A Mother Never Lies was just an ok read for me. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it, it falls somewhere in the middle.
I found it hard to get into in the beginning as it was rather slow and it wasn't so much a thriller as it was family drama, hence why I struggled with i thknk. However once it takes off around the middle I did get into it a bit more and found it to be a good enough read overall.
It was well written and similarly to Lisa Jewell and many other authors flashed back between the past and the present linking the story together as a whole.
3.5 Stars

I really enjoyed this and could have read in one go….. it had me gripped from page 1 and I thought the author told the story really well! Good, believable characters and enjoyed that the story moved back and forwards in time! Would read this author again

I found A Mother Never Lies to be an ok read. It was a bit of a slow burner throughout and it wasn't really a thriller as it was described, it was more a family drama to me which is probably why it didn't grab me as I had hoped.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for my ARC.

A very engrossing and quick read. Secrets and information - all come together even when they are dripped out. Interesting and thought provoking. The you #NetGalley for the advanced copy.

A flashback/flashforward novel in the style of Lisa Jewell where the mysteries of the present are solved by looking back into the past. However, that is where the comparison ends; A Mother Never Lies lacks the intensity, sophistication, drama or atmosphere created by Lisa Jewell. It is a 'nice' book, just that, 'nice'. I was not absorbed, enthralled or compelled and I had a fair idea of where it was heading long before the end so there wasn't much of a twist. I dipped in and out of the book over a 3 week period, reading several books in-between and coming back to this one. It's not so complex that you can't walk away but it's good enough to come back to.
Characterisation was good, however not excellent - the characters do not feel entirely plausible or fully fleshed out, and there were too many questions left unanswered.
Overall, I liked this but I didn't love it. If I saw more of the author's books in the library, I'd read them but I wouldn't buy them or read one twice.

This book was pretty good with the twists and turns, but it was a slow start. I did eventually get into it and got invested in finding out the secrets but I wish it had gotten good a little quicker.

3.5 Stars

Phoebe is back in London after a fourteen year absence. We learn right away that something bad happened before she had to leave...So bad she lost custody of her three year old son, a son her mother wasn't allowed to keep for her. Believe me when I say Phoebe's mother is a real piece of work and reminded me of my own. This book had me feeling all the damn feels about that.

This book takes us back to 1998 when Phoebe meets her husband and her wedding/honeymoon. We are also taken to 2005 when the "thing" happened. We go back and forth from 2005 and 2019 a lot and we also get two points of view, Phoebe's, of course, but also her son, Charlie (who is now called Ben). Sounds confusing, right? It wasn't. The author managed to do this seamlessly and kept the flow of the storyline on point.

The tension was palpable throughout and the big reveal was a pleasant surprise. I love when an author can keep me guessing or shock me. This was my first book by Sarah Clarke as it is her thriller debut and I do hope she writes more of them.

Thanks to Netgalley, Sarah Clarke and HQ Digital for the ARC!

This is a great read.
It’s a hard one to review as I don’t want to include any spoilers.
Phoebe wants to find her son and with him now being seventeen, she knows he’s allowed to find out about her soon.
She starts looking for him but her Mum advises her against it and soon Phoebe finds herself lying to her mum.
It’s clear something happened to Phoebe for her to be apart from her son but you don’t find out exactly what happened until later in the book.
I liked Phoebe and really wanted her to be honest but I guess it wouldn’t make a good story if it was all plain sailing.
This is a great read that definitely had me hooked.
Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I really enjoyed this book, it was bobbling along and then all of a sudden I was hooked, I couldn’t stopped reading and devoured the remaining book in one evening.

The book is from the perspective of Phoebe and her son. The chapters take you from the past and into the present when you are drip fed that something awful has happened in the past and Her son has been taken away from her. You know she needs to be upfront and not lie, but you just want her to be a mother.

I felt sorry for Phoebe as she tracks down her son and becomes part of his life unknown to Ben. Ben is a trouble teen who takes solace in an older lady who listens and doesn’t judge.

