-in-law and the alternating timelines that really help to shape the story and give it depth. It was very eye-opening to see how someone intends one thing and it could be completely misconstrued by another person. Though the book is about a murder I found the end to be very heartwarming!

Another great read from Sally Hepworth! This book is all about family relationships with a good mystery wrapped in. Highly recommend!!

THE MOTHER IN LAW by SALLY HEPWORTH

I started reading this and then when I realized it was set in Australia I was slightly put off reading it. I had read another book recently set in Australia which I didn’t really take to and I find the spelling of words like neighbor a bit annoying. I started reading with some reservations and then found myself thoroughly enjoying the whole book. The characters are believable and realistic, although the emphasis is mainly on the two female characters Lucy and Diana. Both these characters have many flaws bringing them to life and both have likeable qualities as well as some traits that are not so likeable
.
The book moves backwards and forwards in time but it is not too much of a problem to follow the plot. As might be expected, it shows the relationship between a mother in law, Diana and her daughter in law, Lucy. Lucy is looking for approval and love from her mother in law and doesn’t find this until towards the end of her mother in law’s life. Lucy craves the approval of Diana, who comes across as quite a hard woman. As the book unfolds we begin to find out why she has become the way she is, very hard in many ways, but totally generous and benevolent in many others. She is involved in charity work helping refugees find work and gives both money and her time freely to them, while being more critical and unforgiving of her own family and is not prepared to help them out financially, despite being a very wealthy woman.

This is the type of book that I love. The ones that I have low expectations of and end up loving are the best. I would certainly read more books by Sally Hepworth as I found the book absorbing with good characterisations and it was easy to read and told a good story. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first time I have read one of Sally Hepworth's books and I now look forward to reading her earlier novels.

I enjoyed the short chapters told by both the daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law and particularly liked the way the story went backwards and forwards from the past to the present. This can often confuse things but here it was never the case, it always moved the story along. It also gave us the opportunity to understand, empathise and surprisingly in the mother-in-law's case, like, each woman, especially when just a moment earlier we were angry with them. A lesson for us all in never judging someone’s actions, there is always at least two sides to a story.

This was an enjoyable, twisty and engaging read and left me thinking about all the characters long after I had finished.

Lucy knew her mother-in-law, Diana, didn’t fully approve of her or her decision to be a stay at home mom of three, letting Ollie be the breadwinner for the family. Diana was always perfectly polite, but Lucy could sense the coldness. It was somewhat surprising, since Diana’s charity work focused on refugee women who were pregnant, helping them get on their feet, and helping their husbands find jobs. Ollie, of course, never seemed to notice that Diana was less than interested in forging a close relationship with Lucy. Ollie’s sister, Nettie, loved her nieces and nephew and enjoyed spending time with them, while Nettie’s husband, Patrick, spent his time sucking up to Tom, Ollie and Nettie’s father.

But even as the family pulled together after Tom’s death, they fractured after Diana’s apparent suicide. Being part of a homicide investigation is a harrowing experience, with each family member silently questioning which one had had the motive and the means to commit the crime.

Told from alternating perspectives, The Mother-in-Law brings up Diana’s early life, Ollie and Lucy’s courtship, Nettie and Patrick’s rocky marriage, and Tom’s deep desire to have a happy family that has everything they need. I could relate to Lucy and her strange relationship with Diana, that horrible feeling of never being good enough, and then entering the “who cares?” stage. This was a well written story, it flowed smoothly, and I appreciated Lucy being able to adjust to the daily problems with the hassle of the police popping in or calling at inopportune times

This is a well-written thriller that explores the family dynamics in an Australian setting. Having lost her mother at the age 13, Lucy has longed for a mother figure in her life. The Mother-in-Law gives an insight into the complicated relationship between Lucy and Diana, her mother-in-law. The story is told from the perspectives of Lucy and Diana and alternates between the past and the present, finally revealing the truth about Diana's death. Good storyline with interesting characters. Overall a good read.

Thank you to Sally Hepworth, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book has everything I love in a book: interesting family dynamics, a mystery and an ending that I couldn’t predict until I was smack in the middle of it. Adding Sally Hepworth to my MUST READ list immediately

From the moment Lucy met her husband’s mother, she knew she wasn’t the wife Diana had envisioned for her perfect son. Exquisitely polite, friendly, and always generous, Diana nonetheless kept Lucy at arm’s length despite her desperate attempts to win her over. And as a pillar in the community, an advocate for female refugees, and a woman happily married for decades, no one had a bad word to say about Diana…except Lucy.

While reading this book, I had a newfound appreciation for my mother-in-law! I feel like a lot of women can relate to this book when it comes to their in-laws. This is a great book about family drama with thrills and twists.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of The Mother-In-Law
Pub Date: 23 Apr 2019

Mother-in-law drama plus family drama equals so much more! Many daughter-in-laws will be able to relate to Lucy as she tries to please her mother-in-law. A story about a very dysfunctional family with many twists and turns along the way to an unusual ending. Highly recommended!

