I received an advanced copy of this book from #netgalley and #stmartinspress for an honest review!

This is the story of a woman who "rescues" a five year old girl from a terrible life of unhappiness and abuse by kidnapping her. They leave from home and travel East, getting lucky several times.

Great book, though a bit far fetched. I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out exactly where Sarah thought she was going to go with this plan. I mean really, who just scoops up a five year old and thinks they will just be able to keep her because the mom is an uncaring twat? Turns out, Sarah had a better understanding of the situation than I did. The ending is unrealistic, and I would love to see what is next for Sarah and Emma. I give this book 4 stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martins Griffins, and Rea Frey for the opportunity to read this gripping novel - loved it and 5 glowing stars!

Sarah is a successful owner of a start-up company that makes educational play kits for children around the world. She's recently broken up with her boyfriend and is struggling. She has a chance meeting with a family at the airport and witnesses the mom being verbally and physically abusive to a little girl, Emma.

Amy is Emma's mom who has never quite connected with Emma the way she did with her youngest child. Amy is full of anger, in a bad marriage, and struggling with all her decisions.

When Sarah has another chance sighting of Emma and witnesses a dramatic event, she takes steps to make sure Emma is in a safe environment.

I couldn't put this book down and loved the way it was written - divided into alternating chapters between Sarah and Amy in before and during sections. What does it mean to be a mom? Is home always your safe place?

Not Her Daughter was a very interesting and suspenseful read. Characters that will touch you and leaving you thinking. What is truly right and what is truly wrong? This was a mesmerizing read that dealt with so many emotional issues.

Sarah Walker is not a bad person. Or so she would have always believed. But when she sees a little girl with sad eyes, she is taken by her. She sees how the mother treats that little girl. Her heart breaks, because she knows what it feels like to be this little girl. Unloved and unwanted.

Amy Townsend is an unfit mother. She knows this. She is miserable and pretty much hates her life. She takes out her feelings on her daughter, repeatedly.

Sarah recently had her heart broken. Work is the only things she has left. But when a second encounter with the little girl that captivated her happens, she takes matters into her own hands. Emma Townsend in stuck in the middle of it all.

This was my first read by this author and one I look forward reading more from. Not Her Daughter delves into so many emotions and I was captivated from start to finish.

Happy reading!

Not Her Daughter is an emotionally charged dilemma that will have you questioning right from wrong. It is a page turner from page one. Sarah is a successful business owner in a not quite perfect relationship with her boyfriend. Her mother left when she was eight and hasn’t heard from her since, but her and her father have scraped by in her absence. Amy is a working mother of two in an unfulfilling marriage. She can’t connect with her daughter and is rough with her. The lives of these two women are linked by one beautiful five-year-old, Emma.

Sarah first sees Emma from afar at the airport as her mother is tugging and pulling her in a rush through the terminal. Months go by and she sees Emma again at the preschool she is presenting her educational tools. Sarah can’t stop thinking about Emma and feels that she is being abused. She becomes obsessed with her and made a choice to take Emma from her abusive home. What drives someone to that line and would you cross it knowing the consequences?

There is much to discuss in this novel and would be a great book club selection. The relationship between mothers and daughters will always be tenuous at times and it’s a highlight here. The end fell flat for me, but overall it’s an engaging novel. Rea Frey is working on her next novel and I’m looking forward to it!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy.

WOW! This was incredible... I couldn't put this book down. Definitely not your typical kidnapping story, this packs a punch and will make you question everything you ever thought was morally right and wrong.

What makes a good mother? How far would you go to keep a child safe?

Not Her Daughter is an emotional, gripping, and intense novel that will pull you in right from the start. Beautifully written with well developed characters that you just can't help feeling attached to. I don't want to say too much and give anything away, but I will say, this book really makes you think. This would make the perfect book club pick... a whole lot to discuss with this one! Highly Recommend!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

Rea Frey has written a that explores the gray area that cover right and wrong. I don't think many readers will find a clear line between the two with these two women. Not her daughter makes the reader think and ponder and THAT makes for a great read.

Review: NOT HER DAUGHTER by Rea Frey

How far would any of us go to follow our conscience? I'm reminded of American conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War who emigrated to Canada, of Southeast Asian Buddhist monks during the same era who self-immolated, and of the "vigilante" who stalked the New York City subways to kill criminals. Ultimately, it's an individual choice: obey one's conscience, or follow the law. For Sarah Walker, Portland CEO of a digital company focused on the education of children, there is no choice. There is only despair and impetus.