But the rollercoaster ride comes when you start discovery what’s happened and where Phoebe has been for the past 14 years.

Even after discovering what’s happened I still felt for Fiona, the characters are likeable and I wanted to spend time with them. Im glad the ending finished as it did. I highly recommend this book.

Except, in this case she does
Her whole life is a lie
And when she is able, 14 years on, after a horrendous incident, she wants to reclaim her life and what she see’s as rightly hers
With devastating consequences
A story of adoption, the child ( now 17 ) and their life, the parents and family who adopted him and the natural Mum who had no choice but to give him up
Character wise there is little to like in any of them tbh, a few strands of pity for them here and there but they are all so angry and tbh in the main not justifiably
There is a good end game to be reached and it was worth all the ‘woe is me’ from all sides to get there and the book ended well, surprisingly well after all the angst that came before
My sympathy for the natural Mum was non existent until the last quarter of the book, when still not warming to her and her divisiveness at least there was reason seen to understand it more
There is a character called Flora who is wonderfully written, she bought ( unintentional?) humour into the book even though she herself was tragic in every way
Not a light hearted read and am not sure if the subject matter had me defensive before I gave it chance but will be interested in the authors second book, mixed feelings on this one

6/10
3 Stars

I’d like to thank H.Q. and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘A Mother Never Lies’ by Sarah Clarke in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

After an absence of fourteen years Phoebe is back and living with her dysfunctional parents in Wandsworth, London. She tells them she’s out every day looking for work but she’s actually searching for her son Charlie who was taken away from her and adopted when he was three. A social worker warns her that Charlie knows nothing of his past but just when she thinks her task hopeless she sees an article in the local newspaper of a 17-year-old boy, Ben Moreton, who’s won an Award in the Wandsworth Young Artist of the Year competition. Phoebe knows immediately that this boy is her son Charlie.

‘A Mother Never Lies’ is told through the eyes of Phoebe and Ben, starting in November 2019 when Phoebe and Dan get married to the present time as she plots how to worm her way into Ben’s life. I found the pace of the book a bit slow and predictable and guessed where the story was going early on without needing to be told. I wouldn’t describe it as a mystery or thriller but it has interesting characters and is a promising debut novel. I look forward to seeing what Ms Clarke writes next.

Thank you to #NetGalley for allowing me to read #AMotherNeverLies by #SarahClark
Phoebe lost everything 14 years ago, her marriage and her son.
Now she needs to find her son.
A brilliant thrilling story that keeps you glued to the pages.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Outstanding novel.
There were times that I had to leave this book for a couple of hours because I became so emotionally involved with the characters but in good way.
There are very few authors or books that can effect emotions like Sarah has done.
Phoebe had a perfect job a gorgeous husband and a beautiful three year old son Charlie but everything comes to an end right?
It certainly did for Phoebe just in one night her whole world is turned upside down and can she ever recover.?

I won't lie the cover of A Mother Never Lies really got my attention! Author Sarah Clarke writes an emotional story about second chances and things left behind. Phoebe had to give her son up for adoption years ago and now she is back and wants nothing more than to reunite with him. The trouble is Charlie doesn't remember her at all and now being 18 years old doesn't really want a relationship with his birth mother. A great debut novel that really pulls the string on a lot of emotions!

Personally, I found this book a little slow and that some parts were dragged out where they didn't need to be.
That said, the story is not a bad one, but found some parts were too descriptive and repetitive, and didn't move fast enough.

For a debut novel, this is possibly one of the most artfully written books I’ve read in the past twelve months. The story has an immediate hook as we meet Phoebe who, after fourteen years, has returned to her parents’ home in London on the pretext of finding a job. Clearly something devastating has happened to her as we witness her experiencing a panic attack in a tube and then we meet her unconventional but highly likeable parents, Flora and Paul who clearly have their own heartache.

As the reality of Phoebe’s situation begins to unfold, the suspense sets in, powering me through the novel at a monumental speed to find out what had happened when Charlie was 4 for him to have been taken into care and adopted but despite the prospect that Phoebe may have done something outrageous for this to have happened, I was still desperately behind her cause in her search of the local schools to find him just before Charlie, who is now called Ben, turns 18.

