BLOG TOUR - The Stepchild

DESCRIPTION:

Three-year-old Millie Everleigh disappears on a crisp winter’s day, and nothing is as it seems…

It’s the phone call every mother dreads.

I’m climbing into the car after a trip to the grocery store. As the engine starts, my phone rings. It’s my stepdaughter, Shelby, who is babysitting my three-year-old little girl Millie.

‘I only went upstairs for a second,’ she says through her sobs. ‘She’s gone.’

I race home to find my blue-eyed baby girl missing, and my heart ripped out of my chest.

When the police turn up, Shelby’s story starts to unravel. What is she hiding?

Then I get a message saying, ‘Your husband is not who you think he is.’ Could he be lying?

Suddenly, my family feel like strangers. Everyone has a secret – even me.

No one knows why I was late coming back from the store, and the guilt I’ve been feeling ever since…

Once the truth comes out, all of our lies exposed, will it be too late to save my precious child?

A pulse-pounding psychological thriller about family secrets, shocking pasts and the lies we tell ourselves in order to survive. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Liane Moriarty and The Wife Between Us.

BUY LINKS:

Amazon: https://geni.us/B09NNXBRYTsocial

Apple: http://ow.ly/Y64b50Hc3af

Kobo: http://ow.ly/eWLZ50Hc3aj

Google:http://ow.ly/LJju50Hc3ah

MY THOUGHTS:

 

Title:   The Stepchild

Author:  Nicole Trope

Publisher:  Bookouture 

Genre:   Psychological Thriller 

Format:  Kindle ARC 

No. of Pages:   252

Date of Publication:   March 15, 2022

My Rating:   5 Stars

Twelve-year-old  Shelby is watching her three-year-old sister Millie and when her stepmother Leslie arrives home, Shelby devastatingly tells her that Millie s missing. Quite naturally, Leslie is in a panic. Any mother would be.

What happened to Millie and what does Shelby and even Leslie have to hide when it comes to such a sad situation Then there is Ruth. She is not connected to the family in any way, but she see something that shocks her to her very core and she struggles to find a way to deal with what she saw. This brings a very troubled past right before her. Somehow, she is certain that her past is connected to the disappearance of the little girl.

Throughout this sensitive story, we have three points of view. We have Shelby and what she was experiencing and the secret that she had. Then we have Leslie, a mother whose possibly bad decision might have something to do with Millie’s disappearance. Lastly, we have Ruth. with her utterly sad story.  

There is no way that I can continue with this review without issuing a trigger warning regarding childhood sexual abuse. As a victim of said abuse, I really struggled with these passages. While hoping that Millie would be returned home safe, this content seemed unlikely to be resolved in the pages of this book. This compelling story was delivered with excellent pacing and incredibly dramatic scenes while resulting in a riveting conclusion. 

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Feel free to enjoy the YouTube video review of this title.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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.

The idea for her first published novel, The Boy under the Table, was so scary that it took a year for her to find the courage to write the emotional story. She went on to publish a further five novels in Australia before joining Bookouture in 2019. She is a USA Today and Amazon bestseller in the USA, UK, AUS and CAN.

She lives in Sydney with her husband and three children.

 

Author social media

 Facebook: @NicoleTrope

Twitter: @nicoletrope