The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson explores family secrets and their ripple effects. I absolutely loved Cecily's story, and I wish there'd been more of it rather than so many subplots and side characters. This would be a great pick for a book club. Overall I loved this book and will be recommending it!

Emotional and captivating. Following the life of Cecily had so many turns of events I couldn't help but get squishy at some parts and angry at the others. Very well written and an excellent book to read!

The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson is a charming story about a family of women in Minnesota, led by their 94-year-old matriarch, Cecily. Cecily's life is told across two timeliness, one present day and one historical, filled with mystery and adventure. Hers is a tale of an abandoned child at the start of the 20th century, who ends up amidst the unpredictability of a traveling circus.... a favorite historical fascination of mine! There is little doubt most readers will find hints of Water for Elephants here, but it is also a family story, a path towards finding identity and sisterhood. If you enjoy books that paint complex family portraits, Ellen Baker's latest is one for you to enjoy. Thank you NetGalley for this exciting ARC.

I really enjoyed this book! My favorite parts were Cecily’s early years. The way the characters ended up connecting was fun to see unfold. I also love the MN references.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this early.

In 1924, Cecily was four years old. Her mother's boyfriend did not want her around, so she was dropped off at an orphanage in Chicago where children are unscrupulously sold. By the time Cecily is seven, the owner of a traveling circus pays the orphanage to have her come work for him. The plan is to train her as a bareback horse rider doing flips and other dangerous tricks. Having such a young performer was sure to create added appeal for the circus. Initially, Cecily is enjoying being a part of the circus as she finally has a substitute family. Once she becomes a teenager, Cecily falls in love with a boy who helps with the horses, but their love is forbidden. When the story shifts to 2015, Cecily is 94 and in failing health. Liz, her widowed daughter travels to Minnesota to be with her mother. When Cecily's granddaughter Molly's son Caden plans to research his family tree through DNA testing, a big secret is on its way to being exposed. Concurrently, another woman and her children are struggling with identity and trauma. They too take DNA tests to try and heal age-old wounds.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker. What a sweeping and satisfying read! The years when Cecily was living and working in the circus were so well done. I was riveted. Cecily's resilience saw her through terrible, cruel times. My heart was heavy throughout all the challenges Cecily went through. The book brings to light some despicable activities of the earlier time period. There's a lot going on in this book with many characters and subplots so take the time to sort it all out. It's worth the journey.

This multigenerational family saga centers around Cecily, a family matriarch now in her 90s, and her life story. Through DNA testing, secrets are revealed that unsettle the family dynamic. More heartfelt than tragic, Cecily’s story is one of wonder, and resilience, and belief in impossible things.

I love how this book inspires contemplation of ideas like the meaning of family, the secrets worth keeping, the relative value of hope—without telling you how to feel. This would be a great pick for book clubs.

The story is told in multiple timelines, with multiple (maybe too many?) side characters that are sometimes hard to keep track of. Stick with it for a huge payoff that is worth the effort.

4.5 stars!

Thank you netgalley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Loved it, everything about it!! The story was magical and beautifully written. I was hooked from the very start and couldn't put the book down. I hated when I got to the end because I wanted to keep reading about Cecily and her family. What would Cecily's life have been like if she remained at the orphanage? What ever happened to her mom and why didn't she ever show up? At first the circus was a wonderful place for Cecily. Isabelle was like a sister, she helped Cecily in many ways and kept her safe. Circus life is hard. Isabelle's jealousy got the best of her. The accusations against Cecily and the way she was removed from the circus was horrible. Her time at the Wayward Girls Reformatory was unfortunate. She should have never been there. Grace was the best thing to happen to Cecily , especially after her traumatic stay at the McNaughton House. Grace and George the big orange cat saved her life. George mostly purred and got petted. What ever happened to Grace? The biggest shock of the book and one I didn't expect was about Liz. I knew what Cecily's connection would be to Clarissa. I wished Cecily would have talked about her past with Liz sooner. Maybe then Liz would have went to meet everyone. I loved how everyone ended up being connected and shared similar experiences. This is one book that I keep thinking about and enjoyed immensely.

