The Stay-at-Home Mother: A completely addictive psychological thriller packed with jaw-dropping twists

Product Information

I was hungry,’ he says, his big, deep blue eyes the picture of innocence. He has perfected the same ‘who me?’ look his father gives her. He shares Terry’s light blue eyes and chestnut brown hair, so different to her own plain brown eyes and dead-straight mousey brown hair. In the bar where she met him, at a birthday celebration for one of the women she worked with at the online homewares company, she had turned to look at him only because so many of the other women in her group were looking. Terry is really handsome, and when he smiles and the dimple in his cheek appears, Andrea has a hard time staying angry at him. I read this book in one sitting… Absolutely gripping all the way through and so many twists that I felt like I had whiplash.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Her chest tightens, her heart speeding up. The kitchen is chaos. She steps on something hard, and looks down. Toy dinosaurs are scattered everywhere. But her son is nowhere – her baby boy is gone. No storage space and no light,’ she mutters. ‘Right.’ Andrea roughly shoves a bunch of mismatched brown and cream towels into the cupboard. She needs a cup of tea and some chocolate.

We have Andrea, heavily pregnant and already a mother of an active three-year-old boy. Money issues caused by her secretive husband have resulted in them in heavily in debt and moving to a run-down house in a new neighbourhood. Andrea seems both physically and emotionally exhausted. She is befriended by a neighbour from a lovely home who writes an advice column for mothers with many appreciative followers.If you read one book on your life, make sure it is this!!!! I would love to see this turned into a movie and Nicole I really hope you are working on your next psychological thriller at this moment because this book will go far!!! A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS on what promises to be a MASSIVE success!!! This fast paced book kept me on my toes. Yes, there is some predictability but the twists really surprised me. It was a fun and entertaining read. She’s tried self-tanning creams and real tanning by exposing herself to harsh summer sun and all that happens is she turns orange or burns bright red, so she’s had to accept her skin. And she’s tried forcing herself to show her teeth for photographs, but she always feels like she looks ridiculous. ‘You’re beautiful. Don’t worry about what other people say,’ Richard tells her – or he used to tell her. Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Stay-at-Home Mother is a story of a struggling mother (Andrea) who has moved recently and is expecting her second child. Her neighbor from across the street (Gabby) who has a teenage boy is helping her with looking after her little son but one day when Andrea wakes up she finds Gabby’s house messy and her little son is nowhere…Best thriller I’ve heard in 2021. Utterly absorbing and gripping. A truly brilliantly written book. I love how Trope explored a number of issues, dealing with them sensitively, which I won't list here as it could be deemed a spoiler. But as with all her books she takes topics that are relative to many and weaves her story around them while doing so with sensitivity. We have more than most people do,’ Terry said last night and she wanted to agree with him because everything will be easier if she can just convince herself of this. But she is struggling, especially when she looks at the grocery bill after a big shop or reads about electricity prices going up or glances around the house she now lives in. At least my home isn’t flooded,’ she says aloud, reminding herself to count her blessings, as her grandmother always told her to do. There is always someone whose struggles are greater than yours. Gratitude is the way to get through every day. Just when you think you have the plot twist figured out, here comes another plot twist and then another plot twist… Fantastic… I would give this more than five stars if I could! It was highly addicting and hard to put down.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because-as her professor pointed out- ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’ She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree in Children’s Literature. After the birth of her first child she stayed home full time to write and raise children, renovate houses and build a business with her husband. She has a child and another on the way, and Terry is the breadwinner in the family. She couldn’t leave even if she wanted to. I don’t want to leave. I love Terry. I love or loved the life we created together. Terry is a charmer. A man with the widest smile and the loudest laugh. He’s funny and sweet and no one can make her laugh like he can. Her chest tightens, her heart speeding up. The kitchen is chaos. She steps on something hard, and looks down. Toy dinosaurs are scattered everywhere. But her son is nowhere - her baby boy is gone. The police arrive. She can't look at her husband, she studies the network of lines on her shaking hands. Then her phone beeps with a voice message. "Listen to it on speaker" says the detective. A woman's voice fills the air.... This book is fantastically written with vivid descriptions that absolutely grip the readers attention and puts them right in the middle of it all feeling the hairs raise on their arms and feeling their heart pounding with Andrea's. This title, cover and synopsis suited it perfectly along with the cover and synopsis. I really did like the story and the character development was done well. The problem was with pacing. It was slow. Even though the story was intriguing when the twist came which was great I wasn’t blown away which is unfortunate because it’s a great twist.This book is written in third person perspective and the protagonists are Andrea and Gabby. 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. One day the unthinkable happens. “Flynn” is gone. Pouf! Gabby asks for help, financially, as her son has taken off abroad. I don’t exactly love you either,’ Andrea mutters, and then laughs at herself for talking to an inanimate object. The Stay-at-Home Mother kept me on my toes and pulled the rug out from under me. Just when I thought I knew what was going on, I was fooled! In an ideal world, Terry should be making more than enough from his job in a large electronics store, where all the salespeople work on commission and the sales are very large. But this is not an ideal world. It’s not like she can go out and get a job right now, so there is little she can do about the situation. She is tied to Terry and Terry’s problems.