A well written psychological thriller.

Laurie's husband goes missing and it's all about finding out what happened, who's involved... the past isn't just the past...
Interesting storyline, good characters and plot. It keeps you turning the pages until the end.

ARC received through NetGalley. This is my honest review. All opinions are my own.

#BookReview (Slight Spoiler Alert🚨 )


The inception of this story was intriguing. A woman with severe OCD symptom found herself searching for a missing husband after realizing he was in tremendous debt with no relief in site. With no money and no way to actually make money (since he was the primary bread winner), she ends up going to live with her social media crazed acquaintance from college who transforms her (and her 4 year old daughter) into a internet famous influencer. Did I mention that the acquaintance was a millionaire?

Sounds good, right? Well, yes but the ending was tough to get through. The author was shy on the realistic details of the story. It started reading like Scooby Doo fan fiction. Exhibit A - Sample from the text: “As Teddy lunged at me, I ducked under his arm...” This sounds like something Shaggy or Scooby would have done when running from the “ghost”.



Aside from that, the story was pretty good. Character development flowed nicely and the psychological traits were well executed. If the ending would have been better then this book could have easily been a 5 star read.

As a psychological thriller, this story was both haunting (as it should be) and relatable (sad but true). I think everyone who is on Instagram and social media should read this to get a different (or perhaps the already known) perspective of how an influencer runs their business and how it can affect someone's life being in the spotlight. Jo Crow does a fantastic job portraying a mother living with OCD and how life is for both the person with the disorder as well as their loved ones living them.

I truly enjoyed the twists and second-guessing that I experienced while reading this story. So many times while reading I thought I could figure out the ending, and yet Crow always had me questioning my own guesses... which was the best part - never being sure! I love unpredictability and the constant question "WHODUNIT"?

Thanks to NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Laura's husband, Ben, goes missing, and people from her past become part of her present. The plot twist is very twisted....

Laurie comes home from her photography class and finds her husband, Ben, has gone missing. He left their young daughter, Fay, alone.
Weeks pass and struggling to pay bills Laurie accepts a job but this comes with its own problems and soon Laurie is fighting for more than her job.
I really wanted to love this but it just didn’t click for me. I’m sure plenty will really enjoy it though. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Not the usual missing spouse story. Great twists and turns that leaves you guessing about who to trust and what to believe.

A Perfect Mother is a psychological thriller revolving around Laurie. Her husband vanishes, which he well-planned because he leaves behind a huge debt and bills for Laurie to pay! Given her situation, Laurie finds it hard to manage her life and take care of her daughter. Enter Marissa, Laurie's college friend, who is also an Instagram super mom. For Marissa, Instagram followers, likes and popularity is everything. This is well written and feels iterated throughout. The feeling of an OCD single mom is well captured in this novel. This novel is another reminder that "what you see is always not true". The story flow is good, but Laurie's character seemed a bit less weak, she lets Marissa do anything, which seemed a bit odd to me. The story starts off slow, but once you enter the plot, it's thrilling! Overall a good read.
Thank you NetGalley, Jo Crow and Relay publishing for letting me read and review this book. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of A PERFECT MOTHER.
I hate when I don't enjoy a free copy of a book but I just couldn't get into this book I found it very tedious and convoluted. I would not recommend.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review -
Laurie's husband disappears leaving her with a pile of bills.
She accepts a photography job from a friend, finding herself returning to her home town where she struggles with a past rape. She also has OCD since the rape.
Her friend loves Laurie's daughter and helps her become an Instagram sensation.
And then - her daughter goes missing - - Why would someone take her daughter? Who can she trust?

Interesting thriller that kept me turning pages. Very unlikable main character, Laurie. I realize she has OCD, anxiety , etc. But still she should have been more assertive when Marrisa her new employer, was trying to take over her daughter's life . Good story line with twists and turns throughout. Will read more by this author in the future.

A Perfect Mother by Jo Crow is a good psychological thriller. This book definitely resonates with current times revolving around social media. I enjoyed this book.

Title: A perfect mother
Author: Jo Crow
Publisher: Relay Publishing
ISBN: 9798619178159
Edition: E-Book
Publication date: 06/03/2020

Content:
Laurie Miller and her husband are living in a small house with her daughter Fay, when the husband vanishes and Laurie only finds her daughter alone at home. Because she has psychological problems nobody wants to believe her that she feels someone is stalking her. Also, her man Ben had left her a lot of bills and debts she doesn't know how to pay.

After dealing with all these circumstances and her OCD, which is a left over of a dragic insidence in college, getting worse, suddenly her old college friend Teddy appears making her an offer she couldn't resist. Maybe she wouldn't have taken it knowing what would happen after that.

Opinion:
In my opinion it is a very thrilling book that gives you more and more details about the protagonists and their history together. I really like the protagonists and how the author portraid them to sometimes misslead you. Also, the writing style was pretty nice. I had a flow while reading and it was very easy to understand everything what's going on without reading it over and over again.
Although, I liked the missleading at some point, throughout the last third I was quite sure what was going to happen and what's actually going on, what took away a bit of the thrill.
The only thing, I would add, is a trigger warning about rape at the beginning, thou this is a huge topic in the sociaty nowadays.

Conclusion:
All in all, this is a well written and definitelly thrilling book. I would totally recommend it to thriller and horror fans.

