Mumsnet Book Club review – Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

I’ve received another free book from the Mumsnet Book Club to review. This time a psychological thriller – Pretty Baby by bestselling author Mary Kubica.

This is what it says on the back cover.

A chance encounter

Good Samaritan Heidi sees a dishevelled teenage girl on the station platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching a baby in her arms. 

An act of kindness

Heidi has always been charitable, but to her family’s dismay she returns home with the girl and her baby in tow.

A tangled web of lies

As Willow begins to get back on her feet, disturbing clues to her past start to emerge. Is she really who she says she is and how far will Heidi go to help the stranger?

Wow this was a real page-turner. It starts with Heidi on her way to work, spotting homeless Willow and baby Ruby on the train platform. She can’t get them out of her mind and another couple of chance encounters result in her inviting Willow to a diner. We hear that Willow refuses to visit homeless shelters and next thing Heidi invites them home. Her husband Chris and pre-teen daughter Zoe are both horrified.

We then get flashbacks into Willow’s life finding out that her parents died when she was only 8 years old and how she was then separated from her sister. I won’t give you the details but her life between then and now is very harsh.

We also discover there are reasons from Heidi’s own sub-consciousness that probably prompted her inviting them home, but again I’m keeping the details to myself to avoid spoilers.

And interspersed between chapters from Heidi or Willow, we also get a few from the viewpoint of the third main character, Heidi’s husband Chris who has commissioned a private detective to try to discover who Willow actually is.

“Pretty Baby” is the second novel by Mary Kubica and is published by Harlequin MIRA. The paperback edition is currently on sale on Amazon for £3.85 compared to an RRP of £7.99. It is also available in kindle format and hardback. I do thoroughly recommend this book. It is a really gripping read that I didn’t want to put down and I’m pleased to see that her third novel “Don’t You Cry” is due to be published next May. That will be going on my wishlist along with her first book “The Good Girl”.

You may see more details about Mary Kubica’s books on her own website here.

I have previously read the following books from the Mumsnet Book Club.
Coming Home by Annabel Kantaria
Fallout by Sadie Jones
Falling by Emma Kavanagh
The Girl Who Just Appeared by Jonathan Harvey

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Disclosure.  This post is a review of a book I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.