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The Stepmother

Ros Carne

2.72 · Rating details · 18 ratings · 16 reviews

After a series of heartbreaking miscarriages, Kate’s marriage is hanging by a thread. When her husband Michael tells her he has shocking news, at first, she thinks the worst – he’s been having an affair. It would explain why he’s been so distant. Instead, he reveals that the daughter he abandoned twenty years ago is coming to stay.

Kate is blindsided by the sudden arrival o ...more

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Published April 8th 2021 by Canelo

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Average rating 2.72 ·

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· 18 ratings · 16 reviews

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Apr 02, 2021 Louise Wilson rated it liked it

2.5 stars rounded up to 3

After a series of heartbreaking miscarriages, Kate's marriage is hanging by a thread. When her husband Michael tells her he has some shocking news, she thinks he's been having an affair. Instead he reveals that the daughter he abandoned twenty years ago, is coming to stay. Kate is blindsighted by the sudden arrival of Imogen mere hours later. Her stepdaughter seems wary of her own father. kate is pleased to find herself connecting with Imogen, until one day, Imogen revea ...more

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Apr 09, 2021 The Coycaterpillar Reads rated it liked it

The Stepmother is more a domestic thriller than one that pinpoints at psychological. It tells a story of Kate, a woman who is suffering after the loss of multiple babies. The miscarriages are draining her, and the only thing that really has her focus is her work, sculpting. The prologue opens with a shock – someone being lowered into a makeshift grave. It had me intrigued especially as the narrative leads you to believe that the person being put into a grave is who is deeply loved. What is the s The Stepmother is more a domestic thriller than one that pinpoints at psychological. It tells a story of Kate, a woman who is suffering after the loss of multiple babies. The miscarriages are draining her, and the only thing that really has her focus is her work, sculpting. The prologue opens with a shock – someone being lowered into a makeshift grave. It had me intrigued especially as the narrative leads you to believe that the person being put into a grave is who is deeply loved. What is the story behind it? It’s a great opener and I couldn’t wait to dive in.

I’ve been mulling over just how I would review The Stepmother. It had a great premise, and it is just the kind of book that I enjoy time and time again. The cover is instantly eye catching and I loved the premise of a stepmother meeting her husbands’ child and the secrets that would span from that thread, but it unfortunately fell slightly flat for me. Don’t get me wrong, the writing was itself was excellent and I did read the novel very quickly it was more the plot and characterization that I struggled with.

The story of The Stepmother is one about Kate and Michael. There is an obvious age gap between them, but Kate has never let that bother her. She has enjoyed being in a relationship with someone that is already established and with a good career. The obvious next step for them was to have a baby but for reasons unknown Kate and Michael have suffered miscarriages. Its obviously had an impact on their relationship but even so, Michael is a very distant and emotionally unavailable character. He is a barrister and often stays in Bristol for work, in the flat that they own.

Things start to go awry when Kate meets Steve, a butcher in town. He’s a dog lover like her. There is an instant appreciation for his looks. She’s a sculptor and has this indescribable urge to sculpt his head. She convinces him to sit for her. Then Imogen turns up, Michael’s daughter from a previous relationship. She is obviously messed up but just why is she that way? What has happened? Stepmother and stepdaughter quickly get along with each other and develop a bond, when a secret is revealed about her husband, she is left dazed and blindsided.

The Stepmother is more about the story of one woman’s actions and how that spirals into a catastrophic mess. It’s the domino effect, one she takes one course of action it affects everyone around her. I did think the synopsis was a bit misleading, the secret is a minor subplot and wasn’t really what the story was about. Its one of those stories that I wanted to love more than I did.

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Mar 25, 2021 Linda Leone rated it it was ok

Shelves: netgalley

I would not call this book a thriller at all. More like a family drama. This book is more about Kate and how what she does will have lasting impact than it is about her relationship with her stepdaughter.
This was all over the place at times with random events thrown together to make a book. I didn't care for any of the characters and only a few times did I care about what happens to them. Just not the book for me.