Witnessing a fairly obvious child abuse event in the airport, Sarah is shocked and distraught. Surely this was a one-time event, the consequence of stress and marital turmoil. But when fate puts her at Emma's Montessori School in Washington State, Sarah decides the girl is in need of immediate rescuing. Instead of calling in Child Protective Services, Sarah (who had a neglectful childhood with a bipolar mother and a father who could never focus beyond his own loss), abducts little Emma, and absconds with the child.

This story is crazy good!! It was nothing like I expected!! Rea did such a great job making me compassionate towards both female main characters!! It is very hard to believe it is a debut novel for her. I am very much looking forward to her next book!!

First, thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for the ARC of this book that I was given in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Instead of my normal one-sentence summary, I'm going to pose my summary as a question: what is our responsibility when we see a child being damaged?

Spoilers throughout.

I had kind of a hard time with this book. Ultimately, this book poses a question about the moral responsibility you have when you see a child who is being raised in a harmful way and Sarah is supposed to serve as a grown example of the toll that emotional and physical abuse can take. While I liked that the book asked us to consider a moral quandary as we read, I can't get over how creepy the whole premise is. Sarah sees Emma at the airport and witnesses her mother being mean to her. At this point, Amy is just mean, but not necessarily abusive. Then, months later, Sarah sees Emma again at her daycare. At her daycare where she is healthy and alive and playing. What is her next step? Because of her "connection" to a random child she first saw months prior, Sarah spends two days stalking a five year old girl to decide if she should kidnap her. That is intensely creepy and even though Sarah is obviously meant to be a huge salvation for Emma, all it did for me was make me wonder if she is mentally stable enough to raise this child in a lifestyle that's much better.

All of that ignores the next piece of intrigue: where does Sarah hide away with Emma? Oh, you know, she just drives eleven hours away and breaks into her ex-boyfriend's cabin to hide away with a five year old. Nothing off putting there.

You know what else was really hard for me, though? Amy. Like I'm just going to lay my own gripe on the table: why does she basically have to be reduced to a fat woman who is somehow jealous of her five year old's beauty? I mean, I get that there's more to it than that and I actually thought Amy was pretty well developed (until the end) but I feel like that was such an easy answer. I don't know. Something cheap about it. I did love the past life regression stuff, though: very fresh and not something that's discussed much. Selfishly, I would have liked to see more of that, especially as it's summarized later, but I understand it wouldn't have really served the plot.

On the other hand, the book was fast paced and very enjoyable. You would think that a road trip with a Kindergartner would be pretty dull, but I think Rea Frey actually does a really great job with pacing and introducing just enough secondary characters to keep the plot fresh, so she definitely has some writing chops.

Solidly good book. 4/5

Not Her Daughter, is a book about mothers; mothers we love whether they hurt us or not, women who should be mothers, and women, who are so overwhelmed by personal baggage, that it would be better off if they weren't. It's also about the decisions we make, how far we would go to help someone, what we would do to have another life. Is a crime still a crime if no one is hurt and the situation is better for all parties? Book clubs are going to love dissecting this good read!

Sarah Walker is a young woman, 33, who has founded her own highly successful educational firm. She spends her life helping children worldwide learn and flourish. While in an airport heading out on yet another business trip, she sees a family of four; mother, father, young girl (5) and toddler boy. The mother is screaming at the girl, and grasping her so hard she leaves marks on the child's arm. No one wants to get involved, but Sarah couldn't forget the face and eyes of the child. She knows about a child trying hard to please its mother; Sarah herself did the same thing until her mother left her father and Sarah 25 years ago, never looking back.

Months later, she and her team are going to make a sales pitch to a school. While walking in the area, the night before, Sarah hears a slap and a scream. It sounds like the scream of a child, but she can't be sure where it's coming from. The presentation the next day goes well, and the school signs up to use the company's learning packages. They get permission to take pictures of the children using the materials. When Sarah reviews the photos later, she sees three photos of the girl that she had seen in the airport.

She decides she must go back to the town and see if the child is alright. She finds the home where Emily Townsend lives with her parents, Richard and Amy and her younger brother, Robbie. Sarah witnesses Emily playing in her backyard. Amy calls to her and then begins being abusive to Emily again; Amy is out of control, yelling at Emily, slapping her across the face before going into the house and locking the door behind her. Emily sits, crying, tries to get into the house, and cries some more. Sarah makes the spur of the moment decision to take Emily away with her.

