Emma is a five-year-old that lives a sad life. Her mother and father are less than perfect parents who don’t seem that interested in their daughter. When Sarah first encounters Emma, she has an immediate connection with the little girl because Sarah’s childhood was a bit sad and she often felt unwanted too. On a chance encounter, Sarah takes Emma. As the two avoid the nationwide search for Emma, they bond. However, Emma’s parents are back home wondering what happened to their child. Amy, Emma’s mother, is taking the worst of the suspicions and attacks on the family. To complicate matters, Amy is an unhappy wife and mother, and starts to question if she really wants her daughter to come back to them.

The story is told from both Sarah and Amy’s points of view. The story also alternates from before, during, and after the kidnapping. This was mostly fine, but there were a few times when the changing of timelines was confusing.

The story is fast-paced and compelling. I wasn’t sure how I wanted things to be resolved, but I wanted to keep reading to see how it would end. It’s sad to imagine a child growing up in an abusive household and feeling unwanted, but it’s near impossible to imagine a child living a safe life with a kidnapper. Basically, both Sarah and Amy were unstable, so I couldn’t really root for either one of them.

Overall, a great debut novel. I would have enjoyed a little more resolution toward the end, but, then again, it’s nice to ponder a few things.

That may have been the most absurd premise for a story that I have ever read. Who in their right mind would take a child they think is being abused and run away? And then you want me to believe that she can traipse around the country and not get caught. Even worse, you want me to believe that the mother actually says "Take her."

Loved this book, even when I was not reading it I kept thinking about it and couldn’t wait to pick it up again and I finished it in a day. Would definitely recommend to others and can’t wait to read other titles from this author.

Highly recommend!!

The last chapter...the one right before the epilogue...literally gave me goosebumps!

What would you do if by chance, you saw a mother abusing her five year old daughter, not once but twice?

Would you intervene?

If your own mother had abandoned you when you were eight years old, and you knew the pain of what it was like to grow up knowing your own mother did not love you enough to stay, do you think it might alter what you would do in this situation?

“Her Mother Had Her Chance”

Not thinking it through but wanting to protect 5 year old Emma, from her abusive mother, Amy, Sarah decides she needs to protect this little girl. If you are rescuing a child from a damaging situation is kidnapping wrong?

Excerpt: “I am rewriting her story, altering her memories, shifting her shitty childhood into clean chunks: before, during after. Then, Now, Someday”

That is how the story unfolds, from the perspectives of both Sarah and Amy.

Sarah has taken Emma, and now they are hiding out.
Emma has now been gone since June.
And, Amy, her mother, is unsure if she even wants Emma back.

The women’s personalities are so vividly drawn that when I was hearing from Sarah, I was rooting for her, despite the fact that she is a kidnapper.

When it was Amy’s turn my nose wrinkled in disgust at her crude language and ability to justify her very unacceptable behavior.

Who will you sympathize with?

I would like to thank Netgalley, the publisher-St. Martin’s Griffin and the author Rea Frey for the ARC I received in exchange for a candid review.

If you enjoy issue driven fiction, you can pre-order this now! Available Aug. 21st, 2018!

This story grabs hold of your sense of what's the right on so many levels. Rescuing an abused child or not; a mother in torment or secretly not; is happiness being safe and loved even without your family; is it love when you look the other way? This is an amazing angle for a story to be told from. No perfect characters with no perfect solution, this will keep you turning the pages long after the sun goes down.

YES! All the YES! I was hooked from the beginning. The story, the writing style, the characters. I loved it all!

Is kidnapping ever justified? Is it considered kidnapping if the child wants to go? The book explores this question beautifully. The story is told from the viewpoint of the mother and the woman caring for Emma. It is a wonderful story but some areas are a little far fetched. Overall this was a wonderful book and I would recommend it.

She was there one minute, annoying and needy, the next she was gone. Emma was a child of abuse, living with loneliness, she had nowhere safe to land. Sarah Walker had a chance encounter with Emma and her abusive mother and she never forgot that day. Was it because of her own abandonment issues?

The successful business owner would cross paths with five-year-old Emma again, and Sarah would decide to become her savior. Now Sarah is a kidnapper and the country is looking for little Emma.
Emma’s mother, Amy, took all of her dissatisfaction with her life out on Emma, but now the world was giving Amy attention, they felt sorry for her, they thought they knew her pain, but did she really hurt?

As Sarah and Emma travel the country avoiding capture, Emma will finally learn what it is to be loved and wanted, and Sarah is determined to give Emma all of the motherly protection they both missed out on, but will Sarah’s guilt finally allow the little girl to go home? Will she ask her to choose between Amy and Sarah? How can small child choose between the reality of her life and the fantasy Sarah is creating for both of them?