Thanks to netgalley and Canelo for the arc ...more

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Apr 04, 2021 Robin rated it liked it

Ros Carne, The Stepmother, Canelo, United Kingdom, 2021.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this copy for review.

The short prologue is gripping: two women bury a body, not in anger, but with love. The novel is then divided into three parts, two months earlier, with Kate as the main protagonist and the solution to the mystery of the body; part 2, where Michael’s story is central; and part 3, a year later, where some features of the main characters’ relationship are solved with the rules Ros Carne, The Stepmother, Canelo, United Kingdom, 2021.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this copy for review.

The short prologue is gripping: two women bury a body, not in anger, but with love. The novel is then divided into three parts, two months earlier, with Kate as the main protagonist and the solution to the mystery of the body; part 2, where Michael’s story is central; and part 3, a year later, where some features of the main characters’ relationship are solved with the rules around Covid 19.
Kate and Michael are a married couple, living a well-heeled existence in their beautifully renovated farmhouse. Their world has been dislocated by several miscarriages. Adding to the stress is the arrival of Michael’s daughter from his first marriage, Immy, and the appearance in their lives of dog walker and local butcher, Steve. Michael is a lawyer, much older than Kate, and seemingly dispassionate about her emotional needs. Kate conducts art classes and sculpts, well, but without remarkable artistic merit. Initially she sees Steve as an exciting subject for sculpting. Immy is a beautiful young woman finding her emotional and financial feet. She also becomes a subject for Kate’s work.

All the characters are flawed, a cautiously kind description for Kate, Michael, and Steve whose personalities dominate the novel. I kept trying to come to grips with the depiction of Kate, who seems to have no redeeming features. She is greedy, taking what she wants with little feeling for those who might be impacted. This might be associated with the way in which she views people as possible subjects rather than beings with their own needs. Her marriage seems to be dispensable in many ways, although she is dependent on its financial benefits. She is accustomed to being considered beautiful and desirable and is surprised when thwarted in that belief. At the same time, Michael also has less obvious, but nonetheless egregious flaws. Steve’s unpleasantness is more prosaic, but he and his wife Tamsin are also negative creations.

I found it difficult to get past the unpleasant characters. However, for those who can do so, or indeed have sympathy with those with whom I have found fault, I note some positive aspects of the novel. The tension is palpable from prologue to denouement – whose body is being buried? Who, of a large cast, with various permutations, are the women involved? Is there an unlikely pairing evolving from the range of complex responses and feelings Carne sets out? The organisation of the material adds to the tension, with Kate’s and Michael’s stories of their marriage and surrounding events underscoring their different perspectives. The tidy resolution to the problems around Kate’s and Michael’s marriage and the attendant challenges it poses for secondary characters is unremarkable but satisfying. I really liked the irony in part three where Crane uses Covid rules with style.

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Apr 09, 2021 Connie rated it it was ok

Kate, 36, is a sculptor and is married to Michael, 48, a lawyer. She is recovering from her third miscarriage and is concerned when the doctor mentions that Michael’s weaker sperm may be a reason for their problem.

Out walking her dog one day, Kate meets a young man who works at the local butcher. Chatting with him, she is interested in the structure of his face and asks him to model for her. Unfortunately, this leads to an affair.

Michael has been married before and is the father of Imogen, now ...more

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Mar 11, 2021 Ashley Tyler rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2021-releases, mysteries-thrillers, netgalley-arcs, comtempory

Thank you NetGalley, author Ros Carne, and Canelo for giving me a free arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
2.5 stars
Trigger warning: talks about miscarriages, struggles with fertility, talk about past attempt to die by suicide.
Kate's marriage has fallen on hard times! Kate and her husband are struggling due to a series of miscarriages that have happened throughout their marriage. Being sad and disappointed with the most current loss, Kate is t ...more

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Mar 16, 2021 Brenda rated it liked it

Jam packed with suspense, this book quickly reeled me in. Dinner was delayed so I could finish it! The plot is compelling and incredibly twisty...and twisted.

