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A review by hayleybeale
The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski
2.0
2.5 stars rounded down
A decent enough mystery/thriller set in the tony suburb of Ivy Wood among a group of upper middle class women.
Theresa has always longed to belong with the popular girls and now she’s finally getting the chance. Married to the newly appointed principal for Ivy Wood High, she, her teen daughter Lily, and her husband have moved into the prestigious Ivy Wood Drive. Run by Queen Bee Kendra, and the rest of the Ivy Five (though, mystery alert! there’s only four of them), their big event is the Halloween party and Theresa has been invited to join them.
As well as Theresa’s and Kendra’s narration, there’s a mysterious third voice promising to bring death to this year's Halloween party. It seems to be connected to an urban legend about Ghost Girl, a young woman said to be dressed in a bridal gown who throws herself off a railway bridge, which is maybe than just a legend (which anyone could find out with 2 minutes on Google but apparently nobody does that sort of thing in Ivy Wood).
As the title suggests, this is all about the mothers; they are the main draw here, followed by the teens, and then the men run a very distant, wholly one-dimensional third. However, other than Theresa and Kendra, the Ivy Five don’t really come alive. It’s all a bit overwrought and yes, they all have secrets, yes someone is threatening to expose those secrets, and yes there’s plenty of schadenfreude-fueled folks who could be that threat. In the end though, it’s nothing very exceptional and no-one really gets their comeuppance or suffers.
Thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for the digital review copy.
A decent enough mystery/thriller set in the tony suburb of Ivy Wood among a group of upper middle class women.
Theresa has always longed to belong with the popular girls and now she’s finally getting the chance. Married to the newly appointed principal for Ivy Wood High, she, her teen daughter Lily, and her husband have moved into the prestigious Ivy Wood Drive. Run by Queen Bee Kendra, and the rest of the Ivy Five (though, mystery alert! there’s only four of them), their big event is the Halloween party and Theresa has been invited to join them.
As well as Theresa’s and Kendra’s narration, there’s a mysterious third voice promising to bring death to this year's Halloween party. It seems to be connected to an urban legend about Ghost Girl, a young woman said to be dressed in a bridal gown who throws herself off a railway bridge, which is maybe than just a legend (which anyone could find out with 2 minutes on Google but apparently nobody does that sort of thing in Ivy Wood).
As the title suggests, this is all about the mothers; they are the main draw here, followed by the teens, and then the men run a very distant, wholly one-dimensional third. However, other than Theresa and Kendra, the Ivy Five don’t really come alive. It’s all a bit overwrought and yes, they all have secrets, yes someone is threatening to expose those secrets, and yes there’s plenty of schadenfreude-fueled folks who could be that threat. In the end though, it’s nothing very exceptional and no-one really gets their comeuppance or suffers.
Thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for the digital review copy.