She befriended the one woman she was never supposed to meet. Now she’s the key suspect in her disappearance. For fans of The Perfect Mother and The Wife Between Us comes a gripping psychological suspense debut about two strangers, one incredible connection, and the steep price of obsession.Lana Stone has never considered herself a stalker–until the night she impulsively follows a familiar face … impulsively follows a familiar face through the streets of New York’s Upper West Side. Her target? The “anonymous” egg donor she’d selected through an agency, the one who’s making motherhood possible for her. Hungry to learn more about her, Lana plans only to watch her from a distance. But when circumstances bring them face-to-face, an unexpected friendship is born.
Katya, a student at Columbia, is the yin to Lana’s yang, an impulsive free spirit who lives life at the edge. And for pragmatic Lana, she’s a breath of fresh air and a welcome distraction from her painful breakup with her baby’s father. Then, just as suddenly as Katya entered Lana’s life, she disappears–and Lana might have been the last person to see her before she went missing. Determined to find out what became of the woman to whom she owes so much, Lana digs into Katya’s past, even as the police grow suspicious of her motives. But she’s unprepared for the secrets she unearths, and their power to change everything she thought she knew about those she loves best…
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Daniela Petrova’s debut novel, Her Daughter’s Mother, captivates with characters that remain as companions well after the reading is done – whether welcome or otherwise(!). We first meet Lana, who has invested her soul in to conceiving through fertility treatments. The take time and money and begin to negatively impact her relationship with her partner, Tyler. The question arises whether Lana sacrificed too much. Especially when she makes the daring move to encounter the latest egg donor, Katya, a person who is to remain anonymous.
Told through three viewpoints, Petrova’s book takes you into a world of mirrors where you think you see reality the current reflected, but it changes with each speaker. The deeper we dive the more twisty it becomes. While certainly a thrilling read, the strength of the book comes with Petrova’s insightful writing, in particular with Katya, a troubled and troublesome character whom I simply loved. Can’t wait to hear more from this writer as she lands us on that sweet spot between psychological suspense and character-driven narration!
Her Daughter’s Mother had me from the very first page. With a dazzling plot; complex, unforgettable characters; and gorgeous prose that mines the dangerous depths of obsession, Daniela Petrova’s debut is undoubtedly going to be the book everyone will want to read this summer.
Her Daughter’s Mother has all the hallmarks of great psychological suspense: a compelling mystery, a cast of intriguing and suspicious characters, and plenty of stunning surprises. But it is the journey of the novel’s protagonists—each trying to find family, connection, and redemption—that makes this page-turner a tender, moving story you won’t soon forget.
Captivating and powerful, Her Daughter’s Mother is both a thought-provoking story about the ethical gray area one woman stumbles into on her quest for motherhood, and a twisty thriller about another woman’s abrupt disappearance. Secrets, obsession, lies, betrayals big and small—they’re all here in this expertly paced novel that will keep readers guessing right up until the very last page.
This moving, heartfelt thriller surprised me again and again. Lana’s journey to becoming a mother is poignant and suspenseful, even without the added element of her egg donor’s disappearance. The turns of this story ratchet up the intrigue, making Her Daughter’s Mother one of the most gripping books I’ve read in years…A sure-footed, memorable debut.
As a woman and a physician who’s undergone a fertility work-up, I was very interested in reading Her Daughter’s Mother by Daniela Petrova. Little did I know I was getting myself into a psychological thriller. Entranced, I stayed up until four a.m. to finish the book in one sitting.
Lena is a savvy woman, an art historian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has spent years developing her career. For the past eight years she’s been living with her boyfriend. They’ve struggled with infertility so long that they’ve lost sight of everything else in their relationship.
When at last they decide to use the eggs of an anonymous donor, Lena inadvertently befriends that young woman which leads to unforeseen tragic consequences in her life, that of her boyfriend, and that of the donor.
This book gripped me from the beginning, and I enjoyed all the plot twists and turns revealed through the points of view of three different unreliable narrators and interwoven with the events of the infertility process.
This story is more than a thriller, though; it’s also a story about women finding connections with each, searching for redemption, and defining “family.” At the heart of this novel is two women’s journey toward finding family, connection, and redemption, which took the novel beyond the usual psychological suspense.
I like when you think books are about one thing and it’s totally not what you thinking. This makes reading a very enjoyable experience. Thank you GoodReads Giveaways for an advanced copy of Her Daughter’s Mother by Daniela Petrova.
This is a book about a couple trying to conceive but for years can’t and so they seek someone for help. In the form of a troubled young girl Katya. In the first 50 pages I really couldn’t get into Her Daughter’s Mother so I put it down, once I picked this back up I read straight to the end. I couldn’t stop. I had to know everything, plus the twist I could not have predicted. I would read more by Daniela Petrova in that she has a great style to her writing.I felt like I fell inside this book and became a bystander.
thank you GoodReads and Penquin Random House for the opportunity.