This was a great book and very different from other mother-in-law books I’ve read. I had a feeling this one would be good but it was even better than I expected. I liked the different points of view going back and forth from Lucy/Diane and Past/Present. Excellent plot and character development! This is one you don’t want to miss.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s for the ARC and opportunity to review this book!

I truly enjoyable read! I related to one of the characters in this book and was surprised by the ending. The juicy middle was interesting too. Not thought-provoking but still compelling. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

The book is mostly told with past and present chapters by Lucy, the daughter in law, and Diane, the mother in law. Since Diane is dead when the book starts, all her chapters are from the past, while Lucy's chapters are from both the past and present. Lucy is married to Ollie, whose sister Nettie, is married to Paul. There is also Tom, husband of Diane and father of Ollie and Nettie. On occasion, I would get a little confused about the timeline of things, with the past and present chapters mixed together.

Diane had a difficult life once she turned 20 and those difficulties helped to mold the life and decisions of Diane, as she aged. Diane became wealthy and because of the hardships she endured and the hard work she put into making a life for herself and her family, she feels that her children should work for what they want and not be given much financial help in their adult lives. Her husband Tom helps the adult kids, on the sly, although Diane is aware that he does it, even though she disapproves.

Lucy is the woman who marries Diane's son Ollie. Because Lucy's mom died when Lucy was 13, she craves the attention and love of a "mother-like" woman and hopes she can get those things from Ollie's mom. But Diane's heart is hardened by the past and she doesn't even know how to show love except with cutting remarks, a stiff lip, telling others to work hard for what they want...her version of tough love. Lucy and Diane butt heads at almost every turn, with Diane ignoring Lucy's requests when it comes to the grandchildren.

Even though I think we are supposed to see Diane as a sympathetic, misjudged character by reading her chapters, I found it hard to give her a pass on her continued callous behavior towards her son, daughter, and daughter in law. There are several instances where Diane fleetingly mentions a story or reason behind some of her behavior and acknowledges that telling others the reasons would help them to understand but she never follows through so that others can understand. After so many missed opportunities to explain herself, I stopped having any sympathy for her passive/aggressive excuse of "forgetting" to explain her actions.

I was more sympathetic towards Lucy who tries to be a good wife/mother/daughter in law but eventually just gives up on the daughter in law part. Her relationship with her mother in law becomes so bad that when Diane is found dead of a suspected suicide but then maybe murder, heads turn towards Lucy as someone who would wish Diane harm. The story is full of secrets and withheld information from various characters and there are really several people who might have wanted Diane dead.

Contrasting Diane's hard treatment of her children, she runs a charity for refugees, where she pours love and charity on strangers, helping them to feed their families, find jobs, find homes, and make their way in life. Diant touts that her family is the most important thing to her but she doesn't show that in most of the book. I also never understood how Diane and Tom came into their wealth and I wish the book would have gone into that more, rather than just saying it was because of "hard work".

Rated the book 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars. It was an enjoyable read although I do wish Diane hasn't been so black and white when it came to her treatment of her children (black) and her treatment of strangers in need (white). Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this Advance Read Copy.

I ended up liking this book more by the end than I did about halfway through. It felt like it was going to be a bunch of stereotypical characters doing the same stereotypical things, but I was pleasantly surprised by the way it turned out.

The characters on the whole ended up being much more layered than they appeared to be. The story is told in both present day and flashbacks from two different viewpoints: Diana the Mother-in-Law and Lucy her daughter-in-law. Occasionally I got thrown off because there were time jumps in the middle of chapters not made explicitly clear, but it wasn't too bad.

I do think the author gave much more attention to fleshing out the female characters than the male ones. At times the men in the story seem like sitcom versions of men, which kept me from really being invested in them.

Also, throughout the book I was having trouble deciding if Lucy was supposed to be a parody of a "woke" person or actually socially conscious. I only bring this up because of the many times she declares her self a feminist, but then is completely blown away by her husband doing basic household chores or child rearing. Like, yeah, if you're 8 months pregnant and feeling sick your husband should be doing the laundry...and oh my god referring to him as 'menfolk'! Twice!! I feel like if I ever met Lucy she would drive me crazy.

Besides that I enjoyed the pacing and the fact that we're kept in suspense until the very last dozen or so pages. You might suspect some earlier on, but there's enough held back to keep you on the edge of your seat!

I was really looking forward to reading this book. I saw the five star reviews which made me want to read it more. When I was 20% in, I was wondering if I was even reading the same book as them. Not much had happened. (except for the obvious, that Diana is dead.)
This was told by two voices, Lucy and Diana, the mother-in-law. It was good to see both sides. Diana was not a bad person. She had her reasons for most of her actions, but I think if she voiced some of the reasons there wouldn't have been issues.
I stuck out reading this, because I wanted to see what happened to Diana, but it was a struggle. I was bored with the majority of this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.