Because you're mine by Rea Frey

An “insidious, suspenseful tale” (J.T. Ellison) with a “shocker of an ending you won’t see coming” (Michele Campbell), Because You're Mine by Rea Frey, the author who “brings to mind Jodi Picoult” (Booklist) and “will appeal to readers of Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen” (Sally Hepworth) is a novel about how the truth will set you free.

But it’s the lies that keep you safe.

Single mother Lee has the daily routine down to a science: shower in six minutes. Cut food into perfect squares. Never leave her on-the-spectrum son Mason in someone else’s care. She’ll do anything--anything—to keep his carefully constructed world from falling apart. Do anything to keep him safe.

But when her best friend Grace convinces her she needs a small break from motherhood to recharge her batteries, Lee gives in to a weekend trip. Surely a long weekend away from home won’t hurt?
Noah, Mason’s handsome, bright, charismatic tutor—the first man in ages Lee’s even noticed—is more than happy to stay with him.

Forty-eight hours later, someone is dead.

But not all is as it seems. Noah may be more than who he claims to be. Grace has a secret—one that will destroy Lee. Lee has secrets of her own that she will do anything to keep hidden.
As the dominoes begin to fall and the past comes to light, perhaps it's no mystery someone is gone after all…

Because You're Mine is a breathtaking novel of domestic drama and suspense.

Prepare to stay up all night.
(From Goodreads)

My thoughts:
At the beginning of the book a woman dies, leaving her child motherless. Who is it? what kind of secrets and frustrations made her go on the fateful mountain climb alone?

And so our guessing game begins as soon as we meet Lee, a single mom of Mason, a gifted child with sensory processing disorder, which means Lee has to work from home, while Mason is homeschooled. We also meet Grace, her best friend. Lee became friends with a few playground mothers long time ago when Mason was still asymptomatic. They all have their strengths and roles, they all want to help Lee, but it is Grace she confides in and feels safe around. It does help that Grace loves and understands Mason better than anybody else. Grace herself is a divorced mother of seven year old Luca.

Lee's life is full of relentless responsibilities, so when her friends suggest a weekend away, she doesn't even take it into serious consideration. Eventually, she is persuaded to go by Grace, as Noah, Mason's tutor and occupational therapist is willing to stay with him for the weekend.

We get several points of view in this book (Grace, Lee and Noah), as well as two timelines. Fairly quickly we realise that all main characters are keeping secrets from each other, secrets that they are not willing or not ready to share.

Rea Frey's writing is compelling and you get drawn into the book from page one. We see that the narrators are unreliable for various reasons, and the clues left by the author may or may not be leading us to the truth. I must admit I didn't see the final revelation coming, which made it all even more fascinating, albeit not entirely believable.

A well-crafted domestic thriller with twists and turns that will keep you reading compulsively.

Thank you to Edelweiss and St.Martin's Griffin for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.