First, I want to thank Sheila Norton, Boldwood Books, NetGalley and Rachel’s Random Resources for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.

Ohh how I was looking forward to reading A Good Enough Mother by Sheila Norton. The cover graphics and the title drew me in instantly. Never had I read from this author before however she was compared to one of my faves Emma Robinson. Needless to say, I just had to read this book.

I love books that hook you instantly and pull you in right away. Unfortunately, A Good Enough Mother did not do this for me. Infact, it was a while until I really got into it and it started getting good.

The kids in this book were adorable! I chuckled at the way they said certain things and the mother kept correcting them. I remember my Father doing that to me as a kid and sometimes even now as an adult.

There was a really cute storyline regarding a boy calling wolf. The conversation the little girl had with her Mom was just so adorable. However, this topic was repetitive in this book. At one point I found myself getting frustrated and said out loud ok we get the message loud and clear.

I often wondered within the book why the Mom was dead against having the kids see their Father. It was a story that slowly built up throughout the book. Never, in a million years did I see the reason why.

Honestly, I hate to say this was not my favorite book. That doesn’t mean that it won’t be yours. That being said I would give it a try.

Thoughts:
This book is about a women name Jess who is a single mom raising her children with help from her neighbors.
It explores love, sacrifice, and the relentless things we will do for our children. This might pull at your heart it is a emotional story

A Good Enough Mother taps into the angst and insecurities that plague mothers everywhere. The universal questions of are we doing enough? Are we getting it right? How do we balance time with our children with work and other responsibilities? Are our choices being judged? How can we do it all? What does being a good mother look like? It's an endless stream of doubt and fear.

Jess is a character that nearly every mother can relate to. She's overwhelmed, insecure, exhausted, and striving to do her best. She loves her children intensely and is willing to sacrifice her own needs for their happiness and safety. Having escaped an abusive relationship, she is on her own with two young children; trying to do it all and struggling. She finds respite when an older couple moves into her building and they volunteer to help her with childcare to relieve some of the stress. Everything is wonderful until it's not; until the help raises more questions and new insecurities surface.

This is a slow paced book that gets under your skin and draws you in. We are all Jess and Jess is all of us.

Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Sheila Norton is an author whose books I have always loved. The Vets at Hope Green and The Pets at Primrose Cottage were books I just loved and the village setting with animals of these books and so when I was invited onto the blog tour for A Good Enough Mother, I was immediately interested.

I was missing Sheila’s books, and I was curious as to what a change of genre would bring for her. A Good Enough Mother is as outstanding as the other books I’ve reviewed by her.

I was immediately hooked on the emotions in this book, and the family. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Jess, Mia and Archie and was glad they had Helen and Robert as neighbours. Then, I didn’t like Helen so much.

Is what Mia says is happening the truth?

Thanks to Sheila Norton, Boldwood and Rachel’s Random Resources for my eARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

5 stars

I’d like to thank Boldwood Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘A Good Enough Mother’ written by Sheila Norton in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

New neighbours Helen and Robert move into the flat below that of single mum Jess and her young children Mia and Archie. They soon become friends as Helen reminds Jess of her late mum and when Helen offers to collect her children when Jess is late from work and look after them during school holidays Jess is happy to accept their generous offer. But Jess is having doubts about the arrangement and wonders if Helen could have an ulterior motive for luring the children down to their flat.

‘A Good Enough Mother’ is a well-written novel that tells of a young mother’s struggle to provide for her two children without help from her estranged father and abusive ex-partner. There are no great surprises, it’s just a pleasant story of relationships and trust. I liked the character of Jess and am pleased she managed to work through her differences with her father and come to an understanding with Helen and Robert who did seem to be kind, though misguided, people. This is an enjoyable story with a heart-warming conclusion that I enjoyed reading.

Jess has lost her mom made some not so wise decisions so now she’s alone with her two children. When she meets her new neighbors and gets some help life finally gets better. But is her daughter just making up stories or is there truth in it?
The first part of the book was interesting to get to know the characters but in the middle in my opinion it became too repetitive. Luckily it became better at the end. Trust is very important and without it life can be difficult

A really good read which I will recommend to others.
Thanks for the opportunity to read & review it.

