Pinky Swear
A pulse-thudding thriller that you won't be able to put down
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 24 Feb 2026
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'Visceral, tense, and shocking Pinky Swear is an absolute must read.' Jeneva Rose
She is your best friend. You trust her. She is carrying your baby. So why has she disappeared?
Lexi is over the moon when her friend Mara offers to make her dream come true, by becoming a surrogate for Lexi's longed-for baby.
They have known each other since they were in middle school - who better to trust?
But four days before the baby is due, Mara disappears.
Desperate to find her friend and her child, Lexi is shocked to uncover that Mara may not have been telling her the truth - about anything.
Who is her best friend, really, and can Lexi save her baby before it is too late?
'Delivers a thrilling game of cat and mouse, blurring the lines between friendship and family and creating the kind of high-stakes tension that keeps the pages continually turning. You will genuinely feel for these characters, even when you're unsure of which ones you can trust.' Stacy Willingham
'Riveting, intense, and unputdownable your next binge-read. It's almost a shame how fast the pages flyThis is a triumph of character-driven, thrill-packed storytelling.' Ashley Winstead
'Gripping, emotional, and utterly propulsive, Pinky Swear is the kind of thriller that gets its hooks in from the first page and doesn't let go. Danielle Girard masterfully blends past secrets with present stakes in a story that's as much about friendship and motherhood as it is about survival. I tore through it with my heart in my throat.' Sally Hepworth
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this formulaic standalone from Girard (Up Close), Lexi McNeil is days away from becoming a mother when Mara Vannatta, her surrogate and high school best friend, suddenly disappears. Alarmed that Mara might have been tracked to Denver by the abusive husband she fled from back in Philadelphia, Lexi pleads for help from local police, who are sympathetic but don't have any promising leads. Desperate to protect the baby girl she's dreamed of for years, Lexi flies to Philly, only to learn shortly after landing that there's a warrant out for Mara's arrest. As an increasingly alarmed Lexi scrambles to piece together the truth, Girard flashes back to her and Mara's senior year of high school and the traumatic death of their close friend, Cate—an event Lexi starts to reconsider in light of her discoveries about Mara. The more serpentine the plot gets, the less plausible it becomes, as Lexi explores the seedy Philadelphia strip joints where Mara danced and meets the drug dealers she ran with and the crooked cops they paid to look the other way. Though Girard tackles such worthy themes as female friendship and sexual assault, her characters aren't convincing enough to patch over the plot's shakiness. It's a letdown.
