Wednesday 22 January 2020

Book ~ "Woman on the Edge" (2019) Samantha M. Bailey

From Goodreads ~ A moment on the platform changes two lives forever. But nothing is as it seems ...

"Take my baby."

In a split second, Morgan's life changes forever. A stranger hands her a baby, then jumps in front of a train.

Morgan has never seen the woman before and she can't understand what would cause a person to give away her child and take her own life.

When the police question Morgan, she discovers none of the witnesses can corroborate her version of events. And when they learn Morgan longs for a baby of her own, she becomes a suspect.

To prove her innocence, Morgan frantically tries to retrace the last days of the woman's life. She begins to understand that Nicole Markham believed she and her baby were in danger. Now Morgan might be in danger, too.

Was Nicole a new mother struggling with paranoia?

Or was something much darker going on?

Morgan is recovering from a tragedy.  Her husband had cheated many people out of money and then committed suicide when he was caught.  Everyone assumes Morgan knew what her husband was doing and was in on it.  She is trying to rebuild her life.

Morgan is waiting for a subway one day when a woman approaches her, gives her her baby and asks her (by name) to take care of her ... then she jumps in front of a subway train.  The police officer who investigated Morgan's husband's death thinks she is involved and makes that obvious.

It turns out that the woman who gave Morgan her baby is Nicole, a wealthy former business owner who had just given birth to her daughter.  To clear her name, Morgan needs to find out more about Nicole and why she was chosen to have her baby.  She gets to know Nicole's brother, Ben, and best friend, Tessa, and discovers that Nicole was being terrorized by a woman from her past.

The premise of this book sounded interesting.  I thought the writing was okay.  The chapters alternate between the present time with Morgan and the past (a couple months ago) with Nicole.  The chapters with Morgan are written in first person perspective in Morgan's voice and third person perspective when it's Nicole's chapters.

I found Nicole's storyline was a bit extreme ... she was a strong powerful woman who had started a successful business, which she had sold for a lot of money.  After the birth of her daughter, she was a mess ... I found it hard to believe that she was the same person.  And with all the money she would have made from selling her business, I don't know why she was so concerned about having to return to the business after her maternity leave.  Why didn't she just stay home as a mom and live off her wealth?

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