Digital Reads Reviews

My review

A mother’s love is all encompassing, it is always present, and it comes from her soul…

I looked down at their fingers entwined, struck by the sheer power of maternal love. Within that clasp was so much love and longing, such strength of feeling that time had done nothing to diminish. 

A quote from the book that speaks of a mother’s love. The author, Kerry Fisher, goes into the depth of this love for the entire story. Her words leap off the page, touch the heart, and cause tears to flow down.  

The main character, Susie, is married to Danny, with a daughter Louise. A singing passion and an unfortunate forcible act, a child is conceived, when Danny is away at sea. To maintain her family and their happiness, she gives up the child for adoption, and that guilt eats her up throughout her life…. Till a fatal episode forces the entire family to face the shock of the secret… 

Kerry Fisher has done a fantastic job to describe the guilt of a mother who has given her child away. The longing which a mother feels to hold all her children, especially the one who is away from her. Every occasion forces the mother to remember her child, there is never a moment of complete joy for that mother. Such is the main character, Susie described by the author. Her pain seeps through the pages into the reader’s heart. 

The story is told in dual voices first half by the mother, Susie and the latter by the second daughter, Grace. It is amazing to see how the daughter who rebelled the most, ultimately understood her mother more deeply than the others. The book follows their lives through the years Susie, Danny, and their two daughters. Their choices, their decisions, their anger, their differences, their joy, their happiness. But the background of Susie’s pain coats every page… 

I read this book as an observer as someone outside the family. Even though there is pathos, I didn‘t find myself swayed by those emotions always. At times, I felt that Susie should have confessed to her family, especially when the kids grew up or when the adopted child tried to contact her… But that does not, a story make. 

The book goes from Susie’s youth to her old age and makes it an entertaining read. 

I end the review with another quote by Kerry Fisher —

The most generous words, one human being says to another, (the adopted mother to the birth mother)

Thank you so much for for my son. Your son…

I received an ARC from NetGalley and publisher Bookouture and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. 

My rating : 3.5 stars 

About the Author 

Kerry was brought up in Peterborough. She now lives in Surrey with a very tolerant husband and two children. She studied at Bath University and speaks fluent Italian, Spanish and French. She also trained as a journalist at City University, then went on to write travel guidebooks for Thomas Cook.

Book blurb 

Susie was forced to do something she will always regret: giving her baby son up for adoption.Everything that led to this child, this choice, had to be buried and forgotten. Her secret echoes down through the years, tainting everything it touches. Susie knows her past is pushing her family apart, and the guilt is eating her up, but she can’t escape the longing for her lost son. 

No-one but Susie knows the whole story, and when her daughters discover a piece of the puzzle, she must face the question she has struggled with for most of her life:

Would the truth bring them back together, or break them?

Product Details 

Publication date : 29th November 2017 

Publisher : Bookouture 

Language : English