Definitely recommend the book. Loved the characters, writing style and story. I loved reading about Cecily's life. She had so many different experiences, that shaped her life. She worked/lived in a traveling circus, survived the Wayward Girls Reformatory, McNaughton House and a TB Sanitorium and ended up loving Sam and never forgetting about Lucky. She lived an amazing life. This is the first book I read by the author and I can't wait to read more.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Mariner Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you Netgalley and Mariner Books Publishing for providing me with an advance copy ♥️

"The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson" by Ellen Baker is a truly amazing book that tells a big story about love, loss, and redemption. Cecily's life is full of ups and downs, and we feel like we're right there with her. She faces challenges like being abandoned by her mother, growing up in a circus, and dealing with difficult relationships. But she also finds joy, love, and strength along the way.

I absolutely loved this book! The author is great at creating characters that feel like real people. Cecily's spirit and resilience are inspiring, and the supporting characters add depth and complexity to the story. I especially loved the way the Ellen Baker explored themes like family, forgiveness, and resilience. These themes are important and relatable, and the author handles them with care and nuance.

The writing is beautiful and descriptive, making it easy to imagine the settings and characters. The story flows well and keeps you engaged. I couldn't put it down! I think this book is a triumph and will captivate readers. It shows how powerful stories can be and how they shape our lives. I highly, highly recommend this beautiful book 🥰

This book is not a quick read, but one that needs time to savor. The author uses words to put you in time along with Cecily, to see her world through her eyes.to feel her hurt and pain, and then her triumph. The story alternates in time, with Cecily in the hospital and looking back on her life, as her daughter and grandchild deal with the outcome of secret DNA tests and an altering of the reality they know. It's an interesting look at families, what we keep hidden, even from ourselves, and how they can affect our future selves. Cecily is a character that grows on you and stays with you after the book ends.

When she was a little girl, Cecily Larson’s mother drops her off at a Chicago orphanage and promises to return for her. After several years without any word from her mother, the orphanage sells Cecily to the circus to be their new bareback stunt rider. Cecily then sends the late 1920s and early 1930s traveling the country with the circus. In her late teens, Cecily falls in love with a young roustabout. Because he is a Black man, their love is forbidden. When it is discovered that Cecily is pregnant, the circus kicks her off the show. After being forced to give up the child that she thought had died, Cecily reinvents herself and begins a new life with a doctor that she met at a tuberculosis hospital. Many years later, Cecily is forced to reveal her secrets when her family tricks her into giving a salvia sample for a DNA test. It comes as a shock to her daughter to learn that Cecily is not her biological mother. Cecily also finds the child that she thought had died.

THE HIDDEN LIFE OF CECILY LARSON is a very intriguing read. The novel moves back and forth in time and between multiple viewpoints. Cecily’s life and the unraveling of her secrets is the main focus of the story. The secondary plotline of Cecily’s daughter’s medical issues seemed unnecessary and distracting. There were times when the plot dragged on, and it felt like it took too long to get to the point. As someone who has spent countless hours tracing my ancestors on Ancestry.com, Cecily’s great-grandson’s research into his family history was my favorite part of the novel. My DNA test results also revealed some secrets, but nothing to the depth of Cecily’s secrets. My main issue with the novel was that there were no answers about what happened to Cecily’s mother. Much of the novel is dedicated to Cecily wondering why her mother never came back for her. The story would have felt more complete if Cecily finally got some kind of answer.

Thanks Netgalley and Mariner Books for this early copy of The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson. The story begins in 1924 with 4 year old Cy being surrendered to an orphanage by her reluctant mother who promises to return for her. Years later she has net returned and young Cecily is sold to the circus. Many many years later when Cecily is an old woman the results of a DNA test reveal to her family that Cecily has been keeping secrets about herself for their entire lives.
I loved this premise and I loved the first half of the book. The last half is where it suddenly fell flat for me. We are suddenly introduced to a whole new setting and a whole new cast of people and I couldn’t make myself care for their story the way I are about Cecily. It all wrapped up well in the end though so I liked it well enough. 3 stars from me.

This book follows Cecily Larson and what she has gone through in her life. You see Cecily in different stages of her life, starting when she is a child who was abandoned at an orphanage, her time working for a circus, and late in her life when she is thinking back on the secrets she's kept from her family. When a DNA test is taken by some of Cecily's family surprising revelations come to light.

I enjoyed reading about Cecily and all her strength and perseverance she had to make it through her life. I enjoyed reading about her time working for the circus in a horse act. During her time at the circus Cecily meets Lucky, a young man who starts working in the crew. Cecily and Lucky grow close during this time, but there are hardships that make a relationship impossible for them during this time. Cecily goes through some hardships and faces some unthinkable situations.

This was a bittersweet read that kept me interested right to the end.

