The Other Child by Lucy Atkins

When Tess is sent to photograph Greg, a high profile paediatric heart surgeon, she sees something troubled in his face, and feels instantly drawn to him. 

Their relationship quickly deepens, but then Tess, single mother to nine-year-old Joe, falls pregnant, and Greg is offered the job of a lifetime back in his hometown of Boston. Before she knows it, Tess is married, and relocating to the States. But life in an affluent American suburb proves anything but straightforward. 

Unsettling things keep happening in the large rented house. Joe is distressed, the next-door neighbours are in crisis, and Tess is sure that someone is watching her. Greg's work is all-consuming and, as the baby's birth looms, he grows more and more unreachable. 

Something is very wrong, Tess knows it, and then she makes a jaw-dropping discovery...

The Other Child is the first book I have read by Lucy Atkins. The synopsis sounded promising and mysterious so I was looking forward to reading this book.

Tess and her son Joe are taking a big step and moving to the States after Greg who is Tess’s new husband gets offered his dream job back in his home town. Things are difficult for Tess, she is trying to make a new life in a country that is completely new to her and with Greg working so much she seems to be facing the challenges alone whilst carrying his unborn baby and trying to settle son Joe into a new school. With a lot of extra time on her hands Tess begins to notice things that seem rather odd and unsettling but can she get to the bottom of the mystery as things just do not add up.

It did take me a while to settle into this book as it flows at a slow pace but as the book progressed I could see that the slow pace was to create tension and suspense and it did work although I did find myself flying through the pages just to try and uncover more clues to figure out what the big mystery was. I loved that the book managed to keep me guessing through the majority of the book.

Each of the characters were developed really well, Tess was instantly lovable as was son Joe but I did find straight from meeting Greg that something just wasn’t right about him so I had my guard up all the way through just waiting for something to unravel and show his true colours.

The book did have the potential to be a 4 star but the reason this book lost a star for me was although I know this was a whirlwind romance between Tess and Greg, I just didn’t find the relationship between them believable. There didn’t seem to be a romantic connection to each other they were more like housemates ( on the rare time Greg came home) than Husband and Wife especially considering Tess had given everything up to follow Greg around the world. Greg wasn’t a loving or supportive character.  I also found that the storyline did feel rather drawn out.

I loved the way the author wrapped the book up, the ending was realistic rather than sugar coated and I was pleased with the outcome.

I would still pick up another book by Lucy Atkins as she manages to create a storyline with mystery and suspense. She also manages to give great depth to her characters so after hearing great things about her book The Missing One I will be picking this one up next.

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