Tuesday's Child

by Anya Mora

**Newer cover edition for ASIN: B0829DMF98 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...**

My daughter is dead.
My husband and I cling to what’s left of our family, desperate to make sense of the tragedy.
But when the sheriff knocks, he delivers news no mother should ever have to hear.
Our daughter was murdered.
And my son is the prime suspect.

When we adopted eleven-year-old Holden, we weren’t wearing rose-colored glasses.
But we never could have imagined this.

They say you can’t pick your family.
But I picked mine.
Did I choose my daughter’s murderer?

Tuesday’s Child is a gripping domestic suspense. Doubt, desire, and the demise of a once picture-perfect family force Emery, wife to a state senator, to live out a mother’s worst nightmare.

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Ebooks, Audiobook, Psychological Thriller

310 pages, ebook

First published December 26, 2019

About the author

Anya Mora relies on her experience as a wife and mother to form her creative expression. Her novels, while leaning toward the dark, ultimately reflect light, courage, and her innate belief that love rewards the brave.

You can discover more about the author at https://anyamora.com

Reviews

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 4 out of 5]

They appeared to be a picture-perfect family: Emery, a dedicated stay-at-home mom involved in charity functions; Mark, an aspiring politician and the epitome of a knight in shining armor for a husband; a radiant 10-year-old daughter who defined sunshine. Recently, they welcomed a son into their family through the adoption process, finalizing the deal!

However, after a Halloween night, their entire life spiraled into a nightmare: their sweet and innocent daughter was dead, not due to an accident but a brutal murder. Unfortunately, this isn't the end of the nightmare as their adopted son, Holden, emerges as a prime suspect in a filmed piece of evidence related to her demise.

Emery's world shatters into pieces. She had eagerly adopted Holden a year ago, witnessing his violent tendencies firsthand. As we unravel the events backward month by month, we gain insight into Holden's psychological behavior, including his fits of anger, sudden outbursts, and school fights. Did Emery unknowingly bring a monster into her home, inadvertently responsible for her own daughter's death?

This book is an absolutely riveting blend of domestic thriller and psychological mystery. While the conclusion may seem a bit far-fetched and some explanations coincidental, it's an overall fast-paced, exciting, heart-throbbing, and heart-wrenching tale of a family. My heart broke for the little girl, bringing tears to my eyes, especially in the final parts of the book featuring her narration.

This is my first encounter with the author, and I can't wait to read more of her work in the near future!

I extend my best wishes for her publication date! Yay!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

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[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Perfect Family is a new suspense novel from Anya Mora, and author I found on NetGalley but had previously read. A politician, his wife, their daughter, and an adopted son. The daughter is murdered, and it appears like the son is guilty. We know he isn't, or that wouldn't be a solid book, right? At first, I wasn't drawn into the story; the mother's grief was forced and I couldn't understand the desperate behavior in past chapters when it came to wanting to adopt the boy. As it comes together in the middle, I figured out the backstory, and it got easier to read. There weren't any real shockers at the end, mostly because it could only go one or two ways... that said, how it began to unravel was intriguing, and by the time it ended, I felt the story balanced itself out. Probably 3 to 3.5 stars, but for the first book by an author I tend to round up, so we're going with 4. I will give another one a chance.

[Deb Le · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first novel I've read by this author, and it won't be the last. It's a little dark, but what an amazing book. The character building is so intricate and three dimensional that I was dragged into this story from the first sentence. I loved this portrayal of older child adoption, such a far cry from the saccharine sweet versions I read before, yet oddly uplifting too. Emery is a wonderful protagonist, a real mother with doubts and struggles, who doesn't have a clue what to do some of the time. Sad, poignant yet uplifting too. I adored this book.

[Wendy with a book · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was solidly in 4⭐️ territory until it became so far-fetched it would be like rocketing a stick into outer space and expecting a dog to fetch it. Beyond the realm of conceivability.

Aside from that, the theme and character-development were well done so they redeem the book enough for me not to recommend against it.

