The Mother-in-Law

Families – there is the one you are born into, the one you marry into and the one you choose.

When Lucy marries Ollie, she desperately wants to be accepted into his family, especially by his Mother Diana, as Lucy lost her mother at an early age. But from day one, Diana appears reserved and distant. The rest of Ollie’s family embraces Lucy but Lucy feels that she just can’t do anything right in Diana’s eyes. Lucy is a lively woman who chooses to stay home with her children and is doing the best she can to be a good mother, wife and daughter in law.

Diana was basically disowned by her parents during her later teenage years for choices she made and was taken in by her Aunt. She eventually meets her husband Tom and her life changes for the better. With Tom, Diana raised two children: Ollie and Nettie. Diana often must play the bad cop in her family yet has a generous and giving nature with the refugees she helps.

I don’t want to say any more about the plot and encourage fellow readers to go in knowing as little as you can about the plot. This book pleasantly surprised me. I have been a fan of Hepworth since reading her first book and this book lived up to my expectations of her writing. I loved how she gave us the inner thoughts of each of the two main women – Lucy and Diana. I also appreciated how she showed each’s intentions and how often intentions can be misread, or someone might have difficulty fully articulating his/her motives/thoughts/emotions to another person effectively, thus causing others to make inaccurate assumptions about that individual. It’s what you say, how you say it and sometimes the things you don’t get the chance to say, choose not to say or don’t say. Relationships are tricky things. In fact, relationships can be messy. Worry about overstepping, worry about not being liked, worry about not teaching your children the skills to live, worry about being over bearing, worry about not being involved…ah…all the worries.

Diana and Lucy are not the only characters with relationship issues in this book. There are quite a few things going on in the relationships of others in this book as well. These subplots with are a part of the larger plot are just as important and show issues which can occur in marriages, with co-workers and with people we interact with in our personal lives.

I found this book to be a fast read which did not disappoint. I enjoyed how the Mother in law/daughter in law complicated relationship unfolded. How each tired with the other in her own way. It was refreshing to read both of their POV sections to see how they interpreted situations and often misinterpret each other intentions.

But this book is also not all about relationships, it is also about what happened to Diana. There is a mystery here. Was her death a suicide? Was she murdered? Who knows? One must read to find out!

I found this book to be thought provoking and captivating. It was a fast read which did not disappoint this reader.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Sally Hepworth and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.