This book had me gripped, particularly the last third is sheer brilliance. I loved Betty, her narrative had me hooked from the get go, and I found her story fascinating. We don’t often get details of our parents/in laws former lives, and this showed that there is so much to learn. Then we have Poppy- Bettys daughter in law, making a huge mistake that will cost her. Towards the end I liked Poppy more and enjoyed her story more. A great thriller.

I absolutely loved this book. Poppy makes a mistake by joining up with an ex lover which turns against her. Betty and Jock's life was very different given the way people lived their lives in the 1960's. The mixture of Poppy's and Betty's lives was amazing. I imagine if generations were more open with each other about their lives less mistakes would be made in the future. I would love to know more about my mother's life. The stories really worked well together and could probably have given us more. Another fantastic book from Jane look forward to the next one. Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Books for the chance to read this in return for my revuew.

This was a book of two halves for me, until the very end when I became totally engaged in both stories. Poppy is our first narrator and she has an incredibly busy life. Once an aspiring actress, Poppy now runs an agency for extras while managing a busy home. Her husband Stuart has a time consuming career as a dentist, and they have two daughters, Melissa and Daisy. Both acknowledge that they couldn’t manage without the help they get from Stuart’s mum Betty who lives with them all and, between meditation and art classes, spends a lot of time with the girls. Poppy goes to an agency party and runs into old flame Matthew, who was her lover at drama school. Their relationship ended badly when Matthew started seeing another girl in their year, Sandra. Surely, by now though, they can have a civilised conversation at a party and just catch up like two old friends?

The story is told in alternate chapters starting with Poppy, then going back to the late 1960s/early 1970s with Betty, her mother-in-law. At first I felt more drawn in by Betty’s narrative. We travel back to her teenage years when she met Stuart’s father Jock. Poppy has always thought that Betty and Jock were a lovely welcoming couple. Stuart took her back home when they first starting dating at University. We learn that Betty was in love with Jock, and was so happy when he asked her to marry him. Her dad insists on a two year engagement and Jock agrees to wait. However, once the marriage comes closer, he starts to make demands that change Betty’s life. She loves her work in the department store and often models hats for them, as well as enjoying a social life with the other girls. Jock decides that he doesn’t want her to carry on working after they’re married. He insists she doesn’t need to, she’ll have enough to do keeping the flat clean and besides, he doesn’t want people to think he can’t afford to keep his wife. Betty loves her work, but knows how much Jock wants to get on at work and impress the bosses, so she gives up work. This is just the beginning.

I struggle with Poppy’s narrative at first because she seems to act without really thinking through her actions. It’s clear that both she and Stuart work very long hours, even into the evening. It means they are more like flat mates than lovers, but she hasn’t dared to discuss this with him. Without Betty’s help, they would not be able to work the way they do, and their daughters are losing out on quality time with both of them. Melissa, their eldest daughter, is more likely to talk to Betty than her Mum. Back home, her Dad lives alone and is experiencing dementia symptoms. He has a friend a few houses away who checks on him, but there have been times lately when she’s had to drop everything and rush over there. She has enough problems already, but then as soon as she meets Matthew she makes life even more complicated. In order to get over the embarrassment of seeing him, she has slightly too much to drink. The drink and a sudden snowfall, mean she ends up having to book a room at the hotel for the night. This means she can stay up late and drink even more. Matthew tells her that he married Sandra, but she was diagnosed with MS several years ago and he is now her carer. He makes it clear he finds Poppy attractive, but she resists his advances. She is flattered though, and with her own relationship under strain, will she succumb to his persuasion?

Slowly, we start to see parallels between Betty and Poppy’s stories. As Jock became more controlling and abusive, Betty started a friendship that lead to her own temptation. We realise that she knows more about her son and Poppy than either of them realise. She is watching them grow apart and desperately wants them to fix it. She spent a long time in a loveless relationship, and wants better for them. We learn that Betty longed for a daughter, but that was impossible. When Stuart brought Poppy home she saw a chance to have that mother-daughter relationship she’d always wanted. She recognised that Stuart loved this girl, but also that he probably wasn’t her first choice. Betty suspected that Poppy had been in love and was hurt very badly, so felt a kinship with her. She makes a really wise observation that it takes a long time to fully understand relationships, but when we do, we’re so old that the next generation isn’t listening to us. We become irrelevant. So we’re doomed to see the next generation repeat our mistakes. Betty isn’t going to let that happen.

