Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Published by: Joffe Books
Narrated by: Tamaryn Payne
Publication Date: 31st July 2025
Content warnings: gaslighting, toxic friendships, harassment, car accident/hit and run, death of parent

“My baby’s been taken,” I weep into the phone. “Please hurry.”

This is one of those books I’ve been so keen to read since its publication… and I’ve finally got to it!! It was so nice to meet my lovely friend Jade (aka, @boho_bookworm) in person at the 2025 Summer Book Party in Bristol and I was so excited to read the book she so generously brought and signed for me. Jade also offered me a code for the new audiobook recently, so I snapped it up knowing I could listen on my dog walks, and I completely sped through it! Not only was the narrator utterly fantastic, but this entire story was so twisted and intense that I’m feeling pretty hungover from it! I’m so thrilled to be sharing my review of The Baby Group by Jade Lee Wright!

About the book

‘My baby’s been taken,’ I sob into the phone. Blood is everywhere.

My fiancé, Alex, is slumped beside the birthing pool, his head gashed open. The baby? Gone.

I cradle my empty stomach, my empty arms. And then Alex looks at me — not with love, but with blame.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. The move. The fresh start. The antenatal classes. The new friends. But nothing about this feels right.

And as the sirens wail closer, I realize something terrible — someone planned this. Someone in our new life wanted our baby.

And I think they’re in the baby group.

The beginning

A completely chilling prologue leads into a very normal first chapter and oh boy, this contrast already had me sold! Just that snippet of things to come was, quite frankly, terrifying. We meet Darcy who has moved from the hustle and bustle of London to a calmer, more peaceful life in Cornwall with her fiancé, Alex. Darcy is pregnant and is completely relishing in that fact. She can’t wait to meet her baby. I loved learning more about her, as well as Alex, and how they met. And even though Alex’s mother wasn’t her favourite person in the world, she was such a crucial character, giving Darcy the push she needed to book her antenatal classes. At this point, I wanted to scream at Darcy not to go through with it, knowing the horrors that would unfold as a result, but the idea of meeting new people, other soon-to-be-mothers, the possibility of making some new friends in the area was just too enticing. It would be good for her. Good for them. And these women were… interesting, shall we say. Upon that first meeting, some seemed nice. Others gave off toxic, I’m-too-good-for-you vibes…

“I can’t look at my own reflection anymore without thinking about what I did and who I am, who I will always be no matter how hard I try and run away from it.”

After doing a bit of Facebook stalking (we’ve all done it) after her first class, Darcy uncovers a disturbing news article linked to one of the women, Lucy. There was a brutal murder, resulting in the death of her husband’s previous wife. This set those alarm bells ringing in my mind. Was Lucy’s husband one to watch out for? Why on earth would you want to stay in the same house after something like that?! I started to keep a close eye on this couple, as something just didn’t sit right with me. All these couples soon came out of their shells and I really liked their differing personalities, even though none of them were particularly likeable people. But the best development by far was Darcy’s character. We start to dig deeper and deeper into her life, her past, and my god she had suffered some trauma. There wasn’t just one horrific moment that changed her life. There were multiple. My heart went out to her, and learning all this explained a lot about her thoughts, her behaviours, the way she was. All I could think of was yet another traumatic experience to come, and just how she’d cope.

The middle

Darcy is such a fragile character in so many ways, her anxieties sitting front and centre. At times, she comes across as a bit moany, but for the most part, she’s just a damaged soul. She’d had so much bad happen to her that it would be enough for anyone to be cautious, and the author has captured everything about her pretty damn perfectly. I continued to analyse the other characters; the expectant mums from the antenatal class, their husbands, even Alex. Especially Alex… he’d cheated before and I couldn’t help but keep an extra eye on him around these other women, especially Lucy. Especially when we learn she’s in a polyamorous relationship. As things progressed, she became the kind of character that I loved to hate, and she was written so well. There’s drama – which is nothing new with groups of women, let’s face it – but the flirting with Alex, the way she is with him, just wasn’t right. I sensed a hell of a lot of bitchiness too, which I was sure would just get more intense as time passed. I also felt a kind of darkness beginning to loom… which of these women couldn’t be trusted?

“An overwhelming dizziness wraps itself around me, strangulating me. This cannot be happening. She can’t possibly know about the accident, about the day I made a decision I’ve regretted every single moment of my life ever since.”

