Picture of Innocence by T.J. Stimson | @tessjstimson @AvonBooksUK @Sabah_K | #blogtour #bookreview

It’s a real pleasure to welcome you all to my stop on the blog tour for Picture of Innocence by T.J. Stimson. My thanks to Sabah at Avon for the opportunity to join and for the fab review copy!

| ABOUT THE BOOK |

You love your family. You’d never let anything happen to them… would you?

With three children under ten, Maddie is struggling. On the outside, she’s a happy young mother, running a charity as well as a household. But inside, she’s exhausted. She knows she’s lucky to have to have a support network around her. Not just her loving husband, but her family and friends too.

But is Maddie putting her trust in the right people? Because when tragedy strikes, she is certain someone has hurt her child – and everyone is a suspect, including Maddie herself…

| MY THOUGHTS |

Maddie is busy, busy, busy. With three children under the age of ten and running a sanctuary, she is tired. Oh, so very tired. Maddie has a wonderful support network in family and friends but when her baby is hurt, everyone suddenly turns into a suspect. Was Maddie so exhausted, she harmed her own child? Or was someone else responsible?

Picture of Innocence is part psychological thriller and part truly heartbreaking family drama. It’s immensely emotional seeing a family go through the hardships Maddie and her family have to deal with. Combined with chilling and disturbing chapters set in the past, this quickly turned into a gripping and absorbing read.

It’s incredibly easy to imagine the paranoia Maddie goes through from sheer exhaustion. I’m sure many of us can relate to that kind of fatigue that seems to settle in your bones, that causes such a massive fog in your brain that you just can’t think straight. When that happens, it’s not hard to jump to conclusions, to be forgetful, to mistrust those around you because they make you feel like you’re going crazy. Maddie doesn’t trust anyone, including herself.

This well-paced story once again brings to the fore the debate of nature versus nurture. That’ll never get old, will it? I find it extremely fascinating and in that respect, this book is perfect for a discussion on the topic. That includes the ending in the “what would you have done?” kind of way.

I did figure things out, yet found myself wishing I was wrong in that way that nobody wants to think someone could purposefully hurt a child. This story deals with some dark and harrowing topics, turning things into quite an emotional ride. With plenty of twists and turns, Picture of Innocence is a gripping tale that will keep you glued to the pages.

Picture of Innocence is available to buy!

Affiliate link : Bookdepository
Other retailers : Amazon US | Amazon UK | Kobo | Waterstones | Wordery

| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |

Tess Stimson is the British author of ten novels, including top-ten bestseller The Adultery Club, and two non-fiction books, which between them have been translated into dozens of languages.

Her first “proper” job after graduating from St Hilda’s College, Oxford (where she read English) was as a news trainee with ITN (Independent Television News). She reported and produced regional and world stories, travelling to hotspots and war-zones all over the globe.

In 2002, she was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Florida and moved to the US. She now lives and works in Vermont with her husband, Erik, their three children, and (at the last count) two cats, three fish, one gerbil and a large number of bats in the attic.