9 years ago Rachel's two year old daughter Holly was abducted from a play area  while Rachel was momentarily distracted chatting with a friend .Holly is never found and though Rachel never gave up hope of finding her daughter again, she has moved on.  She now has a wonderful  boyfriend  as well as 2 young children and is as settled as she can be. But when Rachel meets a new school parent Kate and her teenage daughter Bella she is convinced Bella is her missing child and will stop at nothing to find the truth.

The Other Daughter was a fast paced psychological thriller by Shalini Boland. A little far fetched at times but still an addictive read with a crazy twisty ending . Highly recommend and cannot wait for the next one by Shalini Boland ! 
 
 I would like to thank Bookouture & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

I love Shalini Boland.  Her books always deliver.  The Other Daughter did not disappoint at all.  Quick, engaging story that stands out from other similar storylines.  Shalini’s writing is superb and this book is excellent.  I was pleased with how it concluded as well.

A clever suspenseful novel full of twists that keep you engaged and wanting to find out more. The story gripped and intrigued me right from the first chapter.  The plot builds, the suspense is tense and the ending is definitely not one you see coming.
Shalini Boland has a knack of pulling you in and making you read until you are satisfied with the outcome. 
I would definitely recommend this book to friends.

The Other Daughter.
It didn’t take me long to read this book, wow Shalini I need to read more of your books. Thank you netgalley for this book for an honest review. I loved it from page one and read most of it on a flight to Belfast, it has a really unexpected twist at the end which I did not see coming. Perfect thriller for me thank you 😊

Nine years ago her daughter was taken, now she’s back. Two-and-a-half-year-old Holly is playing happily in a pink plastic playhouse, while her mother Rachel sips coffee and chats with a friend nearby. It should be an ordinary day for all of them. But, in the blink of an eye, it turns into every family’s worst nightmare. Holly is taken by a stranger and never found. Nine years later, Rachel is doing her best, living a quiet life in Dorset. She’s tried to forget the traumatic day when she lost her daughter, hide her broken heart and put everything into her new family and loving partner, who know none of the secrets in her painful past. Until one afternoon when Rachel meets a new school parent and her beautiful teenage daughter. Rachel’s world is instantly turned upside down. She’d recognise that face anywhere – it’s her missing child. But Rachel knows it’s Holly. And she will stop at nothing to get her back.

As you can tell from the description, this is everybody's worst nightmare put down on paper. We follow Rachel as Holly gets abducted and then see her nine years down the line, stronger but more determined then ever to get her daughter back. I was absolutely engrossed in this read. I know I say this a lot but honestly I could not tear myself away from this. 

This makes for incredibly intense reading however I would not say I was expecting twists. Then THE twist happened! Boland, from out of nowhere, completely changes the plot, I truly did not see it coming and it left me stunned from the shock of it all. It is possibly the best twist I have read all year and certainly makes for unforgettable reading, well it bumped my rating up to 5 stars!

I think it is clear I loved the plot but Boland's characters are complete perfection. They are wonderfully crafted, getting the balance right between being flawed and likeable, after all they are human and this comes across extremely well. I felt for everyone involved in this horrendous situation and my time spent with them was very special indeed.

'The Other Daughter' is an addictive, exhilarating read with a twist that will leave you breathless. I adored this and cannot wait to keep recommending it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advance copy.

<b><i>4.5 stars</i></b>

How do I review this book without giving any spoilers?

This was my first Shalini Boland book, and I wasn't disappointed — it was quick paced, and a page turner; and I swear I grew more anxious as I kept reading. Some times, I had to take a break from it simply because of how it stressed me out. Gah, I hated how it made me feel, but loved it for how it made me feel. An oxymoron, really.

And that twist that I didn't see coming. OH MY GOD. So  good! Aaaaaaaaaah!

Basic premise: Rachel lives a life of domestic bliss in Dorset — Bumps into a new family that's just moved there when she's picking up her son and daughter from primary school — Realises the new family's eldest daughter looks like the daughter she once had, the daughter who had been kidnapped ten years ago — Tries to prove that she's this other girl's real mother when no one else believes her.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. I can't wait to read more Shalini Boland books!

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for giving me this amazing opportunity to read this book.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that the book/narration was a little too verbose at places. It rambled on. But I wasn’t really bothered by it because of how good this book was. A 5-star read despite that.

While the story line may not be unique,  Shalini Boland's version definitely is different from all the rest.  When your life has a dividing moment such as losing your child, the directions you travel change.  This change takes this mother to a place where she finds her daughter.  It is her daughter, right?  How she unravels the story and finds the truth is full of twists and turns that you'll not expect.  The ending is definitely one you will not see coming.

