Next of Kin

I loved this book and would highly recommend it! It starts off one morning with Andrew asking his sister in law Leila to take his three year old son Max to nursery as something has come up at work. Leila is busy herself heading to work, but she does a lot for her sister Yasmin and Andrew so she agrees.

A phone call from Andrew a few hours later asking why Max isn’t in nursery changes life for Leila and her family in a devastating way. Leila is now on trial for this heart-breaking tragedy, it’s obvious she forgot about Max sleeping in the back seat of her car, but the courts are saying otherwise.

I really liked Leila, even though she’s portrayed as this ice queen, cool, calm and collected, she herself has been through so much tragedy growing up and as an adult. It’s clear that she loves her nephew and would never have intentionally hurt him. Yasmin, however, I could not warm to, she has a right to be acting as she is, she’s just lost her son and at the hand of her own sister. But to me, she was self-centred, she doesn’t grasp all that her sister has done for her and she comes across as petted, entitled and spoilt.

The story then takes the most unbelievable twists and turns that throws the whole story up into the air, they had me shocked and doubly shocked!! It’s an amazing, fast paced read that I couldn’t put down. I am eager to read more by this author.

Submitted by Stephanie