Author: Kerry Fisher
Pages: 280
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication date:November 22nd 2019
Genre: contemporary, fiction
Source: e-book
Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Get it here: Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Amazon UK, Waterstones
Summary:
As a child, Vicky Hall never had the sort of family she wanted. The least important person in her new step-family, ignored by her mother in favour of her two younger half-siblings, Vicky was always an afterthought. Sitting alone at her graduation ceremony at the age of twenty-one, she vows to create her own family and her own life, one which is full of the love and attention she has always craved.
When Vicky meets William and falls pregnant in Greece that summer, it isn’t planned. But the two of them believe they can make it work, showering their child with the love which they believe should be enough.
But when her son Theo is two, Vicky leaves him in the care of her mother-in-law, walks out of her front door and drives to a hotel where she takes a room for the night. She doesn’t return.
It’s unthinkable.
What kind of mother does that?
The kind who is hiding a story you can never imagine.
Review:
The Mother I Could Have Been is the story two mothers who struggle with their roles as mothers, that are not what they had expected.
The story was very different from what I had happened. I thought it would have more of a thriller kind of vibe, and we would slowly get to know the reasons why Vicki would have abandoned her son, Theo. That wasn’t it. It picks up very fast, and we instinctively know why Vicki is struggling with motherhood and why she will continue to doubt herself as a mother. Her son’s paternal grandmother, Barbara, takes total control of the child, and won’t Vicki do anything or make any decisions regarding her baby. She questions everything Vicki does and constantly doubt her judgement. Theo’s father, William, is of no assistance to Vicki, and I totally understand why she ends up breaking down. That doesn’t make it okay to leave Theo, but you can always understand her struggle. There are also several flashbacks to her own childhood, where she never felt validated or like she belonged. She is full of insecurities, and Barbara constantly nagging her doesn’t make it any better.
This all happens within the first 50-60 pages or so. After this we meet Caro, who seemingly has nothing to do with Vicki’s story. That however changes quickly. Caro, like Vicki, struggles with motherhood, now that her children have grown up and her daughter, India, has children of her own. The two are constantly clashing and it ends with India cutting of contact to her family.
The two gradually open up to each other more and more, and they slowly open up to each other. While I am disappointed that I didn’t get the thriller-mystery story I was looking for, I still enjoyed and I can always appreciate a sweet, simple story of two people learning to open up. To acknowledge your mistakes and learn from them. Both women get a second chance, and I’ll be honest it did kind of remind of a lazy Hallmark movie. That’s not to say that you can’t enjoy Hallmark movies, they are easy and somewhat and can be great entertainment, when there’s nothing else. I always end up watching some, because despite you knowing that they aren’t that good, you get hooked. That’s what this book reminded me of.
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