After the Party

Title: After the Party

Author: Cassie Hamer

Publisher: Harlequin Australia, HQ & MIRA HQ Fiction, 18th February 2019

Pages: 384 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: General Fiction (Adult), Women’s Fiction

My Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

An unexpected gift left at her daughter's fifth birthday party in the form of a little girl pitches Sydney mum Lisa Wheeldon into events both hilarious and life-changing.

Liane Moriarty meets Marian Keyes with a touch of Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap in this hilarious, touching and clever novel that asks what wouldn't you do to save a child?

Be careful what you wish for...

Lisa Wheeldon has a lovely life. Wife to a gorgeous husband, Scott, and a devoted mother to two small daughters, the former accountant has everything she wants - except a third child. But the universe has a strange way of providing.

On the surface, Ava's fifth birthday party seems the ideal opportunity for Lisa to meet her daughter's new kindergarten friends - all 32 of them! But from beginning to end, the day is a complete nightmare, capped off by the discovery of a little girl hiding in the Wheeldon's backyard. At first, Lisa reasons that Ellie's mum is running late. But when they open a gift from the mysterious little girl, it becomes clear her mother has no intention of returning at all...

What sort of mother abandons her child? And why has she chosen the Wheeldons?

Together, Lisa and her sister Jamie launch their own efforts to find the missing mum, a journey that will force Lisa to face her past, Jamie to confront her future and see both embroiled with angry exes, pragmatic fortune-tellers, Russian mobsters and a hyena pack of yummy mummies.

A journey that will force Lisa to rethink all she knows about being a good mother.

My Thoughts

“Two children was sensible, she and Scott had agreed. A third child would leave them outnumbered...Still, Lisa couldn’t quite quell the feeling that her family wasn’t complete.”

In After the Party, the protagonist Lisa got much more than she bargained for after her daughter, Ava’s birthday party was finally over. I really loved this book and all the issues it dealt with were extremely well written about.

I liked all the characters, especially one of the ‘yummy mummies’, Heather, who helped her get the party back on track after many disasters.

“...’Pierre? It’s Heather, darling. Mwah. Mwah. I need one of your iced, flourless, dairy-free chocolate cakes immediately. As in, yesterday...You’ve got  a spare? Fabulous...All right darling. There in a jiffy. Ciao, my strudel superhero,’ she tinkled before hanging up.”

What starts off as an innocent child’s birthday party becomes  a hunt for the abandoned child’s mother, Missy, after she leaves Ellie at Ava’s birthday party with a note.

Lisa decides to try and find Ellie’s mum herself using the help of the other mums at Ava’s school. She enrols Ellie in the school and tries to provide a ‘normal’ life for her realising Ellie has been through an ordeal.

“I have a friend who’s had to go...go away to...um...look after her...ah...her sick mum...Well, I’m looking after her child, a six-year-old, Ellie, turning seven in September, and I was wondering if she could attend St John’s for the next six weeks or so.”

Lisa eventually realises she is going to need more help in finding Ellie’s mum and there is more to the story than she first thought, so she hires a private investigator.

Lisa’s sister Jamie is also going through something with her soon to be husband, Jared and it appears there could be a connection between Jared and Ellie’s mum.

“When Ellie had fallen asleep on the bed at Lisa’s, Jamie had studied her face.There was something in the little girl she felt she recognised, but couldn’t put a finger on.”

This was a very enjoyable read and the way Cassie wrote and weaved characters and stories together was very engaging. I highly recommend this book to all readers, especially readers who enjoy women’s fiction.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.