The story is told by both Sarah and Amy in before, during and after time-frames. Sarah gets Emily new clothes, toys, and is gentle and loving with her. Emily is excited to be with someone so nice. It isn't long before the two form a close bond. Yet they are always on the run. Sarah has a crisis of conscience - she loves Emily more than anything, but does she have a right to keep her, even though she could give her a better life? Does she have the right to take her away from her mother?

Amy is horrified that once again she has failed as a mother by losing track of her child, and doesn't like the fact that now others know it and pass judgement on her. As time goes on, she realizes that she never wanted the life she has; she doesn't love her husband, she doesn't like being a mother. Emily and she clashed constantly, even when Amy vowed not to let her anger gain the upper hand, Emily would get under her skin and Amy would explode all over again. Maybe it was better that Emily was gone.

This book will hold you in its grasp from the first page until the last. A very good read - 4.5 starts from me!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

What a cracker of a book! This is the story of Emma, who is being dragged through life by a mother who’s tired of existing and very bitter with her lot. She has a beautiful daughter who she feels jealous of, she never had the looks or the confidence she sees she has. Enter Sarah. Sarah sees Emma being pulled along and snapped at by her mother. She sees a girl in a dirty dress with a dirty ribbon in her hair and then one day she sees her again and she sees the worst possible thing she can see (oh my word to when you see this day through the mother’s eyes later, it nearly killed me). Sarah is an everyday successful businessperson and is reminded of her own mother and childhood, which was one of sadness and a plan begins to come about.

To start on this book I’m going to take you to the end, where there is an excellent list of questions for book clubs and I found myself going through my own ideas in my head. Because it’s easy to pick a side and then shift, and then shift again. Some people will be more definite-Sarah was saving Emma, and Emma’s mother, Amy, didn’t deserve to have a child, but of course the beauty of this book is that there is no clear cut answer. Sarah has it black and white in her head, she’s the knight saving the princess, but it’s easy for her to think like this when she doesn’t know the daily ins and outs of having children.

I found Sarah to be very tunnel visioned and focused and in some case deluded and I at times I wondered what other people thought reading this book, people without kids might have a different opinion to those with kids. I’ll keep my opinion to myself but I will say the ending was disappointing to me. I flew through the book with my heart thumping as we chased Sarah and Emma as they evaded the law, her family and work. We also looked into Sarah’s childhood giving us a glimpse of a woman that definitely had issues. What I loved more was the complexities of Amy (special mention for her initial reaction to Emma going which I thought was tragic and showed me who she really is) who I could easily relate to in parts yet feel horrendous regarding her thoughts in others, as she truly didn’t seem to know what being happy was and couldn’t realise what she had. The dynamics of their home life after Emma was gone was spellbinding, both in and outside the house. A special mention to the lovely Emma too, I really felt for her and all her reactions were so well done. I never knew before I had kids how much they react to the moment, how things are clear cut at that precise time-you either love them or are against them and that’s something Sarah would not have been au fait with. Actually I’m going to go, you don’t want my psychoanalysis-just my recommendation. Excellent book and very highly recommended and I look forward to reading the author’s work again . Thanks so much to St Martin’s Press for this book in return for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

Wow! Rea Frey blows the doors wide open. (love this author)! A smashing thought-provoking debut NOT HER DAUGHTER —emotional, gripping, and compelling. The author takes us inside the lives of ordinary women.

You will love Emma and Sarah! Assured to keep you thinking about little Emma long after the book ends. Rea Frey is a natural born storyteller. A winning- combination of literary and domestic suspense. The author will keep readers wondering how things will end until the last, satisfying page.

Two women’s lives intersect in the midst of a heart-stopping crisis. An innocent child. A decision. Whether right or wrong. A child comes first.

Meet Sarah Walker. Readers learn the before and after. Fate brings her to meet a young five-year-old little girl, Emma Townsend. She witnesses something she cannot get out of her mind. Soon it will be the before, during, after. Then, now, someday. A decision which will change lives forever.

Sarah and Ethan have recently broken up. She lives in Portland and runs her own company: TACK. Their motto is Tach, Activate. Create. TACK started small. Digital activity books personalized to children’s interests. Kids or parents fill out questionnaires of their ages, favorite toys, subjects, and activities and she crafts personalized stories to help them learn.

