I was lucky to receive an advance copy of The Making of Her by Bernadette Jiwa from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and opinion. I absolutely loved this book and was unable to put it down. Very well written and you will be drawn in immediately and feel like you want to be friends with the characters. Do yourself a favor and read this as soon as you can as you will not be disappointed. I am already looking forward to reading more by this author.

The past coming slamming back into the lives of Martin and Joan when Emma, the daughter they put up for adoption 30 years ago needs their help. Joan has always mourned the loss of Emma, who she had named April, and she's struggled to show love to her second daughter Carmel. Now, though, she's facing her past, a past where she and Martin fell in love as teens. Joan's family was poor, so poor that she left school at 14 to work in a candy factory, while Martin's was rich thanks to the family building supply company. They hid their romance and when Joan fell pregnant, she followed Martin to London, where he was studying but even then he couldn't see past the scandal that would ensue if they came home with a baby. This is mostly Joan's story, although Carmel and Emma also feel very real. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a very good, emotional read where you will find yourself both shaking your head and rooting for the characters.

This book was so so. Although I did manage to finish this book, I can't say I loved it. It was a story with alot of holes and predictability

4.5/5 Stars

In 1960, Joan Quinn meets Martin Egan, a boy set to lead his family business, and from a different world to Joan, who is struggling to support her family. In 1996, Joan and Martin, who are now married, keep up the business with support from their adult daughter Carmel, when Joan receives a letter from Emma, the child she and Martin gave up for adoption 30 years ago. Emma needs their help to save her child, and the decision Joan makes creates shockwaves in her family and leaves Joan, Martin, and Carmel scrambling to reconcile with the past.

This book was incredibly moving. Jiwa makes Joan's story come to life, and it is both compelling and heartbreaking to read. I found myself so sympathetic to the decisions Joan made, and I think this novel is a good insight into the lives of so many in her position at the time. The changes in the relationship between Joan and Carmel might be the best part of this book, and that exploration of the bond between mothers and daughters was done so well.

This novel was gripping, eloquent, and so important to read, and I highly recommend it to historical fiction readers. Thank you so much to Penguin Random House and Net Galley for providing me with this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Joan had a hard life growing up. She was the oldest of 5 and when her mother dies in childbirth she has to take care of her sisters. Her father drinks most of his paycheck and finding it hard to support that many kids he puts the younger ones up for adoption leaving just Joan and her sister, Teresa. While working at the candy factory she becomes attracted to a delivery boy not realizing he is the heir to his family business. She decides to sleep with him in the hopes he will realize how much he loves her but the result is a pregnancy.

The storyline was a bit predictable but I enjoyed it anyway. I thought the characters were well developed but most of them weren't very likeable. It is told in two time lines, 1960s when Martin and Joan meet. Women at that time didn't really have a say in what happened to them. In this day and age it is hard to imagine what it must have been like for her having to give up her daughter when she had hoped Martin would marry her. He does stick by her but she is not allowed to make decisions and do what she wants. Unfortunately this becomes her life. Her mother-in-law is a tyrant and took every opportunity she had to belittle Joan because of her upbringing. I found Martin to be spineless, a mama's boy, selfish and only worried about how others perceive him.

The second timeline is in the 1990's when after 30 years of putting up with Martin's and his mother's crap things come to a head when the daughter she gave up for adoption 30 years early comes asking for a favor.

This book surprised me in how much I enjoyed it and I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin House Dutton for providing me with a copy.

First off, thank you to Bernadette Jiwa, the publishing house, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a Kindle ARC of this book.

I really do not know much about contemporary Irish history other than the pregnant mother workhouse scandals. To say that this book was enlightening is an understatement. I had no idea that contraception was illegal during the '60s in Ireland. This was a shocker and set up the story of this novel.

The storyline is simple - a boy and a girl get pregnant with the typical life implosion. The book goes back and forth between different time periods. It is a fascinating character story.

I could NOT believe that this was a debut novel. Bernadette Jiwa has a LONG writing career ahead of her!!

HIGHLY RECOMMEND
4.5 stars

Unmarried girls who got pregnant in the 1960s didn’t have many choices. Joan finds herself in that dilemma. Her boyfriend Martin stands by her but makes a decision that impacts the rest of their lives.
Until the past resurfaces due to a life/death situation. Joan mist finally make some of her own decisions for once.
Joan grows a lot in a short amount of time. The anguish, bitterness, and resignation she is forced to live with leaps off the pages.
For anyone who has suffered loss and has to reconcile with it, this book will resonate.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley.
This book was so hard to put down. It was written in such an engaging way that I really wanted to ignore my work and just finish the book instead.
Joan lives in a poor area of Ireland and often goes without a good meal, but the one bright part of her life is watching a delivery boy bike up a steep hill every day. Then they meet and her life is never the same. Thinking about the choices before birth control when being a single mother was unheard of make me thankful not to have been born back then.
I would definitely read more by this debut author.

Ireland in the 1960's did not provide a lot of options for young women. Their best hope was to marry well and live a life dependent on their husband. Joan Quinn is working at the local candy factory when she first notices Martin, the only son of a well-to-do family. Joan's beauty captivates Martin and, despite his mother's wishes, they start seeing each other. As Martin is leaving to go to school in London, Joan discovers she is pregnant. She joins him and delivers a baby girl, but Martin realizes the stigma they will face if they return to Ireland with an out-of-wedlock baby, even if they will be getting married, and convinces Joan to put the baby up for adoption. Thirty years later, Joan and Martin have a successful business and another daughter when their long-lost daughter, still a well-kept secret, reaches out for their help. Martin isn't ready to acknowledge her, but Joan sees an opportunity to make up for her perceived sins as a mother. This is a heartwrenching & heartwarming, character-driven story that explores motherhood, marriage, and cultural attitudes toward women.

