‘A Mother Never Lies’ is the latest book by Sarah Clarke.

I had the perfect life – a nice house, a loving husband, a beautiful little boy. But in one devastating night, they were all ripped from me. It’s been fourteen years, and I’m finally ready to face the past. I’m taking my son back. He just can’t know who I am…or why we were torn apart.

I started this book one evening and once I started, it was difficult to put it down.

The story is seen through the narrative of mother and son Phoebe and Charlie. Phoebe had to give up Charlie for adoption but she’s never given up on him and now 18 years later, she’s hoping to reunite with him. Charlie who’s now called Ben is unaware of the strange woman who rescued him from almost being beaten up.

The flawed characters in this story make for fascinating reading. The story is written in past and present tense and it’s obvious that Phoebe once was happily married but her world fell apart and she’s now paying the price. Leaving with her parents, her alcoholic disillusioned mother who’s quite a sweet character. Ben has anger issues but sees something in Phoebe who is known as Fiona.

As the story flows between the various years, it gives a real insight into the type of person Phoebe was, carefree, happy and in love. The aftermath of that tragic night, has left her scared, unsettled and longing for a better life and to get her family back.

From the first page it’s obvious that something terrible has happened and Sarah has cleverly created a story that is filled with tension and intrigue as we delve into Phoebe’s life. Phoebe is a sympathetic character that we can relate to, she’s the underdog of the story that we all champion for a better life.

A tense and atmospheric domestic noir with short and snappy chapters that made for gripping reading, ‘A Mother Never Lies’ is a complex drama about the strength of a mothers love.

You can buy ‘A Mother Never Lies’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

After a fourteen year absence, Phoebe has returned home to live with her parents. Due to a tragic incident, Phoebe was forced to give her son Charlie up for adoption, and now…

She wants him back.

Charlie now goes by Ben, basically having forgotten his birth mother from years ago. But she is here now. And Charlie is almost 18… isn’t it his choice if he wants her in his life again?

The story is told from varying viewpoints and different years to give clear pictures of what is happening along with the backstory. Everyone’s emotions are heightened in this book, and the reader sure can feel it!!

I liked how the author wrapped everything up in the end and only wish there was just a little more insight into Charlie/Ben’s life with his adoptive family.

I would look forward to trying more works by Sarah Clarke!

This is a tense, emotional, story about a mother trying to reconnect with her son. Although a bit slow at the start, the book soon picks up pace and the story unfolds. I found it compelling, and couldn't read it fast enough. Definitely an author to look out for.

It seems as if my opinion is not the norm, but I truly found this book boring. It was so slow that I skimmed it until about 75%. It picked up at that point, but that is a lot of lead up. Too much for me. The blurb made it sound much more action packed than it was. The premise was good, and even the plot was ok. But the delivery just dragged on for me.

Thank you for the opportunity to review it, though!

This author has a fantastic way of writing. I was fully engaged with the story and was eager to finish it quickly. It never gave me a wow moment but I still really enjoyed it.

This author knows how to tell a story,completely engaged me throughout the book.
A terrific read. Switching backwards and forwards through time but always edging towards the reveal at the end. Characters felt real you could feel their pain,their triumpns so well written.
Hard to believe a debut author.

This was for me an excellent domestic drama that had me hooked from the very first chapter. I look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

An intriguing story that kept me guessing whilst having an underlying sense of unease- why exactly had this mother lost her son?

The first part of the novel felt slower, scene setting with many flash backs, but through it I felt that I got to know the characters well- particularly Phoebe, who was credible, if rather irritating at times!

As the novel moved on, pace increased, with shock after shock revealed. To my mind, not a thriller, but full of suspense. The narrative moves seamlessly from present day to fourteen years earlier, told from Phoebe and Ben's viewpoints.

An impressive debut novel, my personal reservation was just about the ending, which after the detailed scene setting felt a little rapid to me.

This taut thriller is superbly plotted, with deep (and understandably not very likeable) characters and I found it hard to believe this is a debut. The initial main character is Phoebe, who has rejoined mainstream society after a spell in prison. Her narrative is soon entwined with that of Ben, a teenager of almost 18 years, who struggles with the pressures heaped on him by his successful parents, and the knowledge that he is adopted. We soon find out how these two individuals are connected, and what traumatic events lie at the heart of their struggles.
Readers who want a fast-paced, action-led thriller may be somewhat disappointed but if you are prepared to follow a character-led study to a gradual denouement, this is the book for you. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for the free ARC they provided me with in exchange for this honest and unbiased review.

