Incidents Around the House – ARC Book Review

Title:- Incidents Around The House

Author:- Josh Malerman

Date published:- June 25th 2024/ March 27th 2025

No. of pages:- 367 pages

Genre:- Horror

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5 Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 5/5

A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,” from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box
 
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”  
 
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the same question, over and over . . . Bela understands that unless she says yes, soon her family must pay. 
 
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is on the brink of unraveling.  
 
But Other Mommy needs an answer. 
 
Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror told by the child Bela. A story about a family as haunted as their home.

Though this book was published in 2024, I got an invitation to review this book from the publisher as the paperback version will be released on March 27th 2025. To be honest I have always wanted to read this book and I was super excited for the invitation to review the book!

Bela is an eight year old girl who lives with her parents–Mummy and Daddo and her grandmother Ruth. But there is also the Other Mummy–a malevolent entity hiding in the closet of Bela’s room. The Other Mummy wants only one thing from Bela–to help the Other Mummy enter into Bela. But Bela was frightened and soon, her parents also realized the presence of entity and tries to move from place to place. But the Other Mummy is persistent and would not let Bela live alone.

It is interesting to read from a child’s point of view–the entire story is written in Bela’s POV. There were jump scare parts particularly the description of Other Mummy in words, make you feel like you are actually watching a horror movie on the TV. The only thing about the book was, I didn’t really care much about the other characters, and I just really wish there was some background of about Other Mummy. Other than those two negative points, the whole book gave a creepy sense of vibe throughout the story. There were terrifying parts as well.

Overall this book is worth five stars.

Though this book was published in 2024, I got an invitation to review this book from the publisher as the paperback version will be released on March 27th 2025. To be honest I have always wanted to read this book and I was super excited for the invitation to review the book!

Bela is an eight year old girl who lives with her parents–Mummy and Daddo and her grandmother Ruth. But there is also the Other Mummy–a malevolent entity hiding in the closet of Bela’s room. The Other Mummy wants only one thing from Bela–to help the Other Mummy enter into Bela. But Bela was frightened and soon, her parents also realized the presence of entity and tries to move from place to place. But the Other Mummy is persistent and would not let Bela live alone.

It is interesting to read from a child’s point of view–the entire story is written in Bela’s POV. There were jump scare parts particularly the description of Other Mummy in words, make you feel like you are actually watching a horror movie on the TV. The only thing about the book was, I didn’t really care much about the other characters, and I just really wish there was some background of about Other Mummy. Other than those two negative points, the whole book gave a creepy sense of vibe throughout the story. There were terrifying parts as well.

Overall this book is worth five stars.

Josh Malerman is the New York Times best selling author of BIRD BOX, MALORIE, GOBLIN, PEARL, GHOUL n THE CAPE, and more.
He’s also one of two singer/songwriter for the rock band The High Strung.

Holly- Book Review

Title:- Holly

Author:- Stephen King

Date published:- September 5th 2023

No. of pages:- 449 pages

Genre:- Horror

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5 Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 5/5

Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.” — BILL HODGES

Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.

I love reading Stephen King’s books and this is one of the books that I actually loved.

Bonnie Dahl is missing. The police and others believe that Bonnie had a fight with her mother and left the town. But her mother believes otherwise and believed that something happened to her daughter. She enlists the help of Finders Keepers, a private detective agency. Holly Gibney is dealing with her mother’s death and her coworker is having Covid but she couldn’t turn Bonnie’s mother down and decide to take the case. Meanwhile, a few miles from where Bonnie was abducted, a reputed academician couple Professors Rodney and Emily Harris live in a house after retiring from college. But in the basement of their house, a dark secret is hiding…

This was cleverly written, a mixture of horror and thriller blended together. Stephen King is a master at telling stories and this book is no exception. Although this is Holly Gibney’s book 3, you can read this book as a standalone. Holly is determined that there might be a serial killer while as a reader you know who those serial killers can be. I actually enjoyed reading this book as it was fast paced and a page turning novel. Overall worth five stars.

That’s Not My Name – Book Review

Title:- That’s Not My Name

Author:- Megan Lally

Date published:- December 26th 2023

No. of pages:- 297 pages

Genre:- YA Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5 Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 5/5

She thought she had her life back. She was wrong. It was a mistake to trust him.

Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there―or who she is. A passing officer takes her to the police station, and not long after, a frantic man arrives. He’s been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos. He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says.

When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they just needed some time to cool off. Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew murdered his girlfriend. Forget proving his innocence, he needs to find her before it’s too late. The longer Lola is missing, the fewer leads there are to follow…and the more danger they both are in.

