My Darling Daughter by JP Delaney

I was super lucky to get an advanced copy of the latest book from JP Delaney – one of my favourite authors. And this book did not disappoint – it’s a page turner!

Here’s what it’s about (don’t worry – no spoilers)

A couple who are trying to have baby after several miscarriages suddenly receive a message out of the blue from the daughter that they gave up for adoption many moons ago, saying she is desperately unhappy.

They arrange to meet and the daughter, Sky, tells her biological mother, Susie, about how her adoptive parents have been treating her. And it’s shocking. Susie wants nothing more than to come to her aid and be the mother she wants to be.

But when Sky later comes to Susie’s home her adoptive parents aren’t the least bit pleased and send the police to the door with an official order stating there’s to be no contact between Sky and Susie and Susie’s partner Gabe.

The order soon gets violated and things really start to escalate. And boy do they continue to escalate! (That’s an understatement by the way!)

Police involvement continues. There are all kinds of accusations made, there are multiple accounts of blackmail, there’s some downright Machiavellian plotting, and it’s hard to read the characters and understand the daughter’s nature and motives.

But what I really love about this book, as with all JP Delaney books, is the novelty value and the unique nature of the plot.

In this book I learned about a number of interesting things I’d never even heard of before: “reactive attachment disorder”, “coercive restraint therapy”, “ghost kingdoms”, and “mummy shopping”.

And it turns out these are real things, which makes the story all the more believable.

This is a great book that will really draw you in. And even though the story is told through multiple POVs, you have to get quite far into the book before you start to see the whole picture.

The twists and the turns just keep coming, and it’s hard to see where the story is going to go, until the story reaches quite the conclusion at the end.

5 stars out of 5!