Original Cover |
My own copy |
The blurb:
As I saw my new-born baby’s face
for the first time I tried desperately to capture her face in my mind—to stamp
it onto my eyelids. As she was taken from me I knew I might never see my
daughter again.
37 years later…
‘You were adopted’. Three short words and Sabina’s life fractures. There
would forever be a Before those words, and an After.
Pregnant with her own child, Sabina
can’t understand how a mother could abandon her daughter, or why her parents
have kept the past a secret.
Determined to find the woman who
gave her away, what she discovers will change everything, not just for Sabina,
but for the women who have loved her all these years.
From the bestselling author of Me
Without You comes another touching, beautifully told story about the pain
of separation and the enduring strength of love.
My Opinion:
*Book provided by the publisher on
NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
I got to know Kelly’s writing last year when I read
her novel Me Without You. I fell in
love with it immediately and that’s why I was really excited about this book.
The story follows 38 years old Sabina and her husband
Ted. They just learned that they are going to be parents. Something weird
happens though, when they tell her parents. Sabina’s mum Megan tells her about
her miscarriages and then boom the explosion, Sabina is adopted.
Of course Sabina is hurt and angry, especially since
she’s going to be a mother herself.
Sabina is determined to find her birth mother, but
it’s not as easy as she thought and her parents are not helping with their
lies.
The path of discovering the truth is hard and full of
surprises, hurt and it changes everything.
Sabina eventually meets her new family and discovers
the truth. It puts her mother’s past in a bad light. I don’t wanna say more at
this point, because it would reveal too much. It’s an emotional, poignant and
touching roller-coaster ride for Sabina, her birth mum Lilly and also Megan. I
felt really close to Sabina through the writing and just wanted to be there for
her. I loved the scenes between her and Lilly, two women, mother and daughter
getting to know each other. They are so alike and it’s great that they discover
these things step by step. It’s very emotional and hard for both of them. Lilly
dealing with this loss, this separation, with the forced adoption and finally
being able to be with her daughter, after she had to let go of the hope of
raising her.
Lilly got pregnant when she was sixteen and was sent
to a place where she had to work, then gave birth and never saw her baby again.
Here is where Sabina’s mum Megan comes into the pictures, making this story
that is hard and sad even more dramatic and traumatic.
I never really heard of forced adoption and this book
is the perfect way to learn more about it. Kelly describes it with this story
and has a very delicate and gentle way to deal with it, that was pretty
impressive. She gave us insight, of how women dealing with this felt and built
a heart breaking, touching, beautiful, sweet and emotional story around it.
Ted was a great support in this story, the perfect
loving and sweet husband, I fell in love with him, I have to say, so welcome to
my book boyfriend list Ted ;)
This whole story is told from three perspectives,
Sabina of course, alternating with Lilly first. Sabina is talking about the
present/her present and then we have Lilly when she was pregnant with Sabina,
then after the birth it changes to Megan and we slowly learn of what really
happened with Sabina after her birth.
This is definitely one of the most EMOTIONAL books
I’ve ever read! I’d advise having some tissues close and maybe even some
chocolate. The writing is more than beautiful and the storyline has so much
flow and spark.
MOVING AND EXCEPTIONALLY FABULOUS!!!
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