Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I enjoyed reading this book and kept turning pages to find out what happens in this well written family drama with a little suspense tossed in. I wouldn’t call this a thriller but it was suspenseful. I was invested in the characters but felt the ending fell a tiny bit short for me.

This was definitely a slow burn novel for me. It took a long while to get to the heart of the matter. A tragic event with the loss of a child, a looming divorce, propels Julie to seek a new beginning on a remote Maine island. There was a lot of background detail and explanation that I felt could have been condensed, but the island was certainly an image I could visualize. A decent ending, it just took a bit to get there. Not a bad read, just be prepared for the build up. I received this ARC from Net Galley in exchange for my honest feedback. Thanks to #NetGalley and #SourcbooksLandmark for this advanced copy. Title is due to be published July 7, 2020.

Oof. This was a lot. And it was a lot of things that didn't work for me. I went into this expecting something a bit more thrilling and a bit more heart-racing and it just didn't deliver. This book is LONG. Given there are a lot of descriptions of the island, a lot of repetitive incidents and a lot of buildup for a plot twist that could have been introduced 200 pages sooner.

The writing isn't bad - this book just suffers from trying to accomplish too much, and in the end accomplishes very little. I also felt that the ending of the book didn't uphold the overall vibes of the beginning. For how long the book is, the end wraps up a little too fast and a little too neatly.

The premise of this novel sounded right up by alley: mysterious happenings, the Maine wilderness, a woman dealing with loss. However, I found the writing to be lackluster and the plot dragged out for far too long.

While the book had some high points, the pacing felt off, the dialogue was clunky and weird, and the characters weren’t interesting to me.

I enjoyed the premise of the book and the parts that explained the lobster business since I’ve never been exposed to that but it just felt like there were so many chapters where nothing happened which made the book feel dull. Most of the characters didn’t make any logical sense. This one wasn’t for me.

Sadly this was simply a boring book for me. I requested it on NetGalley because Julie finds her second chance at life on an island in Maine, which is my home... but I didn’t enjoy the “thriller aspect” of this book at all. There was a lot of good pulp with the loss and grief, but that was about it. There was a lot of boring build up and by the time anything interesting started happening, I wasn’t invested anymore.

I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good story to it. I liked the variety of characters in it. It was a well written book. I hope to read more books by this author.

Sadly, this book just didn't work for me. A lot of nothing was going on throughout 80% of the book and then the last few pages sucked me back in again.
The plot intrigued me that's why I requested it but it just wasn't a match for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for may advanced ebook copy.

Julie's life is a mess. Her marriage is over after the death of her daughter and she needs a change. She gets a teaching job on an isolated island and begins anew. Except there are sinister vibes and disturbances that are troublesome: a struggling child and an old lady who rules the island as her fiefdom. My favorite character was Depot, the dog.

*Thank you to the publisher, the author, Netgalley and BookForwardFriends for providing me with an EARC of The Second Mother in exchange for an honest review. * This was an interesting thriller. I think that the setting was just as much a character as any of the human characters. I like Depot. This isn't a thriller I'd normally read, but still a decent read.

hanks to @booksforwardpr, @bookmarked, Jenny Milchman, and @netgalley for my digital copy of The Second Mother.

Synopsis: Opportunity: Teacher needed in one-room schoolhouse on remote island in Maine. Certification in grades K-8 a must.

Julie Weathers isn't sure if she's running away or starting over, but moving to a remote island off the coast of Maine feels right for someone with reasons to flee her old life. The sun-washed, sea-stormed speck of land seems welcoming, the lobster plentiful, and the community close and tightly knit. She finds friends in her nearest neighbor and Callum, a man who appears to be using the island for the same thing as she: escape.

But as Julie takes on the challenge of teaching the island's children, she comes to suspect that she may have traded one place shrouded in trouble for another, and she begins to wonder if the greatest danger on Mercy Island is its lost location far out to sea, or the people who live there.

I enjoyed this suspenseful book. Julie shows a great deal of growth throughout the book, which is lovely to see. She also truly cares about her students, which as a former teacher, I love to see when the book features a teacher as a protagonist. Milchman has a talent for developing characters full of intrigue with motivations that aren’t quickly shown, such as Ellie or the entire Hempstead family. Several people were not who they seemed! I listed the trigger warnings at the end of my review, and would advise heeding them if they apply to you.

Pick this up for a poolside read on July 7th!

TW: death of an infant, divorce

So-so for me. Not great, not terrible. Just somewhere in between.

I wanted more go the mystery aspect. Instead I got more of the grief portion.

I wasn't sure what to expect about this book - was it a mystery about Julie and her daugher? or a mystery about the island. turns out a bit of both! i loved the story and the characters, was not predictable in any way. i highly recommend.

