Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson

 

Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson is a fast-paced baby-snatching story whose kidnapper is obsessed with avenging her daughter’s ill-thought deeds in college. Bree Cabbat has it all -- a loving husband, three children, a fine home, and plenty of money in the bank – until her baby Robert is snatched.

Paralyzed with fear, Bree does everything the kidnapper tells her to, including poisoning a man who is not only a friend of her husband’s but also his colleague. Eventually enough clues pile up that Bree knows her husband has been involved with the kidnapper’s daughter Lexie in some way, and she keeps forming the question, “What did you do?” in her mind until she finally confronts him.

Lexie lived a wild life in college with plenty of sex and drugs. She seemed to have no limits. When she suggested a threesome that included Bree’s husband, she had not counted on another person at the fraternity slipping in and taking photos. Soon the photos were spread across campus, and Lexie was asked to leave the school because of an agreed-upon morals clause. Her life descended from there into a spiral of prostitution and drug addiction.

Bree’s husband Trey never told her about this escapade, which he is not proud of and blames on being drunk and then taking drugs that Lexie brought to the fraternity. He is profoundly ashamed of that one wild night and does not buy into Bree’s suggestion of rape…something never suggested by Lexie herself.

While I was enjoying the intensity of the book nearly to the ending, this heavy-handedness toward Trey did not set well with me. Lexie wanted a threesome, she brought the drugs, she initiated it all. That photos were taken and distributed was not part of her plan nor Trey’s and his friend’s…that was purely on the photographer. All three men are eventually murdered, but their deaths did not go down well with me as I believe Lexie’s actions did have consequences. Too much blame is put on the others with no responsibility assigned to Lexie. Just my two cents. The pat ending with Bree and a male friend ending up together, even though I could see it coming throughout the book, did not fit.

Joshilyn Jackson is a bestselling novelist with works including Never Have I Ever, Gods in Alabama, and The Almost Sisters. She reads the audio versions of her books and has been nominated for the Audie Award. The author is a resident of Decatur, Georgia.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting February 6, 2021.

I would like to thank William Morrow and Custom House for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.