'Who am I? Why am I here? Why did my mother give me away?'
On the surface, Luke and his girlfriend Hannah seem to have a perfect life. He's an A&R man, she's an arts correspondent and they are devoted to their new-born son Samuel.
But beneath the gloss Luke has always felt like an outsider. So when he finds his birth mother Alice, the instant connection with her is a little like falling in love.
When Hannah goes back to work, Luke asks Alice to look after their son. But Alice - fuelled with grief from when her baby was taken from her 27 years ago - starts to fall in love with Samuel. And Luke won't settle for his mother pushing him aside once again...
There are two protagonists in this story, Alice and Luke, and the story is told from their perspectives. Alice is Luke’s biological mother, and Luke only recently found her. Alice integrates into this family really quickly, until Luke realises that something is not right. Alice is sharing her story with the reader, her life in the seventies, when she was a young art student, that had a beautifully heartbreaking relationship, that caused her to give up Luke for adoption. I really liked Alice’s parts of this story, it was very absorbing and romantic. Luke’s parts were less interesting to me, even though that was were the mysterious events were happening, I found it a little slower paced. I think the author allowed me to connect with the protagonists through their thoughts and all the challenges the characters had to endure.
The narrative has a nice contrast between the past and the present, and this combination made this read more intriguing and absorbing. As I mentioned before, this novel breaks the barrier between genres, we have a romantic story and a domestic thriller mixed together, and I really enjoyed this way of storytelling. The plot had tendencies of kind of plodding along sometimes, and I would have liked a little more pace and twists added to it. It is a really emotional read, filled with depression, wishes to belong, secrets, abusive parenting and many more.
I liked the author’s writing style in this novel, it was creatively written and well delivered. I enjoyed the research done for this book in the music and arts industries, it was intriguing to read about the music bands lifestyle. The setting of this book constantly changes between seventies London and present day, and I really liked the ability to learn more about the past. The chapters had a decent length and didn’t drag to me. I really loved the ending, it left me shocked and nearly in tears, I really wasn’t expecting it.