Don't Trust Mother: An absolutely unputdownable psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist

By Carey Baldwin

The knock jolts me from my tears. I've been in a daze since my mother died. But the stranger at the door-Sandra, she says her name is-has brown eyes the same as mine, hair exactly the same shade. She says she's my real mother. I'm her daughter. She's lying... Right?

When the woman at my door tells me I was adopted, that she's my birth mother, I go cold all over. Was the woman who raised me lying all this time?

I'm left shaken. I loved my mother so much. But then I think of the last phone call I had with her. I could hear in her voice that something was wrong. She'd insisted we had to meet that evening, just the two of us. But she never turned up.

I don't know who to trust. I'm all alone. Then, strange accidents start happening... And when I secretly follow Sandra to try to find out the truth, it feels like I'm the one being watched.

Is my whole life a lie?

And will I survive long enough to uncover who this woman truly is-and what she really wants?

This absolutely jaw-dropping and twisty psychological thriller will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves Freida McFadden, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won't be able to put this down

What readers are saying about Carey Baldwin:

"WOW JUST WOW ... WHAT A TWIST ... Absolutely captivating and unputdownable ... I was completely blown out of the water... Just when I thought I had sussed it all out BANG I was completely blindsided ... I absolutely LOVED this one ... An absolutely page-turning thriller with an absolutely EXPLOSIVE ending that I would never have seen coming " Bookworm86, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"I devoured this... So many twists and turns ... Had me gripped... WOW, the twist at the very end I was NOT expecting that ... Jaw-dropping." Arcreviews_by_m, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"WOW WOW WOW ... Left me speechless... It will be a while before I can pick my jaw off the floor... Masterpiece ... Just WOW " Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Literally blew my mind... Made me stop dead in my tracks. Whoa ... A mastermind when it comes to delivering a 5-star hit... Oh so twisted I gobbled this book up in one sitting ... Obsessed." Thrillbythepage_, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Wow, wow, wow What a rollercoaster ride that was ... Had me hooked from the very first word... I couldn't put it down and had to find out what the heck was going on... I absolutely loved this." Blue Moon Blogger, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"OH YEAH ... Addictive and fast-paced... Drama-filled rollercoaster ride ... WOW Never in a million years did I see that major twist coming out of the blue ... Mind-blown " Heidi Lynn's Book reviews

"WOW... Oh my god... Took my breath away... I couldn't literally believe that ending at all ... I couldn't even put this book down and stayed up all night reading this " Tropical Girl Reads Books, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1836189362
• ISBN13: 9781836189367
• Release Date: July 2025
• Publisher: Bookouture
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Families stick together!

Ivy is a sweet and naive young woman who lost her mother several months ago but has trouble letting go. Her husband and father are tiptoeing around her, treating her as if she was going to break at any moment. And that is when the fun begins, with a strange woman showing up on their doorstep claiming to be her real mother. A snowball rushing down a mountain to create an avalanche of craziness and wild times! It was fun to listen to as everything unraveled, from questions about her mother's accidental death, to the truth of Ivy being adopted but still not as it seems with Sandra and her father and husband and others are hiding their own secrets. Poor Ivy, sweet and hoping for the best in people but still doing her own investigations. This story has dead bodies, possible "accidents" that might be real threats, secrets, gaslighting, many twists, each crazier than the last till the very end with a big reveal that I did not expect but I loved how Ivy rose to the challenge (which I enjoyed because I felt sorry for her naivete) proving she belongs in the family. :) The narrator, Elise Roth, did a wonderful job with this wild ride of a thriller and brought the characters nicely to life, even the nasty ones, though no one is perfect and this book proved that humans are complicated with good bits and bad and though they might try to protect their family, sometimes it all goes sideways.