Mother May I is an intense story about a mother, Bree, and the lengths she will go to in order to get her son back. The book starts with Bree seeing a witch in her window and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to think 🤷🏻‍♀️ She sees this witch a second time and suddenly her baby is missing! Bree is convinced the witch lady has kidnapped her baby and that’s confirmed when she receives a note instructing her to return home and not call the police or her husband.

I thought the first half of the book flowed really well and I could not wait to see what hoops Bree would have to jump through next. However, I do think the second half dragged just a little bit. The story definitely held my attention and had me second guessing Bree’s decisions to blindly follow her baby’s kidnapper, but who wouldn’t? I needed to know why this woman took the baby and what her grand scheme was. It was definitely fun trying to figure it out! I did not see the final twist coming and that always bodes well for my overall opinion 👍🏼

The audiobook was narrated by Joshilyn Jackson herself and I always love when an author narrates their own book. It just adds something extra to the story through their inflection and pacing. I really enjoyed the audio and the book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Audio for my advanced listening copy. All opinions are my own.

TW: kidnapping, rape, murder, gun violence

Mother May I by new to me author Joshilyn Jackson takes the reader on a fast paced, twisty and suspenseful story about a woman whose baby is kidnapped practically under her nose and the journey she has to go on to get her child back. I was initially surprised that the protagonist and kidnapper connected on an emotional level, though there is still anger and fear on Bree’s part as well as desperation. The kidnapper appears hostile, bitter and angry at the start but the reader is given a sense of the pain she has gone through and the level of desperation she is also feeling to exact the revenge she feels she is owed to make everything right.

I really enjoyed that the lines between good and evil in this story are very blurry, making it a challenge for the reader to empathize with only the mother of the kidnapped child. I even began to feel some empathy for the kidnapper as well as more layers of the story were peeled back. I liked Bree and the range of emotions she expresses were easy to relate to. The author does an excellent job of creating characters that are so well developed, they come alive on the page. The plot is very complex and not one I could easily predict the outcome; there are several moments in the story that took me by surprise and the ending was completely unexpected. I listened to the audio version of this story, which was narrated by the author, who did an excellent job with the different voices and the precise elements needed for each scene, which I feel would have been missing had I read this book in my voice.

My Final Verdict: I highly recommend this story for readers who like complex plots featuring characters that demonstrate many layers to their personalities. Fans of domestic thrillers, suspense and women’s fiction novels will find this book appealing and riveting. I really enjoyed this author’s style and will be looking for more of her work.

When her son is kidnapped, Bree goes on a mission to find him. She can’t involve the police because she’s scared her blackmailer will hurt him but she can go on her own revengeful mission to hunt down the woman who did this to her.

Joshilyn Jackson is so great at writing suspenseful plot lines with both likable and unreliable characters! Every character you suspect is up to something and yet, you’re cheering them on and hoping it’s not them! This is not a book you want to miss!

I would have preferred this book in physical form, the audiobook wasn’t love for me but that didn’t change how great this book was!

This has been one of the best suspense thrillers I have listened to in a while. Normally I don't think that the author is the best narrator for a book (narrating is a different skill than writing), but Joshlyn Jackson did an excellent job narrating this one. I was pretty quickly drawn into this gripping story. As a mother, I think I especially connected because having a child kidnapped would be a nightmare, and I could feel Bree's fear and anxiety. The story moved at a good pace and there was no let up in the suspense. I highly recommend this one for suspense lovers.

There are few things worse than having your 10 week old baby kidnapped. The kidnapping draws attention to a singular event which happened several decades earlier. Jackson’s thriller will keep readers enthralled. I’m not usually a big fan of authors reading their own work, but Jocelyn Jackson does a fabulous job of narrating.
Highly recommended
#Netgalley #WilliamMorrow #MotherMayI

I always enjoy this author’s books. In this one we follow Bree, a mom of three married to a rich lawyer. When her son disappears she assumes the kidnappers want ransom money but it becomes apparent that it has more to do with revenge. I would call this a chic lit thriller and I really enjoy this style.