Now She travels the world. Even once she and Ethan talked about adopting a girl from Ethiopia due to the extreme local sex trafficking.

While at the airport traveling for business, Sarah witnesses a little girl, not more than five or six in a red dress with shiny sequins attached to a full skirt, a red bow, and slippers. She then witnesses a mother abusing the little girl. It is heartbreaking. It reminds her of her own dysfunctional relationship with her own mother years ago.

Having worked with children for years, Sarah is well aware that parents have off days, especially at a busy airport. Stresses run high. However, this was different. There was something about this little girl that pulls Sarah’s heartstrings.

The little girl’s name is Emma Grace. She is the victim. What is Sarah to do? Report her to airport officials? Child Protective Services? What would they do? She cannot get this little girl out of her mind. Her mother’s crusted hateful face.

Sarah watches. She waits. Plans. Follows. She must learn everything about this family and this little girl. Someone must help her. She has to find a way. She must keep her safe. She will do her homework. Investigate. Then she may have to do the unthinkable. Sarah had her own complicated mother-daughter relationship. She knows how Emma feels. Why did her mom leave her?

“I wasn’t a social worker or a child psychologist, after all –and this wasn't some bad Lifetime movie where I could make her parents see the errors of her ways. This was a real child in real life with real consequences. I knew I didn’t have any right to inject myself into her life, but I had to know she’d be okay. Somehow. Some Way."

It is like being taken back twenty-five years for Sarah. The way Emma looks. The way her mother treats her. Sarah recognizes herself in her and she wants to help. What if she needs to be rescued? Can she save her?
Emma is young, small, innocent and beautiful. She deserves a better life. Would she be better off with Sarah?

Then there is Emma’s mother (Amy). Large, mean, bitter, angry, abusive, selfish, and aging. A miserable person. She locks her daughter outside. Alone. Five years old. She does not deserve to be a mother. Does Amy want Emma? Why is she so angry? Why does she hate her daughter? Would she really care if Emma was taken away? Would she be worried or relieved? Is she willing to give away her daughter to a stranger?

Is Sarah a kidnapper, if the mother does not care? Sarah will risk it all to save a child.

“That’s what I'm going with: my intention is to keep her safe. In spite of the facts, in spite of what I’ve done. Because it feels right. Being with Emma feels right. It is the only thing I trust.”

An electrifying story. Readers will fall in love with Emma and sympathize with Sarah (she is one smart chick). Frey spins a twisty tale of family dysfunction, motherhood, betrayal, and redemption. I loved Sarah and Emma.
Crossing moral boundaries, the author will remind you of a favorite author, Jodi Picoult. Delighted to learn NOT HER DAUGHTER will soon be a motion picture. Yes, it is that good. Congrats!

What would you do when confronted with a complicated situation? When you realize a child needs help, and the system is not always a choice. A compelling journey. An intricate tale of love. Thought-provoking—What does it take to be a good mother? An ideal choice for book clubs and further discussions. Discussion questions included.

“I love her, and that’s the beginning and end of everything.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald

Do not miss this one! Top Books of 2018. Cannot wait to see what’s next in store from this new talented author! (loved the teaser from her next gripping novel). Look for my upcoming newsletter Q&A Elevator Ride Interview with Featured Author Rea Frey coming this week!

A special thank you to St. Martins Press and #NetGalley for an advanced reading copy of #NotHerDaughter.

JDCMustReadBooks

A great read! The story of an overworked mother, causing harm to her child, and a woman who makes a decision to make the child's life better. I found myself gasping out loud throughout the novel and could not wait to read how the drama unfolded. The ending is a bit unbelievable, but I did enjoy it overall. I can't wait for the movie!

I was so emotionally invested in this story! It's so well written and pretty intense at times. I'm not totally surprised at how it ended but it was a good ending! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC & for introducing me to a new author!

Not Her Daughter is a captivating story that had me bouncing back and forth between the women in the book. I didn't know how I felt about either one of them. One of the women is the mother to little Emma. A mother should be a loving and warm person, doing everything she can to keep her children safe. But Amy is just the opposite—she is a horrible mother to her daughter and she made me so angry.

And then there's the other women, Sarah, the one who just wants to protect the little girl. But is kidnapping the way to save her? She provides the love and comfort that Emma needs but she is breaking the law. Both women's actions are wrong so who should end up the hero of this story?

