My Mother’s Choice
By Ali Mercer

‘A heart-wrenching drama… an emotional rollercoaster with twists along the way… I read this in four hours and I know you’ll be hooked too.’ NetGalley Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nobody talks about my mother. Absolutely nobody. I have no idea what she was like. I’d always thought they kept quiet about her because they were sad. But what if it was because they were guilty?

I watch them at the school gates, all the mothers with their daughters. I see the hugs and all those thoughtful little adjustments to scarves and ponytails. How their love seems to overflow, they have so much of it to give.

And then I walk home to my aunt’s cold house, where there are a hundred rules for me to follow and only a single photograph of my mother to look at.

She is never spoken about in this house. They tell me that it will be easier if I don’t think about her.

It is strange though, isn’t it? That I know nothing about my own mother?

But they don’t know about the diary I’ve found up in the loft. Maybe they even forgot it was there. It doesn’t matter anymore if they won’t tell me anything. Because within these pages is what I’ve waited fourteen years to find out. And maybe some things I wish I could forget.

All I wanted was to bring our family closer together, but could what I find tear us apart instead?

A heartbreaking and powerful novel about family secrets and how we live with decisions we never thought we would have to make. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Kate Hewitt, and Amanda Prowse.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

It was like carrying round something from an alien planet. The kind of thing a kid in a film would pick up and think was interesting or harmless, and then it would turn out to be a homing device that, once accidentally activated, summoned invading forces from across the universe to attack the Earth.

 

She seemed nice. Really nice. I felt a sudden ache somewhere near my heart, like a cross between hunger pangs and a stitch.

 

She looked like a sultry Sicilian widow, all dark eyes and glossy hair and philosophical gloom, and she had a languid, unhurried way of moving, as if she lived in her own special climate where there was always a heatwave, even if, in Kettlebridge, it was cool and grey.

 

That was when I began to feel properly distant from home, not quite as if I’d escaped, but certainly as if I’d left and wouldn’t be going back – or wouldn’t be the same when I did.

 

She smelt of sadness. A smell like damp tears mixed with fear.

My Review:

 

I fell right into this enthralling book and didn’t willingly resurface for most of the day. Ali Mercer has strong word voodoo and I readily yielded to her powers.   Her characters were uniquely alluring while her storylines were compelling, poignantly written, evocatively detailed, and so very tight with tension. I was sure someone was going to eventually snap, including me, as I was rabid to know Laura’s story.

The timeline and POV shifts were easy to follow and adroitly crafted. This nimble author had me fooled; I was tricked and far afield in my theories. I had it all wrong and was eviscerated by the shocking twists and devastating turn of events, all of which were cunningly plotted and brilliantly paced.   The little pea in my brain was heavily scorched. I worry I may never be the same.

Ali decided she wanted to be a writer early on and wrote her first novel when she was at primary school. She did an English degree and spent her early twenties working in various jobs in journalism, including as a reporter for the show business newspaper The Stage. She started writing fiction in earnest after getting married, moving out of London to the Oxfordshire market town of Abingdon, and starting a family. She has two children, a daughter and a son who is autistic and was diagnosed when he was four years old.

Ali is fascinated by families, their myths and secrets, and the forces that hold them together, split them up, and (sometimes) bring them back together again. She always travels with tissues and a book and has been known to cry over a good story but is also a big fan of the hopeful ending.

 Author Social Media Links:

For updates and pictures, follow Ali on Twitter (@AlisonLMercer) or Instagram (@alimercerwriter), or on her Facebook page (AliMercerwriter)