I love this author’s books, so I was delighted to be able to read and review this one.I enjoyed this book so much. It’s one of those books that immediately draw you in, and keep you engrossed until the end.

The characters are so well drawn, I felt an affinity with them straight away. Both of the main characters are strong women, facing difficulties, and I liked them both.

The plot is multi layered and totally captivating. The pace is perfect, quick enough to keep you turning the pages, but slow enough to enjoy.

An emotional and evocative look at families and relationships, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it so highly.

I greatly enjoyed this book, thank you for giving me a preview copy. The plot was interesting and fast paced and I sympathised with the characters. This is the first novel I have read by this author but I hope it will not be the last!

Verity is feeling a bit of the empty nest syndrome, both of her sons are away at uni and her husband Nathan is in Singapore on business, when she gets a knock on the door to reveal a pregnant woman claiming she is her husband's daughter! Saskia is lost when her mother dies of cancer, it has only ever been the two of them, but now she is alone with a child on the way and her mother has given her address of the father she has never known and who doesn't know of her existence......... what will her welcome be if she knocks on his door?

A lighthearted easy read book, the storyline was a good idea, although I did feel it could have been developed a bit more as could the characters, on the whole though it was a quick enjoyable read

This was a great read. Easy to follow and a great storyline, loved the characters and the premise of the book

I really wanted to like this book. BUT, it is not my favorite. The story is repetitive and not interesting. I am disappointed. I cannot recommend this book

What happens when a girl turns up on your doorstep pregnant and looking for her father who is your husband .
This is a lighthearted read
Thanks NetGalley

While I enjoyed the character of Saskia and empathizef with her throughout the story.... I found the book quite full I’m afraid.
Lots of repetition and the ending was quite abrupt. Not my favorite read.

I wish I could write a more positive review of this book. The storyline resembles a deconstructed version of the stage play Mamma Mia but lacking the spontaneous bursts of song by ABBA or the humour.

A young lady, on the verge of motherhood, is trying to connect with the father who she has never known. But she has a couple of possibilities. She was conceived on a hot summer day in Greece. But she now lives in England where she is trying to sort out the father issue.

The characters are not especially likeable. The storyline is not presented in a believable manner. Saskia, the young lady, is whiny. Verity, the possible new stepmother is a pushover. Nathan, the one possible father, is distant. There is a disconnect among them all. Only the possible step-grandmother seems to have a distinct personality.

With the state of the world during the spring of 2020, this could be a book to read to escape for a while. I think that is why I stuck with it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

This book was received as a digital ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The story opens quite dramatically, but the pace that follows is much more of a stroll through several lifechanging moments. Our main character, Saskia, is easy to care for, but the remaining characters are all simply of average interest. I really wanted to feel invested in each of them, but was left feeling a bit tepid about all. My chief complaint is really in the rapid closure and wrap-up of several intersecting character stories. It was all just a bit "tidy". This book was a comfortable read that asked very little of the reader, didn't challenge beliefs or comfort, and would still be a book I would recommend to someone looking for a palate cleanser between books with darker or more demanding themes.

This is a gentle book about family; easy to read and fairly enjoyable.

Verity finds herself rattling around in her home since her husband's promotion means spending time abroad sorting out business problems and their two sons are now away at university. Then a young woman comes to her door and reveals a shocking secret - will things ever be the same again?

This novel flows easily and I got through it in no time at all. There is a good mix of characters and a couple of story lines which mix together well. It's a perfectly lovely read, simple to follow and with plenty going on. Everything came together by the end, leaving no loose ends and a future for each of them. A light read which will appeal to many, and I'm happy to give it four stars.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley, and to Vicky Joss for my spot in this tour; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

A Mother's Secret by Minna Howard is the first book I have read from this author and I really enjoyed the way Minna writes a book and it won't be the last book I read from her.

A mother's Secret is a sweet read and would be great for a holiday. It's about family relationships. Verity has it all. A perfect husband and they have two grown up sons, she has a beautiful home between them. But one day the doorbell rings. When she opens the door, only to find a stranger called Saskia, she is pregnant and standing there. She has some shocking information that has been a secret for so many years...........it will change everyone's future lives. How they all react to this shocking news!

All the characters I can relate to and I liked them as they all played a great part within this book.

Big Thank you NetGalley, Minna Howard and Aria for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an impartial review, all opinions are my own.

My Rating:

3.5

Favorite Quotes:

Delia, who had not had to earn her living for years, had little idea how most people’s lives worked and how they could not escape their jobs whenever the mood took them and expect to find them still there when they returned.

She knew it sounded incredulous especially as Toby found it difficult to imagine his father having a sex life before marriage and then probably only having it twice to make him and his brother.

