The Trophy Child by Paula Daly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really liked this book. Very readable and unexpected!
Karen is the mother no kid wants. Endlessly driving her youngest, Bronte, to exhaustion there is never time for the 10-year-old to be a kid. Noel, her dad, is a doctor and is oftentimes late getting home because of the tension that Karen brings to the house. Verity, his daughter from his first marriage, has a tumultuous relationship with her stepmom and the two barely speak. Karen’s son from an earlier relatinoship, Ewan, spends most of his time in his room getting high. The family is dysfunctional.
One day, Bronte goes missing. They are unable to figure out where she went even after involving the police and news media. Then she walked in completely fine but not saying anything about where she had been or who she’d been with.
A couple weeks later, Karen, turns up missing and when they find her, she is dead. This story has great characters and when they finally find Karen is gone, you can almost feel the stress lifting fomr the family. Unexpected. I had no idea the story would turn out this way. I give this book 5 stars. It was easy to read and I never put it down once I started it!