This book was pretty much a Sophie's choice kind of book. This book was very dark making the main character having to choose between her kids. This was a very different type of thriller. It was a very good debut book. Overall I was really drawn into the story and I would suggest it.

Two little Girls was a quick k read. I think people should keep in mind the title while they read this . For a debut author of adult books this was an awesome book. An unimaginable choice picking one of your two children to live. A suspenseful story that has a couple twists and turns along the way

Every mother's nightmare. Reminiscent of Sophies Choice. If you have to choose to save ONE child, which. will it be and can you ever live with the decision? Really enjoyed this book. Recommended read.

At first, I had a bit of trouble getting into the book, as the writing seemed a bit stilted, simple. But as the story went on, it drew me into the grief and heartache felt by the mother who had to make an unthinkable choice: which child she loves dearly should live? Her choice would mean that the other was doomed to die. I thought the this book was going to be more of a mystery or thriller and there is a bit element to that, although the answers are hiding in plain sight and aren't as twisty as other books I have enjoyed, it does build to a revelation with an ultimate satisfying ending, with a bit of controversial justice. The story was more focused on the family relationships and the aftermath of a traumatic event. I did appreciate that the story advocated for mental health, as the main character sought out professional help, but it seemed to be overlooked for the others who would have benefitted in her family. I look forward to reading more by this author! An element that some reader's may find troubling is how adoption is mentioned in the book--calling biological children and mothers "real children" and "real mothers" while wondering if the biological bond is stronger than the adoptive one due to biology. I think the story could be just as meaningful without that unfortunate phrasing.

Thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

The story itself was kind of depressing, as a mother of two girls in a sinking car, which one would you save? I didn't care for the ending, it seemed kind of rushed, and hard to believe. The writing itself was good and kept me reading to figure out what ( or who) caused the accident.

Two Little Girls
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Domestic Thriller
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 5/3/22
Author: Laura Jarratt
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Pages: 288
Goodreads Rating: 3.87

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing a copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: When Lizzie’s car crashes with both of her girls in it, she has to make a terrible choice. She only has time to save one of her daughters. As if the tragedy of her decision is not enough, there is also a police investigation into the accident. What exactly happened? Who is responsible? Can the family come together during this tragedy or will it tear them apart?

My Thoughts: The chapters vary in length. The chapters are not titled and the timeline shifts, so it can be a little confusing. The story is mostly narrated by Lizzie with the alternating timelines. As a debut novel, I was highly impressed and loved the author’s writing style. The ultimate moral dilemma, you can only save one person, who do you save, was well-thought out and shined in this book. The character development was incredible and well-planned.

Okay well this book touched on literally everything that terrifies me as a mother, so that was fun.

Lizzie's story was absolutely heartbreaking and I cannot imagine ever being in the shoes where I would have to choose to save one of my kids over another. I loved how the story also followed the journey and grief of Lizzie's husband and other child, simply because loss is never singular.

The only thing I didn't love was the ending. I felt like it just came and went and there was nothing significant about it.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review

This novel, #TwoLittleGirls by #LauraJarratt, is a slow-burning read but it is also twisty and convoluted with a touch of psycho-thrilling at the same time. I couldn’t bear the part when the children were harmed in the book, but the story must peruse in order to heighten the reader’s curiosity. The ending was not what I anticipated! Anyways, we must come to grip that mental health is definitely important to one’s well-being. This book is an incredible read! I wish you could read this book and feel the churns and turns!!!

Thank you to the tagged publisher for this complimentary #ARCbook #ebook copy from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

As a parent of young children, the premise of TWO LITTLE GIRLS is utterly terrifying. After a car accident, Lizzie only has time to save one of her two daughters in the vehicle. What an excruciating decision!

In her first adult novel, Laura Jarrett does a great job delving into the layers of grief and guilt Lizzie experiences in the aftermath of the accident. The premise was fascinating but ultimately the way things tied up felt a bit lackluster. If you’re looking for a quick read to hold your attention, this could be a win for you!

