Mothers of Fate by Lynne Hugo ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

Mothers of Fate, a masterful story of three women and a young man navigating the complexities of adoption and its aftermath that raises a question for every reader. Does fate direct our lives—or do our own choices?

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

April 2025; Amphorae Publishing Group; 978-1943075911
ebook, print (374 pages); women's fiction

I have read most of Lynne Hugo's books, and she just keeps getting better. Her new book is a story about adoption and how it affects the birth mothers, the adoptive mothers, and most importantly,y the child that has been adopted.   

Deanna is an older, handicapped woman who fell in love with her boss years before and then had his baby.  Due to a catastrophic event, he never knew that she was pregnant, and when she realized that she couldn't support her son Daniel on her own, she reluctantly gave him up for adoption.  Now, 30 years later, she wants to meet her son.  It was a closed adoption, so she went to a lawyer to get help finding him.  Monica works by herself due to issues with the firm she worked with when she got out of school.  She and her wife, Angela, a social worker, have recently adopted a young girl.  Angela had been abandoned as a child and lived in a series of foster homes.  She believes that closed adoptions should remain closed and urges Monica not to take Deanna's case, but Monica feels very strongly about it and decides to help Deanna even though it causes a huge disruption in her marriage.  This is the basic part of the story, but there is so much more -- all of these characters have a lot of baggage in their pasts that is impeding their current lives.

The story hops back and forth between several people and several timelines.  We get Deanna's story of her love affair and the birth and adoption of her son in the early 80s, Monica's background at the law firm she worked at, Angela's problems with her birth family, the early years of Daniel's adoption told by Daniel and his adoptive parents both in the past and present. The story is told in alternating chapters by all of these people.  With some authors, it could have been very confusing to jump time periods and different people telling their story, but Lynne Hugo does a fantastic writing job of melding all of the characters together so that there is no confusion and the story flows smoothly.

This is an emotional, character-driven story with characters who want to make the right decisions in their lives without hurting others.  The characters are all dealing with past mistakes and trying to move forward without sacrificing the people that they love.  This is a fantastic story with characters  I won't soon forget.

Buy Mothers of Fate 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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