Mother May I
Joshilyn Jackson
William Morrow, April 2021
ISBN 978-0-06-285534-3
Hardcover
Bree Cabbat is happily married with a handsome and loving husband, Trey, who is a lawyer. She also has two teenage daughters, and a brand new baby boy, Robert. While helping out at the Private School her daughters attend where her eldest Anna-Claire is rehearsing for the upcoming adapted school version of the musical “Grease”, Bree sets baby Robert, asleep in his car seat, on the floor, at the rear of the Balcony.
It seems like only minutes later Bree’s nightmare begins. She glances behind her to check on her son, only to find the car seat empty. Robert has vanished. He’s been kidnapped. Left behind on the Balcony floor is a note telling Bree not to speak to anyone, but to go home immediately where she’ll be contacted.
At home she finds a small bag with a cell phone and a small package of pills, hanging on her front door. The cell phone rings and Bree answers. The woman on the other end of the phone tells Bree if she follows her instructions to the letter, and completes the task she sets, her son will be returned to her. The caller adds that someone will be watching her and reminds her that if she contacts the Police or her husband or anyone she’ll never see her baby again.
Bree has no option but to agree. The task, while a little unusual, seems harmless. What choice does she have? To her horror the result is heartbreaking and devastating, thrusting her into a minefield of guilt and pain.
It’s only been in the last year that I’ve been introduced to this author. I’ve read two other titles, Almost Sisters and Never Have I Ever. In each of her novels the characters are well drawn, strong, emotional and likeable people.
The reader is quickly pulled into Bree’s story. The welfare and safe return of her son is the driving force behind her actions, nothing else matters. But as the chilling reason behind the kidnapping is revealed her world is turned upside down.
This will be on my Top Ten books of 2021. Check it out… I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Respectfully submitted.
Reviewed by guest reviewer Moyra Tarling, May 2021.
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