Simona's Corner of Dreams: The Secret Daughter

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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