Julie needs a new start so she applies for a teaching job on a remote island. She lost her baby and then goes through a divorce. The island sounds beautiful and Julie finds herself in the middle of island politics and in the middle of the lives of the children she is teaching. This was a good novel of a woman trying to put her life back together after losing everything important to her. It was a tad slow at times which had me skimming parts of the book. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Books Forward PR, and Sourcebooks for this digital ARC. I went into this book knowing it was about a remote island where a woman moves after tragedy strikes. She needs to get away from her past and thinks an island with no technology or transportation is the perfect place.

Thoughts: I know they say don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but you know I did. The cover is stunning and I love the electric pink of the words. It really drew me in and I thought the plot of the book sounded amazing. I was hoping it would be like Turn of the Key, but sadly there weren’t many similarities. This book started off intriguing, but after she got to the island it went downhill. I felt that there was so much down time when nothing was happening. There were so many unnecessary details and I felt most of this book was filler with nothing much happening at all.

Also, SO MANY MENTIONS OF HER DOG. Yes, there can be too many dog references. I don’t need to know every single time the dog drank water or had a burger. Yes, I know you have to open a can to get out the dog food but you don’t have to describe it. So unnecessary. Sorry, that’s just a quick rant.

Anyway, in the end it was anticlimactic and didn’t have much of a story-line. There was so much potential with the creepiness of the island and the all-knowing all-powerful family, but it didn’t pan out at all. For a domestic thriller, it wasn’t very domestic or very thrilling. In the end I had to give it two stars, because more than anything I rushed through to see if there was some bombshell. Sadly, there was not.

I was so surprised by how much I loved this one! This was a cleverly-plotted, intriguing novel. Our protagonist, Julie, broke my heart. She is barely surviving after the loss of her baby, and sees a teaching opportunity on a remote Maine island as a way to potentially push past her grief and get a semblance of her life back. But when she settles in on Mercy Island, she becomes deeply disturbed by what she begins to piece together. Her journey towards the truth had me unable to stop turning the pages. I loved the plot and the characters. The atmospheric setting was perfect for the novel.

The only criticism I would say is that I felt it could have been a tad shorter. If the writing were made to be a little tighter i think it would have been five stars to me.

Fans of Ruth Ware will be " thrilled" with Jenny Milchman's latest, The Second Mother. Atmospheric, with all of the deliciously creepy fog, wind, and raging surf, it is a bonafided page-turner.
After a life riddled with heartache and trauma, a fresh start as a teacher on a quaint island seemed like the perfect opportunity for Julie to finally move forward.
Unfortunately, there is a fine line between solitude and isolation. Mercy Island proves to be a misnomer. Dark and forbidden, the island is inhabitated by a plethora of questionable characters. Thinly veiled threats escalate to open aggression. Is it the supernatural at play or someone far more sinister in human form? Factor in alcohol dependency, an agressive tween, shifting alliances, and an adorable dog and you have the key ingredients for a five star read. Without reservation, I recommend adding The Second Mother to your summer reading list!

This book drew me in and held me delightfully-captive from beginning to end. The palpable tension held me in thrall. The plot kept me guessing. The characters were very realistic and identifiable. And, every setting was described in such a way as to make me feel like I was an actual bystander in that scene. Once I started reading this story, I knew this was a book I wasn’t going to be able to put down!

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

I loved the sound of the plot of this one, but the beginning chapters just didn't resonate with me enough to continue. The grief of the main character felt real, but the abrupt leaving and request for divorce from her spouse, who had very little introduction as a character, didn't seem realistic, I bought the book for our collection, and I"m sure it will find its readers. It was just not the right book for me at this time.

The Second Mother was a good suspenseful drama, with a lot of feel-good moments that had me cheering for Julie Weathers the central character. This book is not a thriller but had me hooked & I found it difficult to put down. The plot was great with some very realistic characters & dramatic & suspenseful events yet not over-the-top or unbelievable. I loved reading about the idyllic Mercy island & the ruthless Hempsteads at its helm commanding over it with a lot of authority & passion. Ever since Julie arrives on Mercy, she's had the feeling of being watched over. There are creepy things happening in the house she's put up at. Apart from all the bad things thrown at her I hated the incident with Depot, Julie's dog. Yet that was one of the best scenes in the book.
The theme of a secluded & isolated island life was very intriguing as well.
Going by the other reviews, I wasn't as keen to pick this book, but I'm glad I did because it had a great storyline. Overall this book was a very pleasant yet suspenseful read. The finish was very exciting, twisted & dramatic!
Thank You, NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark & Jenny Milchman for an arc!