Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture, and author L.G. Davis for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Being adopted myself, I am always interested in books that have a child displaced from their parents for whatever reason. It’s interesting to see how authors treat babies like this in fiction. Sometimes, they are very sensitive, putting the needs of the child above all else. That was one reason I liked Void Moon. In that book, the birthmother realized that at that point, she was only thinking of herself and not the daughter she had given up.

In Stolen Baby, the child in question feels more like a prop. Nora and Tom live in a small town in Maine along with Nora’s daughter Imogene (Izzy). Izzy was born when Nora was 16, shortly after the death of her own mother. Nora carried a secret all these years and has struggled greatly with depression. She and Tom have been trying to have children, but so far, all of her pregnancies have ended in miscarriage.

Nora is still in a deep depression from her most recent preterm stillbirth when a baby is left on their doorstep with a note pleading for them to take care of her. The baby’s name is Daisy. Nora quickly falls into being a mother to the child. Izzy and Tom both help out a lot as well. Izzy, in fact, seems to be more au pair than big sister.

Things take a sinister turn when Izzy’s best friend turns up dead, and the police say she has recently given birth. Did Izzy kill her best friend and steal her baby to try to help her mother? What about the baby’s father? Who is he, and where is he in all this?

Thankfully, Stolen Baby was a relatively short read. The writing was sloppy in many ways, expecting the reader to gloss over details such as if Nora and Tom just pretend the baby is hers that died, what would they do when it’s time to go to school? At one point, Tom does mention getting a birth certificate, but it sounds like something he can just go somewhere and pick up. Giving birth at home means the birth has to be registered locally. At some point, this is a problem.

Not to mention health insurance. I knew the author didn’t live in the States due to how she treated the situation when Daisy became ill. She would be on Tom’s insurance through his job as a school principal, and Nora would likely be on his as well. There would be records of her hospitalization for the stillbirth. Yet Nora is hesitant to take her to the hospital for what turns out to be an ear infection. What do they plan to do? Pray the sickness away?

None of the characters were sympathetic from where I stand, and the circumstances are unbelievable. The way it is written, the story changes as more is revealed. This was my main problem with the book. What is told at the beginning of the book turns out not to be true. It’s almost as if the author decided to change the story midway through but didn’t want to go back and rewrite it. All three of the main characters turn out to be liars to varying degrees. Nora and Tom see the baby as a possession, an answer to their inability to have one of their own. They care nothing about the child’s history or how being a child with no identity will affect her growing up. It’s all about Nora’s depression over her need to be a mother again. That’s not a good reason to take in another person’s child. Izzy goes along with this because she loves her mother, but she’s not innocent in this situation, either.

When I first finished, I was on the cusp of three stars, but I really can’t recommend Stolen Baby at all. There are problems with setting it in an unfamiliar place, as the author seems to like the idea of setting it in Maine but knows little about it. I can forgive that. I’d recommend writing what you know, though. The characters are not relatable or sympathetic, and the whole situation and story feel unreal.