In this riveting domestic suspense debut, a woman’s life shatters when she meets a girl she believes is the daughter she lost years ago–and she finds that reclaiming the life she lost might cost her the life she has. Tell Me You’re Mine is a story of guilt, grief, and the delicate balance between love and obsession.Where is the line between hope and madness?Three women: one who believes she has … and madness?
Three women: one who believes she has found her long lost daughter, one terrified she’s about to lose her child, and one determined to understand who she truly is.
Stella Widstrand is a psychotherapist, a happily married mother to a thirteen-year-old son. But when a young woman named Isabelle steps into her clinic to begin therapy, Stella’s placid life begins to crumble. She is convinced that Isabelle is her daughter, Alice. The baby that tragically disappeared more than twenty years ago on a beach during a family vacation. Alice is believed to have drowned, but her body was never found. Stella has always believed that Alice is alive, somewhere–but everyone around her worries she’s delusional. Could this be Alice?
Stella will risk everything to answer that question, but in doing so she will set in motion a sequence of events beyond her control, endangering herself and everyone she loves.
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Airport convenience stores are my Achilles heel. I cannot help myself, I go in before any flight and pick out a book. When I went to San Francisco, I went to the airport with one book and got on the flight with three books — one of which was Tell Me You’re Mine. I finished it on my flight from Atlanta to San Francisco, I literally couldn’t put it down. I had to get to the end of the book, I literally said, “Damn!” on the plane. Freaked my neighbour out too!
This slow simmering thriller kept me on the edge of my airplane seat. It’s the tale of three women; Stella, a psychologist, wife and mother to a boy and a child who was presumed dead twenty years ago. Isabelle, a young woman who’s seeking answers about her life after she was told that the father who had just died was not her biological father by her mother, Kristen. She is Isabelle’s mother, who is trying to hold onto her daughter after aspects of her life start to crumble around her. Slowly the lives of three women become intertwined and we see this fine line between hope and madness — you know — like the front page of the book says.
Norebäck does a phenomenal job pulling you into the book and really questioning who is the sane and insane character through the novel. As Stella becomes more convinced that Isabelle is her “dead” daughter, those around her fear she is on a brink of a breakdown. I kept having to go back and forth on whether I truly thought Stella was going mad.
As Isabelle looks for more answers, the questions she is asking and the independence she is seeking causes her own mother to crumble. I related so much to Isabelle as I was reading this, I wanted her to break free from this hold her mother had over her, but also I thought she kept relying so heavily on her mother’s guidance and took her at face value.
One character who really pissed me off, was Stella’s husband. He questioned her version of the truth and put more of the pressure of whether she was going insane or not. I felt he should have been stronger and had more faith in her belief.
I absolutely loved this book. Like I said, I had a hard time putting it down. Then again, I was on a plane and had nowhere to go, so I was forced to really sit there and keep reading. While I really did love it, there were parts that dragged on or were unnecessary. Besides that, this action packed thriller novel is totally worth getting at an airport library when you have anywhere between five to six hours on a flight!
Read more of my review here: https://bit.ly/2AsXdI7
This is a book I have had for awhile and just picked it up to read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The plot was good- draws you and steadily leads you through the story. I liked that the book was told from the viewpoint of three women- Isabelle, Stella, and Kerstin. Stella is stunned but sure that Isabella is her daughter who went missing two decades ago. Kerstin is determined to keep Isabella close to her even as Isabella is starting a new life. Isabella is confused by Stella’s attention and the pullnof her mother. Good read!
The lives of 3 women collide with a deadly force. Three women: one who believes she has found her long lost daughter, one terrified she’s about to lose her child, and one determined to understand who she truly is.
Stella is a psychotherapist with a tragic past. More than 20 years ago her infant daughter disappeared. Authorities determined that she had somehow got out of her stroller and fell into the swirling waters and drowned. Even though there is a marker in the cemetery with her name, she is not buried there. Stella has always believed that someone took her and her daughter is still alive.
But everyone around her thinks she is mentally unbalanced. Sometimes she thinks she is, too. She suffers from guilt …. she left her daughter alone for just a moment ..and that moment was long enough for her baby to disappear. She suffers from grief … she has mourned her daughter every single day.
Alternating voices of these women tell a story about love … and obsession. How far will a mother go to protect her children? What will she sacrifice ?
This author has started her career with a winner. It’s a riveting domestic suspense debut that had me hooked from the very first page. The characters are cleverly showcased. The suspense starts out fairly low key, but it increases significantly with each chapter leading to an explosive nail-biting ending.
Many thanks to the author / G P Putnam’s Sons / Netgalley / Edelweiss for the advanced digital copy of this psychological thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.