Book Review: Such A Good Mom by Julia Spiro

 GOODREADS SUMMARY:

With a healthy newborn baby, a devoted husband, a successful career, and a busy life on Martha’s Vineyard, Brynn Nelson should be the happiest she’s ever been. But Brynn is struggling. Her husband, Ross, grows more distant by the day, and the challenges and exhaustion of postpartum make Brynn feel like she’s slowly losing pieces of herself to motherhood. Pieces that she might never get back.

But it’s summer on the Vineyard, a beacon for wealthy visitors, and a place so beautiful that it seems immune to tragedy and crime. Except for locals, like Brynn, who know all too well that tragedy can strike at any point. And this time, it hits close to home when a friend of the family is found washed ashore. Dead. And Brynn’s already hectic life is turned upside down when Ross is arrested for the crime.

Left reeling with more questions than answers, Brynn’s only path forward is to find out who really killed Cecelia Buckley, even if it means it was her husband. She’s not sure who she’s able to trust anymore. And with dizzying, endless cycle of sleepless nights, diapers, and bottles, Brynn’s not even sure she can trust herself. She’s not sure of anything anymore, but she won’t stop until she finds the truth.

TEE'S THOUGHTS:

Let me start off saying that my feelings for this character are not a reflection on how I feel about Postpartum Depression. It is real, and women's feeling while going through it are valid and should be understood and heard more. I have been through it, twice, and I have had friends who have had it. each of us had various degrees of it, some had it lightly, and some had it horribly, so I want to again say, I do not discredit anyones time dealing with PPD.

SO. Such A Good Mom dealt heavily with PPD, new mother Brynn Nelson had just had a baby and suffered heavily with it. Her and her husband live on Marthas Vineyard, and like most of the permanent residences there, they have no worries about money. A friend of the family is found washed up on the shore, and to make matters worse for Brynn her husband is arrested for the murder.

Sounds good right? But the story lost me before I got to the half way part. First if all with all the struggles she has with her baby and PPD she sets out to clear her husbands name and find the really killer. I did find that a bit of a stretch, but that isn't where the book lost me, what lost me was the thriller part of the book, it seemed to get lost right along with me. The main concentration seemed to me her being a  mother, which honestly just did not hold my attention. I was wanting to read a thriller, that was what I signed up for. Brynn was constantly whining about the baby, which yes can happen when you are faced with PPD, but girl, you are wealthy , you have every means to get help, help that many women have absolutely have no access to. There was no reason for her to suffer or solve a murder for godsake.

I lost all concern for her, and at this point wasn't even fond of her. I also felt that the writer overused the PPD to make Brynn look unreliable to the reader. I just think the entire PPD situation could have been better handled. I did finish Such A Good Mom, but have to admit, I did fast forward here and there just so I could fin out who the killer was.

Such A Good Mom had great potential, I just wished we had less motherhood and more thriller.