Raising children is the hardest task in the world, and when they become teenagers the challenges get harder each day. #thenightoliviafell @christinamac79 #heartbreak #thriller #suspense #lies #mystery @GalleryBooks @NetGalley @absltmom

It’s Thursday and it is raining. Although thank goodness, it is warm. This transported Southern girl does not like the cold. Hope your reading is keeping you snug and warm today book friends.

Imagine getting the horrible news that your daughter has taken an awful fall from a bridge, is in the hospital and is declared brain dead? Now imagine that you also find out that this same daughter, who you have raised as a single parent is pregnant? This is the premise of the story The Night Olivia Fell.

As a parent, this is your worst nightmare. How did this happen? How could a beloved daughter be brain dead and who is the father of the child she is carrying? Abi Knight is living that nightmare. She has received the phone call every parent dreads. Her daughter, the person she has loved and cared for, has now to rely on machines to keep her alive. The machines cannot be turned off as Olivia being pregnant, must be kept on life support in an effort to keep the child she carries alive.

Abi, is distraught. Her overwhelming desire is to ferret out exactly what happened to Olivia. How and why did she fall? Who is the father of her unborn grandchild, and as Abi digs further into this heart breaking dilemma, many characters play a role in Abi’s search for truth. Abi’s old boyfriend, a very successful politician running for office, has mysteriously reappeared as well as her sister, Sarah, who constantly lends support to a grieving mother. The police are involved, but there seems to be some kind of reluctance to investigate this tragedy.

Told in alternating voices, we learn of Abi and discover her life, her fears and her ultimate love for her child. Olivia’s story is one of deception, sadness, loneliness, and love. This is a story of parental love, it is the story of secrets that drive a life into despair and yet also hope, love, and eventual peace. We, as mothers, could be Abi. We all feel her pain, her loss, and her desperate need for closure.

Olivia’s voice is one that we can well understand, one where her youth and naivete is on display, one where she is searching for that illusive someone, her father, and her place in the world. She wants to belong, to fit, to feel a part of something her mother can’t quite deliver to her. She questions her parentage and while she stumbles onto truth, she places herself in the line of danger.

Christina MacDonald weaves a wonderful story of the length ones goes to in their attempt to protect their child. This novice author is able to tap into mother love and the power that lies, deception and dishonesty can play. Although the story for me did drag a bit in the middle, the beginning and the ending made this one of those “unputdownable” reads.

Thank you to Christina MacDonald, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for a copy of this emotional and loving story. This book is due to be published on February 5, 2019.

and here’s the author:

Christina McDonald is an author of suspenseful, emotional thrillers. She is also an avid bookworm and a devoted mother and wife. She was born in Seattle, Washington and now lives in London, England with her husband and two sons, where she enjoys reading, writing, hiking and lifting weights at the gym. She is currently writing her second novel.