The Making of Her is a heartfelt book about motherhood, the choices we make, and the choices that are made for us. Joan has been haunted most of her life by the baby she put up for adoption, and that heartbreaking decision has impacted every aspect of her life for 30 years. Her relationships with her daughter and husband are strained and distant. Joan’s story was so heartbreaking, and so much of it was formed by the time in which she lived. This book takes an in-depth and honest look into what life was like for a woman in Dublin in the 60’s, especially a pregnant unmarried young woman who is poor, and reliant on the demands of her boyfriend, her church, and society. This is a highly compelling debut novel, and I expect we will hear a lot more from this author.

THE MAKING OF HER by Bernadette Jiwa is a beautifully-written and touching story of marriage, family and second chances. Set mainly in Dublin, it is told in dual timelines – 1965 and 1996 – and from the points of view of Joan Egan and her first-born daughter, Emma (April). In 1965, Joan is from a poor estate family and works in a factory. Martin Egan is from a wealthy family and is meant to inherit his father’s lucrative business. Despite the differences between their classes, Joan and Martin fall in love and intend to marry. But everything changes when Joan finds herself pregnant. To preserve his family name and preserve their plans for the future, Martin forces Joan to give the baby up for adoption and insists they keep the birth a secret. Martin moves on as if they never had a child, but Joan is forever wracked with guilt and regret and keeping the secret takes its toll. Even when she and Martin have another daughter years later, Joan is still haunted by their decision many years ago. Thirty years later, their firstborn daughter sends a letter that will change the lives of everyone involved. The story delves into the lack of choices and social standing of women in the sixties and the difficult choices they were forced by others to make. I found myself totally immersed in this heart-wrenching and thought-provoking debut novel and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an early copy.

This book wasn't originally on my radar, but I'm glad it was brought to my attention. I breezed through this story in just a couple of days time when I had no real plans to read at all. Once I started it, I had trouble putting it down. It was just that good. It's told in dual-timelines taking place in 1966 when Joan is a teenager, and then in 1996 when she is an unhappy wife and mother who lives under the shadow of the choices she made when she was younger. This book doesn't read as if it is written by a debut author. But it is. It's written well, and the story unfolds at a good pace. All of the characters feel real and relatable to me. I don't want to tell you too much about the story for fear of giving parts of it away. But I will say that there were times when I wanted to shout at Joan and make her see that she didn't have to do things the way she did...even if it seemed to be the only choice she had at the time. I'm sure it must be hard to write in a way that will make your reader feel so invested as she turns the pages. Bernadette Jiwa has been a blogger and a writer of non-fiction. But it wasn't until she was in her forties that she tried her hand at a fiction. I hope she continues to write novels in the future. I'm looking forward to reading more of her work. Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for my advance copy. Pub date is August 9, 2022.

There was another book, similar in theme, called A Million Reasons Why, that touched on these issues of family secrets and their repercussions. This novel was well done but missing a satisfying resolution. For me, it ended too abruptly. The issue of adoptees looking for relatives due to medical issues is not unique. However, it cannot sustain a book. The author does attempt to describe the plight of poor Irish families I found it a stereotypical slant and felt she could have done better. Of course, the sixties in Catholic cities, would have been difficult times for unwed mothers. Thirty years later should have been enough time for the main characters to get over their prejudices and adapt to enlightened attitudes.

I was given this book from the publisher through NetGalley and I could not put it down. The story was so compelling. We follow Joan in the 1960s in Ireland when she was forced to give up her daughter for adoption and then in the 1990s when her daughter contacts her needing help. The issue is that no one knows about her adoptive daughter. This will turn their worlds completely upside down. Joan may need her second daughter's help which will complicate things further. She has a sister that she knows nothing about. This secret coming out will change her relationships with her husband and daughter. I cannot believe this is a debut novel.

"What kind of woman would deny her instinct to love her child? The kind of woman who had no other choice."

"Talking won't change anything. It's what we do that matters."

"How can a man capable of denying his own flesh and blood change?"

The Making of Her is an emotional historical fiction story told in dual timelines. The 1960's and the 1990's and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Family dynamics and the choices available to women in Ireland in the 1960's was definitely limited.
Loss, love, mother/daughter relationships, expectations and second chances. Sacrifices I am not sure I could have made.
A story that truly tugged at my heart.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Dutton Group for the opportunity to read this book.

The Making of Her, the debut novel by Bernadette Jiwa, is a gem. It is an emotional and compelling work of historical fiction that examines family dynamics and the limited choices available to women in Ireland in the 1960s. I could not put it down.
Told in dual timelines of the 1960s and the 1990s, we meet Joan and her husband, Martin. Joan has been drowning in guilt and grief for 30 years. Raised in poverty by an alcoholic father, Joan becomes pregnant out of wedlock. Due to the harsh societal constraints of the time, she and Martin give that child up for adoption. Joan then struggled to bond with her second daughter, and she and Martin do not discuss the child they gave up. Then, unexpectedly, that child contacts them one day asking for a life-and-death favor. Absorbing and raw, this story about mothers and daughters is heart-wrenching.
I enjoyed Jiwa's writing style. Her exploration of her character's emotions and motivations was complex, and character development was strong. Thought-provoking and tightly crafted, this is a page-turner of a book.
I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the opportunity to read this ARC.