Author: Karen King
Book: The Perfect Stepmother
Publication Day: June 17th 2021
Rated: 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
Description:
She seems too good to be true. And now she lives in your home…
Lily wants to be happy for her father when he tells her he’s getting married again. Even if it feels too soon after the death of Lily’s mother.
He’s madly in love with Maria. And he thinks she’s going to the perfect stepmother to Lily’s much-younger sister, Emma. And perhaps he’s right. Because no one seems to have a bad word to say about Maria.
It’s only Lily who can’t trust her. Who thinks no one is that perfect. Who notices no one had ever heard of Maria until exactly ten years before.
And then Emma goes missing…
A totally gripping and unmissable psychological suspense novel about dark family secrets, perfect for fans of Shalini Boland, Claire McGowan and Gone Girl.
BLOG TOUR REVIEW
Review for 'The Perfect Stepmother' by Karen King.
Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Karen King, Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous
Publication date 17th June 2021.
This is the second book I have read by this author. I have previously read Karen's 'The Stranger In My Bed' which I would also recommend reading.
I was originally drawn to this book by its interesting eye catching cover and its intriguing synopsis and title. The synopsis stated that this book is 'Perfect for fans of Shalini Boland, Claire McGowan and Gone Girl.' I am a huge fan of Shalini and 'Gone Girl' so am looking forward to seeing if this lives up to this statement. I am also a fan of Karen and if this is as good as 'The Stranger In My Bed' it is sure to be a gorgeous read. I must admit I was also biased due to the publisher being Bookouture. I have yet to read a book published by Bookouture that I haven't enjoyed. Hopefully this won't be the first... Watch this space! (Written before I started reading the book).
This novel consists of a prologue, 62 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are short to medium in length so possible to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!
This book is based in England 🏴, UK 🇬🇧. The bonus for me of books that are partly or fully based in the UK is that I live in the UK and have sometimes visited places mentioned in the book which makes it easier to picture. I have actually visited and had holidays on England on several occasions so am looking forward to seeing if I recognise anywhere that Kennedy has based the book on.
This book is written in third person perspective and the main protagonists are Lily and Maria. The benefits of third person perspective with multiple protagonists are that it let's you see the bigger picture of what's going on and you get to know more characters more, what they are thinking and what they are doing. It feels like you get to see the whole picture and not miss out in anything.
Wow!!! Well fair play the first thing I must say is congratulations to Karen King on another HUGE success!! Absolutely fantastic!! I never did work out who had did what and that is quite a feat considering it is quite hard to shock me now thay I have read so many suspense and thrillers yet I never did see that coming!! Anyway on with my review....
As you can tell from the above I loved it!!! This book is very well and smoothly written it just drags you straight into the storyline and keeps you in there under you have finished. A true page turner this book has an absolutely compelling and addictive storyline that kept me guessing throughout. I was continuously questioning who did what and who the victim was. I loved the ending and thought it fitted perfectly. The storyline is realistic and believable making it easy to picture what is going on. I enjoyed that we got to see from both perspectives and see what was going through each person's heads. Great descriptions throughout the book really putting the reader in the story and getting a good feel of what is going on.
The characters were very realistic and well rounded and again their personalities reflected the storyline and how they would act, etc perfectly. The narration gave a really good in depth view of both Lily and Maria. It is very thought provoking and makes the reader question what they would do in that situation. I really felt sorry for a certain character when I found out what was going on and what had happened. However I can't say too much due to not wanting to give anything away. Needless to say I really seemed to click with both of the main characters at certain times while deflecting from them at others.
I am looking forward to reading more psychological thrillers by this very talented author. Going from romances to psychological thrillers cannot have been an easy feat but you absolutely smashed it!!
Overall a page turning addictive psychological thriller that will have your heart racing.
Genres covered in this novel include Thriller, Noir Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Domestic Fiction and Psychological Fiction amongst others.
I would recommend this book to the fans of the above as well as fans of 'Gone Girl', Shari Lapena, Sheryl Browne and Sam Hepburn.
299 pages.
This book is just £1.99 to purchase on kindle via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!
Rated 5 /5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.
Feel free to add me on Goodreads or follow me on my website or Facebook for more reviews
@KarenKing @Bookouture @Bookworm1986 @bookworm86
Author Bio:
Karen King is a multi-published bestselling author of fiction for both adults and children. She has also written several short stories for women's magazines.
Currently published by Bookouture and Headline. Karen has recently signed a two-book deal with Bookouture to write psychological thrillers. The first one will be out in November, and the second one in 2021. She is also contracted to write three romance novels for Headline, which will be out in 2021 and 2022
Author Social Media Links
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/KarenKingAuthor
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/karen_king
Buy LINK
Amazon: https://geni.us/B091PZ721Lcover
Apple: http://ow.ly/UKqo50EhofD
Kobo: http://ow.ly/Hw5j50EhocH
Google: http://ow.ly/At6650EipNz
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