The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

Brenda’s review and rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Norma and I were lost in the sunny, grassy lush coulee with five of our Traveling Sisters reading The Perfect Mother and we really enjoyed our reading experience and discussion on this story.

The Perfect Mother is a fun, entertaining and engaging story with a bit of dark to it that had us feeling comfortable in our sunny, grassy coulee from any unsettling scenes from this story. We meet a group of Brooklyn new mothers all with their own secrets who meet regularly to support each other through their new experiences of motherhood.

Aimee Molloy creates some interesting characters here with the group of “May Mothers”. Each with a common bond but different from each other with their own personal conflicts related to motherhood. At times we did become confused and found it hard to keep them apart. On a Mom’s night out one of the “May Mother’s” baby is kidnapped and the friends come together to try and piece the mystery of the baby’s disappearance. At times we did feel that the story lacked some emotion that we needed to feel to connect with the grieving Mom, Winnie. We didn’t feel the pain Winnie felt for her missing child. We didn’t really feel we got to know her.

Aimee Molloy touches on some judgments of society here with what new Moms face. She does a good job layering a good mystery with the right amount of drama for us. However, the coulee we started in, wasn’t the one we ended up in as things did go a bit sideways for us. We weren’t quite satisfied with the way things wrapped up for us and for some of us that affected part of our enjoyment of this story. Overall we highly recommend this well-written story that has some real substance to the issues these interesting Moms face, making this a very interesting read.

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Norma’s Review

3 Stars! I wish I would have loved this one a little more!

This book was chosen to read as a Traveling Sisters Group Read and what originally attracted me to this book was the title and the cover – which is pretty much how I choose all my books to read!

THE PERFECT MOTHER by AIMEE MOLLOY is a steady-paced, insightful, character-driven, and a twisty psychological domestic thriller that is filled with interesting characters that I really appreciated.  The voices and dynamics of these women really rang true to me! At times I did find it hard to keep the characters straight and I had a hard time focusing on this story. Unfortunately, this did affect my enjoyment for the story and therefore lowered my overall rating.  

AIMEE MOLLOY delivers a well-written read here with an interesting and unique storyline told from multiple perspectives which focuses mainly on a group of women who stop at nothing as they come together to investigate the disappearance of Baby Midas.  The portrayal of these women and their angst was portrayed extremely well.

Overall, it was a mostly enjoyable, quick and easy read with an ending the totally took me by surprise.  Would recommend!

Thank you so much from both of us to Edelweiss, Aimee Molloy, and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review.

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Susanne’s Review

3.75 Stars.

In Brooklyn, a group of mothers to-be, all due in the month of May, coined “The May Mothers” start a meet-up, sharing stories and bonding over impending motherhood.  

Being the perfect mother seems unattainable and yet these mothers strive for it.  Receiving monthly emails about what to expect each month, exchanging messages with helpful suggestions, gaining support from each other whenever the need arises.

After their babies are a few months old, their bond deepens unexpectedly.  Frannie, Nell, Colette, Winnie & Token decide to take a “night off.” What starts out as an innocent night having drinks at a pub, ends with a bang when Winnie’s son, Midas, goes missing, disappearing from their home without a trace.  

Thereafter, the May Mothers come together, investigating.  What happened that night, in addition to investigating each other.  They can’t help it. They don’t really know each other that well, and yet, they desperately want to trust each other.  Yet, can they? Should they?

“The Perfect Mother” is told from several different perspectives, some of which are confusing at first.  Though it starts off a little slow, the novel picks up at the mid-way point and takes off so quickly that I couldn’t flip the pages fast enough.  The ending was quite the shocker – which frankly, I’m still not sure I get. I’m hoping it’ll come to me one of these days! “The Perfect Mother” is a slow burn, character-driven suspense novel that definitely kept my interest.  It was my book of the month pick and was a great choice.

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Kaceey’s Review

Oh my! Now that was one twisty read!!

The May Mothers – A group of new moms form a casual friendship, getting together to share their experiences and support one another. After all, they’re new parents…with lots of questions.

When the ladies plan an evening out without their babies in tow, no one could imagine the consequences of that innocent rendezvous.

There is a definite rhythm to this book, though it took me nearly half-way in to find the pace. I struggled a bit keeping a few of the characters apart. But once rolling, it flowed smoothly and I couldn’t put it down!

Told from multiple POV from those in the mommy’s group. Each with a story to tell and, maybe even a past to keep hidden. Here’s the challenge – you may think you have this one down. You may think you have it all figured out. HA! Are you in for a big surprise!

If you like domestic thrillers then don’t pass this one up!