Her Daughter by Fran Hawthorne ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

"I'm only telling you in case the police contact you. Esme was arrested, but I'm handling everything, and she doesn't want to hear from you."

 

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.  A free book was provided for an honest review.

January 2026; Black Rose Writing; 978-1685136994
ebook, print (333 pages); women's fiction

As a parent, it's difficult to imagine being totally estranged from your child and even more difficult to realize that the husband that you once loved is the person who has engineered the estrangement.  That's exactly what happens in this new book by Fran Hawthorne.  Alice loved being a mother to her daughter, Esme, and was hurt and confused when her daughter decided to live with her dad and his new wife when she was 15.  Now, Esme is 23, and Alice hasn't talked to her at all in over 6 years.  She really doesn't know what is going on in Esme's life until she gets a text from her ex-husband that Esme has been arrested.  

As Alice works to find out why her daughter has been arrested and what, if there is anything, she can do to help, she remembers back on her happier years with her daughter.  She searches obsessively up and down the California coast to try to get information, and her quest causes estrangement from the friends who have been there for her for years.  Her search even jeopardizes her job as an environmental activist, but she only cares about finding her daughter.  As she uncovers hints, she realizes that she didn't really know her daughter at all.  All she wants is to find her daughter and talk to her, and maybe start to heal the estrangement.  She's also very worried that if/when she finds her daughter, she may say the wrong thing to her that will increase the bad feelings her daughter has for her.  No matter what else is going on, she wants to find her daughter.

I really liked the way the book is written.  As Alice is searching for Esme, there are small nuggets of the past thrown in.  Is Alice to blame for prioritizing her job?  Is her ex to blame for creating the estrangement by constantly talking about Alice to his daughter in a negative way?  Or is there blame for all three of them?

There were times in the book that I didn't like Alice at all, but other times I identified with her feelings.  No matter how I felt about her and her obsessions, I was still hoping for her to reconcile with her daughter.  But as with life, there are no black and white endings, and despite the emotions, the ending is perfect given the conflict within the family. 

This is an emotional must-read book about a mother/daughter conflict that has split into pieces, and a mother who is trying to understand why, as she hopes for reconciliation. 

Buy Her Daughter at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.

 

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