Thank you Netgalley and William Marrow for the advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Joahilyn Jackson is not only a superb author but she is an extraordinary narrator. Listening to the story of Bree and a mysterious witxh and the safety if a child took me to another time and place. I loved it. I have read all of her books and now want to go back and give them a listen. SUPERB!

Thank you @williammorrowbooks and @netgalley for my gifted ALC.
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Mother May I was the first book I have read by author @joshilyn_jackson it will not be my last. What’s a ride !! I felt like I was going crazy trying to figure out what was going on! It was a really entertaining suspenseful mystery that I could not put down!. I listen to this on audio and the author narrated it herself !!! I LOVED THAT! I listen to it in one day so that should tell you lol.
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In this story we meet Bree who’s son has been kidnapped by an unknown woman and in order to get him back she need to carry out some task set by the woman. As Bree tries to save her son and unravel the mystery behind why she was chosen , she discover a long buried secret about someone close to her .
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This story was fast paced and I really enjoyed it!
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Thank you so much to @harperaudio and @netgalley for letting me listen/read this one for review!

When Bree Cabbat’s napping baby boy is kidnapped her world turns upside down.
When she finally gets the ‘Ransom’ demands it’s not at all what she expects, and sends her life into an unbelievable tail spin.
Let’s just say, when a mother wants revenge you better watch out!

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson was one that stuck with me. It was so incredibly twisty! So when I saw she had another book coming out I knew I would need to read it.

This deal gets exciting very quickly and I loved that. I don’t mind a slow burn but I always get so excited when a book gets my attention right away.

It was exciting, enraging and intense!
All around, a very solid domestic thriller / revenge story!
Also I cannot recommend this one ok audiobook enough! It was preformed so well!

Mother May I was good. Middle section had me lost and confused at times. Mostly with who was who and connected to who. But then it all came together. I think it was a good thriller on a hard topic.

Thought about this book for hours after I finished it. Very unique circumstances, good characters and thought provoking. Twist after twist and an ending I did not see coming. Would recommend!

Bree Cabbat is the wife of Trey, a wealthy and successful lawyer. Together they have a beautiful home, two intelligent, competitive teenage daughters, Anna Claire and Peyton and an infant son, Robert. It would seem that their perfect life is untouchable, that is until Robert is abducted while sleeping in his car seat. Bree only looked away for a split second, but that’s all it took for someone to snatch him from the school parking lot. There doesn’t seem to be a safe place anywhere in this day and age.

The first thing that she does is panic, but then she sees a note that states absolutely no police involvement and that she’s being watched. Thank goodness her girls and husband didn’t witness this devastation. Having no other choice but to nervously head home, she waits for further instructions.

From the very first phone call, it’s a dangerous cat and mouse game between Bree and another, much older, mother. She can’t imagine how a woman in her same position could commit such a horrifying crime. But, then Bree starts to learn that not everything is what it seems, and the people that surround her aren’t as innocent as they might seem.

“Bree, do exactly what I say, nothing added, nothing skipped. That’s it—3 rules, follow them and this will all be over tomorrow for both of us.”

If Simon says jump, you jump. But what if he says kill someone or your son is dead?

3 ⭐️

I have to be completely honest and admit that this book was just ok for me. After reading and LOVING “Never Have I Ever” and giving it 5 ⭐️ I may have just gone into this setting the bar way too high after that which would be my own fault. I read a physical arc of NHIE and it may have been another case of not enjoying the book as much due to the narrator’s voice.

Also this book was very drawn out and it took until the last 15-20% for anything to happen and once it did it wasn’t worth the wait. I will, however, continue to pick her books up.

Thank you to NetGalley, Joshilyn Jackson and Harper Audio for an audio arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. This will be available on April 06, 2021.

This one was fun.

I was constantly on my toes and second guessing myself. It did drag a little bit for me during certain parts, but it was fun overall.

