Are You My Mother? By Louise Voss

Are You My Mother?
By Louise Voss
Published on 13 July 2015
Available as an e-book from Amazon UK here.

Publisher's description
Despite being adopted, Emma Victor didn't feel all that different as a child; at least not for the first nine years of her life. Then her adoptive parents had a baby - Stella - of their own. Ten years later, they were killed in a car crash - and Emma, aged 19, was left to bring Stella up alone, at an age when she should have been partying, not parenting.

Ten years on, Stella has grown up. Now 19 herself, she is beautiful, confident and happy. Emma, however, is in a rut. Her career and love life are going nowhere fast. Nearly 30, she feels she's not just on the shelf, but in danger of falling off it. But an extra ordinary confrontation with a tramp on a tube shakes her from her lethargy, and she starts on a search for her birth mother; a search which, fearful both of what she mind find and how it might affect Stella, she has been putting off for years.

Are You My Mother? was a book that Emma used to read to Stella, when Stella was a toddler. Now the story of the little baby bird and the emotion and pathos of its quest for its mother haunts her as, with the help of her friend Mack, she tracks down five women with the same name; one of whom must be her mother. Emma soon finds however that her searches not so much for her mother but for her own identity. She has spent so long fulfilling roles for other people - daughter, girlfriend, sister, surrogate mother - that she has little idea of who or what she really is.

Tentative at first, but soon gaining in momentum, her search begins to change her life in more ways than she could possibly have imagined.

My verdict
Are You My Mother? was originally published in 2011. It has now been republished and updated by the author, Louise Voss.

Emma was adopted as a baby and had a very happy upbringing. When she was nine, her adoptive parents had a baby of their own. Emma loved nothing more than reading to her little sister Stella, especially a book called 'Are You My Mother?' about a lost little baby bird. But tragedy struck 10 years later, as her adoptive parents were killed in a car accident, leaving 19-year-old Emma to bring up her sister. Now that Stella has turned 19 herself, Emma decides to search for her own birth mother, something she has been putting off for years. The book follows Emma's journey as she searches for her mother, love and romance and her own identity.

This is a wonderful book with a lovely story and amazing 'real' characters. It's heart-warming and believable without being overly sentimental. I fell in love with the characters and felt as if I knew Emma by the end of the book. I desperately wanted her to have some happiness and loved the twist at the end.

I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.