Should Have Known Better

Single mother Kate is quietly dreading the day her daughter Chloe leaves home for university — the house will be empty, and Kate's carefully managed life will lose its center. So when she meets Adam, a charming, attentive lawyer, it feels like the fresh start she's been waiting for. There's just one complication: Adam's teenage son, Ben.

Ben has fallen hard for Chloe, and at first his devotion seems sweet. But his attention curdles into something possessive and relentless, and while Chloe is flattered, Kate can read the warning signs her daughter can't. As Chloe's life begins to spiral, Kate is forced to choose between the new relationship she wants and the instinct screaming that something is very wrong.

A.J. McDine's tense domestic thriller turns an ordinary blended-family romance into a slow-tightening trap, asking how far a mother will go — and how much she's willing to lose — to protect her child.