This was actually really a good thriller.

A girl wakes up at the side of the road with no recollection of who she was. A police officer finds her and takes her to the station, then the man named Wayne comes into the station, claiming to be the girl’s father and the girl’s name was Mary Boone. The girl returns to Wayne’s home but as she stays in the home, her memory starts coming back, realizing that she is not Mary and someone else…

Drew was the last person to see his girlfriend Lola Scott alive. Lola Scott never returned home and she mysteriously disappeared. Everyone in the town suspected that Drew has something to do with her disappearance and Drew was determined to prove his innocent by finding Lola before it is too late.

This was a fast paced, page turning thriller. You have the POVs of Drew, who is determined to find Lola and a girl named Mary who might not really be Mary. The whole story was quite unputdownable, and I like how Drew’s friends, who believed him, helped him with sleuthing to help find Lola. The writing was very well done and the story overall was very engaging. The twist at the end was completely unexpected which made the whole story as a whole a great book to read. Overall, I actually liked this book and cannot wait to read more from this author. Worth five stars.

egan Lally is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of That’s Not My Name. When she’s not writing dark and twisty young adult novels you might find her barefoot at the ocean, drinking one too many lavender lattes, or arguing about the validity of glitter as a favorite color. (It’s absolutely a color, and it’s the best one.) She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

You can visit her online at MeganLallyWrites.com or on Instagram: @Megan_Lally_

The Coworker – Book Review

Title:- The Coworker

Author:- Freida McFadden

Date published:- August 29th 2023

No. of pages:- 362 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 3/5 Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 3.5/5

Two women. An office filled with secrets. One terrible crime that can’t be taken back.

Dawn Schiff is strange. At least, everyone thinks so at Vixed, the nutritional supplement company where Dawn works as an accountant. She never says the right thing. She has no friends. And she is always at her desk at precisely 8:45 a.m.

So when Dawn doesn’t show up to the office one morning, her coworker Natalie Farrell—beautiful, popular, top sales rep five years running—is surprised. Then she receives an unsettling, anonymous phone call that changes everything…

It turns out Dawn wasn’t just an awkward outsider—she was being targeted by someone close. And now Natalie is irrevocably tied to Dawn as she finds herself caught in a twisted game of cat and mouse that leaves her wondering: who’s the real victim?

But one thing is incredibly clear: somebody hated Dawn Schiff. Enough to kill.

The Coworker is a tense, unputdownable thriller from New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden that explores the dark ways the past can echo through the present―with deadly consequences.

This wasn’t Freida McFadden’s best book in my opinion and probably one of the books that I gave the lowest rating on (I always give her books four to five stars)

Natalie is working in a company called Vixed and she is a successful saleswoman. One day, Natalie notices that her co-worker Dawn Schiff is missing. Dawn is very meticulous and punctual and so it was very unusual that Dawn would miss work. Not to mention that Dawn had arranged to meet her boss Seth in the afternoon and she even sent an email to Natalie, asking her to meet. However, Dawn did not turn up in the afternoon meeting either and Natalie sets out to find out what really happened to Dawn by going to her house. There she finds a pool of blood lying on the floor of the living room. Someone has done something horrible to Dawn Schiff. And when the police were contacted, the police suspect that Natalie must have done something to Dawn.

This was not really a great thriller. The story is told in Natalie’s POV with Dawn’s emails providing the backdrop of the story. The twist and turns were not really great in my opinion and the ending wasn’t really great either. This wasn’t her greatest thriller but then it wasn’t bad either. Compared to her other thrillers, that is.

Overall this is worth 3.5 stars.

The Night Shift – ARC Book Review

Title:- The Night Shift

Author:- Gemma Rogers

Date published:- will be published on 6th March 2025

No. of pages:- 256 pages

Genre:- Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5 Writing:- 3/5

Overall rating:- 3.5/5

The BRAND NEW pulse-pounding cat & mouse thriller from INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Gemma Rogers

How can one 12-hour night shift be so deadly?

I loved the anonymity, flexibility and solitude that working the night shift at Storage Queen gave me.

The unsociable hours paid well, helping me fund my university degree and giving me a quiet place to study while the world slept peacefully in their warm, cozy beds. It was the perfect job for me.

But that Friday night proved to be more than I bargained for when a man walked through the door, dragging a large suitcase.

My immediate instincts told me something was wrong.

That’s when my ordeal began.

I just had to make it through the night shift.

