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The Step Mother by Ros Carne published by Canelo Books.

 

 



After a series of miscarriages, Kate’s marriage is hanging by a thread. When her husband Michael reveals that the daughter he abandoned twenty years ago is coming to stay Kate is unsure who she feels about it.

Within hours of the news, Immy arrives - her new stepdaughter is beautiful but troubled and seems wary of her own father. All the same, Kate is pleased to find herself connecting with Imogen, until one day, Imogen reveals a disturbing secret to her stepmother, making her swear never to tell a soul.

With Kate already keeping secrets of her own, she worries her marriage will crumble under the weight of another. But perhaps it’s not Imogen’s intrusion Kate should be worried about. Perhaps it’s Michael’s past she should have been looking at all along…

 

I read The Pupil by the same author  and gave it a five star review, so I was really excited to start this one. The description marked it out as a Psychological Thriller, however I don’t think it was – it was a story of a family, albeit somewhat dysfunctional, each with their own secrets and how those secrets would later connect them together.  

I didn’t seem to gel with any of the characters, none of them seemed believable, or likable – except for Timba the family’s lovely dog.

This isn’t what I was expecting from the book, and even from the title, I assumed there would be some drama between Kate and Immy but it wasn’t anything like that, and in fact, that part of the family bond didn’t really factor in at all.

I found the beginning and middle of the book quite a slog, however towards the end, it really seemed to gather pace, and I was romping through it even staying up until late in the night to get to the end.

 

 

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