Title: My Darling Daughter
Author: JP Delaney
Publisher: Quercus
Synopsis:
The child you never knew
knows all your secrets . . .Out of the blue, Susie Jones is contacted on social media by Anna, the girl she gave up for adoption fifteen years ago.
But when they meet, Anna’s home life sounds distinctly strange to Susie and her husband Gabe. And when Anna’s adoptive parents seem to overreact to the fact she contacted them at all, Susie becomes convinced that Anna needs her help.
But is Anna’s own behaviour simply what you’d expect from someone recovering from a traumatic childhood? Or are there other secrets at play here – secrets Susie has also been hiding for the last fifteen years?
My review:
My Darling Daughter is an intriguing novel focusing Susie and Gabe, a couple who are contacted by a girl, called Amy, who is claiming to be Susie’s long-lost daughter given up for adoption many years ago.
We soon realise that Anna has some issues and may not be the perfect long-lost daughter Susie wants her to be…
The story is told from both Susie and Gabe’s perspectives, so we see Susie’s thoughts – she’s thrilled to have another chance to make things right with her daughter – as well as Gabe’s more reserved view of it all. He’s approaching the situation without the emotional history of Susie, and becomes more and more concerned by Anna’s strange behaviour. Without giving too much away, developments in the characters’ lives and their history mean the sense of threat builds and we’re not always sure exactly who to trust.
This is such an easy book to read – I got through it in no time and found it really engaging. The characters are intriguing, and though you sometimes want to shout at them to make different decisions, Susie and Gabe felt pretty realistic to me. There are believable twists and lots of suspense to keep the reader intrigued throughout.
My rating: 4/5
Many thanks to the publisher, Quercus, for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest review.