BOOK REVIEW – The Mother I Could Have Been by Kerry Fisher

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I got a free advance readers’ copy in exchange for my honest review.

Mother and daughter relationships are hard. And many times it is not until we grow up, that we understand the reasoning behind some of our mothers’ decisions. But still, we hold our mother to a higher standard many times, demanding perfection from her.

The Mother I Could Have Been describes a fraught relationship between Vicky Hall and her own mother, which then develops into her never believing she is good enough to be first in anyone’s life. The book starts with her mother telling her she cannot make it to her graduation because her half-sister is in the hospital. Hurt and disappointed, Vicky decides to spend that summer in Greece where she meets William Cottingdale. She unexpectedly becomes pregnant and they decide to move back to England and start a family. However, one day she leaves her child with him and his parents and never comes back.

The book was written from two perspectives, Vicky and Caro. Caro ends up employing Vicky and helps her with her own crises while dealing with her own.

Vicky was so relatable to me. When my first child was born, I was quite young and my mother-in-law was extremely overbearing. She would often tell me I was a bad mother just because I was not doing something the way she thought I should. When I read where Vicky’s mother-in-law, Barbara made Theo, Vicky’s son, call her ‘Mamma’ instead of Vicky, I had to stop reading for a while because I started to remember my own troubles with that. I never left my children but, honestly, I was able to understand why Vicky felt like she had no other choice.

I adored Caro. She was not perfect by a long shot, but she loved her children, Fergus and India. I found myself feeling quite sorry for her when I saw how India treated her. I do love how well she related to Vicky. I do not think Vicky would have been able to handle what she went through if not for Caro and Fergus.

I tried this book because I am also a Jodi Picoult fan and seeing her name in the blurb made me curious. Now I can honestly say I am a fan of Kerry Fisher and would definitely love to read more of her work.

Violence: None
Sexual Content: Very mild
Profanities: Very mild
Religious Themes: None

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Why would you walk away from the one person you can’t live without?

As a child, Vicky Hall never had the sort of family she wanted. The least important person in her new step-family, ignored by her mother in favour of her two younger half-siblings, Vicky was always an afterthought. Sitting alone at her graduation ceremony at the age of twenty-one, she vows to create her own family and her own life, one which is full of the love and attention she has always craved.

When Vicky meets William and falls pregnant in Greece that summer, it isn’t planned. But the two of them believe they can make it work, showering their child with the love which they believe should be enough.

But when her son Theo is two, Vicky leaves him in the care of her mother-in-law, walks out of her front door and drives to a hotel where she takes a room for the night. She doesn’t return.

It’s unthinkable.

What kind of mother does that?

The kind who is hiding a story you can never imagine.

The Mother I Could Have Been is a heartbreaking story of impossible decisions and second chances, from the bestselling author of The Silent Wife and The Woman I Was Before. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty and Diane Chamberlain.

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