My Mother's Secret by Julia Roberts
Genre: Contemporary fiction, Women's fiction, General fiction
Read: 25th January 2021
Published: 27th January 2021
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
‘They told me he died, but I never believed them. I’d have known,’ she says, her voice little more than a whisper and her eyes searching mine. ‘A mother would know if her child died, wouldn’t she?’
The phone call comes in the middle of the night, rousing Danni from her safe, warm bed. The police have found her mother Diana wandering miles from her house, confused and lost. Danni races to her mother’s side – and as usual, Diana doesn’t seem to want her there. But when Danni finds out that her mother is seriously ill, she decides to put the past behind her, and care for her mother in the time they have left.
But as some of Diana’s memories are slipping away, others are forcing their way to the surface. One night she breaks down and reveals that before Danni was born, she had another baby who never got to see the world. Faced with her mother’s heartbreak, Danni vows to do everything she can to bring Diana some peace, hoping that it will mend their fractured relationship too.
Yet as Danni investigates the past, tracking down the aunt she’s never met and searching for her lost brother’s resting place, her good intentions have unexpected consequences as more truths emerge. And there’s one shocking revelation which could change Danni’s life forever. Are some secrets best left buried?
A completely heartbreaking and compelling story of families, secrets, and the fierce love between mothers and children. Fans of Amanda Prowse, Ali Mercer and Jodi Picoult will smile through their tears.
MY REVIEW:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Julia Robert's emotional tear-jerker MY MOTHER'S SECRET.
Wow! This has got to be one of the most saddest and most heartbreaking reads I've encountered in a long time. Be warned, you will need plenty of tissues for this one!
The relationship between a mother and daughter should be one of the simplest a woman should ever have in her lifetime and yet there is nothing more complicated than those you will have with your family. The love should be unconditional and limitless and most of us are blessed with that. But for Danni that is not so. Her relationship with her mother Diana has always been turbulent and strained, who has never hidden the fact that she has favoured Danni's brother Adam over her from the moment he was born. What could be more hurtful than the words Diana spat at her daughter:
"I don't need you Danni. I've never needed you."
Danni has never understood why her mother has not as much hated her as been so indifferent to her. From the moment Danni's baby brother Adam was brought home from hospital when she was 12 years old, Diana has made no secret of the fact that it's Adam she loves and she only has enough love for him. Diana wouldn't let anyone, much less Danni, near her brother and would certainly never let Danni feed him or hold him. As a result, Danni has grown up with a resentment towards Adam for being the one in their mother's favour. But now they are adults and Adam was now living in New Zealand while Danni lived just ten minutes away from their mother. And yet, her visits were sporadic to monthly at best. Even her two daughters, Amber and Jade, had seen little of their nana in the years since they were born, and Diana had shown little interest in her granddaughters.
So when Danni receives a phone call in the middle of the night from the police to say that her mother has been found wandering down the middle of the dual carriageway in her nightdress, she doesn't think twice about rushing to her mother's aid. But Diana is anything but happy to see her daughter - "why did you call HER?" - and though she was used to her mother's rejection it still hurt.
But what came next could not prepare Danni or her family for the journey they were about to embark on. After her mother's nocturnal venture, Danni made an immediate appointment with her mother's doctor for an assessment who, after several cognitive function tests, referred them to a specialist for further testing. But there was no escaping it - Diana had Alzheimer's. The consultant explained to them the seven stages of dementia and that, given by the results of Diana's assessments, that she was in stage four of the disease. If she had just entered stage 4 then she may have years in that stage, but if she were towards the end of it, then the decline would be rapid. Despite her strained relationship with her mother, Danni is devastated. And yet, she steps up to help her mother through this difficult time after receiving her diagnosis.
The next several months are spent ferrying her mother between appointments and her three day a week job at the library, as well as being there for her two girls, who know nothing of the history between their mother and grandmother. Her husband Ben has been a rock, always there offering love and support during her darkest days at the receiving end of Diana's vitriol. Soon after the diagnosis, Danni skypes her brother in New Zealand who is shocked by the news before revealing his relationship with their mother was not the bed of roses she thought it had been. All these years Danni had been jealous of the love Diana lavished on her brother, she never realised that Adam found their mother's love to be suffocating. And yet, despite their mother's devastating diagnosis, Adam never offered to come home. It riled Danni because she needed his help and it was clear that it was him Diana wanted...until he revealed just before Christmas that he had no job and couldn't afford the flight home.
