🎧 Book review: Her First Child by Sheryl Browne

Genre ~ psychological thriller

Featuring ~ dual timeline, family drama, childhood bullying, controlling husband, abusive husband, infidelity, secrets a plenty, suspense

POV ~ multiple 3rd person

Release date ~ December 8, 2022

Page count ~ 369

Audio length ~ 9 hours 24 minutes

My rating ~ 4⭐

My review:

Our narrators are ~ Eve, Lydia and Chloe.

Eve and Dom have a baby, Kai, in our present timeline.
Lydia and David are Eve’s parents in the past timeline. There are some on page scenes of domestic violence by David.
Chloe has been Eve’s best friend since childhood and she’s married to Steve. Chloe wasn’t a great friend and wasn’t always nice to Eve.

Despite all the unlikable characters, infidelity, secrets, lies and cover ups, I liked this one. The dual timeline allows for everything to slowly unfold to keep up the suspense. As I said the characters were all unlikable, with Chloe being the cream of the crop for awfulness.

Narrated by Tamsin Kennard for 9 hours and 25 minutes, easy to follow at 2x. She did a fine job, but I do wish for multiple narrators when there are multiple POV’s, since she didn’t even try to differ her voice between the women. She did give a go at male voices and that was fine.

*Thanks to Sheryl Browne, Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for the advance audiobook. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*

Book blurb:

A perfect mother. A loving daughter. A secret that could destroy them both.

New mother Eve is overwhelmed with love for her baby son, Kai. As she swaddles him in a fluffy white blanket, she shudders at a memory of her own childhood. She hasn’t seen her heartless mother Lydia in years, and she hasn’t told a soul about what really happened the night her baby brother died in the squalid little house she grew up in…

When the phone rings in the dead of night, Eve’s heart pounds as she hears the voice at the other end. ‘Hello Mother’, she replies, an ice-cold chill creeping down her spine. She grips her son’s tiny frame close to her trembling chest as she reluctantly agrees to let her mother visit.

But when Eve has to make an emergency call from Kai’s bedroom early one morning, she curses herself for allowing her mother back into her perfect little family.

‘Kai was fine when I checked on him a few hours ago.’ Her mother says, breathlessly as she watches her daughter’s face change from fear to rage.

Why was Lydia in Kai’s bedroom during the night? And as Lydia pleads her innocence, could it be that she’s not the most dangerous mother in this family?

Fans of The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl and The Wife, will absolutely love this gripping and addictive thriller. Her First Child will have you hooked from the very first page!

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