Mother of All Secrets

A Novel

By: Kathleen M. Willett

Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen, Jennifer Jill Araya

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Her freedom, her sanity, her life. How much will a young mother sacrifice to protect her secrets?

Sleep deprived and overwhelmed, first-time mom Jenn is struggling to adapt to her new role. Frustrated with her loving but preoccupied husband and still grieving the death of her own mother, she feels isolated and depressed. It’s only when she joins a new-moms’ group that she starts to think she’s finally getting back on track.

Until Isabel, the group’s leader, suddenly disappears.

Now Jenn’s baby isn’t the only reason she can’t sleep. Consumed with worry over Isabel, Jenn is teetering on the edge of obsession. Concern turns to paranoia when Jenn finds clues that force her to look at herself, her marriage, and the women in her support group, who have more in common than Jenn realized. Much more.

Saving Isabel means unearthing secrets that were supposed to stay buried forever, and Jenn has to decide what she’s willing to risk to help a woman she barely knows. With each revelation, she gets closer to a slow-burning act of retribution that could easily and irrevocably draw her into the flames.

©2022 Kathleen M. Willett. (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Provocative and engrossing”—In Touch Weekly

“A riveting page-turner.”—Hoda Kotb, The Today Show

“Mother of All Secrets is a thrilling page-turner and a fierce manifesto about motherhood, powerful women, and what we must be willing to do to protect our children. The plot twists are breathtaking and I loved staying up late reading this fabulous novel.”—Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times bestselling author of RBC Book Club pick The Jetsetters and The Lifeguards

Great book!

This book was great! it really kept my attention. It had a few twists I didn't see coming!

Very, very slow start

Very, very slow start, but hang with it. The read is worth it. Great narrator.

Great story

Ex extremely well written. I am very well performed. You really connect with the characters. Don’t take my word for it either. Listen to it or get a paper copy and read it. You won’t be sorry

Gripping

I enjoyed both the storyline and the narrator of this audiobook. I could not stop listening. The twists, turns and unpredictable ending was written amazingly. I’ve already recommended this audiobook to several of my friends.

Twists and Turns Make it a Fun Story

My kids are 29 and 32 so I was disappointed at first when a good portion of the ground work for the story was about new moms and how exhausting it all is. My attitude was, yes, yes been there done that get on with the story. I am a true crime fanatic and a common statement when reading about true crime is - you can’t make this stuff up. That thought ran through my mind from time to time as I listened to the story. I feel that I am satisfied with a story if I can’t guess the outcome well in advance. This book kept me entertained and I can absolutely recommend it if you enjoy stories that have some twist and turns.

What a Twist!

I enjoyed the way the author started the book and how well she developed the characters. The moms were a little winny but other than that I liked it!

Great Story

I really almost gave up, listening to this book after the first hour, because the primary character was such a whiner and the narrator did such an awesome job representing that 🤪, but I hung in there and really loved the story at the end.

This was our book club choice. I loved the twists and turns and enjoyed the epilogue that finished the story neatlly

This was our book club choice, I loved the twists and turns. Riveting.the epilogue was helpful to tie ends together.

kept me interested, but went a bit too far

story was interesting, but the way everything happened was hard to believe. I understand it's fiction, but still went too far.

A pleasant surprise

I had rather low expectations for this book. It's not normally one I'd choose, but something in the description seemed a bit weird. This weird bit of something intrigued me enough to choose it, download and listen. I'm not a mom, so feared I'd be bored: I was not. Despite not choosing their life path, I could empathize with (most of) these characters. They're a privileged bunch, true, but privilege doesn't make them less than human. Cool little mystery here, with a healthy dose of karmic retribution.