A family secret and the setting, Victoria's Western District, were the two things that drew me to this novel, in a genre I don't usually read. While the opening chapters didn’t pull me in immediately, I’m glad I persevered as this turned out to be a great family drama with a very satisfactory conclusion.

As with all families there is a hierachy within them and the Chirnwells were no different. Not having any sisters, I found it interesting where Harriet, Xara and Georgie thought they belonged in their mother’s affections, how they saw their roles in the family and how they interacted with one another.

Harriet, the eldest of the three Chirnwell sisters, was domineering and not very likeable. Now that her father had passed away, the most like him in temperament, she saw herself as the head of the family and was intent on keeping her mother, Edwina, in line and making sure that the rest of the family stayed true to their role as a prominent Western District family.

Edwina has other ideas. She no longer wishes to live with the shackles of the past where her life was controlled by her father and husband. So when life gives her a second chance at happiness, she grabs it.

While her younger two daughters calmly accept their mother’s choices, it is Harriet who finds it difficult to come to terms with her mother’s decisions and revelations, as well as those of her own daughter, Charlotte. She also has to deal with a scandal that brings to an end the perfect and settled nature of her life. I did feel sorry for Harriet struggling to cope with what was happening around her, but it took this upheaval for her to reassess her life and the people in it.

This book was a thought provoking look at family relationships, especially those between mothers and daughters, and how people deal with personal traumas in their lives. I particularly enjoyed how the revelation of a fifty year old secret changed the Chirnwell sisters' perceptions of the mother they thought they knew.

Despite the slow start, this book was a wonderful read and I'm happy to recommend it.

Fiona Lowe is another author I’ve always meant to read, having heard her speak a few times. Daughter of Mine is her first women’s fiction book, but she is an award winning author of romance novels. When you combine the history of a family in rural Victoria with many explosive secrets, it’s sure to be an interesting read!

The story is about the three Chirnwell sisters (Harriet, Xara and Georgie) and their mother Edwina. The three sisters are very different – Harriet is a surgeon with far too much time on her hands to mull over propriety, appearances and the ‘correct’ way of doing things. Xara lives on a farm with her husband and children – it’s chaos, messy and loving. Georgie teaches in Melbourne and hiding a broken heart. I found Harriet a pain in the neck – for someone who is apparently so learned, she doesn’t seem to do much work. (Also, she has far too much of an ego – she’s a country surgeon, not the head of neurosurgery at a leading hospital). During the story, you could say that she does learn a few home truths which I frankly rejoiced in! Xara and Georgie are much more likable. Xara copes admirably with her disabled daughter, although I wish she had stood up to Harriet more earlier on the story. I kind of felt at times she was a doormat, but looking back Xara was just too tired to fight. Georgie was my favourite sister as she was much more relatable. She’s definitely hiding a bucket load of pain but she shuffles through the days, occasionally even with a smile on her face.

Edwina, their mother, has even more secrets to hide. These start to come to the fore early on when a convoy of classic cars appear in town. All of a sudden Edwina is reliving a time ago and meeting someone from her past which isn’t quite up to Harriet’s standards… Even Charlie, Harriet’s daughter has a big secret. There are so many secrets in this book that I found it a little difficult to keep track of at first! But it’s Fiona Lowe’s attention to detail that really shines through. She tells the reader what you need to know in memorable fashion. The sights, the sounds, the thoughts are all there. I could feel the rain as Georgie got caught in the storm on the way to the car, Edwina’s sense of disorientation when her memories of the sixties came flooding back…

If you’re after a story full of drama, secrets and lies within a family, Daughter of Mine is right up your alley!

Thank you to Harlequin for the copy of this book. My review is honest.

For more reviews, please visit http://samstillreading.wordpress.com

I’ve never read Fiona Lowe before but she is the winner of multiple awards (including a RITA) so I was pretty intrigued by this one. It’s quite a complex story line featuring several generations of the same family who hail from wealthy, privileged and respected landowners – the “squattocracy”.

