The story of Julie Weathers is one of a slow burn to an “ah-ha” reveal. Julie has left behind her grief over losing her infant daughter and her betrayal by her husband who then asks for a divorce. In her attempt to start over again, Julie answers an ad for a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse on a remote island in Maine. At the island, Julie befriends Ellie who tells her a lot of island secrets as she drinks wine excessively. Julie attempts to befriend the dowager “queen” of the island, grandmother Hempstead, but seems to make an enemy of her from the beginning. Therein lies part of the mystery. Why is this leader on the island so unfriendly, in fact actually menacing at times? Julie also tries to help teen-ager Peter, a young man who is precociously intelligent but who keeps showing up unexpectedly wherever Julie is, scaring her and creeping out me. Then there is Callum, a man who handily does repairs at Julie’s new house and who also seems to be using the island for escape. His backstory is a big part of the draw to reading and finishing the book. The plot is so-so, but the characterization is excellent, with characters who are deep and realistically portrayed. I enjoyed reading the book, especially the fact that it made me think back on it after I read it and realize how deep it really was.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for my honest review.*

Wow! Jenny Milchman delivers another creepy and twisty novel! To me, Jenny Milchman is the Queen of Sinister! I feel like she could describe a bouquet of roses and give me a chill with the evilness of the blooms.

Julie is struggling after the loss of her daughter the year before and looking for a way out when she finds an advertisement for a teaching position on a remote island in Maine. When her husband asks for a divorce, she charges forward on her application and gets the job. But will Mercy deliver the redemption that Julie is looking for? What a remote location! Almost like the land that time forgot - no cars on the island and barely any WiFi. It is the small town living that Julie is used to but to an extreme. The teaching job is for K-8 and all in one school house. And Julie takes her massive dog, Depot, to the island with her.

The book starts out showing how emotionally broken Julie is one year after losing her daughter and then she is devastated by her husband wanting a divorce. It's is great to see a flawed main character and to see her build herself back by sobering up and beginning to have new interactions with people. It's very creepy to think of moving onto an island and being the outsider and having it thrown in your face that you don't belong repeatedly. To me, the creepiest thing was knowing that people had easy access into your private space and you couldn't control that to even demand the locks be changed.

I felt like the pacing in the book was great and on point. The characters were well developed and the assumptions that were made about some of the characters fit in with Julie having the teaching background. The location was very different for me in a novel and I feel like Milchman used the weather to her advantage in the story telling. As someone who is moderately queasy at heights, the cliffs spooked me a little, as well - would someone fall over the cliff? Would someone get tossed over the cliffs?

I will definitely recommend this novel to someone!


(In accordance with the Approval Preferences on the netgally publisher page, I will wait to post the review to Goodreads, Twitter, and my blog, but I will update the review when this is done.)

Thank you so much NetGalley and the publisher for my complimentary eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book was very well written, the characters had depth and were extremely relatable, and the twists I surely didn't see coming which for me made a really enjoyable read.

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for this arc

I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. A story about a mother who went through many heartaches to include losing a child and that pushes her to make bad choices. But she wants to leave all of it behind and start a new thus, and she accepted a teaching job in Mercy Island for a clean slate. Little does she know, and her new life will become as dreadful as her old one.

The whole story has a gripping and mind-blowing effect, and all the characters are well developed. There is some part that seems to be a bit slow, but the twists made up for it. A small island with many secrets means tons of mysteries to bring to light. I like it.

4-5 stars. This was a well written, fast paced story, which was absolutely unputdownable at times! There were some spots I found myself not as engaged, hence the 4-5 stars vs a complete 5 star rating, but overall I did find that this genuinely creepy book provided me with my much loved thrills, chills, and shocks! I think it had an unique locality, original and realistic premise, and enough creepy feelings to really keep you on the edge of your seat! I recommend to those who enjoy good, atmospheric thrillers in the more YA area.
Will make sure to buzz it up on all the different platforms, and use my low Amazon reviewer number on release date!

This book was way too long and nothing really happens. I felt like it was a lot of rambling. It wasn't for me.

What a creepy book!

I honestly felt like I should have been reading this book in October, rather than in April. Oh well! I think it's always a good time for some creepiness. At least, for me, I appreciate chilling books.

When Julie Weathers accepts a job in a one room school house, on a remote island in Maine, she had no idea what was waiting for her there. The house begins to feel a little too isolated.. and is there something funny about the people who inhabit it? Or is that just Julie's imagination? Maybe things are getting a bit too real.. and a bit too claustrophobic.

If you like spine-tingly books.. than this is definitely for you!

So many things attracted me to this book.
#1) That cover. I mean, look at it! It pops.
#2) The setting...coastal Maine. Yes!
#3) Woman escaping her past. I am a sucker for a backstory + a reinvention story
All that being said, I really liked this book. Small towns have a lot of small town history and our protagonist runs up against that in this book. The pacing was a little inconsistent and I wish it had been more suspenseful, but the writing was solid and the ending was good.

This book has wonderful descriptions of Maine. I live on the Maine border and have spent a lot of time in Northern Maine and I felt the authors descriptions were spot on. However the actual storyline fell flat for me. There was too much filler and not enough bulk.

