Title: Bye Baby Bunting by Tannis Laidlaw
Publisher: Junction Publishing
Date Published: 28th August 2018
Genre: Psychological Suspense
Description:
An unwanted pregnancy. A kidnapping. Escape…
University student Jemma Howell’s life has turned upside down: she’s pregnant and her boyfriend has just died.
A lawyer manipulates Jemma to sign away the child to her dead boyfriend’s parents, the wealthy Winchesters.
Six months after giving birth, Jemma is still obsessed with her baby’s welfare. A chance opportunity occurs. She makes a split-second decision.
She is now a kidnapper and on the run. Detective Constable Tim Findlay is assigned to the Winchester kidnapping, his first big case.
In the course of the investigation, he and his partner uncover deeply hidden secrets about the Winchester family.
For Tim, the difference between right and wrong becomes blurred.
BYE BABY BUNTING is a page-turning psychological suspense that explores society’s attitudes to single parenting and adoption and the laws that apply to birth-mother, child and adoptive parents. The story takes place in Auckland, New Zealand, Hawaii and Winnipeg, Canada between 1963 and the present.
You can buy your copy here: http://mybook.to/ByeBabyBunting
Review:
The story opens with Penny finding her birth certificate which states she was born in New Zealand but her name is completely different. We then journey back to 1963 and meet Jemma who is mourning the lose of her boyfriend Barry after finding out she’s pregnant. Unsure of what to do, having being told she wouldn’t make a good mother by friends and social workers, she gives the baby up to Barry’s parents Mr and Mrs Winchester.
She regrets her mistake, so when she sees the opportunity, she snatches her baby back. With the help of her friend Graeme they work on a plan so that Jemma can keep her baby but with the police on her tail will she manage to keep her baby?
If you’re planning to read Bye baby bunting I suggest you have a box of tissues handy. It is a heart breaking tale of a young mum forced to give up her child but given a second chance to raise her daughter.
As an unwed mother myself, I couldn’t help but get angry for Jemma, having to give up her baby and levels of scorn, whispering and judgement she was subjected to was just plain disgusting.
I really rooted for Jemma and Graeme, which being the kidnappers I shouldn’t, but they’re so sweet and you just want Jemma get her baby back. They’re relationship grows as the book progresses, which adds nicely to the story, but obviously after Barry, she’s reluctant but I really wanted her to get her happily ever after moment.
I do feel like this book may have been mislabelled as a psychological thriller/suspense, yes there are a few heart in your mouth moments but there wasn’t really any that screamed psychological thriller to me, in fact it felt more like a family drama.
Overall Bye Baby Bunting is a heart breaking, historical drama that will send you on an emotional rollercoaster.
Rating: 3/5
About The Author:
Dr Tannis Laidlaw has worn many hats in her career as a psychologist: clinician in private
practice, in psychiatric bins and in the prison service; researcher in schizophrenia, anxiety, psychopathy and other personality disorders, mind-body interactions, and the therapeutic use of hypnosis; research manager; writer and lecturer.
She has always been fascinated by the human condition, not only in those with crossed wiring but also when ordinary people are driven to behave in extraordinary ways. Her fiction reflects her psychological background; her non-fiction, her interests as a wife, mother and friend.
Tannis lives with her husband in Auckland, but spends half her time at a deserted beach in Northland, the semi-tropical northern part of New Zealand, and in a remote cabin in the woods on a Canadian lake – all places where she writes and writes and writes.
Website: www.tannislaidlaw.com
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