Psychological Thriller4*s
This novella should be given to teenage daughters everywhere just to reinforce the fact that Mother really does know best! It should scare them stupid and hopefully mean that you don’t have to nag as much as twenty-one year old Ruby Fitzroy’s mother Sharon does.
“Sorry to be a pest, but Mother knows best.”
Ruby has been dumped by her boyfriend and after getting to know Cory Strong at the local gym decides to accept his offer of a date. He is good-looking and charming so what could possibly go wrong? Ruby knows her mother won’t see it that way so she leaves having only confided in her younger sister.
All goes well on the date, Cody is the perfect gentleman but when they come to leave when Cory is set upon by a burly stranger. Not the greatest ending to a lovely night out but they get into Cody’s car to go home and despite his injuries Cody manfully drives away.
Now I’m not going to lie, given that this is a short story, combined with that title and superbly creepy cover we all know that Ruby has made a mistake by not answering her mother’s texts while she is making eyes at Cory over the table, having deduced that her sister has cracked under the maternal pressure. Worse still she has shoved her phone into her bag giving her only the barest of details as to where she is before the violent confrontation. You don’t need to be a mother to know that this is not the wisest choice of Ruby’s life. But, and this is the real beauty of this book, things don’t go in quite the same direction as I expected…
Considering this is a novella the characters are amazingly well drawn particularly Kyle, Cory’s younger brother who really does stand out from the page and with the author having the confidence to allow the reader to read between the lines the build-up is full of tension.
It is a talented writer who manages to make you thing and then surprise you with something unexpected, and although I haven’t read any of Netta Newbound’s full length novels I have read some fantastic reviews of her work. Now I’ve read this example and been so impressed, despite really preferring the novel as a format, I will be selecting another from her back catalog without delay.
Mother Knows Best was my eleventh read in my Mount TBR Challenge 2017, so I’m still on target to hit 36 books purchased before 1 January 2017. I purchased this book in July 2015.
First Published UK: 2014
Publisher: Junction Publishing
No of Pages: 125
Genre: Psychological Thriller – Novella
Amazon UK
Amazon US
