Review: The Surrogate Mother by Frieda McFadden

 

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: October 2025 (originally October 2018)

Source: Borrowed from library

Blurb: 

Abby wants a baby more than anything.

But after years of failed infertility treatments and adoptions that have fallen through, it seems like motherhood is not in her future. That is, until her personal assistant Monica, makes a generous offer that will make all of Abby's dreams come true.
Or all of her nightmares.
Because it turns out Monica isn't who she says she is. The woman now carrying Abby's child has dark, twisted secrets.
And she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

With the craziness building as my first year in my masters comes to a close, I have not been reading as much as I would like to at all. I decided I needed to take a break from the assignments and screens, and read a book that would be fast paced and take my mind off of the impending deadlines. 

The Surrogate Mother was the perfect choice for this as I was pretty much invested into the story from the first 30 pages. A short - ish thriller at only 290-something pages, I was able to fly through this while reading in bed in the morning or night before beginning / finishing my assignment writing for the day.

The characters in this one were not my favourite .. Our main character wants nothing more than to have a child but due to her medical issues, cannot. She is a high flying boss bitch who works herself to the bone as a marketing exec for a baby food company. I really do like reading about ambitious women and did enjoy reading her character, but sometimes she was just a little too easy going when there were so many obvious red flags in her way. 

I enjoyed the character of Abby also. Her interactions with Monica, how she phrased things and the whole relationship that was set in motion between Monica, her husband and Abby. 

The books plot was definitely interesting - there were many times I was frustrated with how overly calm Monica was but it was incredibly fast paced I think I read the book in two sittings. 

That being said I wouldn't say it was one of my favourite Freida McFadden books, it felt a little flat in parts and I could guess a lot of the "twists" and direction the plot was going in at times. I still flew through it and enjoyed it but just not a favourite.