Set aside the moral dilemmas, the unhealthy state of Sarah’s mind, her desperation to be loved, to live that love vicariously through Emma and get ready to be drawn into a story that is as sharp as tacks and just as painful. NOT HER DAUGHTER by Rea Frey is an excellent piece of writing and creativity on the part of the author, but it is chilling.

I struggled throughout the first part of the book, waiting for Sarah to devolve into something completely out of touch with reality. I wanted Amy arrested for the abuse she rained down on Emma, both physically and worse, emotionally. Additionally, all those who knew about it, were just as guilty. I was never comfortable with this read, yes, it is powerful, but I just couldn’t reconcile myself with the events, or the outcome.

I tend to think beyond the last page of a book to the future and I wonder if either of these women would ever know what it really means to be a mother?

I received an ARC edition from St. Martin's Press.

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (August 21, 2018)
Publication Date: August 21, 2018
Genre: Suspense | Women's Fiction
Number of Pages: 352
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com

This is an emotional read. The alternating points of view and timelines made it an interesting, fast-paced read. If I say much more, I am going to spoil it. So I will just say that I recommend that everyone read this book, even if the characters and the events of story seem unlikable. In the end, this story is beautifully told and one that everyone can learn from. I am blown away. Thank to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-ARC of this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rea Frey for the opportunity to read this novel.

As soon as I read the description, I thought "YES! My kind of book!". I was not disappointed. I absolutely LOVE stories like this. It was definitely a page turner, and truly emotional. I sympathized with both main characters, and also got so upset with both main characters at the same time.

I look forward to reading more in the future from Rea Frey.

This book was a good read. Something that possibly could happen in real life. Makes you think about how children are treated.




Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an early release of this book

This seems like an unbelievable set-up with no positive resolution possible but it defies those odds and keeps you reading to the last page. The protagonist is much too reasonable and accessible for her actions to be understandable, and the conclusion feels tacked on and unreal, but it's an engrossing novel nonetheless and remains in the mind with a "what if" long after this reader finished it.

This is a really good read, as long as you are okay suspending belief. Too many elements of the story were glossed over in order to 'make it work', but of course in real life it would never happen as it plays out in the book.

Sarah Walker is not your typical kidnapper...

While traveling for her successful business, Sarah sees Emma, the beautiful gray-eyed child who seems like a forgotten piece of luggage to her mother and father. When Sarah has a second encounter with Emma and sees the continued neglect she is subjected to, she makes a rash decision and takes her. Takes her away from the only family she knows, into a life where she can be nurtured and loved.

Amy Townsend is not your typical loving mother...

She hates everything about her life. Anger bubbles just below the surface and it doesn't take much to make it rise and explode. Emma bears the brunt of this anger. Every day Amy thinks she will be a better mother, and every day she fails.

Then Emma is gone, and Amy has to face the fact that she's more worried about what will be uncovered about her parenting skills over the welfare of her daughter. She's not even sure if she wants Emma back if she is found.

While I hated Amy's character and all that she stood for, she is actually the glue that held this book together for me. I think Frey did an outstanding job of exposing the dark inner thoughts of this woman and her struggles to come to terms with who she is...even if it's at the expense of her daughter.

The ending was a bit too pat for me, but overall this is a great piece of fiction that I highly recommend.

ARC provided by NetGalley

What motivates people to hurt children? Rea Frey gets up close and personal with this question in a story about a woman who impulsively kidnaps a 5-year-old girl. Sarah is the kidnapper--reeling from a break-up and with memories of her own childhood with a mother who didn't want her, she impulsively snatches a girl whom she believes is being abused. Amy is the mother--overweight, trapped in a suffocating marriage with children she didn't want and trying to balance taking care of kids with a full-time job, she's sleep-deprived and permanently stressed. After Sarah takes the girl, Emma, the story alternates between Sarah's attempts to get away with kidnapping and Amy dealing with the aftermath, in a legal system that always looks at the parents first. Author Frey also shows us the back story of what happened to these women before the kidnapping. With Sarah's tale being told in first person while Amy is in third, the story is more geared toward Sarah, and she comes across as more three-dimensional than Amy does. Emma is a completely different child depending on which woman she is with, a truth many parents will identify with.

Not Her Daughter is a story of love, hate, and deceit. Told from the perspective of the mother and the kidnapper, this story is every mother's worst nightmare. Five year old Emma, a beautiful little girl with big grey eyes and a bright red bow, goes missing from her family home one evening after a confrontation with her mother. Confrontations are not uncommon between Amy and Emma, as Amy takes her own insecurities out on her innocent daughter. Already in an unhealthy marriage, Amy and her husband Robert do everything in their power to find their daughter and bring her home safely, all while emotionally beating one another down.