Many thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lizzie and her two daughters are driving home from a holiday vacation on a rainy evening when suddenly a car comes out of nowhere and runs them off the road. Lizzie's car runs into a deep lake and instantly she knows she has to make the most crucial and devastating decision of her life. Which daughter to save because she knows she will not be able to save both of her daughters. How can she choose? Lizzie loves both daughters equally right? Portia is now fifteen years old and little Becca is just eight. Why isn't the driver of the other car coming to help? Was this just a horrific accident or did the other driver want tho kill all three of them?

This was a dark and emotional story which was very depressing at times based around Lizzie's choice and how she suffers through the stages of grief but also her surviving daughter's trauma and also the grief that her husband suffers as well that is just tortuous for all of them and such a sad read. There is a lot of mystery about the driver of the other car and their intentions. The first half of the book is fast paced though emotional but the second half of the story was a little too wordy for me and continued to go back and forth on the same thoughts too often. For as devastating as the storyline was, the conclusion of the book just wasn't quite realistic and I felt underwhelmed. The writing and the editing are very good and the book was definitely intriguing although I felt let down by the time I finished the story. Please remember these are just my personal opinions and many other readers felt quite differently than myself. I recommend reading this book by Laura Jarrett so that you may base your own opinions on such a difficult subject.

I want to thank the publisher "Sourcebooks Landmark" for the opportunity to read this book and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given this book a rating of 3 1/2 DARK AND DISTURBING 🌟🌟🌟🌠STARS!!


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The premise of this book is enough to make a parent's blood run cold. If you could only save one of your children, who would you save? And how can you live with the consequences of your choice?

Lizzie is driving home with her daughters one night, goes off the road and into a lake. She is able to unbuckle one of the girls and get her out of the cold water and onto land. Then Lizzie dives back in to try to get the second one. But the car has sunk too far and the water is too cold and she is hurt from the accident, too, and...and...and...

After being released from the hospital, Lizzie is under suspicion by the police for the death of her daughter. Then her husband is under suspicion, because the accident is looking less and less like an accident all the time. And still, the family is dealing with the loss of a child and a sibling.

All of that was really good. This is a decision no one should have to make. The repercussions of the loss of a child travel far and weaken even the best relationships, which this one wasn't to begin with. So why only 3 stars?

The mystery is solved and that's when it goes downhill. I didn't find the rest of the story believable. The ending wasn't satisfying. I think this could have been more than it was.

My thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A car crash leaves a mother with an impossible choice. But was it really an accident?
I could not put this book down! It was absolutely fantastic! The writing was so good and just flowed really well. Some twists & turns I definitely did not see coming. thank you so much

The girls of the title link their mothers in a series of unspeakable tragedies.. It's difficult to say too much about the plot without giving away the twist, but suffice it to say that Laura Jarratt convincingly immerses her protagonist in an ocean of grief and guilt, drawing on the torment of a fatal but necessary decision. The waves of emotion sometimes swamp the clarity of the writing, but this is generally a novel that will sustain the interest of Jodi Picoult fans everywhere. My only real complaint is an implausible omission whereby the source of the threat in the story is obvious to the reader, but somehow not to the protagonist. Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance reader copy.

The vast majority of the time, when I finish a book, I write my review right away, because I have memory issues and I’m afraid I’ll forget my impressions, my thoughts, my feelings, or even just outright half of what happened in the book. I was in a unique situation after I finished this book because after the way it ended I needed to sit with it a while and process. I had loved so much of the book, but the ending was wobbly for me and I needed to see if it would settle and stop wobbling to stick the landing, would it keep wobbling like gelatin never properly set, or would it wobble to the point it just fell right apart? I just felt so… conflicted.