She said you had a summer romance, a “piece of magic” she called it, resulting in me.


My Review:

I was happily bumping along, curious and invested in this slowly developing and unpredictable family drama and found the storylines seemed to be coming together toward a pleasant outcome, then it just - stopped. Say what?!? Grrrr, I need an ending, a nice tidy little bow… it doesn’t have to be bright and shiny but I do prefer a sense of closure, which was reflected in my overall rating. But that is just one of my quirks, I had otherwise enjoyed the storylines and writing style.

The characters were an odd mixture of earnest, annoying, petty, endearing, selfish, spoiled, testy, arrogant, and driven; like most groupings in fact. The writing was emotive, engaging, peppered with sneaky wryly amusing insights and observations, and easy to follow while the characters' concerns were relatable and relevant, and although the circumstances were somewhat unusual, the issues were not uncommon. However, the abruptness of the ending, I just cannot forgive it, but I’m petty like that.

I did pick up a new phrase for my Brit List with gardening leave – which is a term for an employee resigns or is terminated from their position and told not to return but still receives pay for a specific amount of time. I’d like some of that, although I tend to dish the dirt rather than play in it. ;)

Verity is coming to terms with an empty nest, her two boys are at university and her husband's new job means he's away a lot of the time. She is a teacher, helping young people who struggle with learning. She has good friends and knows she can build, a new life.

On her first day alone, she has an unexpected visitor, a young woman Saskia. When she finds out, why she's there, Verity is understandably stunned. Despite her wariness, she takes control and doesn't judge. Attempting to achieve the best outcome for everyone, in a difficult and unexpected situation.

Saskia is in an emotional wilderness, recently bereaved, pregnant, with the baby's father overseas, she is looking for a lifeline. Nathan, Verity's husband, who Saskia believes is her father, is it. In reality, it's Verity, not Nathan who is driving force. This story is about women, and how they cope with crises and keep the family together.

The story is emotional. The characters and their motivations are believable, and the plot although simple showcases this character-driven story well. The pacing and writing style, are classical, with the emphasis on narrative and retro dialogue. This doesn't detract from the story, just gives it a distinctive voice that will appeal to many readers of family drama and relationships.

The ending offers realistic hope for future happiness and the possibility of a follow-up story.

I received a copy of this book from Aria-Fiction via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A Mother's Secret was the second novel by Minna Howard that I had the pleasure to review after That Long Lost Summer .

Verity has two sons, Toby and Marius who are at Nottingham University. Verity's husband Nathan is off abroad sorting out work issues so Verity is left alone.

That is, until one day the doorbell rings and Saskia turns up claiming Nathan is her father. Saskia is pregnant and her boyfriend is in the States.

Verity is welcoming, giving and quickly trusting of Saskia's story, but is it the truth?

I felt for Verity and Saskia, as although they were strong women, this novel shows that life has hard times in store for them too.

Minna Howard expertly covers the subjects of pregnancy, homelessness and family relationships.

She shows that no matter how hard we try to live our realities, the past influences the present.

Saskia's boyfriend was largely absent and I was so glad she had Igor, he was a great support to her, too.

The residents of the large house Igor's flat was in were an interesting mix of people.

I did think that Verity was. at times, very naïve and trusting of people, but I did understand she felt alone with her sons and husband away.

She and Saskia had a special bond.

Nathan's mother was someone I didn't like-she was interfering but realistically portrayed.

Dialogue and internal and external conflict are an important part of this novel and the pace is excellent. I got through this in a matter of hours.

Minna Howard is an extremely talented author and I want to review her future releases and other novels.

5 stars

While I did enjoy the storyline and I liked the characterisation (even Delia and Mrs Tracey Morton, because they were both horrid enough to evoke a reaction from me) I thought the book needed to be a little grittier given the subject matter. Saskia’s pregnancy felt like an afterthought throughout the whole book and although it was frequently referred to, it was never really explored. I also felt that the writing style and tone was rather more chicklit than drama.

That said, it was an interesting story and made for an enjoyable few hours reading.

This is a book about family relationships. It is filled with likeable and relatable characters who are multi layered especially Verity’s mother in law. She made me smile and brought humour to the story.

The pace of the book was just perfect. It kept me interested throughout. The book is well written and has a nice plot.

I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to others.