A pacy, heart stopping, page turning thriller for the fans of Shari Lapena and Lisa Jewell.

Nina is on a night shift at the warehouse Storage Queen. It’s Friday Night and Nina assumed that the work will be slow so she could peacefully study for her university exams. But then her night eventually becomes a nightmare when a man comes into the storage unit carrying a suitcase.

This was a fast paced thriller. The first few parts of the story was great–it was intriguing, intense and with Nina’s diabetic condition seems to make the thriller more interesting. However, starting from the middle and towards the end, the story kind of started to get little boring in my opinion. However, you feel like you are watching a horror action packed thriller movie on the TV when you are actually reading this book. The writing was great however and I like how the author managed to keep the reader at the edge with one Nina is going through.

This has great premise in my opinion. However, the execution wasn’t so great to this overall great plot and story making the story a bit more unrealistic. Overall, this was a good thriller and worth 3.5 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Boldwoods for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Gemma Rogers lives in West Sussex with her husband, two daughters and a bouncy French Bulldog called Boycie.

Her love of writing began in her early teenage years, inspired by hours spent buried in Point Horror, Richard Laymon and Christopher Pike with the occasional Judy Blume thrown in for good measure.

Other passions include movies – horrors especially (who doesn’t love a good scare), country walks, swimming and anything involving cake.

Her debut novel Stalker was released on the 10th September 2019, quickly followed by *The Secret in January 2020, and **The Teacher in May.

Gemma’s fourth novel ***The Mistake was published January 2021, followed by The Babysitter in September.

The Feud came next in May 2022, then The Neighbour in January 2023 and The Flatmate in June 2023.

Gemma’s ninth title The Good Wife came out in March 2024 and the tenth, The Honeymoon in October 2024.

The Night Shift, Gemma’s latest novel is due out on the 6th March 2025 and available to pre-order now.

Dungeons and Drama – Book Review

Title:- Dungeons and Drama

Author:- Kristy Boyce

Date published:- January 9th 2024

No. of pages:- 304 pages

Genre;- YA, Romance

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5 Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4.5/5

When it comes to romance, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to play games. A fun YA romcom full of fake dating hijinks!

Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she’s grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.

Riley can’t waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.

But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan’s Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn’t require as much acting as she would’ve thought…

This was a cute YA book! And I like the cover and this is one of the books where both the cover and the storyline are great!

Riley Morris gets grounded when she and her friend Hoshiko takes Riley’s mother’s car and drive all the way to Columbus to see a musical. Riley doesn’t have her driver’s license yet but fortunately she didn’t get stopped and didn’t get into an accident. As punishment, Riley must work at her father’s game store and not take part in any other activities. Riley is into musicals and her dream is to become a Broadway musical director. While working at the store, she meets Nathan who also goes to the same school. Nathan isn’t into musicals but he is into games and the two can’t stand each other. However, both Riley and Nathan needed help with each other–they decided to fake dating each other so they could make their respective crush in case of Riley ex-boyfriend jealous. Meanwhile, Riley is working hard to get her school approve a musical.

This was a cute read. I don’t know much about the game of D&D but by reading this book, I learned a lot about the game. I also like how the chemistry between Riley and Nathan developed throughout the story, how Riley eventually got new friends and supporters. Riley also started developing her relationship with her father as well. The book is well written, interesting and surprisingly unputdownable. Overall, I gave this book 4.5 stars.

Kristy Boyce lives in Columbus, OH and teaches psychology as a senior lecturer at The Ohio State University.

When she’s not spending time with her husband and son, she’s usually writing, reading, putting together fairy gardens, or watching happy reality TV (The Great British Bake-Off and So You Think You Can Dance are perennial favorites).

Kristy is the social media coordinator for Central and Southern Ohio SCBWI.

The Surf House – ARC Book Review

Title:- The Surf House

Author:- Lucy Clarke

Date published:- will be published on 27th February 2025

No. of pages:- 416 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5 Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4.5/5

WISH YOU WERE HERE? THINK AGAIN…

High on the wave-pounded cliffs, far from the bustling souks of Marrakech, sits The Surf House.

A hidden gem on Morocco’s shores, the house is a sanctuary for the surfers, travellers and dreamers who wash in.

But the idyll is built on something rotten.

And when Bea arrives, relieved to find refuge after a dangerous encounter in a Marrakech alleyway, she soon gets caught in the swell of a deep, dark mystery.

Because another young woman went missing one year ago – and the last place she was sighted was The Surf House.

