Author: Joshilyn Jackson
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: April 2021
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Buy the Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: 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?
My Thoughts: 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.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Mother May I from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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