This is my first book by this author, but I would definitely pick up another! I was hooked from the beginning, and up to the 3/4 mark, I was absolutely loving it! I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next or where the story was heading. The last quarter was a little slower for me because it reached a point where I pretty much knew what the ending would be. I do wish we got more from side characters as there was very little talk of the daughters after the first couple chapters and everything was very focused on just 3-4 people. This does contain some very sensitive content, so please make sure you know that going in! Overall, I really enjoyed the reading experience, I just wish the ending was a bit more twisty than it was! Thank you so much to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Bree Cabbat is one of those girls from the other side of the tracks. She is fortunate enough to marry into a wealthy family, but the advantages of being married to a Cabbat also have downsides. When Bree’s son Robert goes missing, she does everything in her power to get him back. Even negotiating with her worst fear, an older version of herself. Mother May I is a twisting ride of recklessness to redemption. Joshilyn Jackson is a phenomenal writer and narrator of the audio version of Mother May I. Highly recommend!

Joshilyn Jackson is one of my favorite authors, and so I was delighted to see that she has another novel coming out this spring. My heartfelt thanks go to Net Galley, Harper Audio, and William Morrow for the review copies. This book is for sale now.

One of the things I love about Jackson is that she recognizes and includes social class as a large factor in the lives of her characters. I am initially sorry to see that her protagonist, Bree Cabbat, is married to a wealthy man, but once the story unfolds, it becomes obvious that the story won’t work any other way. Although Bree is rolling in it now, she grew up poor, the child of a single parent that took her back-to-school shopping at a Goodwill two towns over from their tiny Georgia town, carefully making sure that Bree’s classmates not recognize their own castoffs when Bree wore them. Later, theater classes helped Bree refine her accent to make her more employable; acting lessons helped her project the carefree confidence that is common to young adults whose families have money.

Now she is married to Trey, a man “who’d grown up with Scooters and Biffs and Muffys.” As the story progresses, there are frequent subtle reminders of this; Trey has a gun safe; Trey has a bottle of whiskey, a gift, that cost over two thousand dollars; their daughters are in an upscale school with a nice theatre program, and their daughters are enrolled in extracurricular activities like Quiz Bowl and Robotics. Yes, our Bree has come up in the world, alrighty. And so when their baby is kidnapped out from under her very nose, naturally Bree’s assumption is that there will be a ransom, and that she and Trey will pay it.

But this time, she is oh so wrong.

When the call comes, it turns out to be a very elderly woman bent on exacting revenge against Trey’s business partner, who is also his cousin. Bree must do exactly as she says, because if she sees any sign of police, “I’ll break his flimsy neck…I’ll twist his little head right around backward.”

Dear God.

This story grabbed me by the hair and didn’t let me go till I was done with it. I was initially approved for the audio version, and by the time I was given access to the print version, I had finished the first galley. Ordinarily, when something like this happens, I write my review, submit it to both places, and figure my work is done here. But for Jackson I do due diligence and more, and it’s a pleasure to read her book twice, so I did. And while both versions are excellent, I give a slight edge to the audio version. Print is a desirable medium anytime one is reading any mystery, because sometimes we want to flip back to check a detail or two. But Jackson always records her own audio books, and so I know the interpretation of the reader is always completely consistent with the writer’s intention. And in this case, the key side character—Marshall, an ex-cop that was married to Bree’s best friend, now dead—has a distinctive voice that comes through somewhat in the printed version, but much more plainly in the audio. I love the way she voices him, and although Marshall isn’t the protagonist, his role in this story is critical. The narrative shifts between Bree, who speaks to us from the first person limited, and Marshall, who comes to us in the third person.

The story carries an added social justice component: it’s MeToo on steroids. The things we learn about the men in the story add complexity, and though there’s a trigger or two here, I suspect most female readers will find the denouement deeply satisfying. I do.

The ending would ordinarily be deemed over-the-top, but because I believe the characters and story so completely by the time we get there, I also believe the resolution.

The one thing I would change here, if I wanted to be picky, would be to find a way to inject some of the epic laugh-out-loud humor I have enjoyed in Jackson’s earlier books. But that’s a tall order, given the intensity of this one.

One way or the other, this book is guaranteed to be one of the year’s very best. Don’t let yourself be left out. I strongly recommend this book to you, even at full cover price.

This is an excellent novel with a gripping storyline that will keep you turning pages late into the night. Ask my husband how late I stayed up last night...ha ha.

