Nina Manning

I’m struggling here. The story did keep me reading. The problem I have is that I’m not sure what I read. I picked it up as a thriller. I’ve been reading a lot of them lately. For the majority of the book I didn’t feel like it was a thriller. I felt like it was more of a mental health drama. Our main character is Regi. She is sharing a flat with 3 house mates, all younger than her. Regi has OCD and, possibly, PTSD. She presents as an abuse survivor whose husband has possibly found her. For most of the book I was interested in Regi who I thought of as coming into a recovery of sorts from her past. Then comes the end and I don’t know anything. I mean I understand the ending. I get that Regi was an unreliable narrator. I just didn’t feel a good closure so I feel like I missed out on a lot of the story. I feel kind of cheated because I invested in what I was being told. Then it went off totally different. I’m kind of okay with that. It happens with a lot of thrillers. But then, not only was it totally different, it all wrapped up neatly. One big love fest. Huh? I don’t know what I really feel yet. Perhaps it was the confusing alternating chapters, (it comes and goes between now and then), or just a let down feeling by it all wrapping up so nicely. I don’t know what to tell you about if you should read this or not. It definitely is one that is an individual pick. I thought the author did well with getting down both the OCD part and the PTSD. I have both so I feel like I can give an opinion on that. The rest... I don’t know. I read it consistently so it is interesting. I think it was the ending wrapping up so neatly that bothers me. My advice would be to borrow it and see if it catches your interest.
I read this through the Kindle Unlimited program. My rating is actually a 3.5 but I round up as we can’t give half stars.… (more)

Sometimes life gets in the way and I am unable to write a review immediately after finishing a book. I can usually refer back to my notes for a quick reminder about the story. But my notes for The Daughter-in-Law by Nina Manning made absolutely no sense to me.
That’s when I’m grateful for those reviews with spoilers. So without notes to spark my memory, I recall an overbearing mother, her son and his new pregnant wife. Obviously mother did not like a new wife. I think the overall theme here was far will a mom go for her son? In this case, a bit too far. I don’t want to give away too much, but I felt quite shocked at some of the situations and didn’t expect the weird twist at the end.
Overall, for a debut novel, this was not a bad story. I’d say it’s a story that’s been done a lot but Ms. Manning managed to put her own personal mark on it making it just different enough to be a worthwhile use of the reader’s time.

3.5 ⭐️’s… (more)