Mia is telling me a story. It's about a princess, who lives in a castle, on a street that bears a remarkable resemblance to ours. About a kind old lady who's the queen. I'm distracted for a moment by her hand softly slipping into mine. My daughter. My angel. But then she says something that pulls me from my reverie. She says that the queen doesn't treat the princess well. She punishes her and doesn't let her eat anything.

Helen, my neighbour, has been so good to me. And more importantly, she's so good with children. Surely this must be another story of Mia's, just make believe. Because if it's not, maybe my dad was right, I was never good enough to be a mother., and I've let my children down in the worst way possible.

Jess is a youn mother with two young children. She struggles to make ends meet and find affordable childcare. Her ex-husband was abusive, Her new neighbours, Helen and Robert, offer to help her. They look after the children while she goes to work. But Jess feels they are hiding something.

I loved the part of the story with Jess's father. The characters are well-developed. I did predict the truth about Helen and Robert, but that did not spoil the story for me.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #BoldwoodBooks and the author #SheilaNorton for my ARC of #AGoodEnoughMother in excahnge for an honest review.

Wow. Right up until the last 50 or so pages I was going to give this book full stars. It really captures the frustration if being a new mother and trying to make everything work. The characters are so well thought out and realistic if you have told me the writer was telling the true story of herself or her mother, coming to terms with the loss of her own mom at an early age, struggling to maintain friendships with people she went to high school with but has little left in common with, trying to spend time with her children and work enough to cover bills, scrimping and saving to take them on an outing to the zoo, running to catch a bus and somehow always feeling never quite good enough. So many of these aspects as a mother rang so true to me. But my hopes and expectations were dashed by the abrupt and unfulfilling end. I apologize for the spoilers and complaining I truly do because the author is extremely talented and the book had me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what despicable act the ex, Callum, would try next, but the climax fizzled from a first rate thiller akin to being hit with a bucket of cold water for me. I simply can't understand how there was no dramatic confrontation between the ex boyfriend and the main character and for the neighbors to be supposedly innocent after all the build up to a nefarious plot of child abuse and kidnapping. Even the description of the plot is utterly misleading. This book needed another fifty pages and at least a chapter where she has no idea where the kids are and her father could further redeem himself by helping her find them and maybe the immature friends could even be useful in someway by helping search for the kids. The neighbors should not have been innocent dupes hiding the fact they were helping the father from the stressed out harassed and overworked young mother. And after all the anxiety and misery they put her through she should have moved back in with her dad and very at least filed a restraining order against the neighbors if not filing against them for child endangerment after allowing Callum any contact, even indirectly, against her direct instructions. Also some flashba ks to the abuse she stuffed would help connect more with her as a human being. Regardless, leaving the kids with the neighbors at the end is ludicrous and insulting to mother's who are responsible and to the readers as this makes the book absurd and a waste of time. The author took an account of a realistic struggling young woman and ultimately did make her a bad mother because after all that she should never trust those people with her children again.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and all the twists it offered up. You can absolutely understand the concerns of the main character and where this takes the story with some great threads to the story.

I LOVED this book. I was so drawn in by the weird dynamics between Jess and the neighbours. I had a few ideas of how it could turn out but this book certainly is not predictable! It had hints of psychological thriller without any truly scary moments, so it kept me hanging all the way through without worrying about something really bad happening to any of the characters. I also really enjoyed seeing the children grow up, especially Archie as he goes from not talking and barely toddling along to talking and getting into things! I will definitely have to keep my eyes open for future books from this author!

Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood for giving me the chance to read and review this book!

Fantasy read. Jess is struggling with childcare of her two young children. Helen and Robert have just moved in below her and seem so nice. They strike a friendship and slowly Jess trusts them to look after Mia and Archie.
It’s going great then suddenly Mia is insistent that she sees her father Callum all the time, Jess thinks she’s seen him to. Helen and Robert insist they’ve never seen him but Jess isn’t sure Mia’s telling the truth.
Jess is estranged from her own father but an accident brings them closer together and the situation with the kids and her neighbours is getting to much.
Great read and very well written.