This wasn't quite the psychological thriller I was expecting. While the plot had promise, the ending was somewhat ridiculous.

This was such a roller coaster ride filled with twists and turns. This was such a great read. Having heard such good things about her , I cant wait to read more of her books.

Child abduction is booming right now in the country. It's madly terrifying, even for me, who's not having kids. Yet. I mean, how could someone do something to break the bond mother and child have. 

This issue became the premise of this book. It's interesting to read. Rachel was a mother of three whose her first daughter being kidnapped by a stranger in coat while under her watch. Years later, she met someone new in the town and suddenly recognized the utter resemblance of her daughter. She suspected that girl is hers and she tried to prove it, because obviously everyone she knew looked at her incredulously when they knew the story. It's a little crazy, what this woman thought about, but who can blame someone who already through a lot like Rachel. I could feel I was symphatetic with her. I worried what could happen with her, could she make it, prove it, reconcile with her lost daughter? Really, child abducting is so horrifying and just by reading this story I could feel my mind flick the anxiety on. 

I had no problem with the language, Shalini Boland had very light storytelling and it's easy to enjoy this book after you are experiencing book slum or boredom. The characters were likeable and not too many like some mystery books. All I had problem with is the plot. Not entire plot, it's a good plot and I couldn't wait to finish this. But the final execution of this book was a little bit disappoinment for me. It was a great idea of the ending, but how the author played it felt like anticlimax, detached. This was great book, nontheless. It made me curious of Shalini Boland, I wanted read more of her.

A very readable domestic thriller from Shalini that I raced through with pleasurable ease.
Rachel has a wonderful partner and two children. Jess, her eldest is not her partner's daughter but from a  previous marriage and Charlie is the son they have together. They have very ordinary lives but are happy and content. That is, until the day Kate Morris turns up at the school gates as a new mum  with 3 children of her own.
The eldest of Kate's children is Bella and when Rachel claps eyes on her, she is transported back in time, to a painful past when Rachel's eldest daughter, then two and a half is abducted from a shopping centre. Rachel has kept this secret to herself all these years and not even told Matt, her partner.
The story reveals just how quickly Rachel descends into a spiral of needing to know, convinced that Bella is really Holly. She re-arranges her daily life on a desperate mission to uncover the truth and at long last be reunited with her daughter.
Interwoven within the present day story is a story from the past. Catriona has Grace but something terrible happens to Grace and Catriona needs to replace her in order to cope with the emotional trauma.
I am always expecting a twist or two from this type of book, so often try to guess as I am reading what the twist will be. I am rubbish at this but pleased that I am so inept as a detective as it just makes this genre of book more entertaining to read. I didn't get the twisty twists but loved the way each twist revealed the power of the human mind to betray ourselves and the devastating consequences this can have on the people who love us.
Super reading and a book I would recommend as gripping and absorbing.

Fabulous Five Stars! Ever since reading The Secret Mother by Shalini Boland, I've come to love her work. One feature all her books have in common is that they're set in almost picturesque and idyllic locations so wanting to see the place through her character's eyes becomes a must-do for me. The Other Daughter set in Dorset starts with a chapter that hooks you right in, from there on there's no turning back and I couldn't stop until I had read the last chapter. The plot is taut, gripping and you'll find yourself turning the pages with no wish to stop.

When two-and-a-half-year-old Holly is snatched from a mall while her mother Rachel sits close-by and chats with a friend, three lives are changed forever. 
Nine years later Rachel has built her life from the ground up and lives a quiet life in Dorset. With her two children - a girl and a boy and a loving partner, she's slowly making her peace with the tragedy that struck her so long back. So when one day she meets Kate a mother who's recently moved into the neighborhood with her family and whose daughter is in the same class as her daughter she has a good inkling that they're going to be friends for long. But when she sets her eyes on Kate's daughter Bella, she feels like the whole world has to crash down on her. Bella bears a striking resemblance to Holly. With piercing green eyes and those features, Bella is exactly how Holly would have looked today.  When she starts to dig further she finds some shocking truths about Kate's family. It seems Kate and Shaun are hiding something from everyone in town. But will the truth bring Rachel the answer she seeks? How will she prove Bella is really Holly? And what kind of twisted game are Kate and Shaun playing with her?

The plot of this story is so twisted that I sometimes found myself stopping to let the words written sink in. The shocks come in the last 25% of the book, but the suspense starts right from page 1 and that's what makes this book so good in my opinion. The twists are executed very well. Rachel, in her quest for her lost daughter, behaves like a crazy person, with no plan in mind, but that is how I believe a mother desperate to find her child would behave. All characters in this book were excellent especially Rachel. This was a really good psychological thriller I have read in a long long time!! Can't wait for Boland's next!!
Thank You, NetGalley, Bookouture and Shalini Boland for an arc!