I read this book extremely quickly because I wanted to know what happened to the characters next and what parts of the story was released. While I enjoyed the novel for the amount of care I had towards the characters I also felt like I could guess what was going to be told from the past.

I didn’t really read this story as a mystery or thriller either because it read so much like an autobiography of true events but from an unreliable source. Phoebe wants to tell the story at her own pace even if you know from the beginning that there is something absolutely wrong with her mind.

One part that made me upset was how the young adult character, Ben, was able to suffer from his trauma without his adoptive parents thinking anything was wrong. He was combative and causing so much trouble it drove me crazy that his adoptive parents just didn’t pay attention.

Other than being guessable to what happened it was an enjoyable and fun novel to read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-arc for an honest review!

I absolutely love discovering new authors and Sarah Clarke is a new author for me. ‘A Mother Never Lies’ is Sarah’s debut novel and what a debut novel it is. I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘A Mother Never Lies’ but more about that in a bit.
It didn’t take me long to get into ‘A Mother Never Lies’. I was intrigued by the synopsis and by the characters. I had my own theories as to what was going to happen so I had to keep reading to see if I was on the right track or if I wandered down the wrong path. The pages turned over increasingly quickly as I worked my way through the story. In fact they were turning so quickly that it was almost as if they were turning themselves and the page numbers became a blur. All too quickly I reached the end of the story and I had to say farewell to the characters. I found ‘A Mother Never Lies’ to be a gripping read, which certainly kept me guessing and which kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.
‘A Mother Never Lies’ is extremely well written. In fact I had trouble believing that it was a debut novel as the writing style seems to confident and polished. Sarah has one of those writing styles that is easy to take to and easy to get along with. She certainly knows how to grab your attention and draw you into what proves to be one hell of a story. The story is written using two different timelines. One timeline describes events as they happened in the past and the other timeline deals with the story in the present. For me, the story hit the ground running and maintained a fairly fast pace throughout. Reading ‘A Mother Never Lies’ was a bit like being on a scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way.
In short, I really did enjoy reading ‘A Mother Never Lies’ and I would recommend it to other readers. I look forward to reading much more of Sarah’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.

A bit slow to start but once i got stuck into it, i flew through it. I enjoyed how it went from the past to the present. Plenty of twists once it got going. An enjoyable read.

A Mother Never Lies by Sarah Clarke is a thriller read. The story in this one is told in different timelines dating between 1998 and a present time. This thriller is also told from different points of view involved in the story.

The story begins with Phoebe Taylor who is just returning to her parents home in London after being away for fourteen years. Phoebe’s only focus now is the urge to find the son she was forced to abandon all those years ago. The laws are not on Phoebe’s side however when it comes to an adopted child, the child could find out about a birth mother but Phoebe isn’t allowed to search herself.

After meeting Phoebe in the story readers are taken on a journey back to 1998 and her first meeting her son’s father. And then the story builds in the timeline beginning in 2019 while also continuing to look back at the past to eventually let readers in on what happened in 2005 that tore Phoebe and the child she loved dearly apart for the fourteen years until her return.

Now the first thing I will admit about A Mother Never Lies is I never truly cared for the protagonist in the story. As I followed her actions in the present timeline as she made one move after another that I questioned and to be honest wanted to toss the book at her during those moments I didn’t sympathize with her as one might be expected to. However, while she sort of drove me nuts with her actions I couldn’t help but also be compelled by what was driving her that had happened in the past and the urge to find out what would happen now. So despite it all when reading this story it really was gripping and kept the pages turning until the final reveal so I did end up enjoying this one.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Phoebe is searching, albeit in secret, for the person who means the most to her – her son. He was taken from her, there is no way she would willingly give up her greatest treasure. Even years later her family, the state and everyone else are convinced the two of them should be kept apart.

Phoebe is an interesting character, one who will probably divide opinions. Is she someone who refuses to acknowledge the past and her accountability, especially when it comes to her son. At the same time there is also the Phoebe who has experienced trauma, anxiety and is a victim of her own dysfunctional and neglectful childhood.

The two sides often collide, which then leads to the division. Nature vs nurture plays a major role in this premise. Born evil – inclined to certain behaviour or raised to respond to certain stimuli with specific behaviour? And more importantly if it has a genetic component is that why Ben lacks impulse control and has anger issues.

This is a really compelling domestic thriller with a psychological component. Clarke balances the story well by straddling the grey areas of this premise – some things are neither white nor black. Life is unpredictable and messy, and the victims of an inadequate system will often fall through the cracks. Everyone believes they are making the right choice for their loved ones or are they?

