Anna was abandoned by her birth mother as a baby and tragically loses her adopted mother at a young age. We meet her just as she conceives an unplanned baby with her alcoholic boyfriend. The pregnancy is followed closely and links with her growth as a person - she tracks down her sister and subsequently her birth mother. No spoilers but nothing is as it first appears. I enjoyed this book and the end had me on the edge of my seat.

I’m going to preface this by saying I didn’t finish the book but there’s no option to not give a star rating.

This just wasn’t for me. The blurb made it sound like my cup of tea but I really really struggled to get into it. I made it half way through but honestly it felt like such an effort and I wasn’t at all engaged in the story. It felt a little…chaotic perhaps? And maybe that was the point, and I just missed it with this one. But I didn’t feel as though I understood the main characters, or their motivations for how they behaved, and I wasn’t even slightly curious as to how it would turn out.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this, unfortunately this one wasn’t for me.

This story is dark and twisted and totally not what you’d expect. Such a good read and well written.
The twists and turns are real. I loved how this ended

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a fabulous cover. The book I found a little complicated, but I persevered. Not as thrilling as I expected. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

This was a very strange story. A mother wants her long lost daughters, unborn baby and will go to any lengths to achieve this. It is a difficult story to review as so much happens that it is hard to explain. Several of the characters have mental problems and all of the characters seem very real. It was certainly a book you had to finish to find out what really happens

A plot that didn’t make sense, the characters are bordering on ridiculous and the story is to disjointed for me to escape into.

A strange thriller that verged on ridiculous. Strange characters with a plot that didn't make sense to me. My first and definitely my last book by this author.

Mother’s Day is a book that is hard to sum up. At its core it is the story of Anna – abandoned as a baby and having lost her adoptive mother when she was young, she tracks down her birth mother just as she falls pregnant herself. Anna finally has the opportunity to build a relationship with Marlene – but Marlene proves to be mother quite like no other.

What ensues will have your head spinning as the author takes the reader on a rollercoaster of a journey, getting crazier by the page. But somehow it works – Burdess has successfully created a cast of larger than life whacky characters who manage to be thoroughly engaging, and as a reader you never know quite what to expect. At times my jaw hit the floor in horror, at others it had me laughing out loud at its dark humour. But the pace of the book ensured I just wanted to keep reading to find out what on earth happened next and it had me thoroughly entertained.

If you’re looking for something a bit different, go with it and enjoy the ride!

This story was too complicated and disjointed for me to get engrossed in and I really didn't like the characters at all. Not for me.

Oh, what a book that was.
I met some unbalanced women.
The first is Anna.
She has a boyfriend who drinks a lot of alcohol.
Our heroine is pregnant.
How will her boyfriend react to this?
Is he the father of her unborn child?
Will she give birth or will she have an abortion?
Anna was adopted.
She was looking for her biological parents.
She found her sister and mother.
In my opinion, she should never have met them.
Mom - Marlene has a younger lover, Tristan, whom she treats very badly.
It is at her every beck.
This character got on my nerves.
She cornered poor Anna.
I wondered if she wanted her daughter more than the child she was carrying in her womb.
A terrifying figure.
Anna's sister - Hebe is also weird.
She likes to cut.
This gives her endorphins of happiness and relief.
There's something wrong with this person.
Why is she currently homeless?
Why doesn't Marlene (mother) help her?


The beginning of the book shocked me deeply.
Tears streamed down my cheeks.
Why did this have to happen?


Throughout the book, events related to Anna, Hebe and Marlene intertwine.

I like the pregnancy descriptions at the beginning of each chapter.


The plot is amazing.
I couldn't stop reading.
It got me hooked.

The action slowed down at times.
By the end of this book, she picked up the pace.
There were times when I was terrified.
Some scenes made me cringe.

The book keeps you in suspense.
I found a lot of emotions here.
You will also find interesting plot twists.

I am satisfied with the book "Mother's Day".
I read it in one day.

Omg what a thrill of a read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Twisty and full of suspence. I was on the edge of my seat. Gripped from start to finish. Read in one sitting. Couldn't put it down. Definitely recommend.

This is a multifaceted novel that charts the complex emotions involved when an adopted child looks for their biological parent. Burdess’s thirty-five year old character Anna embarks on this search when she is newly pregnant. In affluent, narcissistic, free-spirited Marlene, Anna discovers a biological mother she could not have expected. Will she succeed in making this eccentric love and respect her as only a parent can? And will she be able to resist Marlene’s increasing powers of coercion that make every day a mother’s day? With a shocking beginning that takes your breath away, there is no doubt that as the disturbing story unfolds, Anna’s life and that of her unborn baby will be in danger. But where will this domestic thriller end? I was spell-bound by the twists and turns of this unusual novel and defy any fellow readers not to want to race to the end to find out what happens to Anna. Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for the free ARC that allowed me to produce this unbiased book review.