Nine years ago, when Rachel was at the mall her young daughter Holly was taken and never seen again. Years later, she is living in Dorset with her younger children Jess and Charlie. All has been well but Rachel never forgot about Holly - her oldest, she has though however managed to keep it a secret from her husband whom she met after her previous marriage dissolved after Holly went missing. All is going well in her life until she meets a new family that has moved to town - Kate and Shaun as Rachel get a shock when she sees their oldest daughter Bella.  Bella is the spitting image of Holly and around the same age. Rachel soon becomes convinced that Bella is her daughter and that Kate kidnapped Holly. When Matt learns about Rachel's past he makes her see a therapist and then things start to spiral for Rachel as she discovers she will do anything to get her daughter back. The Other Daughter by Shalini Boland was an amazing thriller and OMG the twists and turns in the last few chapters had me blown away as I never saw the ending coming. Normally I am not too keen on UK Mysteries as they tend to be a bit more slower-paced but the twists and turns of The Other Daughter meant that this comes across as quite a fast-paced novel.  The Other Daughter by Shalini Boland was an awesome psychological thriller and a nice change from the bullymances I had been reading lately as often when I find myself reading the same trope, I need to mix it up and I tend to go with mysteries and one of my favorite mystery tropes is abductions and missing children which I wonder stems from the fact that as a child I was taken twice by strangers but thank goodness it was only for very short times and my parents got me back straight away.

The Other Daughter is a fantastic read with a cracking twist. Another good book by Shalini Boland.
Rachel is out having a coffee and a chat with her friend in a busy shopping centre in London. For only a minute she takes her eye off Holly her two year old who is playing happily in a playhouse but when she turns her attention back her daughter isn’t there and that is the last time she sees her two year old daughter. Fast forward a few years and Rachel has a new family in a new area in Dorset, she is enjoying life until a new parent arrives at pick up time, Rachel meets her eldest daughter, Bella and is absolutely convinced beyond doubt that she is her missing daughter, Holly.
This was a great read that I really enjoyed, I liked how the timelines in different chapters seamlessly linked together, not making it confusing at all. The twists and turns as the book went on were very well thought out and i never saw the main twist coming. A fab thriller.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

The Other Daughter is a really good thriller. 

It held my interest the whole way through as we tried to figure out what was going on.

I would recommend this to anyone who would enjoy a good thriller.

The Other Daughter is a fantastic edge of your seat thriller. Great twists and turns. Well written and interesting characters.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.
Having read a couple of previous books by this author, and the synopsis for this book,  I was very keen to get started.
I got straight into the story right from the word go. It was easy to read, and I was able to turn the words into images in my mind to almost watch the story pan out. I was absolutely loving it, and then..... the twist. From this moment it all went wrong for me. I found it confusing, and had to re-read some parts to try to get to grips with what was happening. Other reviewers appear to love the twist, but unfortunately for me, it really spoilt what was until then, a brilliant book.

A mother’s worse nightmare.  Rachel’s oldest daughter, disappears without a trace from a play area at a shopping mall.  Now fast forward nine years later.  Rachel is living with her partner, their son, and Rachel’s second daughter and has managed to find happiness again.  Then, a new family moves into town and their oldest daughter, Bella, bears a strong resemblance to Rachel’s still missing daughter.  

The Other Daughter is told in two timelines.  And, in typical Shalini Boland fashion, it’s a psychological thriller of the first order.  The story moves along quite nicely and the reader is drawn into Rachel rising panic and paranoia as she tries to determine if Bella really is her daughter.  The twists are unexpected and the suspense slowly builds to a smashing finish.

I am a fan of Shalini Boland’s books and The Other Daughter didn’t disappoint.  I highly recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

From the start, this book had me hooked. Perhaps it helps that I have children and that child abduction has me rather paranoid. Not to mention, my friends and I frequently get together in public places with our children. And, like the mother in the story, it is so easy to get wrapped up in conversation. 

The pacing of this book was a little slower at times, but the parts with more action really kept you on the edge of your seat. There were quite a few times where I was so on the edge of my seat that I almost had to stop reading! One thing that I feel really helped the story along was the character development. The author gave you a really good feel for how the characters would act and their actions made sense with their personalities. 

There was a really awesome twist at the end of the book that I did start to expect shortly beforehand, but it still was really good! The back story and the two time periods were really great and complimented each other well. 

I will definitely be checking out more books by Shalini Boland!

Well this was a head spinner.  A family domestic drama.  A stolen child, a bereft mother trying to get on with her life in a new town with a new family and then a new family arrive.  The story takes off and will have you riveted as you find out who and where is little Holly.  A great read with a fantastic twist.