There is so much to recommend about this book. For one, the very specific scenario and choice Lizzie (our protagonist) has to make at the beginning of the book has been my second largest fear in life (after being left completely alone and forgotten and that’s why I’m not allowed to watch the Doctor Who episode “The Girl Who Waited” ever ever) ever since I had my second child. It’s so bad I hold my breath driving over bridges, am super careful up in the mountains, and carry this cool tool that’s a window punch and a seatbelt cutter in my car. I’ve had legitimate anxiety attacks if pressed to answer the question. This makes the whole premise of this book legitimately horrifying, cruel, and terrible for any mom (and some dads, I’m sure). When push comes to shove, how do you make that impossible choice? And once the choice is made and you can’t change it, how do you live with yourself afterward? Would you even want to? How do you move on with your life? How do you “be there” for the child you saved? For the husband who lost a child too? It’s all like a Jenga tower that fell down and no one knows how to start rebuilding it.

Most of this book is about those little Jenga blocks that make up this family and how they just can’t find their way back. Lizzie is losing her mind, spiraling further and further down into herself because she can’t move an inch forward or barely function. Her husband has become even more of a workaholic because he doesn’t know how to deal with anything. Their daughter, Portia, is becoming more and more withdrawn and depressed but won’t talk to anyone about it. And someone is spying on both Portia and Lizzie unawares with malicious intentions.

Lizzie spends so much time in this book in despair. Grieving so many things: her daughter, the choice she made, what the crash did to Portia, to her husband, to their marriage, to their family, about what kind of mother she is. She gets tired. She gets depressed. She starts to try to put herself back together, if only for both her husband and Portia, who both just keep looking worse with every week that goes by.

With the police unable or unwilling to follow up on anything, Lizzie starts trying to figure out some things for herself. Once she starts putting all the pieces together, she starts to get not only angry, but full of cold rage.

But this is also where I have one of my largest complaints about this book: The pieces Lizzie puts together could’ve been put together so much sooner. They had even been alluded to very early on in the book and were alluded to or referenced to more than a few different times throughout the book. By the time Lizzie had put it together I said, “I thought I was going to have to put up a neon sign for you!” Like, do you guys ever watch crime procedurals on tv? Because the cops and Lizzie were all looking the opposite way the entire time and it was driving me nuts.

The reason this book gets such a high rating despite that frustration is because of how well Jarratt writes Lizzie and her family. Since there’s only the three of them, she had plenty of page time to write about Lizzie and her processes and interpersonal relationships. She has time to write about memories with all her family members, planned and then discarded plans for the future, their battle with IVF and then adopting little Becca, how much she loves her husband but how she’s conflicted about their marriage and has been for a long time, and how much she enjoys being a mother. The prose is emotional, evocative, and touching.

As for the ending? I’ve decided I don’t like it. It doesn’t stick. But it’s not the worst outcome.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a Family Drama Fiction/Crime Mystery. This will take you on a very emotional wild ride. The book starts off with an intense car ride that results in a car crash that unfolds so much. I cannot say more than that because if I do it could spoil something. This book is not an easy read, but I love seeing these characters become who they are at the end of this book. The characters slowly develop throughout this book which is what this story needed. The ending is not sweet or happily ever after, but I loved it. The ending was not what I saw coming, and I felt it was realistic. Great read and I love it so much. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (Sourcebooks Landmark) or author (Laura Jarratt) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

As a debut adult novel, this was a such an interesting storyline: a mother faced with an impossible choice--saving only one of her daughters.

Lizzie and her husband Dan are both barristers, practicing in child custody and criminal law, respectively. They are parents to daughters, Portia and Becca. On the return trip after taking the girls on a holiday without her husband, tragedy strikes. Lizzie and her daughters are thrust into a lake after swerving off the road. With moments to decide, Lizzie has to make a heartbreaking decision to save one of her daughters, or to allow all three of them to drown.

The decision and amnesia surrounding the accident haunts Lizzie. Luckily for Lizzie, her husband Dan is there to help care for their daughter, as the investigation begins into the accident. A rollercoaster of scenarios play out with the police trying to determine the cause of the accident.