I liked the way the author ramps up the tension as the novel continues, and it was the need to know what happened next that kept me reading. I knew something terrible was going to happen, and as soon as I saw the new chapter based in a courtroom I was hooked. I wanted to know who ends up in court and what they’d done. I thought all along it was one character, but it was someone else. There are a series of further reveals, around each character. Matthew is lying and manipulating all the way along and I didn’t see full extent of his deception coming. Stuart seems very secretive and it takes till the very end for Poppy to understand why her marriage has been struggling for so long. Betty’s story was heartbreaking though, and I really identified with her terrible situation. My mum and I often have conversations about how different life was for women of her generation, and how much more difficult it was to escape abusive relationships. Women didn’t have the financial independence, plus there were societal pressures. Psychological abuse wasn’t recognised and coercive control has only been recognised in law for about eight years. Pressure to stay in a marriage often came from the woman’s own family, just as Betty’s mother advises. It’s only when Jock goes too far that Betty’s mum actually intervenes and gives advice and support.

My heart went out to Betty, especially knowing how haunted she was by her own mistakes. It’s these mistakes that help her understand Poppy and want to help her, but does that help go too far? I liked that in Poppy’s narrative, Betty seems like a helpful and caring grandma who loves crafts and spending time with her granddaughters. It shows how we often see those older than us in one dimension, when there is so much more beneath the surface. I think the depiction of modern family life is quite accurate, in that it can sometimes take drastic events before we realise we’ve been taking our partners for granted. Poppy also realises that she’s missed out on so much of her daughter’s childhood and she only knows about Melissa’s crush on a boy at school through Betty. This is the terrible dilemma of those of us in the middle - people who have children still living at home and also caring responsibilities for ailing parents. Poppy, and her husband, are proof that it’s impossible to have it all and we all need to get some balance in our lives.

This is an interesting book told from the perspectives of Poppy in the present and Betty, her mother-law mainly about her past. Poppy's old boyfriend from many years ago and is manipulative and tries to blackmail her.
Thanks to Netgalley for an Arc.

I was so gripped by this book that I stayed up until 3am to finish it! Fabulous and believable characters, an amazingly twisted plot, great settings. This book had me hooked from the very beginning with a tale about love, family, lust and marriage. So, so good.

I love Jane Corry's books, having read I looked away, and loved it. This one was nowhere near as thrilling or gripping as I expected from the first chapter. The story from perspective of the mother in law did not seem relevant at all, and it needed to have more links to the murder and the court story for me to invest in the novel. I felt it was filled with too much irrelevant material and needed to be much faster paced for me.

Really enjoyed this book , pacy and believable characters . Twists and turns and fascinating insights into human nature .

What can I say? Wow, Jane Corry has managed it again what a novel. I couldn't put it down, just had to know what happened next. Poppy and Stuart are a perfect married couple or so it seems, both have their own successful businesses. Then an old first love comes back and gets Poppy wondering the what ifs...... Unfortunately she gives into temptation and things escalate from there, he is blackmailing her and some of her friends. Will Poppy do the right thing and tell her husband what's going on before it's too late? Betty the mother-in-law is such an amazing character you wouldn't believe she was as old as she supposed to be.. If only we all had mother-in-law s like her...

Thank you to Jane Corry for letting me read this novel, I will be looking out for more from you.

I’d like to thank Penguin Books UK and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘I Made A Mistake’ by Jane Corry in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Poppy Page owns the Poppy Page Extras Agency and while attending a Christmas function she meets ex-actor Matthew Gordon who was once-upon-a-time the love of her life. Poppy still feels the attraction two decades later but she doesn’t realise that the mistake she makes now can’t be undone and the repercussions will be felt throughout her family.

‘I Made A Mistake’ is told by Poppy and her mother-in-law Betty whose marriage to Jock gives her an understanding into what Poppy is going through and she’s able to tell Poppy her life story through writing letters to her during a creative-writing course. It’s been really well-written with a meaningful and thought-provoking storyline and although slow at the beginning it improves greatly as it progresses and the chain of events unfolds. I was so involved with the family and what was going to happen next that I couldn’t stop reading and by the end I was choked-up and close to tears. This is an outstanding novel, definitely not one to be missed, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

Now this is what you call an emotionally charged domestic thriller!

Now, I'll admit, it was a bit of a slow starter but stick with it!!!