The way my jaw dropped in shock sometimes reading this… the audacity of some of these women! I disliked the majority of them more and more with each passing chapter, but that didn’t stop me wanting more of it 😂 And what tipped me over the edge was the whole wedding dress fiasco. IYKYK. I couldn’t believe what was happening here. I also had a theory about one of the women and just how truthful she’d been throughout this whole experience. I could feel we were getting closer and closer to the truth, and throughout all this I continued to be so drawn in by the author’s words and the incredible narration in the audiobook. Tamaryn is such a perfect narrator for this book! As the babies in the group start to be born, time was ticking to Darcy’s own birth, and things get very real for her as she starts to meet the new additions to the group. I continued to be suspicious of Lucy and how she acts around these babies. Could she be the one who ends up taking Darcy’s baby? As dark as it sounds, I couldn’t wait to get up to speed with what we experienced in the prologue!

The end

Darcy’s anxiety gets worse as things progress. Not only is there the wedding dress issue, but she’s fighting more with Alex, plus there are intruders on her property one day which spook her. It feels as though she’s being targeted for some reason, but by who? Alex started to frustrate me more and more as time went on, the closer Darcy was to giving birth. And the other mums… They angered me so much, and Lucy in particular was such a massive bitch trying to jeopardise Darcy’s friendships with the group. Argh! I can’t remember hating a character as much as Lucy for a long time. But then, as Darcy finally goes into labour, there she is again. Lucy, taking over the situation, pretending to be a good person. Someone Alex thought would be good to help through her home birth. Is he having a bloody laugh? GOD I was so angry and stressed for Darcy, her dream of becoming a mum, this important moment she should be sharing with her fiancé completely tainted, ruined by Lucy’s involvement. It was turning into an absolute nightmare. And the worst was yet to come.

“I just want to know my baby is alive. Surely I’d feel it if she wasn’t, but then again, I feel nothing but a ginormous, hopeless void.”

The only downside for me here was that for the majority of the book, we know who is going to be responsible, who the dodgy character is (my previous theory was right!) and also what’s going to happen from the prologue. But the way it was executed was utterly brilliant, and there were some extra added twists which I loved that made everything so much deeper. There were certainly some brilliant surprises after and it was stressful as hell! Just when you think it’s all over, there’s more. The ending is fast-paced, throwing nightmarish situation after nightmarish situation at us, one after the other. I couldn’t concentrate on anything else as an intense hunt plays out to find Darcy’s baby. My stomach was in knots for those entire ending chapters! As breathless as I felt when everything was revealed, we get a moment of calm where all feels okay. But that epilogue made me squeal! And now I will be pestering Jade for a sequel at every given opportunity! All isn’t as it seems in this book and if you enjoy twist after twist after twist, get your hands on this! I’m very excited to read Jade’s next book now!

Overall thoughts

The Baby Group is every new mother’s worst nightmare. It’s such a stressful read, a tension-filled rollercoaster of a book in so many ways, but one I was so addicted to from start to finish. The audio narration was perfect and I could not get enough! Darcy has just moved from London to Cornwall with her fiancé, Alex. She’s pregnant, and she cannot wait for their baby to arrive. After joining an antenatal class and meeting a group of soon-to-be mothers, she thinks it’s the perfect opportunity to make some friends in the area. But all is not what it seems. Someone from this group is plotting to steal her baby…

I bloody loved this book. It’s so easy to lose yourself in and so hard to put down. Jade’s writing is gorgeous; she writes emotion with such depth and care, yet effortlessly switches the suspense off and on when it matters. And the characters. You probably won’t like any of them, but most are the kind of characters you love to hate. And just wait until you meet Lucy; I have never hated a character as much as I hated her, but my god she has been written so well! This book has the kind of plot to keep you up at night. It’s terrifying, it’s anxiety-inducing, it’s twisty as hell, especially near the end. I did guess a couple of the twists but this didn’t take away any enjoyment for me. It’s just a bloody good book and the definition of a binge read. Just what I needed!

Huge thanks to the lovely Jade Lee Wright for my paperback copy and the Audible code! You can grab your own copy of The Baby Group right now on Amazon or wherever you buy your books. Make sure you’re following Jade on Instagram for more updates!

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