Ryan and Mia are an ordinary, everyday, couple living in regional NSW with their son, Elliot. Mia is going back to work after years out of the workforce. Caring for her child has been a full-time job as she and her husband learnt to manage Elliot’s ADHD. Their new young Irish au pair, Tara, is supposed to make the transition easier, but instead her utter lack of interest in the boy, her moods, and her constant hangovers, are only making things worse.

And then Tara dies. Two years later, Beth is barely scraping by. Not long out of an abusive relationship, she is determined to provide her daughter Tilly with all the love and security she deserves. They have somewhere to live, Beth has a job, and although she constantly fears her ex-husband will attempt to destroy their new lives, she and Tilly are doing okay. Until someone breaks into their house. Until someone steals Beth’s car. Until suddenly Beth is about to lose everything, again.

The first half of this book had me completely hooked. How are these two stories connected? They seem so removed for each other, each enthralling in their own way, but you know at some point they must collide. And then they do, and the race to the finish is on.

The Other Side of Her has the perfect level of misdirection and suspense. On the surface it is a story about motherhood, about the lengths a parent will go for their child. And in Beth’s case, this is true. But Mia? Does she do what she does to protect her son? Or to protect herself? I wish Tara had been a more fully developed character, it was hard to care about the untimely demise of a selfish, bratty teenager, but otherwise this is a well thought-out, intriguing novel that will have you double checking your locks every night.