Are you the pretty one in the family – a chilling book for you to read

When I was reading this book, I was literally carrying my kindle around the house.  I took it with me to read while I waited for the toast to pop, I was  reading which watching TV and yes, I even took it with me to the loo.  I could not put it down.

So current and real, it will chill you.

Anna is taking her kids on a day out to a gallery in London.  Her daughter Nell, her stepdaughter Bay, and the youngest Ivy.  A little bit of culture and an opportunity to bond. She is so proud of her kids; they are all different and yet she loves them all with passion.  Bay might not be her own biologically, but in every sense of the word she is hers.  Bay is quirky and striking and likes to be different, and Nellie is classically pretty, the pretty one. Although at fifteen she isn’t aware of her looks and hasn’t grown into them.  Ivy is just herself, too young to worry and happy to be with her big sisters. A strange man is following them, and it makes Anna uncomfortable.  She decides that stopping for tea and cake might shake off their tail.  It does the opposite though and the man comes up to them.  He is a model scout and he has his eyes on Nell – the pretty one.

Read this book please …

I don’t want to give too many spoilers because I really want you to read this book.  It is a fantastic read from author Clare Boyd.  More than that it is a cautionary tale of modern times, and the power of social media, body image and peer pressure. Against Anna’s better instincts, Nell becomes a model.  The money is amazing, and this could change their lives.  It does change their lives, but for the better, and what about the past?  What effect does the past have on the present and the future.

Description:

Nell is the perfect child; more beautiful and more likeable and more loveable than me. If my pretty little sister never came home again, I’d finally be free from the terrible secret we share… Anna is a wonderful mother. She gave up a career she loved to stay home with her children and her kind, polite daughters, Nell, and Ivy, are a credit to her. As is Bay, her stepdaughter, whom Anna adores as much as her own two girls. But everything changes the day Anna’s middle daughter’s beauty catches the eye of a stranger in a café… Quiet, sensitive Nell doesn’t want to have her face on a billboard for all to see. But she knows her family desperately needs the money, and perhaps it would be nice to have her mother’s full attention for the first time since Bay arrived? Could this be the escape from her stepsister’s twisted games Nell has been longing for? But the moment Nell steps in front of a camera, the devastating secret she and Bay have been keeping breaks the surface – and the bonds of this close-knit family forever. But with both Nell and Bay insisting they’re innocent, can either girl really be trusted? As Anna’s perfect blended family unravels around her, she is forced to pick a side. To save one daughter, Anna must betray another. Choosing the wrong girl will be more dangerous than anyone could ever have imagined… An unputdownable read-all-night family drama that explores the dark consequences of sibling rivalry and the heart-wrenching emotional cost of keeping secrets from those you love. Perfect for fans of Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere and My Dark Vanessa.

Author Bio:

Clare Boyd lives with her husband and their two daughters in Surrey, where her little green shed at the bottom of the garden provides a haven for her writing life. Before becoming a writer, she enjoyed a career in television, as a researcher in documentaries and then as a script editor in drama at the BBC and Channel Four, where her love of storytelling took hold.
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