Harriett, Xara and Georgie couldn’t really be more different. Harriett has always been the rigid one, very driven and dedicated. Not only does she push herself hard to always be successful and almost perfect in a way, but she also pushes her daughter hard as well. Xara has had to learn to be adaptable – as the mother of a child with a lifelong debilitating disability and also twin boys, her life is total chaos where they’re always just scraping buy compared to Harriett’s organised life and quiet wealth. Georgie is a primary school teacher (seemingly stuck with a “difficult” sort of class) and the only one to have made her home away from the local area where they all grew up and their names are an integral part of the history and make up of the town. Who they are and where they came from is of varying importance to them – unsurprisingly Harriet is the most attached the family name and reputation and it is her that reacts in the worst way when she is first betrayed and then confronted with some unexpected news.

In a way I felt for Harriett because the more rigid someone is, the harder it is for them when terrible things happen. And there’s no doubt that Harriett’s life implodes. Someone she loves, someone she respected, does something utterly horrible and she is blindsided by it and then the response to her hurt is perhaps even worse. She is also ostracised, shunned, labelled as a co-conspirator by the locals and her practice suffers greatly as a result. But it was hard to completely sympathise with Harriett because so much of what happens after that first betrayal is of her own making. She’s so rigid and so demanding on what must be done that she overlooks so many important things. She’s concerned with image and how things look and the fact that things like this just don’t happen in their family. Because they are better than that and that was an attitude that I couldn’t sympathise with at all. Despite people attempting to reason with her, she really did stay frustratingly stubborn and judgemental for the longest time. Harriett for me felt like a very interesting study for “nature vs nurture” – there’s no doubt her fractured relationship with Edwina was a product of the distance between them when Harriett was very young and also Edwina’s illnesses. However Harriett also aspired to be very much like her father, wanted to emulate him in every way. She adored him clearly and it’s very difficult for her when she’s forced to confront some of his faults, long after his death. It did make me wonder how much of her nature was because she wanted to be that way, that she thought being that way was more superior than being more like Edwina.

I don’t have a sister but everyone I know with one says that it’s a very complex relationship and these three definitely have that. Georgie and Xara are more mellow personalities, more alike probably and more able to sit and just chat. Harriett is always doing something or going somewhere and she doesn’t seem like she’s as close to the other two as they are to each other. They do rally around in times of crisis, but it’s a lot of things that pile on top of one another – Edwina’s new man friend, the betrayal Harriett experiences and resulting fall out (it also affects Xara and her husband Steve quite personally as well) as well as what happens after that and it isn’t long before fractures in the relationships Harriett has with everyone are showing.

I really loved Edwina’s story, which is told in bits and pieces throughout and I actually think that could’ve made a great book on it’s own – following her from a teenager up until the age she is at the beginning of this novel. She’s experienced a lot of heartache juxtaposed with a lot of privilege and the Edwina that is presented to the world is different from the Edwina that lies beneath the surface. Loved the character of Doug and I loved the fact that they were able to reconnect after so many years and still find something there. There were many surprises that came out of that which made for very interesting reading and added many layers to the complexity of the story.

For the most part, this is a really engaging multi-generational family story with plenty of drama, intricate relationships (some connections are very intricate!) and intriguing reveals. However there were times when for me, it felt a little bit long and Harriett’s hysteria and stubbornness over something was quite irritating. I don’t really know much about the whole squattocracy thing but sometimes the family reputation thing felt a little outdated, something that people would’ve focused on earlier but shouldn’t really seem as relevant now.

Those are little things though and this is still an excellent read.

7/10

My Thoughts

‘I really don’t think anyone in my family is okay today .... I paid a high price for secrets and lies and I’m paying it still.’

With an easy going writing style and an engaging story, ‘Daughter of Mine’ proved to be a most enjoyable novel. Here you will find past and recent complicated family secrets and lies, loves come and go and a range of emotions from the young through to serious mental issues are covered. What I truly embraced with this book was the realistic and authentic dialogue, not only between family, but also those extending beyond that.
‘Ask me. I’m an open book. I’ve lived with the damaging effects of secrets all of my life. I don’t want any to exist between you and me or between me and your sisters.’

Here Lowe will provide you with an array of characters that face obstacles and heartache and there is sure to be at least one character that you unwittingly nod your head at, either in agreement or frustration. Still, it goes to demonstrate how well Lowe captures a range of relatable characteristics and how everybody can deal differently with a conflict or family problem. I appreciate the detail and time Lowe invested in each of the main characters so that you could try to appreciate how it looked coming from their side of things.

