And, just for today, while I walk down the aisle towards the man of my dreams, while I say ‘I do’, I’ll try to put the secret I know about the family I am marrying into right out of my mind. It’s a whirlwind romance. And when our dream home falls through just before our wedding, we decide to move in with his parents. He says his mother, Evelyn, is the sweetest person. But I’m not so sure.

The Mother-in-Law follows a couple named Sam and Dana, who after a whirlwind romance of 4 months, are engaged to be married! We find out early on that Dana has a serious nut allergy, which is terrible because she ends up moving in with her future in-laws and they're a bunch of nuts! Sorry, I had to. Realllllyyyyy wanted to love this one. I thought it had great potential with the storyline. I just didn’t connect with any of the characters and every single one of the characters drove me CRAZY.The premise of this story is one that has been written so many times before, but there are always small things that will make a story different and more interesting than others.

However, the sweet and beautiful love story was tragically cut short following a painful battle with cancer that had taken Lily’s mother. Karen is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Society of Authors, the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Women Writers and Journalists. She now lives in Spain where she loves to spend her non-writing time exploring the quaint local towns with her husband, Dave, when she isn’t sunbathing or swimming in the pool, that is. The Mother-in-Law hooked me from the first chapter. It kept me motivated and I finished the book in one day. Domestic thrillers are my favorite and this one had outstanding head-scratching turns. Some may argue that the plot had a few tiny holes, but it did not interfere with my enjoyment of Karen King's work. I liked the novel and look forward to reading more from Karen King.

Other books by Karen King

My only critique is the ending, which I understand gave the twist but I kind of hoped for a different outcome. But that’s just the twisted little reader I am! For Dana and Sam, it was love at first sight. After a few months, they decide to get married. They move in with Sam's parents, Evelyn and Harold, and Dana starts having accidents. Evelyn is a hard woman to please. She would have preferred Tamara to be Sam's wife. Then Dana hears Evelyn and Harold argue and a secret is revealed. Still, King always desired to pen a full-length romance, and hence when her children were grown up she decided to write a Mills and Boon type work. This is how you write a tense battle of wills. Right from the start you know things have gone horribly wrong for bride Dana…… A mother-in-law can be seen as mean and untrustworthy, within reasons. She will only want what's best for her child and not settle for anything less.

Today is my wedding day. And I don’t know if I’ll make it out alive…As I put my beautiful white wedding dress on, I try not to ignore my fears. I look in the mirror and feel more beautiful than I ever have before. I know marrying Sam is the right choice. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I reach for my bright yellow roses, and I force myself to be as cheerful and sunny as those flowers. I won’t dwell on everything that’s happened recently – ever since we agreed to stay with his parents for the weeks ahead of the wedding. Glancing down at my sparkling engagement ring, I pretend to myself I can forget about the ‘accidents’ I keep having, that I can’t believe are coincidental. Or about his mother’s barbed comments, and the dark looks she gives me.And, just for today, while I walk down the aisle towards the man of my dreams, while I say ‘I do’, I’ll try to put the secret I know about the family I am marrying into right out of my mind. Even though that’s one secret that – if I was my soon-to-be mother-in-law – I might just kill to keep… An absolutely thrilling and gripping psychological suspense novel, perfect for fans of Shalini Boland, Shari Lapena, and The Woman in the Window. The Mother-in-Law by Karen King – eBook Details As soon as she reached out, I knew I had to meet her. My family all seem ready to accept her with open arms, their forgiveness a blessing I barely deserve. And I dare to believe that maybe we are all going to have a happy ending after all. From that moment, I know that if I want to make it to my wedding day alive, I will need to be very, very careful.... Maria the new woman in their lives seems to love her father deeply and it is not long before she has formed strong bonds with Emma her little sister.The things that happen to Dana throughout are pretty standard for the evil mother-in-law genre, but fun to read nonetheless. There are a couple twists in this story that make it stand out from similar stories, though, including a surprise ending that I enjoyed. My only real nit with the book was the characterization; I felt like I didn’t really KNOW Dana and also couldn’t figure out how she and Sam fell so helplessly in love right after meeting. I wish the author would have given me more into into what that connection looked like and what Dana’s life was like until that point.

Has to be my favourite read of this year, hands down! I couldn’t put it down… I was not stopping until I knew the whole story!… Amazing!’Books With Loz ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Karen King is a multi-published author of both adult and children’s books. Currently published by Bookouture and Headline, Karen writes about the light and dark of relationships. Her eleventh romantic novel, The Spanish Wedding Disaster, has recently been published and her third psychological thriller The Mother In Law is out in July, with a fourth one in February 2023. While it may not have been as brilliant as her two previous thrillers "The Stranger in my Bed" and "The Perfect Stepmother", it was still a fantastic thrill ride worth 5 stars that I enjoyed every delicious minute of. Karen King is the publisher of multiple bestselling children’s and adult fiction works. She went to grammar school and after graduation, she went to Open University where she got her bachelor’s degree.

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And then it was time to meet his parents. "They'll love you" Sam assured her. But Dana wasn't so sure...particularly when she saw their house. Sam came from a very different world to her and she was sure his parents wanted more for him. But they were in love and not only were they engaged but they had both decided on a summer wedding...in just a few months time. His parents were stunned but accepting of their decision. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all. But nothing is as obvious as it seems. We get a twist at the very end. My advice for this book, don’t trust anyone. The book itself isn’t very long and I finished it in 3 evenings (around 2 hours a day in between doing other things). Narrated in the first person, by Dana herself, this multi-layered storyline is broken down into clearly signposted chapters, which whilst slightly longer than those designated by many of the author's contemporaries, still gave me plenty of opportunity to come up for air and kept the pace of the story moving along nicely, even though a few weeks must have seemed like a lifetime for Dana. Some clever red herrings and plenty of subtle twists and turns, meant I also had no idea that I was trying to uncover multiple suspects, although my many names in the frame did read like a shopping list with just about everyone on it, including Dana herself at one point. Suspects with completely diverse motives, but with Dana as their common focus and means to an end, and with totally different outcomes required. Even though that’s one secret that – if I was my soon-to-be mother-in-law – I might just kill to keep…