Phoebe is looking for her son, Charlie. He was three when she last saw him and he will soon be eighteen. She has written to him twice a week but has never had a reply because his adoptive family have not told him about the letters, nor about anything else to do with his life before he was three. We know Phoebe has been ‘away’ but where or why is withheld from us for a significant part of the story. Knowing that he is in Walthamstow and of school age, she is staking out the various schools in the belief that she will recognise him.
Charlie, now known as Ben, the adopted son of a well-off family, is a deeply troubled individual. A prizewinning artist but a poor student of anything else, he seeks out risky situations where the odds of getting injured are high. He knows that his father is dead but he doesn’t know how or why. He has no knowledge at all about his mother.
So two mentally scarred characters, who meet when Phoebe, who has recognised and is now stalking him, rescues him from a confrontation with a gang which he has deliberately engineered in the hope of being hurt. They begin a somewhat unusual friendship but one which, inevitably is doomed.
The tale evolves, seen from their differing perspectives, as a slow burn that builds to an explosive confrontation. It is extremely powerfully written and the psychological detail, the mental lives of the two protagonists, is very convincing.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This story is told in two perspectives, Phoebe's and Ben's (Charlie). Phoebe comes home after 14 years away, and begins to look for her son, Charlie. Charlie has been adopted into a new family, and is now called Ben, and is 17 years old. When Charlie was 3, a horrific incident occurred, and Charlie was adopted into a new family, all ties severed from his old family. Phoebe's parents could have theoretically taken him in, but they were too involved with their own lives and alcoholism to be seen as fit for the job. Phoebe sees Ben's picture, by chance, in the newspaper, and begins to insert herself into his life. She does not immediately tell him who she is. This causes drama and contention, with a very unexpected result that will keep you hooked until the very end.

I thought this story would be more "mystery" it was really along the lines of a domestic thriller. Not a bad thing, but definitely not what I was expecting when I first picked up this book to read. Many of the elements of the story are kept from the reader for a good portion of the book. Namely, what happened to Phoebe's husband, and the trauma she experienced on the night everything went wrong for her. Initially, I thought I had missed something, but then realized that those facts were intentionally left out to create more drama. I definitely enjoyed the unraveling of the plot, and would seek out more books by Sarah Clarke. I have never read any of her books before, and this one was definitely a page turner. Once I realized it wasn't the mystery I was expecting, I enjoyed it a lot.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

AMother Never Lies wa a very well-written book. Sarah Clarke has done a great job with her debut novel and I look forward to her next book. Thank you for my ARC.

Phoebe had the perfect life, a nice house, loving husband and a beautiful three year old son. Until everything changed one evening. Fourteen years later she’s finally ready to face the past and take back her son. However he can never know the truth of what happened. Whilst I did enjoy this book, I did feel it was slightly slow going in places. It built up to a good ending but just took rather a long time to get there. Thank you to NetGalley, HQ and the author for the chance to review.

It feels a little weird reviewing this book because more than just a thriller or a mystery it was such an emotional read.

I won't say Phoebe is a victim too in all of this because I don't know for sure, but what I can tell you is that the author of the book did a GREAT job portraying the complicated feelings the characters had. It was so raw! Phoebe madw a lot of poor decisions, be it because of fear or self-preservation or because she hadn't truly taken full accountability of her actions, but you can still see it make sense and wonder what would you do in her position.

The whole topic of the book is very complex and sensitive however, the author approached it with such respect, which might be missing in some books.

Highly recommended, give it a try and brace yourself for all the emotions 🙋🏽‍♀️

Phoebe loves her husband a lot when one day Phoebe found out that her husband was cheating on her. That's when Charlie was three and Phoebe was pregnant with her second child. Something happened that Charlie was forced to take away from Phoebe for adoption.

After 14 years, Phoebe returns to London. She desperately wants to find Charlie, named Ben by his adoptive parents. One afternoon, the social worker visits Phoebe to inform her that Ben is soon turning 18 and is doing well, suggesting that Phoebe should not bother Ben. But Phoebe misses Charlie a lot and she hopes to reunite with Ben. She felt guilty of all that happened and that giving Charlie away was not her intention. Ben has very few memories of his parents and the only thing he remembers was a tragic night when he was 3. Will Ben accept Phoebe into his life, when he finds out the truth?

I do enjoy it but it felt slow for me. Phoebe is a mother who loves her son so much but what she did was understandably unacceptable in Charlie's position. I am glad of the ending though. Not disappointed at all but I was expecting a little more at the end. Overall is still an easy good read.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins publisher for this ACR.