An unusual plot . Anna, the main character is adopted and her adoptive mother was killed in a traffic accident when she was young. She is in a dead end relationship and in a dead end job when she reconnects with her birth mother, sister and half brother. She also finds out that she is pregnant.
The relationship with her mother develops and then takes strange and unexpected turns as Anna's pregnancy develops.
The action picks up in the last simester of her pregnancy, perhaps pushing the bounds of reality and normal behaviour at times .Certainly an interesting read, though there are triggers which could upset the faint hearted.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Well where do I begin? I have been so excited about this one and it has delivered on every level. I have been so caught up in this one – I devoured the whole thing in just one sitting.

This is interesting and completely different to how I’d expected. I’ve always been intrigued about people seeking their biological families after finding they had been abandoned. Anna has been a character I’ve liked from the beginning.

Anna is a character who takes us on a journey in this one. This sees her find her sister, meet her biological mother and discover that she is going to be a mother herself.

This is a book that it perfectly paced and unpredictable. I have adored this book and found myself craving more and more. Marlene is completely unpredictable and unlikeable. She definitely is one you dislike as you read.

This is a book that is filled with suspense. Mother’s Day is completely unforgettable and original. A must read!

The premise of this book sounded amazing!! I really wanted this as an ARC - thank you NetGalley!!

However, the story just didn’t deliver. It felt disjointed at parts.

I wish I could have connected with Anna better, although it’s so sad what she has gone through. It all felt a bit too much for me.

This is a dark read that is quite graphic in parts.

It wasn't very beliveable and there were lots of storylines so it jumped about a little

I enjoyed it as a whole not a fast paced book.

Abigail Burdess’ shocking debut novel, Mother’s Day, is a striking look at motherhood and mental illness.
The central character, Anna, was abandoned by her mother as a baby, dumped on a traffic island in a handbag. She later lost her adoptive mother in a horrific accident. Having been through one ordeal after another, Anna now works with traumatised refugees. She’s constantly living on the edge – regularly spending her last fiver and hiding ‘emergency’ money from her sort-of alcoholic boyfriend Dermot.
When Anna discovers she’s pregnant, and tracks down her birth mother, her life gets much more complicated. Her mother Marlene is a fantastically diabolical character. At first she just seems a bit rich and eccentric. But gradually we discover that she’s extremely dangerous. Marlene is detestable, but that’s not all she is. Burdess makes sure the reader knows that her personality has been shaped by her own traumas. Marlene’s treatment of Anna is genuinely disturbing. But somehow Burdess writes the unbelievable in a way that’s totally believable.
In some ways, the style of the novel can seem odd. Parts of it are unusually bald and direct. Descriptions of horrific events are written in a very matter of fact way and Anna often seems detached, as though observing her life from the outside. But this may be deliberate, a way of highlighting how her traumas have affected her.
The dialogue is great and there are some real laugh out loud moments. When Anna’s adoptive mum tells her off for fighting, Anna raises the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to argue that sometimes fighting can be good. ‘Don’t you Warsaw Ghetto me!’ her mum replies. There are also unexpectedly touching moments.
What’s really good about the novel is that it feels original. It’s as if Burdess has torn up the rules about what is and isn’t acceptable, and has redefined what is going “too far”. Just when you think that an extreme has been reached, and things can’t get any more shocking, they do.

Thank You to Headline and NetGalley for an Arc of this book. The premise sounded fascinating and right up my alley. Ultimately the story didn't deliver for me. There were too many macabre and disjointed scenes. The book had a lot of potential dealing with adoption and mental health. But in the end the plot wasn't cohesive.

The book releases on March 2.

This book had a fantastic over all storyline and idea, but putting it all on paper just didn’t feel as good as it could of. The ideas really jumped around and just didn’t flow as I would of hoped they could.
Other than that, the story had me gripped and wondering what on earth could possibly happen next!
It was just one crazy thing after the next and was almost unbelievable how much poor Anna has to go through.
I wish the beginning of the book would of been more fast paced and matched the ending. It almost felt as if I was reading two separate books that got joined together. Once I got about 200 pages in I did not want to put this book down and couldn’t wait to uncover all the secrets (and there were many) the epilogue was great and really summed everything up nicely. I’m glad the author didn’t leave any character out of the epilogue and we got to find out what happened to each one.
I would recommend this book and enjoyed reading it.
Thank you Net Galley for the Arc, this is my unbiased opinion.

This was a gripping read. A few red herrings to mix things up.
Anna finds her birth mum. Ma is an interesting character. All Anna wants is for ma to love her. Anna starts to question her mothers strange behaviour, but is everything as it seems?
I just wanted to know how it was going to end and it did not disappoint.
Thank you netgally for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.