Lucy Clark’s novels will literally take you around the world–in this latest book, the novel is based in a seaside town called Mallah in Morocco.

Bea is a model who is on an assignment in Morocco. However, she realizes that she was fed up being a model and decides to leave. While walking on the alleyway, she was confronted by two men who tried to steal from her. A woman saves her and while there is struggle, a man steals Bea’s backpack and runs away while Bea kills a man accidentally. The woman, who introduces herself as Marnie urges Bea to run with her and takes her to a place named Surf House where Marnie runs with her boyfriend Ped. Bea starts working in the Surf House while at the same time she has to bribe a local to stop telling the police about what happened in the alleyway. Then Bea realizes that a year ago, an American girl named Savannah seemingly disappeared without a trace and her brother Seth has come to find the truth about her disappearance.

This was an engaging thriller and quiet fast paced through. The descriptions of the places make you feel like you are actually in Morocco surfing. The way how Bea is looking for money to bribe off Momo was interesting and the fact that she is helping Seth to find answers to what happened to his sister is also interesting. The story divides between past and present where the past is about Savannah while the present deals with Bea. Towards the end, there was a huge twist that was completely unexpected.

Overall, I actually enjoyed reading this book and this book is one of Lucy Clark’s best. Worth 4.5 stars.

Sunday Times bestseller Lucy Clarke is the author of eight destination thrillers. They include Waterstones Thriller of the Month, The Castaways, Richard and Judy Book Club pick, One of the Girls, and most recently, The Hike. Lucy’s novels have sold over a million copies and are published in more than 25 territories worldwide.

Lucy’s thriller, No Escape (also published as The Blue) has been released as a major international show for Paramount+. Set in the Philippines, the seven-part series is directed by Hans Herbot (The Serpent) and stars Abigail Lawrie and Rhianne Barreto as best friends Lana and Kitty.

The Castaways has also been adapted for screen and was The Guardian Pick of the Week. BAFTA award-winner Sheridan Smith stars as Lori, and Celine Buckens plays her sister, Erin. The five-part thriller is available to stream on Paramount+.

When Lucy isn’t away on research trips (the real reason she loves being an author!), she can be found writing from a beach hut on the south coast of England. She lives with her husband and their two children.

Kim Ji Young Born 1982 – Book Review

Title:- Kim Ji Young Born 1982

Author:- Cho Nam Joo

Translated by:- Jamie Chung

Date published:- October 14th 2016 (original) Apri; 14th 2020 (Translated)

No. of pages:- 163 pages

Genre:- Feminism/Literary Fiction

Overall rating:- 5/5

A fierce international bestseller that launched Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.

Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person.

In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirtysomething-year-old “millennial everywoman,” she has recently left her white-collar desk job—in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time—as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women—alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, her discomfited husband sends her to a male psychiatrist.

In a chilling, eerily truncated third-person voice, Jiyoung’s entire life is recounted to the psychiatrist—a narrative infused with disparate elements of frustration, perseverance, and submission. Born in 1982 and given the most common name for Korean baby girls, Jiyoung quickly becomes the unfavored sister to her princeling little brother. Always, her behavior is policed by the male figures around her—from the elementary school teachers who enforce strict uniforms for girls, to the coworkers who install a hidden camera in the women’s restroom and post their photos online. In her father’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s fault that men harass her late at night; in her husband’s eyes, it is Jiyoung’s duty to forsake her career to take care of him and their child—to put them first.

Jiyoung’s painfully common life is juxtaposed against a backdrop of an advancing Korea, as it abandons “family planning” birth control policies and passes new legislation against gender discrimination. But can her doctor flawlessly, completely cure her, or even discover what truly ails her?

Kim Ji Young born 1982, follows the story of a woman named Kim Ji Young who faced many obstacles in her life, simply because she was a woman.

This is one of the most realistic stories I have read, even though it is a work of fiction. Sometimes being a woman in this society, even today can be tough. Men are perceived as breadwinners while women are expected to be a housewife and look after the children and expect to quit her job, whatever career she was in. The story outlined Kim Ji Young’s life–from childhood to adulthood. How her grandparents treat their grandsons way different from the way they treat their granddaughters. Even in schools, boys are favored over girls. The unfairness of gender inequality that still seem to linger around even in today’s society makes you feel angry, disappointed as a woman. Not to mention that women are considered as “weaker” sex compared to men.

I have read somewhere that the author has done research to prove that sexism still exist in South Korea. Especially around workplaces. So despite being a work of fiction, Kim Ji Young born 1982 is based on author’s personal experiences and the statistics of sexism in modern South Korea.