Long buried secrets and families separated by circumstances beyond their control is the constant theme throughout this story. It's told in various timelines but the author does a good job in making the transitions seamlessly. I shed a few tears while reading this heartbreaking yet uplifting tale.

Review will be posted to social media on publication day per publisher’s request.

Water For Elephants meets Before We Were Yours. Whoever coined this was spot on.
 
Some books just hit people differently. Sometimes it’s just a matter of choosing the right book at the right time.
 
This review is so hard to write because I will never do this book justice. All I want to do is gush and tell you all about it. Most of which would contain spoilers.
 
This book is about Cecily’s life from orphan to circus performer. It’s about love, motherhood and finding family.
 
The book opens with Cecily being whisked from an orphanage to become a bareback rider in the circus. The book traverses back and forth in its timeline. Spanning from her time in the orphanage to her life in the circus to meeting her husband and to the final present day timeline as an elderly woman. One who is realizing her time on earth is growing shorter, and the stories left untold will be gone forever.
 
You are seeing life through multiple generations of women dealing with the struggles, joy and loss we all experience in a very authentic way.
 
With so many points of view and timelines going back and forth, this could easily have made the book feel disjointed and the characters underdeveloped. The author did a fantastic job of weaving the story together. You can tell she has put her heart and soul into this book. It’s a labor of love- a love letter to anyone who’s ever been searching for a home.
 
“Do you know that feeling, the one where you’ve found where you belong?”
 
This book will stay with me for a very long time.

The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker is a family story that follows four generations and one hundred years of secrets through different time lines.You might have to jot yourself a family tree to keep things straight as they unfold!Cecily Larsen is a firecracker of a girl who is sold to a traveling circus by the orphanage she was left at Her mother promises to return but does not.Keep your Kleenex ready as you read this story!As Cecily always said,”Keep believing impossible things.”Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Mariner books for allowing me to read this ARC of a new to me author.

A beautiful book about finding yourself, finding love, and what it means to be a family. Cecily is orphaned as a young child and has to navigate finding her way growing up in her new home surrounded by her new, similarly lost, family, and the pain of forbidden love. Simultaneously, we read about Cecily near the later years of her life and reflecting back, watching her daughter and granddaughter navigate the woes of their own family, and try to piece together pieces of her lost life puzzle.

This book was beautiful, the pacing was done very well, and the end had me tearing upore than once. It really made me thinking about what made your family yours, and how we learn to cope with the twists and turns of life. For fans of Water for Elephants or The Ringmasters Daughter, this is a great period piece with elements that revolve around circus life and the whirlwind decade of the 1900s.

In a word: excellent! This book gave me Water for Elephants meets The Curious Case of Benjamin Button vibes (not necessarily the plot, but the construction of the story), wrapped up in a mystery that moved things along and kept me guessing. The vivid descriptions made this such an entertaining read that was hard to put down. I could already see the movie/mini-series version of this book coming to life in my mind as I read. I got to read an advanced copy of this for free but I’m about to preorder on Amazon because I need a physical copy for my shelf and to support this talented author. Do yourself a favor and do the same for what promises to be one of the best books of this year. LOVED IT!

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the free ARC in exchange for this honest review.

What an incredible journey I got to experience while reading this book. I am obsessed with this story and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to read this book. As I was reading this book, I was constantly reading aloud passages and chapter to my own grandmother and we talked a lot about the things that happened during the 1930’s.

I will admit, I cried when it was revealed that at 15, Cecily was given a hysterectomy without any form of consent or knowledge. I felt like my heart was ripped from my chest at that moment. I wanted to reach into the pages of this book and give Cecily the love that she never received as a child.

If anyone is considering reading this book, I truly believe that you should just do it! Thank you so much for letting me review this book!

Thanks to Book Club Girl, NetGalley, and Mariner Books for this copy of "The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson."

This family saga drama spans almost 100 years and uncovers four generations of hidden secrets, undying love, and forgiveness.

Cecily is 94 and her great-grandson's school DNA project raises questions about Cecily's past and the truths that she never thought she could share with her family.

It was very entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotional. Cecily's life motto was "Keep believing in impossible things."

A family tree might have been helpful but I sketched one while I was reading so I could keep track of the relationships.

This was a wonderful story that weaved present day with the past. Cecily Larson has lived an exciting and unusual life, most of which her family has no idea about. A fall that lands Cecily in the hospital combined with her grandsons genealogical project brings hidden secrets to life not only for her family, but for another family as well. This was a joy to read. 4.5 stars rounded to 5