Review: Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

Title: Pretty Baby

Published: Harlequin Au August 2015

Status: Read from August 03 to 04, 2015 — I own a copy {Courtesy the publisher/netgalley}

My Thoughts:

Mary Kubica’s second psychological chiller, Pretty Baby, has been hotly anticipated since the success of her debut novel, The Good Girl.

When Heidi Wood spies a young homeless girl toting a squalling infant and a battered suitcase during a rainstorm on Chicago’s streets she tentatively offers her a raincoat, then a meal and on another cold and wet day, a place to stay. Heidi’s husband and daughter are horrified that she has invited a stranger into their midst, Willow could be a thief, a criminal, or worse, but Heidi sees only a vulnerable young woman and a beautiful baby girl desperately in need of refuge. A refuge she is determined to provide…but at what cost?

Pretty Baby unfolds from the perspectives of Heidi, her husband Chris, and Willow.
We learn Heidi works for a non profit organisation, Chris works in finance, traveling regularly for his job, and together they have a twelve year old daughter, Zoe, who is on the cusp of teenage rebellion. Their lives are comfortable and ordered, until it is upset by the introduction of Willow and her baby.

“Heidi was the first one in a long time who was nice to me.”

Willow claims to be eighteen, though Heidi suspects she is much younger. Willow is defensive and secretive, afraid of thunderstorms, she is bruised and scarred. The baby, Ruby, is just four months old. She resists the Wood’s prying into her past, but the reader is privy to it as Willow relates her history to ‘The lady with the long, silver hair, combed straight. And big teeth. Like a horse’s.’

“I didn’t want to hurt her,” I say. “Or her family.”

As the story progresses, tension grows. Chris and Zoe are irritated by Willow and Ruby’s presence, and while simply Zoe rolls her eyes, texting her displeasure to her best friend, Chris, who is absent more often than not, hires a private detective to investigate Willow. meanwhile Heidi is growing increasingly attached to Ruby, delighting in her infant gurgles and the warmth of her small body, as Willow watches silently. The dynamics between the characters twist and warp as Kubica takes the plot in a direction sure to surprise and unnerve.

“I peer down at the baby in my arms and think: Juliet is here. She is safe.”

An intense and engaging read, Pretty Baby offers an unpredictable story and intriguing characters. Recommended.

Available to purchase from

Harlequin I I Booktopia I Amazon AU I via Booko