I have a little confession to make. Although I have got a couple of Minna's books on my ever increasing 'to be read' mountain, I haven't actually got around to reading one yet. Having read and enjoyed 'A Mother's Secret' as much as I did, I will definitely be reading Minna's other books as soon as possible.
I can't say that I took to either of the main characters of Verity and Saskia and I am still a tad unsure of them. Verity is the wife of Nathan, who has had to go abroad to sort out a work problem. Verity and Nathan have two sons, who are students in Nottingham. As the story begins, Verity is on her own when she answers the door to Saskia, who invites herself into Verity's home. Saskia proceeds to tell Verity that Nathan is her father, although Saskia was born before Verity and Nathan got together. Saskia is also pregnant and homeless and within a short space of time Verity is moreorless promising Saskia that she can stay with them. For me, Verity is a bit too naïve, too trusting and a bit too gullible. Verity just swallows everything that she is told and sort of welcomes Saskia into the family without having any physical proof that Saskia is who she is claiming to be. Saskia is just a tad too pushy for my liking. I get that she is nervous about meeting her 'father's' family but to barge into Verity's home, to moreorless demand to stay and then to demand that Nathan and Verity's sons need to be told about her is just too much too quickly. Saskia seems to have one of those personalities that just grates on me a bit.
It didn't take me long at all to get into this book. I think that part of the attraction was that I had to know if the story was going to pan out as I thought it would. The book wasn't particularly long so I ended up charging through the book far quicker than I had expected. The first time I looked to check how much I had read, I was staggered to realise that I had managed to read over a third of the book. The book travelled everywhere with me as I just had to know how Verity's life and that of Saskia turned out.
'A Mother's Secret' is well written. Minna has created an interesting plot and some great characters, who have more layers to them than you would find on a parcel during a game of 'Pass The Parcel'. Minna writes so realistically and uses such vivid descriptions that I felt as though I was part of the story. I found that I began to interact with the book in the sense that I was 'talking' to the characters as if they could hear me. Yes, before anybody says anything I know this is a work of fiction but I find that if I enjoy a book to the extent that I enjoyed 'A Mother's Secret' then I tend to 'live' the story as if it were real.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'A Mother's Secret' and I would recommend it to other readers. I will most certainly be reading more of Minna's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.

The beginning of this book jumped straight into the story of Saskia arriving on Verity's doorstep and it all felt a bit rushed to me.  Saskia was also quite rude, pushing her way into a house she didn't know, and she put my back up immediately, which unfortunately didn't change much throughout the book from then on in.
Saskia's mother has recently died, she's pregnant, Saskia's partner and the baby's father is working away but due back before the baby arrives, and Saskia is about to be evicted from the home she shared with her mother, so she decides to find the father she's only recently found out about and ask for his help.

I'm afraid I just couldn't warm to any of the characters in this book, Verity was a pushover, and Saskia was just irritating and seemed to assume everyone would jump in and help her, even if they didnt' really know her, along with being completely delusional about the baby's father.  I mean whose partner would be working abroad whilst the mother of his child was pregnant and about to be evicted from her home.  It just didn't make sense to me.

But I persevered as the basic story was appealing and there were parts that were OK.  But in the end I found it a very disjointed sort of book that just seemed to jump around all over the place and then end really abruptly, with no real flow to the story.

I enjoyed the way this gentle story about two women whose lives were thrown together by circumstance flowed from initially seeing that Verity had a perfectly settled life, to the bombshell that before they met, her husband had fathered a child he knew nothing about, and she was pregnant with his grandchild. I found the strength of both Verity and Saskia empowering, in the way they addressed issues and handled things maturely. I particularly warmed to the character of Verity, who I found handled the arrival of Saskia with such grace and pragmatism, and especially given the fact that she welcomed her into her home before a DNA test had been done to confirm who was Saskia’s father.

I felt that the connections between characters were very realistic in such a setting, and I found myself hoping they could see their way through a very trying situation for all concerned, to find a new normal.

I found the side story of Verity’s troublesome student Aidan was very compelling, and I found that I completely tapped into the fear felt by some of the situations. The addition of suspense worked really well with the story, and I loved the way in which it was all resolved.

This was a charming story about secrets, and resolutions, with multidimensional and realistic characters throughout.

This is an intriguing read and features some great storytelling. At the base of it all is the web of family relationships which you have to disentangle and which are shaken to the core by Saskia's appearance on the doorstep. Nevertheless, it is a warm, uplifting read, with romance and family secrets woven together.

The character who made me smile above all turned out to be Nathan's protective mother who would surely drive me up the wall in real life. I found her reactions to be refreshingly credible and she added some edge to the story.

It takes you a while to work out whether Saskia is a truthful character or duplicitous. Once you decide, you have to admire her strength of character which spurs you on. I enjoyed seeing Verity's reaction to the changes in her life. At the beginning when you meet her, she is at a crossroads as her children have recently fledged the nest. She has to dig deep. She remains the centre of the family and maintains a positivity which makes you admire her.

In short: Secrets from the past come to the surface.