Ok. I was so into this book. I was invested in the characters The climax was beautiful. But the end? First let me say the ending was great. I loved how the story came to a full circle, but it just felt so abrupt. Like I felt if this was in real life I would have googled what happened to the characters after the fact. All in all though-great book!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This book was more than I expected. The author’s writing style was fantastic and the story blended together elements of mystery, romance, and literature. Really an interesting story with an intriguing setting.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50199748

Although I received a copy of this e-book in exchange for a review, all opinions remain my own.

This book was so crazy! It left me guessing the entire time! A bit on the creepy side for me, left me wishing I wasn't reading it right before bed, but it wasn't too bad. No nightmares from this scardy cat. I felt the characters to be real enough (though the main character's battle with alcohol was too easily dropped in my opinion...)

Overall I think this book is amazing. I would read it again and probably would read something else by this same author.

So many thrillers are available these days that it takes an exceptional one to stand out - I found that this fell a bit flat.

Though The Second Mother offers a range of compellingly constructed prose, from richly descriptive passages that bring each page to life, to the visceral details of the novel’s unforgiving remote island setting, the plot falls short of the momentum such writing should promise.

I cared about the characters just enough to see them through the story’s end, but the short duration of time in which myriad events occur felt improbable, unbelievable, and unconvincing.

The foundation for an interesting unravelling of a small community’s secrets was so nearly well laid but, like the shores of Mercy Island itself, seemed to erode under the weight of a reader’s scrutiny.

Still, the novel maintained a unique narrative force, with such poetic details that touched beautifully on loss, struggle, the bonds that break or tie, and, ultimately, on the value of showing mercy for not only others, but ourselves.

A solid 3.5/5!

Absolutely love this book. Basically to me it was about change and how difficult it can be. It’s a challenge to adjust to if you ever can. It’s about a mother trying to adjust to the loss of her baby. Finding a new job in a new place. There are undercurrent Brewing. Page turner for me. Excellent thriller

A tense, claustrophobic novel of suspense. This was a bit slow to start, but picked up in pace and intrigue once Julie moved to the island. Readers expecting this to have the pace and twists of a thriller may be disappointed—this really does fall more on the suspense end of the spectrum. Milchman is a beautiful writer, and her descriptions of atmosphere and setting kept me interested—perhaps even more than the plot itself.

Julie has left her hometown and a life of sorrow to go to Mercy Island. There she will be a teacher. Hopefully she can get over her divorce and the death of her baby daughter. The Hempstead's are the top echelon of Mercy Island. Their family have been the top lobstermen in years. Their grandson Peter will be next in line to take over the family's business.
Right now he's only eleven and will be in Julie's class.
Julie discovers things aren't always what they seem. Friendly faces one moment and not so friendly later. Strange and mysterious sounds and happenings are all around her.
Her survival may be in discovering the secrets of Mercy Island.
Great story, lots of colorful detail. Strong characters.
Great book!

2.5 stars

I didn’t dislike this book, but I didn’t like it either.

Let me get through the bad before I get to the good. I really struggled with the author’s writing style. Throughout a lot of the book, I found myself unsure as to how a character got into a particular situation and had to go back and re-read several paragraphs to figure out where I got lost. I also felt like for such a long book, not a whole lot happens.

Ok, now that I got that out of the way, let me say what I did like about this book. I loved the main character. Her grief in the beginning of the book is so tangible it felt as if I was living it. I also loved her relationship with her dog, it so accurately portrayed how pet owners bond and know everything about their pets.

The settings were another really high point of this novel. The confining picturesque landscapes of the island and the small mountain town Julie came from were stunningly described and amazingly paralleled.

The book was an ok read, I finished it and don’t regret reading it, I just didn’t love it like I had hoped.

The Second Mother is the latest story by Jenny Milchman. True to form, Ms Milchman gives the reader a page turner that is difficult to put down. The Second Mother takes place on an island in Maine and with the descriptions given I could not only picture this island, but felt like I was smelling the salt water. Fair warning, there may be a few tears. I want to thank Net Galley and Sourcebooks for an early copy to review.

This book was an OK read for me. It felt really long, with a lot of detail and many scenes that took up space but didn't directly relate to the central story. It centers on Julie, a woman who lost her baby daughter a year ago and has been suffering through the aftermath of that situation, turning to drinking heavily, and experiencing the break-down of her marriage. Julie sees an opportunity to teach at a multi-grade school on a tiny island off the coast of Maine, and jumps at the chance to start anew. Once there, she makes a friend, meets a nice man, but also has some creepy things happen that makes her feel like things aren't quite right,. Much of the story centers on her interactions with Peter, who is in the family that pretty much owns the island, and is a character whose intentions are not clear.

I liked Julie, for the most part, and thought it was really cool how big of a part her dog, Depot, played in the book. There was an overall spooky vibe throughout the book, but the pacing just felt really slow to me. That being said, the last few pages of the book seemed rushed to tie everything up and didn't line up with the pacing of the rest of the book. Also, this is a small nit but I was bothered by the fact the book kept referencing one character as "the Grandmother" even though the reader and Julie both knew her name.

Overall, if you like a slow burn up to a faster paced ending, with a little bit of mystery, I think you'll enjoy this book. Not my favorite but was a decent read for me. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.