Sculptor Kate and barrister Michael are married and have just gone through another devastating miscarriage. After losing the baby things fall apart all around them and keep getting worse and worse until reaching a crescendo where something has got to give. This book is about choices...mostly poor...and reactions to those choices which is w ...more

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Mar 30, 2021 Annie rated it liked it

Quite slow moving book about a couple. At first it seems as though they are well matched, but as the book progresses the cracks in their relationship appear. Mostly written from the point of view of Kate, there are also chapters which are written in Michael's voice. Michael's daughter, aged 22,, comes to stay having never met Kate and despite the poor relationship she seems to have with her father.
Kate is very self absorbed, Michael a mysterious older man. There is lots about their relationshi ...more

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Apr 07, 2021 Samadhee Ismail rated it liked it

The title appealed to me at first so I was excited to read this book. But unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations.

Kate is a sculptor and she was having a not so happy married life with a man named Michael, who is a solicitor. So when while she was walking her dog Timba, she meets Steve and asks him to model for her. And what should have been job just turned to a steamy love affair between the two. Then Michael's daughter Immy comes to stay with them.

This was OK in the beginni ...more

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Mar 30, 2021 Sara Clifford-gray rated it liked it

I read The Pupil by the same author and gave it a five star review, so I was really excited to start this one. The description marked it out as a Psychological Thriller, however I don’t think it was – it was a story of a family, albeit somewhat dysfunctional, each with their own secrets and how those secrets would later connect them together.

I didn’t seem to gel with any of the characters, none of them seemed believable, or likable – except for Timba the family’s lovely dog.

This isn’t what I w ...more

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Mar 26, 2021 M.M. DeLuca rated it really liked it

This elegantly written suspense novel quickly drew me in and transported me into the lives of Kate and Michael and their dysfunctional marriage. Carne's descriptive language develops a lovely feel of the lush, rural setting and really highlights Kate's artistic sensibilities which are front and centre here. Rather than being a fast-paced. plot-driven thriller, this novel slowly and deliberately uncovers Kate's troubles, which compels the reader to keep turning the pages. Kate is an imperfect cha ...more

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Apr 04, 2021 Kara Watson rated it liked it

This book was filled with dysfunctional relationships, which would be fine except for the fact that I feel like I didn’t truly to get to know the majority of the characters (aside from Kate, but I still had many questions) and couldn’t understand why they were making half the decisions that they did throughout the book.

The plot wasn’t bad, but I felt like it took until halfway in for things to get interesting. I didn’t like the situations the characters got themselves into, and as stated above ...more

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Mar 24, 2021 Helen Frost rated it liked it

Disturbing, sinister and unsettling in places but I’m not sure whether in a good way! There are some trigger warnings around miscarriage, DA and also violence against animals.
Parts of the story were strangely intriguing and drew me in but the overall story made me feel slightly uneasy and also a bit cheated, like there was something a bit lacking. Worth a read but I still can’t decide whether I liked it.

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Mar 26, 2021 Anne rated it it was ok

Based on the description, I was really looking forward to this book and while I enjoyed parts of it, I found it just was flat with few emotional highs or lows. The ending was so abrupt and disappointing that it ruined the whole book for me. It felt like the author wrote herself into a hole so she just ended with that part and wrote a year later. This didn’t feel like a thriller, it wasn’t the book I was expecting and it just wasn’t for me.

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Apr 08, 2021 Minnie rated it it was amazing

YES!! Just the domestic thriller I was looking for

This book is described as 'emotional and suspenseful' and that is SPOT ON! Carne has drawn such wonderfully textured and intriguing characters. They all have their fair share of secrets and I was constantly on tenterhooks waiting for them to be revealed. Bravo for a brilliant piece of domestic suspense. ...more

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