ponderosa_penns 's review for:

The Couple At No. 9 by Claire Douglas

4.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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This was such an interesting journey regarding the different phases of motherhood.  We start out with pregnant Saffy, raised by her gran Rose because her teen mom Lorna is off gallivanting in Spain (as she did all of Saffy’s life).  This book feels a tad disjointed at first, with chapters from Saffy, Lorna, Rose and then Theo.  At first I was confused about where Theo’s chapters landed in the timeline because Rose’s were in the past; I thought perhaps his would be too.   The plot twist was what made this book jump from a 3 to a 4 for me.  I truly wasn’t expecting

Daphne to have stolen Rose’s identity

. 

Daphne killing Rose

felt a little lackluster to me, but it does have such heavy implications on Saffy and Lorna.  Ultimately what I enjoyed the most was the journey for the women as mothers— you have pregnant Saffy dealing with an immense amount of stress learning how to lean on her flighty mother Lorna.  Lorna steps up as a mother for the first time in her life and then

learns something so life changing that she finally puts down roots and takes her role as mom seriously

.  Then there’s Rose.  Wow.  On one hand you have her raising Lorna, then raising Saffy. 

But then you learn she ain’t even related to them, killed Lorna’s real mom and stole her identity

.  It’s such an interesting read and a kind of beautiful take on motherhood, especially as a mom myself. 

Also, Victor is such a piece of shit 🙃 raping all those women and inseminating them with his fucking sperm.  Fuck you Victor— taking advantage of desperate mothers like that!