Laurie comes home from her evening class to find her husband has vanished. Three months later with no idea what has happened to him she moves with her 4 year old daughter to start a new life and job with a old college friend. Her involvement with Instagram has dangerous implications for her daughter's safety. A real gripping psychological thriller.

This was such a great read that I read in one sitting! Laurie's journey with OCD and the discovery of her husband's secrets kept me actively engaged in this one. This wasn't the typical "woman's husband has a secret and goes missing book", as it was incredibly well-written and had other plot points. I highly recommend this one!

I got a free advance reader's copy in exchange for my honest review. Thanks NetGalley and Relay Publishing!

Motherhood is a demanding job as we all know. I can't begin to imagine how much harder it will be once you add OCD to the mix. Laurie Miller comes home from clasa one day to find her husband gone and their four year old daughter sound asleep in the middle of their bed. At first she thinks he has been abducted but then she finds a ton of unpaid debts left behind and realizes he also took some of his clothes with him. Suspecting that he may have abandoned them, she accepts a job offer to be a photographer for an Instagram personality. However, her daughter soon starts to attract a lot of attention and Laurie starts worrying about the consequences of their newfound fame. And then one day, her daughter goes missing...

A Perfect Mother is the perfect book to show that not everything you see on social media is true. While Marissa, the Instagram mom personality Laurie worked for, seemed like a supermom online, I instantly sensed some tension between her and her own daughter, Megan, offline. However, she seemed quite eager to snatch up Laurie's own daughter, Fay.

Laurie also seemed a bit weak to me. She did not seem able to stand up for herself to Marissa. I understand that she was grateful for all her help but there were some things that she allowed Marissa to do that most mothers would not. Who lets another woman put their child on the protective railing of a zoo animal to sit???

The sequence of events was also a bit off. When Fay disappeared, there was mention of an incident which happened. However, I had not read about it before and was understandably confused. The author then decided to just throw in the incident without any explanation leaving me to wonder if they somehow got Fay back without me knowing.

The surprise about her husband was not really a surprise because they kept hinting and making it obvious throughout the book. Neither was the other surprise a true surprise. The book was good though even with its issues.

Suitable audience: Older teens and adults who enjoy thrillers can read this book.

Recurrent themes: Social media. Mental illness. Motherhood.

Violence: Mention of rape which may be a trigger for some.
Sexual Content: 
Profanity: Quite a few obscenities present in this book
Religious Themes: None
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: Social drinking is mentioned. One of the characters smokes when stressed. The character who was raped was drugged

3.5 Stars
Oh, how our lives have changed since the start of the internet and all it entails. We are given constant pictures and videos of what we are supposed to like and be...No wonder someone who has their own issues could be overwhelmed and doubt everything they do.

This mystery takes all of this, a missing husband, a wife who has severe OCD, the same woman as the mother and wraps up a story to have you interested in how all of this is going to play out.

I enjoyed reading this book and I felt that the story was well executed.

The characters had depth and added a lot to the overall sense of the book and it was very enjoyable to keep turning the pages.

A Perfect Mother is one of those books that you can get involved in quickly and then forget quickly. The plot is predictable, the characters are overblown, and the ending is just what you would expect. Even at that, I finished the book and was at least somewhat entertained while reading it.

As happens in so many books, a spouse (in this case the husband), vanishes abruptly, leaving mountains of debt to his clueless wife, Laurie. Laurie suffers from OCD, stemming from a rape while she was in college. Her OCD is highlighted in the book and is one of the most believable and interesting story lines. It’s easy to guess early on who her rapist is, and the characters she later becomes entwined with are almost caricatures of real people, overly phony and non-believable. After her husband disappears, Laurie becomes involved professionally with an old friend, who is now an Instagram influencer. An influencer – that tells you pretty much what you need to know about that character, although there is a deeper side which emerges quickly. Ah, the plot thickens. But not much.

Seriously, the book was an enjoyable read, if you’re not looking for much depth or challenge in trying to figure out who-done-it. One thing that bothered me, and this is strictly a personal issue, is that the story took place in the United States; the characters were from Milwaukee, and yet the author is apparently from another country, perhaps Britain. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that; please don't misinterpret my meaning. I'm just saying that the terminology, the manner of speaking, the European spelling of certain words and the drinking of hot tea in the middle of a warm day definitely don’t scream Middle America, so the author may have wanted to check her details a little more carefully to fit in with the locality.

This book wasn’t a bad read at all. It just wasn’t close to being a great one. It was at least a pleasant way to kill an afternoon, and maybe a character or two.

Thanks to NetGalley and Relay publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Disclaimer: I have been sent a copy of this book for review purposes. This has not influenced or affected my opinions in this review.

From the very beginning you are thrown head-first into the mystery of this novel. A Perfect Mother has a fabulous start. The added level of mystery which every chapter seems to bring caused me to very much second guess everything, especially who I could and could not trust. Each and every new character introduced in this novel has at least one trait or quality which adds yet another level of distrust for me. There are little phrases and comments throughout this novel which gradually increase the tension. A Perfect Mother is a novel completely full of twist after twist and then concludes with a twist you won’t see coming. If you are a fan of mystery and thrillers, then this is the book for you!!

*4 stars*

I took a chance with requesting this title. Interesting plot but the characters felt flat for me. It almost felt like a plot for a movie.