The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth

Someone once told me that you have two families in your life – the one you are born into and the one you choose. Yes, you may get to choose your partner, but you don’t choose your mother-in-law. The cackling mercenaries of fate determine it all.

From the moment Lucy met Diana, she was kept at arm’s length. Diana is exquisitely polite, but Lucy knows, even after marrying Oliver, that they’ll never have the closeness she’d been hoping for.

But who could fault Diana? She was a pillar of the community, an advocate for social justice, the matriarch of a loving family. Lucy had wanted so much to please her new mother-in-law.

That was ten years ago. Now, Diana has been found dead, leaving a suicide note. But the autopsy reveals evidence of suffocation. And everyone in the family is hiding something…

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Available tomorrow – April 23, 2019!

I am so in love with Sally Hepworth’s novels! I am also really excited that she is getting more and more into the mystery genre!

The Mother-in-Law goes into the complex relationship between mothers in law and daughter in laws. The daughter in law may go over the top to try to impress their mother in law, and the mother in law isn’t overly welcoming to their daughter in law.

This is the case with Lucy and Diana. Lucy works extra hard because she lost her mother at a young age. Diana has a different way of expressing her love and it’s comes with a lot of mixed feelings. I loved how the novel flips back and forth between Lucy and Diana and shows each of their perspectives of their relationship over the past 10 years.

And then there was the mystery. Current day, Diana is found dead. It first looks like suicide, but later on, it’s discovered that she was murdered. I loved the mystery and was totally surprised by the ending. It was shocking!

5 calculators out of a potential 5. One of my favourite reads so far this year! Great characters that show a different relationship and an unexpected ending! Also I’m happy to say that I am 1 for 1 at predicting my 5 calendar reads (Top 5 Books I Predict will be 5 Stars)!

Thank you to Netgallery and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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