The Stats
📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚
BOOK: Mother May I
AUTHOR: Joshilyn Jackson @joshilyn_jackson
Publisher: William Morrow @williammorrowbooks
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Published: April 6, 2021
The Review
✨ The Title/Cover Draw:
- I had heard a lot about Joshilyn Jackson’s thrillers, but had never read anything by her. When the opportunity came up to read it from #Netgalley , I was very excited.
💜 What I liked:
- The book moved swiftly. You really felt for the main character being caught in this situation, especially when you find out why. It is kind of terrifying because this is the type of situation that could happen every day to anyone. You are pushed right into the situation and living it with these characters.
😱 What I didn’t like:
- While I felt for these characters, I didn’t particularly feel invested in any of them except maybe Bree, the main character. Additionally the ending was mixed for me. See below for that. However, I will definitely be reading more Joshilyn Jackson in the future.
💁♀️ The Characters:
- Bree and Tre’s son Robert is kidnapped. Marshall is the investigator from Bree’s past who is on the case.
🚦 The Ending:
- I think I expected more twists for the ending. That’s not to say there weren’t twists, but I expected more. Every chapter I was waiting for it to drop and it only slightly did. I am not sure if it is because I have read so many thrillers already.
💬 The Narrator:
- The audiobook is narrated by Joshilyn Jackson herself! It was pretty great as all the nuances were there. She also was very clear and easy to understand.
💭 Consider if you like:
- Domestic thrillers that hit a little too close to home.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Received from Netgalley.
📘 Summary:
Revenge doesn’t wait for permission.
Growing up poor in rural Georgia, Bree Cabbat was warned by her single mother that the world was a dark and scary place. Bree rejected her mother’s fearful outlook, and life has proved her right. Having married into a family with wealth, power, and connections, Bree now has all a woman could ever dream of: a loving lawyer husband, two talented teenage daughters, a new baby boy, a gorgeous home, and every opportunity in the world.
Until the day she awakens and sees a witch peering into her bedroom window—an old gray-haired woman dressed all in black who vanishes as quickly as she appears. It must be a play of the early morning light or the remnant of a waking dream, Bree tells herself, shaking off the bad feeling that overcomes her.
Later that day though, she spies the old woman again, in the parking lot of her daughters’ private school . . . just minutes before Bree’s infant son, asleep in his car seat only a few feet away, vanishes. It happened so quickly—Bree looked away only for a second. There is a note left in his place, warning her that she is being is being watched; if she wants her baby back, she must not call the police or deviate in any way from the instructions that will follow.
The mysterious woman makes contact, and Bree learns she, too, is a mother. Why would another mother do this? What does she want? And why has she targeted Bree? Of course Bree will pay anything, do anything. It’s her child.
To get her baby back, Bree must complete one small—but critical—task. It seems harmless enough, but her action comes with a devastating price, making her complicit in a tangled web of tragedy and shocking secrets that could destroy everything she loves. It is the beginning of an odyssey that will lead Bree to dangerous places, explosive confrontations, and chilling truths.
Bree will do whatever it takes to protect her family—but what if the cost tears their world apart?