To Rock the Cradle

A Novel

Leebie Herzog loves her job at Akeres, where she knows she is making a difference in countless new mothers’ lives. So why are things so complicated when it comes to her own nearest and dearest?

Amram Herzog has opinions. About everything. From whether or not to financially support married children to how Leebie should make turnkey onion soup, Amram will not budge from his shittos. Yet underneath it all is a loving father and husband, who only wants the best for his family. Doesn’t everyone realize that?

Raizy Jacob is a star worker at Union Funding. In fact, she is a star at almost everything in life…or so her co-worker Yehudis thinks. But although Raizy convinces everyone, including herself, that she can manage just fine without help, when the unexpected occurs and she is thrown for a loop, her lifelong beliefs suddenly turn into questions.

Yehudis Mann knows her parents will not be paying her rent when she gets married. So while she wades through the overwhelm of married life, the mysterious monthly envelopes leave her all the more puzzled.

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To Rock the Cradle is a gripping and thought-provoking novel that tells the backstory of the Herzogs and Jacobs’ lives. Complicated family dynamics intersect with contradictory emotions, creating a web of secrets and conflicting loyalties.

When the instinct of a parent is to give, how far can that go? And on the other end, how can a child take that which one knows is beyond a parent’s capabilities? There’s a hand that rocks the cradle—but must that hand rule the world?

By Esty Heller