‘Confident he wasn’t going to ask, she’d let down her guard. Now, all snuggled up in her cocoon of bliss and totally unprepared, the question hit her like a sniper’s bullet. It tore through her, ripping, burning, brutal.’

Set in a small town it all comes across as very believable and you will find yourself cheering for some and hoping that fate delivers its blow to others. For a longer book, it moves at a good pace and I was readily engaged throughout, eagerly turning the pages. I can genuinely recommend this as a good family drama/saga.

‘Life isn’t perfect. God, I worked that out years ago. It’s messy and complicated and disorganised. People do things that hurt you. People disappoint you and let you down. Family lets you down and that one hurts the most.’



This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release

This is the first book of Fiona's that I have read, and I believe that she has quite an extensive backlist of books. I think this is her first commercial Women's Fiction book, and I feel so privileged to have read it. I love stories about families and this book is an absolute winner. The pressure to maintain an image on a well-respected and somewhat wealthy family in a smallish town is huge, but every family like this has a facade and Edwina who is the matriarch of the family has a secret that she has told no one. Newly widowed, she feels she must uphold this image to her three daughters - Harriet, who is following her late father's career and is a perfectionist with a prominent husband and perfect daughter, Xara who is busy juggling 3 children, one of which has a disability, and Georgie who lives away in Melbourne and followed her own dream of being a teacher rather than what her father wanted her to do, but has been unlucky in love.

The characters in this book were very relatable and the author went to great lengths to tell their individual stories beautifully. This kept me turning the pages constantly and even though I could have slapped one of the daughters many times throughout the book, I did enjoy how her story concluded. There are also many secondary characters in the book who have delightful backgrounds of their own and you can't help but empathize with their circumstances as well.

This is a must read book for anyone who enjoys life-lit or women's fiction and I hope will be the first of many books by Fiona written in this genre.

Where do I start? Can I say wow what a fabulous story? Yes I can, I loved this one beautifully written so many fabulous characters who come to life on the pages they became friends, and friends that I cried with laughed with and wanted to yell at throughout the story there is a lot going on secrets that have been kept for nearly fifty years and when they come out lives will change forever.

This is the story of a privileged family in Victoria’s Western district they come from squatters in the early 1800’s they have a rich and honoured history but do they? There are always secrets and black sheep of the family and now a secret is about to be discovered that will lead to the three Chirnwell sisters Harriet (Harry), Xara and Georgie’s lives as well as their Mother’s Edwina being up ended and that is not the only thing that is happening there is lovers reunited new love discovered and extra family members as well as families torn apart by criminal accusations and scandals that rock the town of Billawarre.

Harry, Xara and Georgie are all very different sisters Harry a successful Doctor with a loving husband and beautiful daughter, Xara a stay at home Mum who leads a very busy life with her loving husband children and the sheep farm to run and Georgie the teacher who has been through heartache but even though they have their differences in the end they are sisters who love and care for each other but their lives change and their journey is very rocky and the path a tough one to tread but tread it they do. The women in this story are strong and capable and mostly easy to love as you get to know them.

I don’t want to give any spoilers away but I do highly recommend this book it truly is a remarkable amazing story of families and the rules that they live by the loves, the loses, the highs and lows that come daily and sometimes with a big bang that rocks everyone. I smiled I cried and I found such joy in this story. Thank you MS Lowe for a wonderful story that kept me turning the pages this one is a keeper and will stay with me for a long time.

Daughter Of Mine by Fiona Lowe was a tumultuous, 360 degree story, filled with so many obstacles and heartache and twists for the portrayed characters. Energetic, opinionated personas that were prickly at first, but nevertheless, they grew on you. Characters that had this readers opinions turning. Events and circumstances, secrets and lies. An exceptionally magnificent read. From the start I was gripped by the happenings within the events of the small town and the starring characters - the obstacles and contentious issues were believably written and had me completely outraged on behalf of each of the characters. Loved this story and was so pleased with the finale and would not have complained if the story kept going :) A book that will be in my fave reads that I could go back to again.
Review copy received from Harlequin Australia via Netgalley
5 Stars