This is a story that will grip you from the first and keep you turning the pages as Sarah and Emma try to keep ahead of the authorities at the same time that Amy and her husband come under scrutiny from the police. Such messed up lives!

I am totally amazed that this is a debut novel from Rea Frey. What an amazing book! I will definitely be keeping an eye out for her next book.

4.5 Stars

This book called my morals into question. How can you blur the lines between right and wrong?

Why has Sarah Walker taken five-year-old Emma? Was it to protect the little girl? Why would a successful entrepreneur suddenly become a kidnapper? These three questions jumped right out at me as I begin reading Not Your Daughter. It didn't take but a moment for me to realize that Sarah had definitely had a very good motive, but could doing something so very wrong in all actuality be doing something very right?

As someone who works with young children, Sarah is greatly affected when she first sees a after witnessing a disturbing scene at an airport. Her heart is broken, but she figures she will never see the beautiful little girl again. Circumstances shockingly change, however, and she does see Emma again. Wondering if what she saw at the airport was just a fluke, she takes the opportunity to sneak about and watch Emma for a bit. The perfect opportunity arises and she kidnaps Emma. It was without premeditation. However, she quickly realizes that she is either all in or all out when it comes to protecting Emma.

Sarah's own mother was abusive and she feels every bit of Emma's pain. Her compulsion to protect Emma defies all reason. At any cost she will protect this child from her cruel mother. Not Her Daughter is incredibly sensitive and touching. The story is told in multiple points of view, in both the past and present. This gives readers opportunity to understand Amy a bit - although as much as I tried, I had no compassion for her with her daughter missing. Emma's father Richard irritated me to no end. How could he not see all of the abuse, and if he did, why did he never do anything about it. It was the "before" segments that prevented this book from getting five stars. As much as these explored the motives of the characters, I was much more interested in Sarah and Emma's plight.

Sarah is my hero. She truly is. She saw a situation that she gave her power to change, she acted on it. Yes, this could have put her in jail for the rest of her life, but all she could see is the now, and how she had to protect Sarah. While Sarah is trying to always stay one step ahead, her previous relationship with Ethan, which caused her great heartbreak, comes into play again. Sarah makes a great mother -yes, that is how I began to view her - and her relationship with Emma grew so well that it truly touched my heart.

When I picked up this book, I was grabbed from page one, and was that way right through the very end. There was quite a bit of tension, as well as quite a bit of angst while reading about Amy and how she viewed parenthood. Then there were the feelings of aggravation towards Richard, Emma's father and Ethan. Yes, these emotions and more were experienced while reading this book. I cannot believe that such a well-written debut novel was so incredibly good! And, the fact that I read that this will be a major motion picture. Wow! It truly deserves it, and audiences all over will no doubt experience pretty much what I did when they read this remarkably emotional book.

I would especially like to thank St. Martins for sending me this title for review, and this is my honest opinion.

St. Martin’s Press knows exactly what books I will love to read. They really have not let me down.

Being a mom, I gravitate to books where there are mothers and children. This book tells a story of motherhood , the good, the bad, and the ugly. When Sarah spots a sweet little girl being mistreated by her mother in the airport, she never thinks she will see her again. When she does, she become obsessed with knowing about her. As she watches, she sees Emma’s mother being very abusive to her. It brings flashbacks of Sarah’s own childhood. She acts on it and takes Emma one night when her mother has locked her out of the house. She knows she shouldn’t but everything in her wants this little girl to have a good life. As we follow Sarah’s train of thought, we also follow Amy’s. Amy is Emma’s mom and you know, some people just should not be mothers. She wonders what her life will be without her daughter. (and her son and husband) She is one of the unhappiest characters I have read in a while. It jumps off the page.

I loved getting the insight into both of these women. They were on such an opposite side of the spectrum and they were both written perfectly. The whole situation is so completed and you might be conflicted with the actions that are taken, and then again, there were times I was rooting for the actions taken. This will really make you think and wonder what you would do. I found myself getting very nervous as time ticked away, that is how good the writing is, you will feel as if you are there in that cabin with Sarah and Emma. And if you are like me, you will hope that everything works the way it should. And if you are like me, you will probably tear up at the end.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for a copy of this lovely book.

