In suspense with Mother May I

Season’s Greetings! I hope that your Christmas went well and you had some quiet time to read a few books. Or maybe you have some quiet time now that all of the festivities are (sort of) over and have a chance to squeeze some reading in. If you are looking for some books set around Christmas time, check out last week’s blog post Curl up with a Christmas book.

Keep an eye on my social media this week for special Boxing Day sales!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.

Looking over what I have read recently, I have picked out Mother May I, by Joshilyn Jackson. This book will require you to suspend disbelief to a certain degree. I had a hard time believing that someone would behave the way that the protagonist mother did in this book, but if you can get past that, there are plenty of chills and thrills in this one.

Just what would you be willing to do if your child was abducted? How far would you be willing to go to get him back?

I did see that the story would need to end the way it did, but wasn’t quite sure how the author was going to handle it. I’m glad she wound it up the way that she did. No spoilers here, you’ll have to read it yourself, then I think you will know what I mean!

I knew because when I was growing up, my mother called the police on the regular. She lived convinced that my father might come back, even after he’d gone to prison. Even after he was dead.

Joshilyn Jackson, Mother May I

Revenge doesn’t wait for permission.

Growing up poor in rural Georgia, Bree Cabbat was warned that the world was a dark and scary place. Bree rejected that fearful outlook, and life has proved her right. Having married into a family with wealth, power, and connections, Bree now has all a woman could ever dream of.

Until the day she awakens and sees someone peering into her bedroom window—an old gray-haired woman dressed all in black who vanishes as quickly as she appears. It must be a play of the early morning light or the remnant of a waking dream, Bree tells herself, shaking off the bad feeling that overcomes her.

Later that day though, she spies the old woman again, in the parking lot of her daugh­ters’ private school . . . just minutes before Bree’s infant son, asleep in his car seat only a few feet away, vanishes. It happened so quickly—Bree looked away only for a second. There is a note left in his place, warning her that she is being is being watched; if she wants her baby back, she must not call the police or deviate in any way from the instructions that will follow.

The mysterious woman makes contact, and Bree learns she, too, is a mother. Why would another mother do this? What does she want? And why has she targeted Bree? Of course Bree will pay anything, do anything. It’s her child.

To get her baby back, Bree must complete one small—but critical—task. It seems harmless enough, but her action comes with a devastating price. 

Bree will do whatever it takes to protect her family—but what if the cost tears their world apart?

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