The emotional connection with Phoebe is immediate but overriding it all was how she came to be in this position. And what happened to her husband, Charlie’s father. The epilogue does not give the game away and it didn’t put me off that it could have been something horrific. But as a mother myself you can imagine the devastation of Phoebe’s world and despite Charlie having been placed with a family who clearly love him, I wanted nothing more than for Charlie and Phoebe to have a conciliation and for her to find some peace through all of the years of ultimate hurt and betrayal.

On top of it all, I was keen to find out what Phoebe’s parents’ involvement with it all was as I felt there was clearly something bubbling under the surface of it all and the reason behind her parents’ alcoholism despite finding them utterly endearing.

When Phoebe finally meets Charlie, she makes decisions that are clearly going to come with consequences for herself, for Charlie and for his adoptive parents.

The novel was beautifully written despite the horrors that threatened to lurk in the closet and the suspense builds perfectly to a nail-biting conclusion.

All in all, a good read that I would recommend.

As a normal consumer of fantasy and action based on some dystopian world, I find it hard to start reading a book under the same genre as ‘A Mother Never Lies’, as I’m quite doubting if I’ll be able to handle long conversations within characters without any intense action in line with the storyline. Surprisingly, this book has given me the tense and the emotions that it's expected to bring to its readers. An easy read I would say, in terms of not having so complicated names, writing style, and a good flow of story.

The author made use of multiple point-of-views from the past and the present allowing to unveil the main character’s sources of trauma, etc. On the other hand, I’m not quite a fan of the addition of a new POV towards the ending chapters of the book. I find it odd for a new perspective to appear knowing that the entirety of the book has established a viewpoint of Phoebe and her son. In the case of the climax of the book, undoubtedly one of the most important pieces, it had a nice build up to the turn of events. However, it took too long for that specific moment to happen with only a few chapters remaining leaving the resolution dependent upon a four-year gap. In my humble opinion, having the last two chapters as an epilogue would be a better approach given that the events also fast forwarded four years from the confrontation scene or adding more chapters following the circumstances that the characters have been through.

Still, a good book and a thank you Ms. Sarah Clarke, HQ Digital, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I really wanted to like this book as the description was promising but I found the story was slow to completely unfold and there wasn't much that I didn't figure out well in advance. Phoebe"s character was extremely troubled but she seemed to be more like I would have expected her character to be directly after the tragic event instead of 14 years later. Her parents and Ben's parents were useless and so uncaring it was difficult to picture them as believable. The basis of the book was good and the author created a good plot. I like books that go from one character to the other but this one just fell flat and I really couldn't get into the book. I appreciate the chance to read it in advance.

This book was a very gripping read, from the first few pages I was left wanting more. A lot of left to be revealed right at the very end so it left the reader guessing. For example, why did Phoebe give up Charlie and why was Phoebe away for a while. It is such an interesting book and it was fast paced.

I loved reading about Phoebe and Ben as main characters. At times I get sad for Phoebe and others I was questioning her motives. I thought she was a strong but vulnerable character. The chapters alternate between her past and present so we read about her trauma and how it is affecting her today. Ben is an interesting character, he comes across as a grumpy teenager but he has his own secrets. How the two main characters meet and form a friendship is somewhat strange, there always seems to be something unsaid between the two.

I loved the storyline of this book, it all builds up to the final chapters where things become very dramatic. I loved reading the build up and reading about the two characters. It is best to go into this book blindly and fall into the plot. With that being said I don’t want to say too much about the plot.

I found the authors style of writing very easy to read and descriptive. Most of the chapters left me wanting more, this made me want to read on. Also, wanting to learn more about Phoebe and Ben and their connection was intriguing.

This book started really well and I liked the characters. Towards the middle it became a little repetitiv but it kept me guessing. I liked the twist near the end and it ended on a happy note. A good debut novel Thañk you Netgalley and the Publishers for the chance to read this book.