Then during a routine appointment to assess any changes and how the disease was progressing, Diana revealed something to her consultant that resulted in even more devastating consequences. And Danni was in no way prepared for the revelation nor the resulting outcome. Either way, her mother did not have long and Danni knew that Adam needed to come home now.
In the months since her original diagnosis, Danni and her mother had been forced together whether the other liked it or not. Despite everything, Diana was still Danni's mother and she still loved her...and no one deserves the life sentence that dementia brings. As the months wore on, there were times when Diana was lucid and it would seem like there was nothing amiss. And then in a blink of an eye, she could suddenly find herself locked in a past memory, recalling it in clear detail as it if it were unfolding right at that minute. And it is during one of these moments, beginning with the rambling whispers Danni mistakes for a dream on Boxing Day, that she discovers a shocking secret that her mother had never spoken about...until the dementia did it for her.
After many an argument with her mother about the excerpts of this secret and in a moment of lucidity, Diana finally told Danni the secret she had kept for over 40 years. A brother she had never known about, born long before she was, when Diana was just 16. Stillborn, they said, but she never believed them...she'd have known. A mother would know know if her child died...wouldn't she? Besides...she heard him whimper; she was sure she did. Danni is saddened for her mother to have gone through such an experience alone and with no support. So she makes it her quest to discover the truth - did her mother have a stillborn child, or was it a figment of her dementia-addled brain? And if it is true, Danni resolves that the one last thing she can do for her mother is to find her brother's final resting place and bring her mother some peace and closure...before she dies.
But good intentions have unexpected consequences and Danni opens up a can of worms she knew nothing about which changes her life forever. And before the story's end, there will be even more heartbreak that will have you bawling that so much tragedy could befall one family. But in the end, comes a gift so beautiful, so precious that it will make you cry all over again.
My gosh! This book should really come with a box of tissues because believe me, you are going to need them! There is so much tension, emotion and heartbreak as Danni struggles first with the feeling of inadequacy with regards to her mother and then the truth behind the secret she uncovers. It was nothing she had done, nothing she could have done and nothing she could do now...and uncovering that truth doesn't make it any easier. It just makes it so much more heartbreaking.
Anyone who has care for or has lived with a loved one with dementia will recognise the challenges Danni faces in MY MOTHER'S SECRET. The author doesn't hesitate in showing this to readers as well as giving us the more happier and lucid moments as Diana and Danni repair their relationship before it's too late. And then there is the effect that losing a child can have on a parent, particularly in a time when ideas surrounding grief were so far removed from what we have since learnt is actually beneficial to the grieving process. And yet, Julia Roberts still puts her characters through the mill with so much tragedy and heartbreak that the reader cannot help but sympathise with them all. MY MOTHER'S SECRET is both an easy and a hard read.
Despite there being so much sadness, MY MOTHER'S SECRET is a compelling tale with it's wonderfully short chapters that I found myself turning the pages with such a speed of "just one more chapter" until the very end. I cannot tell you how much I loved this book and everyone in it...including the irascible Diana.
Recommended for anyone who loves a good tear-jerker with heartbreaks aplenty but with a happy ending.
I would like to thank #JuliaRoberts, #NetGalley, #Bookouture for an ARC of #MyMothersSecret in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Born in Nottingham, Julia Roberts travelled the world working as a professional dancer, singer and TV presenter. She has also produced and presented features for Sky Sports - she has a passion for football, particularly her team, Crystal Palace - as well as corporate videos and live presentations.
Julia has been writing and self-publishing her fiction since 2015 but has now signed a three book deal with Bookouture, under the name J G Roberts, for a detective/crime/thriller series centred around DCI Rachel Hart. The first book in the series, Little Girl Missing, will publish on June 14th 2019, with book 2 in the series in October 2019 and book 3 in April 2020, keeping her very busy as she also prepares for a beach wedding to her partner of forty-one years, Chris, in August.
Having survived paralytic polio as a baby, Julia is an ambassador for British Polio and the Rotary International 'End Polio Now' campaign, and has donated from book sales to both charities, as well as the blood cancer charity, Bloodwise.
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