This was a fast-read in the beginning, and I definitely felt the sense of betrayal along with mystery. I imagine it's a hard story to tell.

I know this is harsh and I'm sorry but this book was just boring. It had potential and I was interested, but the book was just too long and it was very uneventful.

I don't know if this book "read like a thriller" like the blurbs about it have stated but it was a solid read about birth and adoption. I don't think the fraud her parents really was explained enough that descriptions of the book featured it. It was a pretty straightforward story--the "odd" bits were really a tiny fraction of the book.

This was an emotional rollercoaster of emotions and a story I am very happy I took the time to read about. It really made me think about families and the secrets we all keep from each other.

What would you do if you found out your parents weren't your parents? You would be shocked, right? Well, what would you think if you found out your birth parents were criminals and talked about widely in the media at the time? It would be bonkers! I commend Donna Freed on her prose, and I thank her for sharing her story with us. I definitely recommend this book to those who are fans of memoirs, genealogy and ultimately, fans of really juicy stories!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Duplicity: My Mother's Secrets is available now.

This is a tough book for me to review. On the one hand, I can't really say that my expectations weren't met because it's a memoir and how do you have "expectations" about someone's life, but I have to admit to feeling a little let down. I feel that what was advertised was not what I got.

Donna is an adopted child who spent a good chunk of her childhood not knowing that. When a throwaway sentence from one of her siblings revealed Donna's adoption, she began to resent her mother for not telling her. This, as well as some of the ways her mother behaved, led to a strained relationship as Donna grew up. Donna felt betrayed and her mother seemed to struggle with raising her and her siblings. Oddly enough, Donna didn't seem to have as strained a relationship with her adopted father, despite the fact that he also didn't tell her that she was adopted.

It was this sort of dynamic and the way that Donna explored her shifting and complicated relationship with her adopted mother that fed the story. While her search for her birth mother did come into play, it was a smallish detail that was only touched on briefly, later on in the book. I'm guessing it was mentioned in the book blurb to draw in more readers, which I felt is a shame. While it doesn't have a big "what" factor without it, the blurb would be more honest without that mention and would allow the book to stand as what it really is: an exploration of her evolving relationship with her adopted mother and her changing ideas of what motherhood really is.

Donna was honest about both her mothers' failings and her own. It becomes clear throughout the memoir that Donna is an introspective person who wants to understand why things change the way a person thinks or acts. She is curious about the role of nature vs. nurture and spends a good deal of time wondering if she will share any mannerisms with her birth mom when she meets her, despite not spending any time with her during her formative years. It is an interesting question and one that deserves the amount of time she spent on it.

However, the pacing was very off in Duplicity. While I'm sure the author spent more time on the parts of her life that had more meaning for her, it didn't transfer over well to the reader and I found myself wondering why some things were stretched out while others received much less attention. Was it because those memories were more vivid? Perhaps the emotional resonance of certain events didn't transfer over the way the author intended? Whatever the reason, I failed to connect to large parts of the narrative.

Let me explain what I mean by failing to connect. I don't need to relate to a person or character to find reading about them interesting. In this case, the failure to connect was that I couldn't understand why parts of the memoir were there or as stressed as they were. While it is important that a memoir retains the shape that the author gives it, the story did suffer for it in this case.

I struggled to get through Duplicity: My Mother's Secrets. While the concept is a fascinating one, it didn't work for me.

My Mothers' Secrets.
Donna Freed has written a memoir which I would say is average. Duplicity My mothers' secrets is about Donna finding out from your older sister that she was adopted when she is six years old. The book is told in two parts. The first part is about Donnas and her dysfunctional adopted parents, especially her mother. Donna tells stories of growing up in this family with her two siblings but nothing unusual happens that does not in most families.
The second part is after Donna's mum dies. Donna now wishes to find out more about her birth mother and father and Donna finds she is shocked when she learns that in 1967, they were involved in a scheme to collect a double indemnity when her mother was pregnant with Donna.
Sorry Donna an average book due to nothing special really happening in your life apart from your story about your birth parents and you could have made it a better read if it had been condensed to about half. Sorry for being so harsh. Thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers of this book for giving me a free advance copy of the book to preview and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

While the beginning felt like just another memoir, by 3 chapters in, I didn't want to stop reading. Reading this was like watching a favorite true crime documentary, a truly gripping story drowning in depravity of many kinds. Freed does an excellent job of dissecting adoption, family truths that are quite astonishing, and gives us a view into criminality in the past.

