So, here's a single review to keep you in the loop until I stop reading long enough to write :)
- The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
Since I had, admittedly enjoyed Big Little Lies (book...haven't seen the show), I was intrigued by this one and scooped it up from the publisher in exchange for this honest review.
The May Mothers met online while expecting and had a number of gatherings both before and after their spring babies arrived. They decide that it is time for a baby-free frolic and gather for some fun at a bar. It is during this time that the unimaginable occurs and one baby vanishes from his crib. Both that story and the more general look at motherhood unfolds through the vantage point of a small subgroup of ladies who connect despite having quite different lives. And the reader peers in at different moments in the search for the missing child.
This is both a thriller and a look at motherhood today (for the record, I'm not a mom so can't fully gauge the authenticity here). While the former is the headline plot (yes, I did just make that description up)...and I didn't see the ending coming there...it was the latter that kept me reading. From negotiating the working mom role to dealing with a harder baby and experiencing more than a little emotional turmoil, the different stories of the revolving narrators (a device that risks being overdone but also allows a writer to venture down several paths without making one character take too twisty a road) made me enjoy picking up this one.
Call it a beach read or something of that sort...not a hard read by any means and not in the "literary fiction" arena... and take it as that. 3.5 to 4 stars.
