Magpie
Fiction
Simon & Schuster
May 3, 2022
Advance reader copy
336
Free from publisher
Marisa and Jake are a perfect couple, and Kate, their new lodger, is the perfect roommate--and not just because her rent payments will give them the income they need to start trying for a baby. Except no one is perfect. Sure, Kate doesn’t seem to care much about personal boundaries and can occasionally seem overly familiar with Jake, but Marisa doesn’t let it concern her. Kate will soon be gone, and it will just be her, Jake, and their future baby.
Conceiving a baby is easier said than done, though, and Jake and Marisa’s perfect relationship is put to the test through months of fertility treatments and false starts. To make matters worse, Kate’s boundary-pushing turns into an all-out obsession--with Jake, with Marisa, and with their future child. Who is this woman? Why does she seem to know everything about Marisa and Jake?
In her quest to find out who Kate really is, Marisa might destroy everything she’s worked so hard to create: her perfect romance, her perfect family, and her perfect self. Jake doesn’t know the half of what Marisa has created and what she stands to lose. Magpie is a tense and twisting novel about mothers and children, envy and possession, and the dangers of getting everything you’ve ever dreamed of.
My review:
*Trigger warning*....I would look further into this one before reading if you are contemplating using a surrogate in creating your family! Having said that, this one is a wild ride if you choose to pick it up! This is a book where you are not really sure about anyone, and you find yourself frantically reading to figure out which of the characters are actually believable? Or are any of them? I loved the way the author dealt with Marisa's infertility grief. Having been through that part (and thanking myself for not going the surrogate route after reading this lol), I thought it was well done. Also of note was how well the plot had me spinning back and forth between who I thought was reliable. As you begin to get secrets and lies revealed the picture becomes clearer, and I did ultimately guess the main twist, but it sure was gratifying getting there (and the actual plotting that occurred). The ending was satisfying although I do wish there had been mention of what was to happen to the remaining four frozen embryos.
I flew trough this book trying to pick up clues as to who was being manipulated and who was to be believed. A well done thriller with infertility rep and some very unlikable characters!
