The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

They call themselves the May Mothers—a collection of new moms who gave birth in the same month. Twice a week, with strollers in tow, they get together in Prospect Park, seeking refuge from the isolation of new motherhood; sharing the fears, joys, and anxieties of their new child-centered lives.

When the group’s members agree to meet for drinks at a hip local bar, they have in mind a casual evening of fun, a brief break from their daily routine. But on this sultry Fourth of July night during the hottest summer in Brooklyn’s history, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is abducted from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but the May Mothers insisted that everything would be fine. Now Midas is missing, the police are asking disturbing questions, and Winnie’s very private life has become fodder for a ravenous media.

Though none of the other members in the group are close to the reserved Winnie, three of them will go to increasingly risky lengths to help her find her son. And as the police bungle the investigation and the media begin to scrutinize the mothers in the days that follow, damaging secrets are exposed, marriages are tested, and friendships are formed and fractured.

π π π π

The Perfect Mother is arguably one of the hottest spring reads. Goodreads is full of 4 and 5 star with glowing reviews. Sadly, I’m not one of those. I liked the book, but it didn’t blow me away.

The first half of the book starts off slow. You begin to meet the May Mothers (women who gave birth in May) and it leads into a night that none of them will forget where one of their newborns gets kidnapped. The book goes into detail about 4 mothers – Winnie, Frannie, Nell and Colette – and to be honest I couldn’t tell the last 3 mothers apart at all. I struggled to find a different voice for each character and their basic details (baby, husband, job) ended up getting blurred together.

Around the 3/4 mark, is where it started to pick up pace and I really enjoyed the second half of the book. Unfortunately it took way too long to get to that point.

3 calculators out of a potential 5. 2 calculators for the first half and 4 calculators for the second half to give an average of 3! A bit of an disappointment after all of the hype, but still an enjoyable read!

Let’s be friends! Goodreads & Instagram