[Bandit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is there such a thing as a mommy thriller? If not, there should be. An entire subgenre of a subgenre. That is if women thrillers are still a subgenre, there seems to be enough of them to populate their own literary continent by now. But you know how some of them are all about ex wives or mysterious spouses or best friends gone wrong. And some of them, like this book, are driven by the pure mother’ milk, start to finish. The author meant for it too, even her bio lists exclusively her accomplishments as a mother, both birth and adoptive as opposed to her writing credits. So she believes in the power of love, specifically mother’s love, and writes books about it. Ok. Cute. Not at all my thing, though. I don’t really grasp the drive to reproduce, though I admire those who adopt kids. This book is about a woman who did both. Woohoo. Positively heroic. Is that sarcasm, you might ask. Why, yes, it is. Mainly because for all her mommy superpowers I really didn’t like the main character of Emery. When we meet her she has a perfect life, she is a wife of a handsome very wealthy senator and a mother to a lovely 10 year old daughter. Emery has it all, including too much time, since she doesn’t seem to work or have any passion projects. She’s profoundly uninteresting, a sort of cliched vapid housewifing clone. What can Emery do with all her time? What more can Emery do for her daughter, a kid nice but too soft and mercilessly picked on by other children? Well, how about adopting a kid? Seriously, it’s that much of a whim decision, after seeing an adoptable kid advertised in the Tuesday’s Child section, alarmingly much in the same way pets are advertised on petfinder. So basically instead of getting a golden retriever to occupy her time and give her kid a friend and protector, Emery decides to get a kid. And she does, because she has money and that’s how life works for those with money. And the kid turns out to be a nightmare, because he’s already 10 years old and thus has 10 years of accumulated trauma and abuse. The entire thing, in fact, turns out to be a sort of exercise in masochism, although the boy does get along with his adoptive sister as intended. Emery is exhausted, but determined, she won’t listen to reason, she’s plowing though, despite what it’s doing to her and her marriage. And then her beloved daughter ends up dead, murdered, and her adoptive son stands accused of it. The nightmare gets darker. Oh what will Emery do. If only the hunky sheriff Cooper (and of course her first love) who has conveniently just got back to town was there to help, assist, provide a shoulder…and more. So together Coop and Em will get to the bottom of this mystery, because, of course, they are driven by love, both romantic and parental kind. Go team, go. Actually, cutesy as it might seem, this is a by the numbers thriller, so it does have all the prerequisites, including a split time narrative that covers a year prior to the girl’s death, the suspense, the suspects and, of course, the plot twist at the end. The latter of which is actually quite decent and very dark, considering. But the entire affair is so thoroughly covered in mother’s milk cheese, it’s difficult to take it seriously. I’d say it’s a Lifetime movie of the week sort of thing, but that might be a dated reference. There might be other estrogen heavy mommy networks out there providing similar sort of entertainment. So was it entertaining? Well, mildly. Maybe one needs to be a mommy to enjoy this sort of thing. Maybe, like reduced bladder control, it’s just a mommy sort of thing. It had cheese and corn and toward the end it shamelessly milks the audience for tears with its overblown melodramatics and finally love wins the day. So yeah. On the positively note, it was a freebie, seemingly professionally edited and read very quickly.

[Sherri Thacker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Perfect Family was first published as Tuesday’s Child in the UK in 2019. I cannot find The Perfect Family on NetGalley yet so I’m putting my review under this title instead. This book had me guessing till the end and the shocking twist at the end was definitely shocking to me that I did not see coming. Thank you NetGalley for giving me this newer version. Will definitely be searching for more books by this very talented author.

[Norma's Nook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This was one heck of a suspenseful ride! A family in crisis, an adopted child suspected, and a mother that refuses to give up, Tuesday's Child is a domestic mystery that I couldn't put down. The story was intense and intriguing. The characters were so deeply written and the plot moved forward at a wonderful pace. The twists and turns surprised me every single time. I gasped, cried, and even laughed at parts. It's so well written and, if mystery is your thing, you probably be up all night reading like it was. I just couldn't put it down. Such a wonderfully rich story!

[norcalgal · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel was alright, but then it went off the rails. It turned bad in an eye-rolling way when the following things happened:
1) Mark turned into a cartoon villain who murdered/attempted to murder everyone (Tom, Betsy, Holden, Emery); extra demerit for not laying the groundwork to show Mark's drug-filled past
2) Out of ALL the children to adopt, not just in their town, but in the entire world, Emery and Mark just happened to adopt Mark's unbeknownst illegitimate child!
3) Emery became THE most fertile woman in the world because she twice became pregnant with Coop's child after one single sexual encounter
4) Given all the blood depicted, the fact that Emery went on to have a healthy child beggars belief!

If it weren't for all the above - which basically constitutes the entire story - Tuesday's Child would have earned more stars.

[Kim (booked4life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked TUESDAY’S CHILD up out of the blue and I am so happy I did because I finished it in two days. This book is fast-paced and suspenseful. The chapters are on the shorter side and left me wanting to read more. They also went back and forth between the past and the present, which I love in books! This was a great psychological thriller.

[Kay Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emery's daughter has passed away. She's about to be laid to rest at the tender age of eleven. Mere days before her funeral, the cops shock with a shattering revelation: her death wasn't an accident. She was murdered. And they have a suspect. Her adopted brother.

