The Step Child by Nicole Trope
Genre: Contemporary fiction, Women's fiction, Family drama, Domestic thriller
Read: 9th March 2022
Published: 15th March 2022
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
Three-year-old Millie Everleigh disappears on a crisp winter’s day, and nothing is as it seems…
It’s the phone call every mother dreads.
I’m climbing into the car after a trip to the grocery store. As the engine starts, my phone rings. It’s my stepdaughter, Shelby, who is babysitting my three-year-old little girl Millie.
‘I only went upstairs for a second,’ she says through her sobs. ‘She’s gone.’
I race home to find my blue-eyed baby girl missing, and my heart ripped out of my chest.
When the police turn up, Shelby’s story starts to unravel. What is she hiding?
Then I get a message saying, ‘Your husband is not who you think he is.’ Could he be lying?
Suddenly, my family feel like strangers. Everyone has a secret – even me.
No one knows why I was late coming back from the store, and the guilt I’ve been feeling ever since…
Once the truth comes out, all of our lies exposed, will it be too late to save my precious child?
A pulse-pounding psychological thriller about family secrets, shocking pasts and the lies we tell ourselves in order to survive. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Liane Moriarty and The Wife Between Us.
MY REVIEW:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Nicole Trope's heart-wrenching domestic thriller drama THE STEP CHILD.
Nicole Trope is hands down one of my favourite go-to authors that I will pick up without even reading the description. Nothing she writes is a disappointment. And there is no such thing as a bad Nicole Trope book. Every thing she has written (that I've read so far) has been emotional, heart-wrenching and yet thrilling at the same time. You cannot help but be moved by her stories...and at some point, usually the end, I find myself teary and emotional by the beautiful tale she has woven. It's almost like she has a genre all of her own, a niche she has carved out for herself. She's a little contemporary, a little family drama and a little domestic thriller all rolled into one. But whatever she is, Nicole Trope is a master at her craft.
First up, let's meet the main cast of characters around whom this tale is told:
Shelby - the stepdaughter.
Millie - Shelby's 3 year old half sister.
Leslie - Shelby's stepmother and Millie's mother.
Randall - Shelby and Millie's father, husband to Leslie.
Bianca - Shelby's mother and Randall's ex-wife.
Trevor - Shelby's stepfather, married to Bianca.
Ruth - a thirty-something recluse, a hoarder with severe OCD and agoraphobia unrelated to the family although their lives will collide over the course of the next twenty four hours.
It's the phone call every mother dreads. Leslie has popped to the grocery store leaving her 3 year old daughter Millie in the care of her stepdaughter Shelby for what she had promised would be no more than an hour. Leslie is guiltily aware that she has been longer than that so when the phone rings, Shelby's name flashing up on the display, she answers with her apologies for being so long. But she is cut off by Shelby's tearful cries.
"She's gone. Millie's gone!"
Leslie rushes home berating herself with overwhelming guilt that she had left the girls for longer than anticipated. Despite being twelve years old, Leslie and Randall had decided that Shelby was old enough to look after her younger sister. Millie adored her older sister, jumping up and down in excitement the moment Shelby arrived from her mum's to spend the weekend with them. And begrudgingly, Shelby actually loved Millie just as much, although sometimes she just wanted to hang out with her bestie rather than babysit a 3 year old.
And today, she'd had plans with her friend Kiera to go the shops and hang out when Leslie dropped her request on her. "I'll only be an hour - tops," Leslie promised. But she wasn't; she was longer than that and now Millie was missing. And it was all her fault. She was only upstairs for a second; Millie must have opened the door and wandered off. But as Leslie calls the police, Shelby is terrified. Can she keep the truth hidden?
Soon the police are gathered at the Everleigh home, questioning the family and searching the surrounding area. Surely Millie couldn't have gotten far; she was only three after all. Alerts are issued over TV and radio as reporters gather outside the house, waiting for an opportunity to snap a photo or talk to the family whilst inside, Randall and Leslie's world falls apart. They are sure Shelby knows more than she is letting on. She claims that she went upstairs to the bathroom, when there is a perfectly good one downstairs, and that Millie must have opened the door and thus disappeared. Is that what really happened? Or is Shelby hiding something? Added to her worries, Leslie begins receiving messages claiming her husband is not who she thinks he is. What exactly Randall hiding?
And then there is Ruth. Thirty-something though older than her years, Ruth is agoraphobic with severe OCD and a secret she has never told anyone. But now she has another secret...and from her house filled with her collections, her safe place, she sees the news about a missing 3 year girl and flies into a panic. In an attempt to keep another innocent, she makes a terrible mistake. What should she do? It's all gone wrong...everything is wrong.
You may think you know what is going on but don't be too sure. There are plenty of secrets and no one is immune to them as bit by bit they each begin to unravel. There remains an element of mystery throughout as the reader is left wondering whether Millie is even alive or if something sinister has happened. And just when you think the truth is just around the corner, the story takes another turn leaving you scratching your head once again.
I love the three narratives through which the story unfolds - Leslie, Shelby and Ruth. Each woman has their own pieces of the puzzle to contribute as slowly we are given another snippet, another glimpse, another piece as the bigger picture is gradually revealed. The connection between the women is bittersweet and heartbreaking as the significance of THE STEP CHILD becomes clearer as the truth is uncovered. There is intrigue, misdirection, heartache and misconception throughout what is essentially a horrible ordeal for all involved - some in more ways than one.
A truly enjoyable read, THE STEP CHILD is another excellent offering by Aussie author Nicole Trope that is tense, heart-pounding and compelling from start to finish. The reasonably short chapters keep things moving at a steady pace throughout. Even the difficult subject matter was handled with expertise and sensitivity. Your heart will break for those whose lives it affected.
But the pièce de résistance is the ending. The Epilogue unfolds through four narratives but it is the final one that offers the quintessential coup de grâce. And that is why Nicole Trope is a master of her craft.
I would like to thank #NicoleTrope, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheStepChild in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because-as her professor pointed out- ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’ She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree in Children’s Literature. After the birth of her first child she stayed home full time to write and raise children, renovate houses and build a business with her husband.
The idea for her first published novel, The Boy under the Table, was so scary that it took a year for her to find the courage to write the emotional story.
She is now published by Bookouture and is an Amazon top 100 bestseller in the USA, UK, AUS and CAN.
She lives in Sydney with her husband and three children.
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