Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson is a Breezy Afternoons Good Read Book List 2021 recommendation – for good reason!
This is the first year I’ve done the Breezy Afternoons Good Reads Book List – a list of upcoming book releases that I am looking forward to for the year 2021. I’m getting to them as fast as I can – right now I’m actually ghostwriting a book and most of my time is wrapped up in that. This weekend I downloaded Mother May I from the Libby App using my library card and started to read. TL;DR: Four stars, read it ASAP.
Mother May I begins with a new mom waking in the night and imagining that she sees a witch at the window. She jokes about it with her husband, but the laughing stops when her infant son, Robert, is kidnapped. Let me start the review as a mom who has trouble reading books with children who are harmed or in danger: Joshilyn Jackson portrays the kidnapping in a way that encompasses the terror the mother feels without superlative horror and imagery. In other words, Jackson finds a way to make a book about a child kidnapping not overwhelming for parents to read.
Perhaps it is because there is a ransom note, threatening that the mother needs to immediately go home if they want to see the child again. As a mother, I can exhale and think, “Oh, ok. The child is alive. I can work with this.” It is almost the same attitude the mother, Bree, holds, as she tries to put on a facade of calm and normalcy as she arranges child care for her two older daughters while rushing back to the house to find out what has happened to her son.
There are two love interests in the book – Bree is in love with her husband, Trey. He seems like a great guy, he is very wealthy. He left his first wife because she did not want a family, and has happily built a family with Bree. They have a good marriage. Her other love interest is Marshall. Marshall is her late best friend’s widower, and they’ve known each other their entire lives. As such, they have a lasting bond. He is secretly in love with her, and becomes involved in helping her and Trey get their son back.
As Bree carries out the instructions given to her by the kidnapper, she starts to dig deep to figure out why she is being targeted. Her husband, Trey, has some darkness in his past, and someone is seeking revenge. Marshall, Trey and Bree work together to bring Robert home – like any good ending, it isn’t exactly a happy one. No spoilers here – let me just tell you that this book does not have a lot of major turns and twists and surprises, but it is a page turner and you will read to the end to see what happens and the end is satisfying, if not happily tied up with a cute little bow.
I recommend that you check this book out from the library or download to the kindle the next time you’re in the mood for an interesting suspense thriller. 4/5 stars.
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