ARC Review: The Child I Never Had by Kate Hewitt
If you had to make an impossible choice to save your long-lost daughter, you would… wouldn’t you?
It’s a warm early summer’s evening when Mia’s doorbell rings. She opens the door to see a teenage girl standing in the shadow beyond the porch light—and in an instant she knows who it is. Daisy, the daughter she gave up as a baby. Daisy steps forward, as she says tearfully “I’m sorry I didn’t call first. But something happened. And I really needed… you.”
Seventeen years before, knowing she couldn’t possibly give her beautiful little girl Daisy the future she deserved, Mia made the hardest decision of her life—to give her up. And Suzanne seemed the perfect adoptive mother: calm, stable, and full of love for the daughter she’d always dreamed of having.
The two mothers promised to keep communication open, so Daisy could have Mia’s love and support along with Suzanne’s. But as the years passed, Mia moved away, and their visits happened less. Now Daisy is almost a stranger to Mia—angry, closed and broken—nothing like the tiny girl she once couldn’t bear to say goodbye to.
But now Daisy has arrived on Mia’s doorstep, and she says she has a terrible secret. One she can never tell Suzanne. And she believes the only person who can help her is Mia. Her birth mother.
Mia, however, has secrets of her own. Ones she is afraid to let Daisy or anyone else know. And while Suzanne desperately seeks a way to bring her child home, can Mia overcome her past to help the girl they both call their daughter in her darkest hour before it’s too late?
It’s a warm early summer’s evening when Mia’s doorbell rings. She opens the door to see a teenage girl standing in the shadow beyond the porch light—and in an instant she knows who it is. Daisy, the daughter she gave up as a baby. Daisy steps forward, as she says tearfully “I’m sorry I didn’t call first. But something happened. And I really needed… you.”
Seventeen years before, knowing she couldn’t possibly give her beautiful little girl Daisy the future she deserved, Mia made the hardest decision of her life—to give her up. And Suzanne seemed the perfect adoptive mother: calm, stable, and full of love for the daughter she’d always dreamed of having.
The two mothers promised to keep communication open, so Daisy could have Mia’s love and support along with Suzanne’s. But as the years passed, Mia moved away, and their visits happened less. Now Daisy is almost a stranger to Mia—angry, closed and broken—nothing like the tiny girl she once couldn’t bear to say goodbye to.
But now Daisy has arrived on Mia’s doorstep, and she says she has a terrible secret. One she can never tell Suzanne. And she believes the only person who can help her is Mia. Her birth mother.
Mia, however, has secrets of her own. Ones she is afraid to let Daisy or anyone else know. And while Suzanne desperately seeks a way to bring her child home, can Mia overcome her past to help the girl they both call their daughter in her darkest hour before it’s too late?
**ARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review**
This is my first book by Kate Hewitt. I decided to read this book because I was intrigued by the whole open adoption concept and seeing how everything would turn out. Overall, I did enjoy this book and really liked seeing the story told from three different POVs (Biological mother: Mia, adoptive mother: Suzanne and adopted child: Daisy). I also appreciated the flashbacks, because it showed what all three characters went through, and how they dealt with the situation in the past. However, at a point the flashbacks started to bore me a bit. I wanted to get back to the present time to see how everything would unfold.
I was able to connect to the characters and was invested in seeing what would happen next. There was a twist that I didn't see coming and it added something extra to the story. However, the ending felt rushed and a lot of things needed to be resolved in a short amount of time. Instead of so many flashbacks I would've loved if the author focused more on the family dynamic that was in shambles because of a particular incident. But overall, I still liked the ending, I also enjoyed the author's writing style and I would definitely read her other books.
About the Author
Kate was born in Pennsylvania, went to college in Vermont, and has spent summers in the Canadian wilderness. After several years as a diehard New Yorker, she now lives in a small market town in Wales with her husband, five young children, and an overly affectionate Golden Retriever.
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