Meanwhile, little Emma, stolen by single woman, Sarah, is blossoming like a little flower. Missing out on the special bond between mother and daughter as a child, Sarah feels a void being filled through her new relationship with Emma. Emma feels love and what it means to be a child for the first time. Will Sarah return Emma home? Will Emma want to go home? Does Amy want Emma to come home?

I struggled right from the beginning with this story. I was excited for the suspense and the concept of the story was something I would normally gravitate towards, however, this one fell flat for me. The dialogue didn't ring true and though the author did a decent job developing the characters, I just couldn't quite connect, and kept finding myself posing the question, "would this really happen?"

The ending didn't get much better, and without giving away any spoilers, I really struggle to believe this is a believable ending. This story was one I can appreciate, but also don't foresee myself picking up and reading again.

Not Her Daughter is an emotionally gripping tale that explores parenting, child abduction, love, and loss.

I really enjoyed Rea Frey's writing style... she easily grips her readers with an emotional story that leaves you hanging on until the end!

Sarah is still heartbroken from her break up with former boyfriend Ethan. Sarah throws herself into her job to help ease the pain of the breakup. She travels frequently for her job and one day she sees a family with a little girl in the airport. Sarah quickly feels for Emma as she sees her mother Amy dragging and pulling her through the airport.

Amy on the other hand... is a mother that loses her patience very easily with her daughter Emma. Emma and Amy have a very strained relationship.... with Amy losing her temper very frequently.

One day... Emma disappears without a trace... and the story unfolds with a dark yet beautiful emotional voice from Rea.

I loved how the story alternated between Amy and Sarah's POV with "before", "during", and "after" Emma's disappearance/kidnapping.

This was a gripping thriller that I really enjoyed. There were some aspects that were a tad bit unbelievable especially at the end.

Characterization was strong in this novel. Rea did an amazing job portraying motherhood and the different struggles of being a mother from Amy's point of view and Sarah's.

The story flows beautifully and the characters are interwoven beautifully through the lens of her readers.

This is definitely an author to put on your radar and am looking forward to seeing what Rea comes out with next! :)

Thank you so much Jordan, St. Martin's Press, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review.

4 strong stars!

Publication date: 8/21/18
Published to GR: 7/8/18.

Rea Frey didn't write your typical kidnapping suspense book, it's more complex and tests your ethics. Would you kidnap a child if you believed you were helping them, is it wrong to do so if you're offering a better way of life?

I couldn't put this book down, it has moments that make you cringe, cry and your heart race. Following the lives of Sarah the kidnapper, the tumultuous relationship she had with her mother that brought her to take Emma for the betterment of Emma's life. Amy, Emma's selfish horrid mom that you love to hate and then REALLY hate as the book moves along.

Not Her Daughter will have you questioning what would you do if presented the same situation/opportunity.

(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for making it available.)

This one pulled at my heart strings for sure!. Completely understand why sarah did what she did, did it in the wrong way possibly but I understand. Makes you wonder what you would do in the same situation. Now as for Amy.....i was disgusted at her attitude with the whole situation. One character that is easy to hate!. All.in all I thought it was a brilliant book! 5 stars for sure!

I liked the book blurb & layout (During, Before, After), but I didn't care for the storytelling itself. It felt rushed and choppy. It didn't quite have the flow I was hoping for or am used to.

Thank you Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for my copy.

This book was amazing. It is sectioned into before and after segments the after is when our main character Sarah has kidnapped a young girl of five named Emma from her abusive mother Amy. Amy doesn't mean to be abusive however sometimes she just snaps. Her life isn't going as she wanted it to, her relationship with her husband is rocky and she never wanted to be a mother in the first place. Feeling overwhelmed at the best of times she sometimes snaps and ends up taking her frustrations out on her five year old daughter Emma. The before is tales from Sarah's own abusive childhood and what led her to take drastic actions in regards to what she witnessed with Emma. I found the characters in this book really interesting. I really felt for Sarah's character having to witness such terrible things happening to this poor child. I understand how this would be a terrible thing to witness and how it would take everything in you not to just snap on the poor woman however I believe that she should have taken another approach. Even though I disagreed with everything Sarah did she was my favourite character in the story. Smart, compassionate and impulsive. I liked how she took action even though it was the wrong thing to do at the time. Another thing that I really liked about this book was it gave two different perspectives on what was happening to two very important characters. It gave you behind the scenes information that changed how you saw the situation of the kidnapping (not that it is ever a good thing.) I never expected to side with a kidnapper, but that just shows how great a job that Rea Frey did at making her characters they were amazing and very intriguing. While I've read many kidnapping books there has never been one that was written to this level of style. Every chapter had me wondering what was happening and siding with/ yelling at the characters and their decisions. I couldn't read this book fast enough and at the same time I never wanted it to end. Great book, everyone should pick this book up when it comes out. The only thing I didn't like was the ending I thought that it was a little rushed for the rest of the story. Besides that little point I loved this one.