The Perfect Stepmother by Karen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was so engrossed in The Perfect Stepmother I never noticed my OH spilling red wine down my shirt … until he tried to dab it off with a bit of damp paper towelling. One of the beautiful twists in this story is that you find yourself rooting for the person you least expected to be, as does one of the main characters. To name names would be to spoil it. What a cleverly woven plot! At a certain point, you feel you know what the secret The Perfect Stepmother carries is, but actually you don’t. I loved the build-up of hostility in Lily towards a woman stepping into her dear lost mother’s shoes far too soon after her death, marrying her father and quickly winning the affection of her five year old sister, little Emma, who so needs a mummy. Lily’s story has a naturalness to it that’s totally relatable to. She’s left home. She has a lovely boyfriend and a life of her own, but of course she is going to be protective of her vulnerable father and little sister. They’ve all lost a pivotal person in their lives to breast cancer. The question is, is Lily too protective? I really had to know how this would play out. I have to say that the author handled the subject matter with complete sensitivity – also making the reader think of those little things one might do to make a sufferer’s life a little easier or happier. To The Perfect Stepmother herself, I wasn’t sure I could quite believe it, but here’s the thing, I did. Utterly. The ending was ‘perfect’. I have to say Gareth came through for me one hundred percent. He didn’t fall in love too easily. He fell in love. He trusted his instincts. This is a thoroughly engaging story with lots of juicy twists to keep you reading and one I would highly recommend.