A well written and emotional book.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found this a gentle read which pulled at the heartstrings. I felt for Jess who was being up her two children singlehanded after leaving her abusive ex partner.

Helen and Robert are her new neighbours and they offer to help her out, looking after the children so she can work longer hours. This seems the perfect solution at first but doubts seem to creep in as Jess feels they are hiding something from her.

Jess has no family support, her mum died when she was young and she has been estranged from her father for many years but when he becomes sick they start to reconnect and this really warmed my heart.

As the story comes together we learn the truth about Helen and Robert and although it was the main twist in the story I did guess what was coming.

This book explored how we all make mistakes but how we deal with them after is what is most important. The importance of family and friends and the unconditional love of a mother was beautifully written.

Although I felt this book was a bit predictable that somehow added to its charm . As I turned the last page I was hoping Jess would continue to grow and find even more well deserved happiness in the future.

Jess a single mother seems to be struggling at managing her job and taking care of her children. She is estranged from her x husband and her father and she has no network of friends who can help support her with advice and support. She suddenly has new neighbors Helen and Robert who offer to help her with the children in providing childcare services and helping to get them home from school when she is in a bind. However suddenly they seem to be very controlling about the care of the children. Mia her 4 year old daughter keeps telling her that she sees her Dad at different places and that Helen tells her off all the time. Jess confronts Helen constantly about what Mia tells her and she seems to always be reassured that nothing has happened and Mia isn’t telling it like it is.
Jess continues to have her suspicions until it finally comes to a blow and the whole situation comes to a head.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read ARC.

Jess left her abusive husband with her two children and lives in a council flat and has a part time job, when her employers ask her to work full time or loose her job, her elderly neighbours offer to childmind and everything seems to go ok until her daughter starts telling story's that the neighbours dispute and now everything seems too good to be true and Jess finds it difficult to believe and trust people.
You know something is wrong but you don`t know what so you have to read quick to find out.
A good read with a good twist loved the storyline with her father.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC and I give my honest review.
Posted to Goodreads

With no mum to turn to for advice about her two young children, Jess sometimes struggles on her own. Estranged from her dad Jess comes to relie on the downstairs neighbours.
Not just for support but childminding and advice. But Jess starts to feel underminded and uncertain.
An unexpected appearance by the children's father after Jess escaped from his abusive control. Leave's Jess even more uncertain.

Jess is a young mother of two, struggling to make ends meet and find affordable childcare. She split from her brutal husband and is estranged from her father, so she really is on her own.
Jess lost her mum as a teenager and none of her friends is in the same situation, so she has no network of fellow mums. This leaves her vulnerable because she can't ask anyone for parenting advice. When Helen and Robert move in, middle aged parents of grown up children, she's thrilled when they take an interest in the children. They start picking the children up, and then looking after them. But things turn a bit sinister. Jess feels her decisions are being questioned and undermined. Theyre buying vast amounts of toys. Meanwhile her daughter's sightings of "Daddy" in the vicinity cause more alarm.
The situation seems very real. Jess comes across as a caring and determined mum trying to do her best while juggling 101 things. The children are adorable, particularly 4 year old Mia and her sayings.
Norton keeps the story going with just enough twists and turns to force us to carry on reading.
An excellent contemporary read.

A Good Enough Mother
A BRAND NEW completely heart-wrenching, emotional read from Sheila Norton for 2024
by Sheila Norton
Thank you for the advanced copy of this in exchange for a review.
A heartbreaking and uplifting story about the choices a mother makes for the sake of her children, perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Emma Robinson, and Kate Hewitt.
Mia was so far trusting and was busy and did not see signs. I wept throughout the book. Mia is a good enough Mother

I loved this book it was a lovely story
It was about a mother called Jess with two children called Mia and Archie
They were introduced to the Neighbours called Helen and Robert
In the middle of it was a father called Callum and he wasn’t very nice at all
I had an ARC