The book was short and can easily be finished quickly. I listened to the audiobook and I have always wanted to read this book for a while. I haven’t still watched the movie yet and I am curious to watch the movie now that I have read the book. Overall, I give this book a five star rating.

Cho Nam-joo is a former television scriptwriter. In the writing of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 she drew partly on her own experience as a woman who quit her job to stay at home after giving birth to a child.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is her third novel. It has had a profound impact on gender inequality and discrimination in Korean society, and has been translated into 18 languages.

Funny Story – Book Review

Title:- Funny Story

Author:- Emily Henry

Date published:- April 23rd 2024

No. of pages:- 400 pages

Genre:- Romance

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5 Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it… right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex… right?

Daphne got dumped by her fiancé Peter a few weeks before her wedding as he was in love with his childhood best friend Petra. Daphne moves out of the house and start living in the same apartment as Petra’s ex-boyfriend Miles Nowak. Daphne and Miles were both heartbroken. Soon, they both start fake dating when they got invitation to attend Peter’s and Petra’s wedding and while they were fake dating both Daphne and Miles get to know each other and soon, Daphne realizes that her true love might be Miles…

I usually read most of Emily Henry’s novels. My favorite Emily Henry’s book is Happy Place but I actually liked Funny Story. It was funny, humorous and also I like how the chemistry between Daphne and Miles developed throughout the story. Daphne also started making new friends, her co-worker Ashleigh and how Miles allow Daphne to experience things that Daphne has never experienced before. It was like you are watching a cute romantic story on TV and that is how I felt when reading Funny Story. Overall, I actually enjoyed reading this book and worth four stars.

The Baby Swap – ARC Book Review

Title:- The Baby Swap

Author:- Daniel Hurst

Date published:- 19th February 2025

No. of pages:- 310 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5 Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4.5/5

Someone stole my little boy. I’ll do whatever it takes to get him back…

Staring down at the sweet baby in my arms, I feel panic instead of love. Because this isn’t the child I gave birth to. My husband whispers to the midwife. They all think I’m going crazy. But the tiny boy in my arms is crying again. I’m he knows I’m not his mummy. And I’ll do whatever it takes to get my son back.

I did it. I swapped my baby with another newborn in the hospital. As I hold the child in my arms, I hear my own little boy start to cry on the other side of the curtain. My heart is shattering into a million pieces.

I know I had no choice. I didn’t want to do this. But no one can ever find out the reason why I swapped my baby. Because if anyone knew the truth, my life and my child’s life would be in danger…

Number 1 bestselling author Daniel Hurst is the master of fast-paced thrillers with twist after twist. The Baby Swap is an utterly addictive, page-turning read with a jaw-dropping ending for fans of T.M. Logan, Freida McFadden and B.A. Paris.

If you like reading Freida McFadden books, then check out Daniel Hurst’s books–equally mind blogging and will keep you awake all night!

Jade ad Avril are pregnant and enter into the same hospital to give birth. After giving birth, Jade on a whim decided to swap her own baby with Avril’s baby–an act of revenge she wanted against Avril for something that happened seven years ago. As they went to their respective houses, Avril feels that there is something wrong with her baby. While her husband Bobby dismisses that Avril might be suffering from post natal depression, Avril believes that her baby is actually not her own baby. Meanwhile Jade lived in fear that Avril might realize that she had swapped the babies.

This was a chilling thriller and quiet a page turner as well. The story is told in both Jade and Avril’s POV. The event that happened seven years ago is also told in Jade’s POV mostly. Avril is fearing about karma as she knows that she has done horrible things in the past and had hurt someone badly while Jude lived in fear that the police might come at the doorstep and arrest her for swapping the babies. I like how the author balanced the emotions of both the women in the story. The ending was quiet unpredictable and unexpected and I thought Avril deserved that ending. And of course, Jade may have flaws but I found myself sympathizing with her more than with Avril. Overall, this was a brilliant thriller written by Daniel Hurst and really enjoyed this thriller. Worth 4.5 stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Daniel Hurst is an Amazon #1 bestselling author of fast paced psychological thrillers. His most popular titles include Til Death Do Us Part, The Passenger and The Doctor’s Wife, the latter title reaching #1 on the Amazon UK Kindle store in February 2023. A regular KDP Select All Star since he became a full-time author in 2021, Daniel prides himself on writing fast, releasing stories often and engaging with his readers.

You can visit him at www.danielhurstbooks.com, where you can also download a copy of his FREE thriller ‘Just One Second