Not Her Daughter is a chilling thriller that is being made into a "major motion picture." Perhaps this is why there are so many four and five star reviews for this book. However, sadly, I am not going to be one of those rave reviews. This is me swimming upstream once more...

Not Her Daughter is, at its core, a deeply troubling tale of two very disturbed women and one littler girl who desperately needs help. 

Sarah sees Amy "abusing" Emma in a very public way. Not sure that she should get involved in this domestic situation, Sarah says nothing. However, after seeing another incident of abuse, she decides that she must act to protect Emma - namely by removing her from Amy's home. Yep. It's a kidnapping story.

Throughout the book we are told repeatedly how awful Amy is, what a bad mother she is, she shouldn't ever have had children. I mean, hello, she even has a "hairy vagina." Yep, we absolutely needed to know that, right?  Since the book is told in revolving points of view, we are able to get inside both women's heads which are places I never really wanted to go. We learn that Amy even questions whether or not she wants Emma to come home - she really is a bad mother. However, is kidnapping a child any better? This is just one of the "moral dilemmas" that the book provides you with. We are supposed to question how well we understand "right" and "wrong." I'll give you a clue: I understand right and wrong, black and white and all of the shades of grey in between and this book does not change my mind. There are a dozen scenarios that Sarah could have taken other than kidnapping a child. From the point that she did that, the book was over for me. It isn't plausible, it wasn't even interesting to me and the "gotcha" ending was ridiculous. 

From a different perspective, despite the book having no toe-hold in reality, it is a quick paced "thriller" with a lot of switchbacks and "surprises." So there is that - oh, and did I mention that it was going to be "A Major Motion Picture?"  Meh. 

I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley. Obviously the opinions are my own.

4.5 Stars

I received a free copy of Not Her Daughter from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Sarah is a busy entrepreneur who is still reeling from her break up with long time boyfriend, Ethan. To keep herself occupied, she is traveling around the world selling learning kits to schools and throwing herself into her work. On one business trip she sees a sad little girl at the airport with her her haggard family and her mother is yelling at the little girl. Sarah feels for her as it reminds her of her own troubled relationship with her estranged mother. As fate would have it Sarah and the little girl, Emma, cross paths weeks later at her school. Sarah knows this child is living a miserable experience and one day plans the unthinkable: to kidnap her. Sarah struggles to keep them safe and under the radar of the authorities. She loves this little girl but is facing a major moral dilemma. The second part of the story is told from Amy's perspective. Amy is Emma's mother. She is coping with the disappearance of her 5 year old daughter and her own bad behavior that lead to her daughter possibly running away.

The novel shifts between the two main character pov and the time before and during Emma's abduction. This is a captivating thriller. You want to cheer for Sarah as the protagonist taking care of and loving this little girl and yet she has kidnapped the child. It held my attention and I would highly recommend this for thriller fans especially those of authors like Mary Kubica or Lisa Unger.

What a whirlwind this story takes you on as you rehash the past and present from the views of two very different women regarding one sweet child.

Sarah past formed her, a once ignored turned motherless child who finds herself in quite the conundrum when she witnesses another child going through what she thinks is an abusive parental relationship. Sarah only wants to help - but the only means she believes she has are illegal; taking the child away.

Amy struggles as a mother, finding her place in the world and trying to do it all. She doesn't have the mother daughter bond she expected with her daughter, she gets angry and agitated and at times seems irrational, but she loves her daughter, doesn't she?

Emma is a sweet child, a child who's lost, who doesn't understand why her mother is mean to her, why she's not loved and taken care of the same as other children. There's a deep struggle within Emma, and it's clear to see how different she is with Sarah than with Amy.

This story brings up an unusual question: Is it ever okay to kidnap a child? Told in two main point of views, that of Amy and Sarah, and equal parts before, during, and after, we are given an extreme outlook on the situation. The little pieces and how they fit together to lead up to this moment, this split second decision Sarah makes that not only affects her life, but also Amy's life and most importantly, sweet Emma's. Not Her Daughter will take you on an emotional journey, one that leaves you wondering what is the right thing to do? As a mother, I don't think I could ever side with someone who took my child from me, but within these pages, reading the story and seeing it from all angles, I wasn't as prone to hold the actions against Sarah.

With just the right amount of anxiety of what would come next, Not Her Daughter kept me hooked from page to page, my heart beating fast, my brain working hard to come up with what the answers were and should be. This book really made me think and question so much.