'Thoughtful, tense and affecting' Ashley Audrain


'[A] tense, emotional story about racial identity, loss and betrayal' Daily Mail 'Fiction books to watch in 2023'


This tense and emotional novel follows the fallout after two women's eggs are switched during IVF.
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TWO WOMEN. ONE BABY. A FIGHT LIKE NO OTHER.

Katherine has everything under control.
After years of struggling to conceive with her partner, Patrick, she finally gives birth to Rose, her IVF miracle child. But she's afraid that Rose may not be her daughter, her pale skin not matching Katherine's own.

Tess never got her happy ending.
Just like Katherine, she was also a hopeful IVF mother, but her daughter, Hanna, was stillborn. Now divorced, broke and stuck in a dead-end job, she's beginning to lose all hope.

But when Rose is ten months old, both women get a call from the fertility clinic. There was a mistake: their eggs were switched.

It will take a custody battle like no other to decide who will get to be Rose's mother - a battle that will push them both to the brink...

This is a story about what it means to be a mother, and the lengths we go to for the people we love.
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'[A] tense, emotional story about racial identity, loss and betrayal'
Daily Mail 'Fiction books to watch in 2023'

'Thoughtful, tense and affecting'
Ashley Audrain, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Push

'An absorbing and engaging novel that twists the heart'
Rachel Hore, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Beautiful Spy

'Breathtakingly taut, unflinching and poignant'
Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of LUCKY

'Compelling and thought-provoking ... A page-turner'
Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake

'A tender exploration of secrets, loss, and motherhood'
Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström, international bestselling author of In Every Mirror She's Black

'A future classic'
Leah Hazard, Sunday Times bestselling author of Hard Pushed: A Midwife's Story

'Will break your heart'
Julie Ma, author of Richard and Judy selected debut Happy Families

'A gripping, thorny premise that explores motherhood and its primal tug. It's twisty and forensic but also wise and moving'
Beth Morrey, author of Em & Me and the Sunday Times bestseller Saving Missy.

WHAT MAKES A MOTHER?
Katherine likes to be in control. Everything clean, everything perfect, all of the time. After years of trying - and failing - to conceive, she finally gives birth to Rose, her IVF miracle child. Yet she's never quite been able to believe Rose is her daughter, her pale skin not matching Katherine's own.
Tess never got her happy ending. She took on IVF alongside Katherine and a group of hopeful mothers, but her daughter Hanna was stillborn. After a series of desperate choices, she's divorced, broke and stuck in a job beneath her skillset.
When Rose is nine months old, both women get a call from the fertility clinic. There was a mistake - two women's eggs were switched. One woman has been raising the wrong daughter, while the other has spent a year grieving a child that wasn't hers.
Katherine's life begins to crumble around her, but for Tess it's the glimmer of hope she needs to keep going. It'll take a custody battle like no other to decide who really deserves to be Rose's mother
- a battle that will push both women to the brink