A memoir about finding out you and your siblings were adopted, becoming a mother and then reuniting with your birth mother. All interesting aspects of the story Freed tells but does not seem to hang together enough to keep my interest. There were moments I absolutely loved (particularly about her becoming a mother). The way the book was described made it seem there would be a big reveal about the duplicity but the payoff wasn't there. While she does near the end of the book reveal interesting secrets about her birth parents, it took a long time to get there. I think some editing down the content would have made this a more compelling read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Independent Publishers Group, Muswell Press for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

I received a free copy of, Duplicity, My Mother's Secrets, by Donna Freed, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Donna found out she was adopted when she was six years old. Wanting to find out information about her birth parents, she was shocked with what she found out. This was an interesting read, I could not imagine finding out im adopted and then who my real birth parents were.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This was a great story!! I enjoyed the writing style and adoption story. The whole book was very authentic and interesting.

Duplicity: My Mothers' Secrets by Donna Freed is recommended for readers who appreciate a wide variety of autobiographies and memoirs.

Donna learned she and her older siblings were adopted when she was six, a fact that her parents left unsaid unless specifically asked about it. Her adoptive mother was unconventional and as recorded, not always a very good and caring parent, but they came to terms with their relationship before she passed away. It is after her mother passed away that, as an adult in her 30's, Donna began looking for her birth mother and when she found her she also found a link to a true crime story. In 1967, her birth mother and father were involved with a scheme to collect a double indemnity insurance claim.

This is a novel of two parts. the first is Donna's childhood and her relationship with her dysfunctional adoptive parents, especially her mother. The second happens much later, after the half way point, and covers her search for her birth mother. Generally, I enjoy memoirs, but this one is not quite as compelling or interesting as the description implies. Honestly, the writing is average and nothing in her story reads like a thriller. There are many memoirs that are more engaging even without a tie to a true crime tale. Readers who enjoy memoirs will likely enjoy this more than I did.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Muswell Press via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Edelweiss, X, and Amazon.

Excellent book. Well written and insightful. I was particularly drawn to this topic because when over 50 I discovered my mother gave a baby for adoption in New York state. It didn't have the drama as this story but the complex emotions about finding family secrets are the same. I could most definitely recommend this book, especially to those interested in biographies and challenging family relationships.

*I was given this book to read and review from NetGalley. Thank you to the author and publishers for allowing me this opportunity—review is 100% my opinion--it is also posted on my Goodreads account.*

Overall this was a good read of her life and would recommend to anyone who likes reading memoirs/autobiographies, especially true crime related ones.

The story the author lived is definitely a rough one. She had to endure being adopted but not even knowing she was til years later and her adoptive parents had very odd and maybe borderline abuse in some sort of way, parenting styles. I couldn’t imagine living the life she did and has been since.

I applaud her for wanting to tell her story however, some of it seems a bit unnecessary or a little confusing given the timing she picked to bring these memories up. There was a few times I was reading and had to reread a part several times and still wasn’t sure why it was brought up in that part or was confused in general at the point of the information. It was almost as if memories flooded back to her and she wrote them down as to not forget them and wanted to add them into the book but wasn’t able to sort the memories and information fully. I also don’t believe it fully read like a thriller as mentioned but I will say what she’s been through was wild enough you’d think it was a fiction story plot because it’s so unbelievable you wouldn’t think it really happened.

Overall this was a good read of her life and would recommend to anyone who likes reading memoirs/autobiographies, especially true crime related ones.

While the story itself should have been interesting, the telling of it failed to live up to its potential. It was dull. I was also confused by the title. The author.’s adoptive parents did fail to disclose the fact of her adoption, but not to a level I’d call ‘duplicitous., Her birth parents were frauds and criminals, but the author didn’t seem to hold that against them at all. I found it to be a frustrating read.

I found this book quite dragging in the very beginning. However I loved how the mystery unfold and I can imagine the surprise of the author when she found who her parents are. This book made me go online and research the case, and read old newspapers.

This is an impressively written book about the author’s life of being an adopted child then adult. She was fine with her adoptive mother, never feeling a need to look for her biological mother. That is, until her adoptive mom passed away, and her young son brought up searching. This became the impetus for all that came next, including the shocking results of her search.

Had a ton of potential but ended up being more boring than expected. There was more that could have been explored about Donna Freed's birth mother and her adoptive mother, but I felt it kind of just....stopped.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.