Title: The Park

Author: Gail Schimmel

Genre: Domestic Drama

Main Characters:

• Rebecca – mother who takes her daughter to the park
• Amy – Rebecca’s daughter
• Rose – fellow mother in the park
• Lilith – fellow mother in the park
• Ruby-Mae – Lilith’s daughter

Summary:

Good mothers take their children to the park.

Rebecca doesn’t expect to make new friends at this stage of her life. But when she becomes a mother to little Amy, she finds herself spending her afternoons in the park. There she meets other mothers: first flamboyant, fun Rose and then single-mom Lilith, whose inner strength is tangible, and whose eyes never leave her toddler.

Very soon the women have formed a trio – the type of friends who feel at home in each others kitchens – and their daughters begin to behave like sisters. But Rebecca is about to learn that friendship is not always what it seems, and that sometimes you trust the wrong people. At exactly the moment when she needs to lean on them, one of her new friends harbours a shocking secret, and the other will turn on her in a way she could never have anticipated.

Her two park friends will change her life – and her family – forever.

Verdict:

Set in suburban South Africa, I could truly relate to this story – I am a mom who has spent her afternoons in the park and making new mom-friends. But the twist in the story is a shocking one and a sad reality that many families and friends go through each day. Another page turner, I read it in 36 hours!

Have you read it? what did you think?

Any other good book recommendations?

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