Told in two POV's, present day Poppy and the past of her Mother in Law Betty. I confess I did feel more invested in Betty's storyline.

As previous novels, Jane Corry's plotting skills are exceptional. Each page has a new twist or shocking turn that just immerses you deeper into the storyline.

The characters are fantastically written and mostly likeable (let's not talk about the awful Matthew) and each have their own backstory which all cleverly weave together beautifully.

A story of regrets, love lost, past mistakes, guilt and family dynamics at it's best.

Huge thanks to netgalley and Penguin Books UK.

I was looking forward to this book and it got off to a good start but then I lost interest and it was a struggle to get to the end. Even though this book was well written I couldn't relate to any of the characters and I was just glad when I had read it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books UK for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This is a thriller with a lot of twists. There are so many layers in the story and it held my attention the whole way through. Told by Betty and Poppy all the pieces come to together into an ending that I did not see coming. Brilliant.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

One of my favourite authors so l had high hopes when starting this book, I did find the beginning a litre predicable maybe but it did set the scene well and l got to know the. Characters once on a roll l was Gripped and not disappointed at all another memorable book keep them. Coming

A chance meeting with a past lover. Our chief protagonist dissatisfied with her life but unable to put a finger on the reason. A fatal error of judgment on her part and a series of events are put into place that will culminate in a murder . A much loved mother in law who observes this series of events uses her own backstory and tragedy from several decades in the past to be relived in an effort to allow understanding of this family destroying situation. A court case, two generations of family reliving the harrowing events of their lives and the ultimate denouement defining who did what to whom. A well crafted story, a believable and familiar situation followed by a complex and terrifying set of events, culminating in a surprising conclusion. Many thanks to publisher and NetGalley for ARC.

We all make mistakes. Some large, some small. Many do not have long lasting repercussions. However, sometimes a seemingly small decision or a choice can lead to far reaching consequences that can have a lifelong effect. In ‘I Made A Mistake’ choices are made that are devastating to all concerned. Poppy is a happily married, mother of two with a thriving business. A chance meeting with her first love threatens everything. Can she resist him? Her Mother-in-Law, Betty is her rock and helps with her family, even holds them all together. She however, has her own story to tell and the book alternates between her early years as a young wife and mother and Poppy’s own life. Secrets and lies gradually catch up with the characters as lives unravel amid the resulting devastation. A well written story that developed as a slow burn rather than one with plenty of high drama. However, it was a definite page turner and as the startling truths were revealed, I was hoping somehow for a happy ending. Whether there was or not, you will need to read it for yourself.

A fun easy read. Brilliant twist at the end - I did not see coming!
I'm a big fan of Jane Corry will be recommending this to others.
4 stars.

This is a story full of people making mistakes told by Betty (the mother-in-law) and Poppy. It's a domestic thriller that examines what happens when love dies between a married couple and the consequences this can have. For Betty, married in the 1960s, the consequences of a loveless marriage and fling were different from the consequences encountered by Poppy, but as the book draws to a close, no less detrimental. It is an interesting read from a social perspective, particularly Betty's situation as a young married mother, but unfortunately, I didn't really gel with either character. Poppy is a busy theatrical agent, harried and constantly flying by the seat of her pants. But this was presented as a given, I couldn't actually see any evidence for this stress. Nor could I understand why she and her husband didn't tackle the distance in their relationship long before events forced them to.

It's a shame because the book started off with a bang, but very quickly ran out of steam, and the ending seemed to drag. The catalyst for all the events in the book is Poppy's meeting with Matthew. However, this was so briefly mentioned, and Matthew as a character had no agency, so I didn't ever feel any tension or threat.

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

A big mistake and you will pay for it. A lovely heartwarming story told by two women. Poppy in the present and Betty reminisces about her past. Both stories are engaging but Betty’s story shows how much women’s lives have changed in such a short time. An eye opener and a must read.

In a nutshell Poppy has a loving yet lacking in lust marriage. She bumps in to her first love she has never gotten over at a work event and soon finds herself having an affair. This prompts her to realise how much she loves her family and ends in murder. Cliched in every way possible but thoroughly enjoyable.

This is the perfect 'wrap yourself in a blanket with plenty cups of tea' read for a relaxing weekend.

This was an enjoyable thriller. I loved the way the story unfolded and was somewhat intertwined. Although it wasn't particularly fast paced, it kept me engaged.

A recommended read.

Thank you Penguin Book UK and NetGalley.