BOOK SYNOPSIS
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?
The chapters of this addictive, realistically plotted story of every parent's worst nightmare and the good and bad sides of human nature are written from the perspectives of three relatable females, Leslie, her step-daughter Shelby and a older lady called Ruth. It's a emotionally charged tale of a variety of parenting styles with a plot that covers a wide range of relatable issues and builds in speed and intensity as the story works its way towards its heart string pulling conclusion. Leslie's nightmare begins when she receives a call on her mobile from Shelby who had been babysitting Leslie's three year old daughter Millie informing her that the little girl had mysteriously disappeared. After Leslie had rushed home from town to the luxurious house that she shared with her millionaire husband Randall, she is shocked to discover that the front door is open and Millie is nowhere in the house. Randall is informed and returns home from the golf course and the police arrive at the house and introduce themselves as Constables Dickerson and Willows.As Shelby begins to recount the events leading up to her discovering that Millie was gone, Leslie is convinced that her step-daughter is lying. Is her suspicious mind justified or were Leslie's doubts due to her guilty conscious over her own secrets. Why did she insist on leaving little Millie with a child who was below the legal age for babysitting? Why was Leslie in town for longer than she had originally stated to Shelby? Although,as a parent myself, I did feel some empathy towards Leslie due to the fact that her young daughter was missing, I can't say that I initially thought she was a very likeable individual but I admit that my opinion of her had changed by the conclusion of the story. Shelby was a realistic twelve year old who had planned to meet up with her best friend from school Kiera and didn't want to spend her Saturday babysitting her little step-sister. Now Kiera had found herself caught in a nightmare world of suspicious adults whilst struggling with her feelings of guilt and regret and harbouring her own secrets. What had happened after Leslie had left the house? Was Shelby somehow involved in Millie's disappearance? Who was sending Shelby threatening text messages on her mobile phone? I thought that the author's characterisation of Ruth and her various issues were realistic and relatable and that her backstory was heart breaking and unfortunately all too believable and based in reality. Ruth was a fantastic character but how did this deeply traumatised individual fit into the story of little Millie's disappearance? Omg, wow.....just wow, there are not enough superlatives in the English dictionary to express how much I loved this incredible thriller. I was hooked into the story from the first page and found myself so captivated by the unfolding story that I was compelled to read the whole book in one sitting. The author takes the reader on a roller coaster ride with multiple twists and turns that culminates with a nail biting, seriously chilling epilogue. The story caused me to experience a wide range of conflicting emotions and even felt like I was close to tears at one point in the story which is something that doesn't happen to me very often. I think that Nicole Thrope has excelled her own very high standards of writing with this latest addition to her catalogue of emotionally charged stories. If I could I would award The Step Child far more than five stars. This is definitely one of my favourite reads of this year so far and very very highly recommended by little old me.
AUTHOR INFO
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
Buy links:
Amazon: https://geni.us/B09NNXBRYTsocial
Apple: http://ow.ly/Y64b50Hc3af
Kobo: http://ow.ly/eWLZ50Hc3aj
Google:http://ow.ly/LJju50Hc3ah
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