The Surrogate Mother by Freida McFadden

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.

Mini Review

Was it predictable? Kind of.

The Surrogate Mother kicks off with a classic storyline: a woman wants to have a baby, but since she is physically unable to, she searches for help from a surrogate; however, surrogate falls in love with woman’s husband and seeks to steal her man and replace her. Cue the rest of the book’s woman fighting to show the surrogate’s true self, clear her name, and save her family.

But it’s Freida! I read this book far into my literary journey with her; I was already more than familiar with her style and her OTT antics, so this was an absolute non-issue for me. This is one of those books where you have to go with the mindset of how an author’s style is to fully immerse yourself and enjoy it. Of course, the majority of events that happen here are not realistic; it’s a popcorn thriller! Even then, no loose ends were left and explanations made sense (within the context of the story).

12th book of Freida’s I’ve read!

Click for spoilers!

Sam always told the truth; he never had any interest in Monica. Monica turned out to be one of his former students, and she became obsessed with him ever since. She and her biomother, Abby’s former secretary, created a plan where she took over the secretary role and slowly morphed into Abby physically in order to seduce Sam.

Monica (obviously) was behind every bad thing that happened to Abby; she killed Abby’s boss and planted drugs in her house so she would go to jail and take over her whole life.

When Monica plans to kill Abby and stage her suicide, Monica accidentally shoots her mother, and when Sam point blank tells her he will never leave Abby, she shoots herself, though she doesn’t die and instead ends up in a comma. Abby and Sam ultimately get full custody of their baby.