I was engaged for the entire book, though I was a little sad about the ending, it was a little too wrapped up too quickly. Overall, it was a good read. 3.5 stars (rounded up) out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for this e-arc for honest review.

Two Little Girls by Laura Jarratt introduces us to Lizzie as she is on holiday with her two girls. Trouble isn't too far away. Lizzie is on her way home and ends up in the lake trying to save herself and the girls. Lizzie could only save Portia. Becca was still stuck in the car in the lake. After recovering from the crash, the family tries to take steps to moving forward but something just isn't right. The police are suspecting the family for the crash and there is no way Lizzie or Dan was responsible for this. But as they both know, a lawyers life is never far from their own. What happens in a courtroom doesn't always stay there. With Dan being the criminal barrister, it only makes sense that the criminal act came from one of his clients and not Lizzie's domestic disputes. But at hoe, things are just falling more and more further from the home that they all once shared. Is Lizzie becoming more paranoid or is does there always seem to be someone in the shadows?
Two Little Girls by Laura Jarratt is my first read by her. I really liked her short chapters and easy reading style. Two Little Girls was written from Lizzie's voice and was written in the present tense. I will admit the whole first 75% of the book I had someone else pinned as the culprit. I was pleasantly surprised when I was wrong. So the suspense was good and better than most I have read this year. There was also a sad component to this story but I liked the book just the same. I will be looking for more stories and books by Laura Jarratt and I will be recommending Two Little Girls to others. Special Thanks to NetGalley, Laura Jarratt, and Sourcebooks Landmark Books for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 4 stars for me.

A dark night. Driving in the rain. An accident. And a mom has to make a terrible decision.

"Author Laura Jarratt has written a book that will grab your attention in the first five minutes—and it keeps your attention to the very last page." – Books and Pens on Green Gables

A mom and her two girls are on vacation—a young teen who is typically annoyed with her mom and a young blonde girl that still likes to hold her mom's hand and snuggle. Their dad couldn't join them for this trip, and they are looking forward to getting home to see him. Well, most of them are excited to see him.

Maybe they should have left sooner. It is very dark, and the rain is getting heavier. Both girls are sleeping in the backseat when there's a hint of something. Is it a shadow? Is it a light? Then, headlights headed toward them. There's nowhere to go...falling, falling...a broken windshield and water entering the car. The water is filling the car–there is no way to escape it. The girls! Mom realizes she can't get them both. There's no time to think.

She grabs one, struggles to the surface, and gets her daughter breathing again. She dives. Where is the car? Her other daughter is gone.

That's just the first several pages! THIS IS A REALLY GREAT BOOK!

This mom has to deal with the tragedy of her daughter's death and her guilt that she couldn't save her, but she also has to deal with the police now. They say she fell asleep driving, and she knows she didn't fall asleep but can't remember what happened.

Can she and her husband put the pieces together to find out what really happened?

I was given this book to read and review. Great plot, great characters, with an ending you won't believe!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I couldn't put this book down. It was so emotional and heartbreaking that I needed to keep reading. Seeing all of the characters handle their grief in different ways really brought the characters to life. I didn't care much for the timeline split at the beginning though, It was only a few chapters, but I would have preferred it if it was all one timeline. I look forward to what this author writes in the future.

An impossible choice, but one in the spur of the moment Lizzie makes for one reason only. Now, three months later she’s living with her grief and her guilt. The police are investigating the accident sure that she put her children in danger killing one of them. They are now three people living separate lives locked away from each other. Losing a child is the worst kind of suffering for a mother and Lizzie is in the throes of that suffering. Did she fall asleep causing the accident? If only she could remember the moments leading up to the accident. When evidence points to the accident being deliberate, the question is who did this and why? The answer and outcome was an unexpected one! Jarrett takes us on a journey of grief and finding the way back, forgiveness and starting over. Emotionally packed, this book drew me in and didn’t let go until the final words were spoken.