The plot alternates between Bree's first person and Marshall's third person points of view. Bree's infant son is kidnapped while her husband is out of town on a business trip. She assumes it is because they are wealthy and the kidnapper(s) must want money. But she soon discovers that the motives are far more sinister and what they ask of her have wide-reaching effects. Marshall is a long time family friend whose deceased wife was Bree's best friend from childhood. He's a former police officer and when Bree takes him into her confidence about what is happening he jumps in to help find the baby before it's too late.

I alternated between listening to this as an audiobook and reading a print copy. The author's narration is fantastic and really portrayed clearly what Bree was experiencing and feeling. I loved alternating between the formats because it meant that I could keep reading the book in the car and while doing things around the house without feeling like I was missing out on the story.

When I got to the ending I was very satisfied with the story and how things played out. It was very sad in parts, but also suspenseful and had a great deal to say about accountability for our actions, privilege, harassment, classism, and rape culture. The author crafted a fascinating story that had me utterly captivated from beginning to end. There are a few things that skirt believability, but overall they can be set aside for the bigger picture of a well-written thriller.

I'm not sure why I haven't read Joshilyn Jackson before - she's been on my radar for a few years and I've meant to try her, but it just never happened. So I jumped at the chance to receive an ARC of her latest audiobook, and I'm so glad that I did. I love a good dark and twisty psychological thriller, and this one definitely fits the bill. How far will a mother go to save her child? And how far will a mother go to avenge her child? Both questions come into play in this book, and the answers make for a compelling page-turner that kept me interested all the way through. And it was made even better by the fact that Jackson did a bang-up job of narrating her book. I've definitely added her books to my TBR list.
Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Audio for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson

I want to give a huge thanks to Netgalley, Joshilyn and William Morrow for giving me this book on audio prior to the release date. I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

Bree Cabbat grew up much differently than what her life is now. She is happily married to a partner in a firm and has 3 beautiful children, one of which is only 10 weeks old. When she notices someone strange in her window looking in on her family, she starts to get a weird feeling. When she sees the woman again at her children’s rehearsal, she knows something isn’t right. She takes her eyes off of her new born son for just a few minutes, but when she returns – a note has replaced her sons carrier. She know is on a mission to get her son back and is determined to do whatever it takes to make that happen. While she is trying to understand why this happening to her, she starts to learn about the past and she is hit with some harsh reality. Regardless, she is determined to get her son back and will do whatever it takes.

WOW. This book was everything. I was maybe half way in when I knew this would be my first 5 star review of the month. I finished this book in 2 days and loved every minute of it. Every time you think you know what is going to happen Joshilyn throws in twists and turns to keep you on your toes. I recently got into thrillers and this one has probably been the best one I’ve read. I felt like I was reading an episode of criminal minds the way they work out the clues of the mystery behind the kidnapping. Not only that, but you get so many stories with in the main story. I never once felt bored or thought
oh this book could do with out this part”

As predicted, this was the first 5 star read of April. I loved this book and I HIGHLY recommend to anyone that loves murder mysteries and thrillers.

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫

Man oh Man, I have been really lucky with my ARCs lately because, this one was a thought-provoking, unputdownable suspenseful thriller. I am legit teetering on the edge of giving it a full 5 ⭐️ review. Only reason i can’t bump up is the predictability of the ending and the slowness is some of the reminiscing sections. But other then that, wow!

Bree Cabbot had everything going for her, a loving husband, amazing kids, including a new baby. Until one day, at a school function, a mother’s worst nightmare occurs, her baby boy, not two feet away from her vanishes from his car seat and replaced by a note. Someone is watching her and surprise surprise, no police is allowed to be involved and must follow the instructions laid out. So Bree decides to enlists the help of a former police officer friend, Marshall.

Jammed pack with suspense, psychological twists and what seems like a simple kidnapping turns out it isn’t. The uses of Robert, Bree’s baby, being used as a pawn to invoke revenge of past doings, is heartbreaking to read. But Bree will do anything to get her baby back as would every mother out there but at what cost? Would you do it knowing your family’s world would be torn apart?

I’d like to thank Netgalley & Harper audio for this audio arc. I will be buying the physical because I just need it.