This book was filled with piercing emotion, shocking twists, and believable red herrings. I was kept guessing and on the edge of my seat to the very end. Excellent domestic thriller.

[Cath · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brings about the conflict of wondering whether you are to blame for an action you took. The main character is Emery, a mother to a young girl of ten called Betsy, and married to a senator called Mark Gables and they made the decision little over a year before, to adopt a boy called Holden, who was almost the same age as their daughter. At Halloween, their daughter dies in what was first thought to be a simple accident, but soon turns out to have been murder! Only their adopted son is being considered the prime suspect!!!

Did they introduce their daughter to the very person that killed her? Their marriage had been on the rocks and somewhat shaky since the official adoption ceremony, with mark staying away in the city as much as possible, leaving Em to deal with Holden and his stubborn behaviour traits on her own. She had already lost her two best friends and was having problems with her daughter being bullied at the prestigious school, from before Holden was on the scene, never mind the problems at school and home once Holden joined their family.

I loved the added stress of her former first love, Cooper, now back in the town of Port Windwick as a Deputy Sheriff, being added to the story and the way he works his way back into supporting her life, from a distance. He thinks he has a lot to make up for, but both sides are hiding secrets and some may not be able to be forgiven. There are deep meanings to a lot of this storyline and it makes you wonder how you might react if that had happened to you. A massive shift in family life has led to the worst sort of news a parent could be given. Now, they have the added trauma of their adopted son being held as the person responsible.

This book certainly doesn’t leave any rose-tinted lenses on the parts regarding adoption and what affect that can have on the family. The sorts of reactions and behaviour one might expect from a child, traumatised at an early age and then left being bounced about the foster system and what might happen when placed in a bad foster placing. This happens more often than people may realise. We often hear of problems in old people’s homes and bad treatment of the elderly by those who should be caring for them, but not so much about private fostering placements and when things go wrong!

This story goes back and forth from present day to the days before and after Holden becomes part of the family and what occurs daily. How Em is coping or not with her new addition to the family and more lately, how Betsy is coping with the fighting between her and Mark and his numerous absences. Adoption is a serious step and many only see the end result, thinking a lost child now has a forever family, not all the steps in-between and the sagas and trauma that it has taken to get to that stage for many.

This was a very thought provoking read, not just about a murder, but mainly about adoption and the problems this can bring to those going along this path. The school time bullying, children playing violent video games that are completely unsuitable for their age, all adds to the background and allows you a little view of children growing up in the modern world with mobiles almost as soon as they can walk and social media passing on pressure, snide comments and even online bullying. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and will certainly be looking for more of this author’s books. They are certainly though provoking and deal with difficult issues. I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intense, suspenseful story.
Emery’s daughter has passed away, and just a few days before her funeral, they get some more dreaded news. Her death wasn’t an accident; it was murder.
The main suspect? Emery’s adopted son!
The book is a beautifully written page turner. It’s filled with twists and turns that leave you guessing until the very end. Such a great mystery book that will definitely leave you feeling so many emotions.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read. Unfortunately, the judgmental behavior of those on the outside is probably truthful to how they would act in real life.

[Yasmin Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow read, predictable twist. Was more of a meh type book.

[Wendy Del Toro · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author has an exquisite way with words, great metaphors and the inner ruminations by the main character, Emery, seemed credible. Emery as a mother and a person is authentic with all her self-doubts and flaws. The secondary characters are also fully realized, and the interactions and reactions ring true. We got to know the dead child in flashback chapters which is necessary to elicit my sympathy. There was a clue early in the story as to what happened the night of the death Holden and Betsy changing costumers that I felt could easily have been left out without my feeling cheated. The reveal of what happened the night of Betsy's death made this a 3-star book, rather than 5. Up to that point the writing was sharp and cerebral, but the reveal was cliched, horribly stale and way over the top and far fetched and changed the tone of the book. It devolved at that point into schlock. I still found the author to be incredibly talented and a good storyteller, but wished she had changed the 'death scene and perpetrator'.

[Ines (Bookstaroom) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great story read in November.
Gripping and scary at the moments and what I love the most about psychological thrillers? PLOT TWISTS! This novel has a mindblowing twists on almost every page!

Has Emery made a mistake to adopt Holden? Has characters revealed their true colours or they're hiding something?

Read it to revealed it!

[Rubyna Jinnah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am grateful that this was a quick read because I almost gave up. I’m also wondering where the editor was? The grammar, punctuation and spelling errors were horrific.

[Bronwyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A-Z Challenge Book T

This was a far-fetched mystery | suspense | psychological thriller | family drama. Yes, it had all those elements, but the drama was the most prevalent. The plotline was so ridiculous and the FMC was a moron! Despite the drama, I figured out who the killer was very early on in the book. When that happens, it’s really hard to find the motivation to continue through the absurdity to get to the end.

One of the things that bothered me most was regarding the MMC. Mark is a Washington State Senator. Now, I hate politics and everything that goes with it, but I know enough that the US has a bicameral Congress made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Those people are all members of Congress as a whole, regardless of which branch they serve in. But Mark kept going on and on about how he had to have the perfect family because he was “running for Congress”. Hello! He’s already a member of Congress!! He’s a STATE SENATOR! They serve six-year terms. Was he running for REELECTION? 🤷🏻‍♀️ Then that is how it should’ve been stated. “I’m running for reelection this year. Things need to look perfect.” It drove me batty!!

The amount of errors and inconsistencies throughout the book made my head spin. I’ll put a few in my notes/highlights if anyone is interested. However, this was a mess and I’m not going to include them all. I’m glad this was free when I got it. (I’m not sure if it was an Amazon First Reads selection or not since it was a while ago.) My heart truly went out to the children in this book (Betsy and Holden only—not all the bullies) because most of the adults were abhorrent. The only adults I liked were Trista (the FMC’s best friend), and Cooper (the Sheriff).

**For some reason, Goodreads isn’t syncing up with kindle. 🙄 I’m not surprised since I’ve been having issues even posting this review. Good job Amazon!!! 🙄 Therefore, I can’t attach any notes/highlights.

[Gabby Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think i may have found my new fav author. this book was insane 10/10 def recommend

[Hazel Harkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book evoked feelings in me that had been long buried, bringing tears at times but the end evoked the happy tears. This book has an exceptional happy ending. Holden is a child left alone at a young age when his supposed caregiver overdosed and died, with the needle still in her arm. A 6 year old left alone for days not knowing what to do or where to go.
I found this book to be tragic, mysterious, revealing, heart warming, heart wrenching and haunting with real life situations like a girls club and Mommy Tribe which to me is the mean girls club only with a snobby name. This book also made me feel angry, sad, confused and intense at times.
My favorite thing about this great mystery is that you don't get to know until close to the book, I mean not even really a hint!

[Pamela Howell]

Wonderful read

I normally have issue time jumping - now-then- ago etc. but I was still able to follow threads. It actually helped build suspense. I had few other culprits in mind but was shocked at reveal.

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what an ending...Mark is running for Congress, Emery is his wife and wants to adopt a child. They have a daughter Betsy. What a mystery and shocker.

[Vanessa Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page Turner for sure

Plot twists. A page Turner. I finished in less than a week. Very well written. I really liked it. Will be looking into more books by this author.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this- couldn’t put it down. Some twists easy to spot- others not so! This is definitely an author whose books I’ll enjoy reading more of.

[Monae Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put this book down. Loved every twist and turn in the plot.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tuesday’s Child was the first book I have read from this author. It was tragic, mysterious, revealing, heart warming, heart wrenching and haunting with real life situations like a girls club and Mommy Tribe that left me feeling sad, angry, and confused (in a good way), and felt as though I rode the emotional wave right along with Emery. The secrets that unfolded and the deception that the characters carried throughout made it extremely thought provoking.

The best part of this psychological thriller was its fast paced and intriguing storyline. I didn’t want to stop listening. Mora did a fabulous job drawing me in and keeping me wanting more.

I really liked the way the history and present events converged to give a picture of all that happened and all that was going on. Some of the twists were unexpected right to the end; and the author kept many things a secret, revealing them one at a time at just the perfect time.

Another aspect I liked about this book was how realistic the characters were. Holden was portrayed as a troubled young boy with anger management issues, though his relationship with Betsy was that of a strong brother-sister bond. Emery and Mark’s marriage was strained but Emery and Conner, her ex, was strong.

I was equally pleased with how Mora included Betsy’s perspective so the reader knew what really happened to Betsy on the night she was killed. The ending was a little far-fetched but overall I liked how the story conveyed strength of the family bond, unconditional love, and redemption. Anya Mora is definitely a new found audible book favorite author!! (Audio)

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me hooked in the first chapter. I did not see the twist coming. A very entertaining and quick read!

[Crio B · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Fast paced thriller.
Kept me on my toes and kept me guessing.
I figured things out near the end.
Will not be my last book from this author.

[Amber Brake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! Absolutely loved the ending!

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Perfect Family by Anya Mora is an intriguing domestic thriller that can be read in one sitting. As the intensity builds and you get further into the plot, you can start to see where the plot is headed,  but in saying I still had a good time reading this one. Recommended.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my digital copy to read and review.