Skip to content
Posted by Shalini34 Comments on Book Review - Mother by Hannah Begbie #BookReview #BookBlogger #contemporary Book Reviews

Book Review - Mother by Hannah Begbie #BookReview #BookBlogger #contemporary

There was a stillness in me after I read the book as I didn’t know how to review it. There was so much pathos and pain and guilt in this story, and above that, a need to escape the irredeemable truth of chronic illness in a newborn child.

Cathy’s daughter was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, and the world as she knew as a new mother ended. All that remained was a world of pain and fear for her daughter’s life which gripped her almost every waking second. Countless hours of cleaning, antibiotics, antibacterial spray, keeping her daughter free of germs, preventing lung infection was the norm of life. Then one day, she met a man and embarked on an affair with him, cutting hours of her time with her daughter. Hypocrisy became her way till the story heralded off to a natural finish.

My first book by author Hannah Begbie, I was gripped with the prose where I knew the main character was embarking on a slippery slope of the end of her marriage. Pain makes us take horrible decisions in order to escape it. Cath did the same, one part of me didn’t want to judge her because I have taken some rotten decisions too. But one tiny sliver of me hated the fact that she was risking everything for those moments of lust.

I found myself standing at the bank of the river where I couldn’t gauge how deep it was. Such were the emotions evoked in me where I couldn’t understand what I felt. Cystic fibrosis was shown in an authentic manner. Fear of infection that parents deal with jumped off the pages.

The characters were off with their reactions, but then again I didn’t know how each human would react in such a situation. Something niggled in me, I didn’t mind the affair, I didn’t mind her lies. What I minded was the main character leaving her sick child to have sex, even when she knew he was the harbinger of bacteria.

I do understand mothers are humans, and they make mistakes. Hence I was in a dilemma about this book where I felt I was on the precipice where I shouldn’t even begin to judge her. A difficult story to say the least where I was catapulted to an indecisive place at the end of it.

I received a free ARC from Edelweiss and publisher HarperCollins, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!! STRICTLY HONEST AND UNBIASED.

All my reviews can be read here

Cath had twenty-five perfect days with her newborn daughter before Mia’s deadly illness was diagnosed.

As her life implodes, Cath’s despair drives her to a parental support group where she meets a father in a similar situation, the dangerously attractive Richard – charming, handsome and adamant that a cure for their children lies just over the horizon: everything Cath wants to believe.

Their affair – and the chance to escape reality – is unavoidable, but carries catastrophic consequences: the nature of Mia’s illness means that Cath’s betrayal endangers not just her marriage but the life of her baby.

Can she stop herself before it’s too late?

Publication Date: 26th July 2019

Publisher: HarperCollins

Categories

Book Reviews, Fiction

Tags

, , ,

34 thoughts on “Book Review - Mother by Hannah Begbie #BookReview #BookBlogger #contemporary” Leave a comment ›

  1. Wow, this most definitely sounds like a very heavy and emotion filled story. It really shone through in your review. I hope you are alright. These kind of books can certainly make their impact on you. Terrific review though!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. Hmm. I’m kind of confused. The cover makes me think “thriller” or maybe even a bit of “horror” but then your review makes it sound more like an emotional women’s fiction type of story. All the same, a great review, Shalini! Have a great weekend! 🙂 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. Oh, ugh. Shalini, you write some of the most beautiful reviews about books with some really ugly premises. A chronically ill child, I can only relate to a minute degree the life. STILL, that she would expose her to infection? No, no, no, no…groan.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: