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“Brings to mind Jodi Picoult…thought-provoking domestic drama.” – Booklist
“Will make you miss your bedtime, guaranteed.” – Bestselling author Kimberly Belle
Gripping, emotional, and wire-taut, Not Her Daughter raises the question of what it means to be a mother—and how far someone will go to keep a child safe.
Emma Townsend. Five years old. Gray eyes, brown hair. Missing since June.
Emma is lonely. Living with her cruel mother and clueless father, Emma retreats into her own world of quiet and solitude.
Sarah Walker. Successful entrepreneur. Broken-hearted. Kidnapper.
Sarah has never seen a girl so precious as the gray-eyed child in a crowded airport terminal. When a second-chance encounter with Emma presents itself, Sarah takes her—far away from home. But if it’s to rescue a little girl from her damaging mother, is kidnapping wrong?
Amy Townsend. Unhappy wife. Unfit mother. Unsure whether she wants her daughter back.
Amy’s life is a string of disappointments, but her biggest issue is her inability to connect with her daughter. And now Emma is gone without a trace.
As Sarah and Emma avoid the nationwide hunt, they form an unshakeable bond. But what about Emma’s real mother, back at home?
Praise for Not Her Daughter
“The plot twists here are brave, the themes are both poignant and unsettling, and the resolution is deeply resonant. A page-turner with heart!” – New York Times bestselling author Kate Moretti
“A cleverly constructed novel that will have you questioning everything you believe about right or wrong.” – New York Times bestselling author Chevy Stevens
“Engrossing and suspenseful, Frey writes her characters with depth and compassion, challenging readers to question their own code of ethics.” – Zoje Stage, author of Baby Teeth
“An emotional ride where the line between right and wrong begins to fade…pulls you in from the very first page, and unlike most in its genre, you won’t know how you want it to end until it does.” – Wendy Walker, author of Emma in the Night
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Not Her Daughter is a cleverly constructed novel that will have you questioning everything you believe about right or wrong. Frey skillfully tangles you up in these two women’s lives and never lets up on the tension all the way until the dramatic conclusion. A remarkable portrayal of motherhood, in all its beautiful glory and heart-wrenching despair.
In her provocative debut thriller, NOT HER DAUGHTER, Rea Frey takes us on an emotional ride where the line between right and wrong begins to fade, and all that remains are the tears of a child. This story pulls you in from the very first page, and unlike most in its genre, you won’t know how you want it to end until it does.
Women who do not embrace motherhood or bad mothers are a taboo subject — in both real life and fiction — but Frey tackles it with aplomb in her taut debut, NOT HER DAUGHTER. The story begs the question: who is more mother — the one who gives birth or the one who rescues? The plot twists here are brave, the themes are both poignant and unsettling, and the resolution is deeply resonant. A page-turner with heart!
NOT HER DAUGHTER by Rea Frey is an intensely emotional and gripping story that addresses several moral dilemmas around parenting and child abduction. It is told from the points of view of two women, Amy, the biological mother of five-year-old, Emma, who has gone missing without a trace after a volatile incident with Amy, and Sarah, who takes Emma away with her after witnessing more than one occasion of suspected abuse by Amy. The story alternates between the times before, during and after the abduction and gives the reader insight into the states of mind and motivations of both Amy and Sarah. The characters were so well-portrayed, I felt like I knew them personally. Filled with suspense and intrigue, this fast-paced book kept me flipping the pages the see how everything would turn out in the end. I really enjoyed this compelling and thought-provoking book and I look forward to reading more from Rea Frey in the future. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy.
The vivid, gorgeously detailed prose of Rea Frey’s new novel, “Not Her Daughter,” captured me from page one, and the story unspooled at a breakneck pace that never let up.
Sarah is a successful entrepreneur recovering from a broken relationship. Amy is a despondent mother of two, married to an emotionally absent husband. In the middle is 5-year-old Emma, a sensitive, vulnerable child who longs to be loved.
Sarah witnesses Amy’s maternal cruelty at the airport—disturbing exchanges of emotional, verbal and borderline physical abuse of Emma by her mother—and tries to figure out how to deal with it. What should she do? Since she’s worked with children for years, Sarah tries to understand Amy’s behavior—a crowded airport, family stress, unruly children.
But Sarah also knows firsthand about hurtful mother-daughter relationships, and she understands the shortcomings of child-protective services, and so, when she witnesses Amy’s cruelty for a second time, she acts. And it’s shocking.
From that point on, it’s an emotional roller-coaster ride full of twists and surprises, at the heart of which is the water-cooler question—is Sarah right or wrong? Is she good or bad? If you’d witnessed such a scene yourself, what would you do? What defines motherhood? How do we know if we’ve chosen the right path in life?
This debut thriller isn’t afraid to tackle a difficult subject and turn the child-kidnapping story on its head. Tight pace, fascinating characters, and emotionally resonant prose propel the taut story toward an ending that gets you in the heart. Highly recommended.
NOT HER DAUGHTER is a deft and beautifully written examination of taboo maternal fantasies: Can a kidnapping ever be justified? Can motherhood be undone? Engrossing and suspenseful, Frey writes her characters with depth and compassion, challenging readers to question their own code of ethics.
It has been a while since I’ve read such a gut-wrenching novel which blurs the lines between right and wrong so skillfully. The story Frey weaves moves from present day to the past to current with a whip-smart plotting style that keeps the reader guessing what’s going to happen next. Sarah Walker is for all intents and purposes, a success. Her business, which produces educational games for schools all over the world, is growing in leaps and bounds. However, she has just gone through a breakup with her boyfriend Ethan, which has left her heart in tatters. As the author gives us glimpses into what transpired between the couple, Sarah is also remembering snatches of her childhood, which has largely informed who she has become as an adult. As she navigates being newly single, and the only child of a father who is just as heartbroken as she is from the wife who left him years ago, Sarah’s situation becomes even more dicey when she encounters Emma Townsend, a little girl who reminds her so much of herself, she feels compelled to rescue this child from the untenable family dynamic she is drowning in. From that point, the story gets even more complicated. And with that, I’ll leave you to discover the rest for yourself, because I promise you, this story will evoke emotions in you that you won’t be able to parse without going all in with Sarah, Emma, and an ensemble of characters that are at once well-developed and grounded enough to make you feel as if you’re living this story right along with them.
In Not Her Daughter, Frey pulls off a difficult task: balancing a nail-biting plot with a thought-provoking question — is a crime committed with the best intentions still a crime? A chilling, powerful tale of love and sacrifice, of truth and perception, Not Her Daughter will make you miss your bedtime, guaranteed. A stunning debut.
I really liked the idea behind this story. The blurb is actually what made me really want to read this one. I even liked the way the chapters alternated time periods of before, during, and after the kidnapping. Even though there were several things I really liked about this story, there was something missing. I ended up putting my Kindle down and not touching it for a week because I really didn’t want to mark this one as a DNF, but I also wasn’t very interested in picking this book back up.
I voluntarily received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Harrowing and heartfelt, Not Her Daughter is a gripping novel about the amazing power of mother love.
A compelling mix of high wire tension and superb writing. Not Her Daughter will linger in the memory long after the final page has been turned.
Tightly paced and impossible to put down, Not Her Daughter is a cleverly written story that challenges what it means to be a mother―or not to be one. A thought-provoking and poignant debut.
Not Her Daughter is an interesting and emotional debut about women stuck in lives they never wanted and the desperate decisions they’ll make to get out. Certain to keep readers turning pages and guessing as to who the real villain is.
What a roller coaster ride wondering where this would end! Mothers and daughters and the strained relationships between them. Parts of this was humorous even with the tough topic of a missing child. How Amy feels about her husband; I know many women who are saying some of the same things inwardly and it made me chuckle. Great read
Not Her Daughter was a very interesting and suspenseful read. Characters that will touch you and leaving you thinking. What is truly right and what is truly wrong? This was a mesmerizing read that dealt with so many emotional issues.
Sarah Walker is not a bad person. Or so she would have always believed. But when she sees a little girl with sad eyes, she is taken by her. She sees how the mother treats that little girl. Her heart breaks, because she knows what it feels like to be this little girl. Unloved and unwanted.
Amy Townsend is an unfit mother. She knows this. She is miserable and pretty much hates her life. She takes out her feelings on her daughter, repeatedly.
Sarah recently had her heart broken. Work is the only things she has left. But when a second encounter with the little girl that captivated her happens, she takes matters into her own hands. Emma Townsend in stuck in the middle of it all.
This was my first read by this author and one I look forward reading more from. Not Her Daughter delves into so many emotions and I was captivated from start to finish.
Happy reading!
In Not Her Daughter, Frey pulls off a difficult task: balancing a nail-biting plot with a thought-provoking question — is a crime committed with the best intentions still a crime? A chilling, powerful tale of love and sacrifice, of truth and perception, Not Her Daughter will make you miss your bedtime, guaranteed. A stunning debut.
Clear your calendar, turn off your phone and find a comfortable place to read before you start this book by Rea Frey. Once you start it, you won’t want to put it down and once you finish it, you’ll be thinking about it for days after. Trust me, it’s that good!!!
Sarah is trying to get over an emotional break up with her boyfriend. The break up increases her long term feeling of abandonment because her mother walked out on and her father when she was a child. Sarah first sees Emma at an airport where her mother Amy is yelling at her and cruelly pulling her along. She mentally fixates on the little girl and keeps thinking about her. When she sees her again, she decides that fate is telling her that its her job to rescue Emma – so she kidnaps her to give her a better life. The real question through out the rest of the book is whether this was really kidnapping or was it rescuing Emma from her cruel mother. As the nationwide search for Emma is set up, I was rooting for Sarah and hoping that she could keep Emma safe and from being discovered especially after more information is revealed about the biological mother and family.
The book is cleverly set up as BEFORE, DURING and AFTER with chapters by Sarah and Amy so the reader is able to get both sides of the story. It’s a wonderful well written book that will stay in your mind after the last page. ” Emotionally powerful and wire-taut, Not Her Daughter raises the question of what it means to be a mother—and how far someone will go to keep a child safe. ”
Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
“She was safe. She was fed. She had fun. She learned things. She was loved.”
This story is about a young woman, Sarah, who never had love from her mother.
Emma, is five and there are too many similarities in Emma’s life that Sarah cannot allow.
Sarah makes a split second decision that she must now live with.
What is the right thing?
I read this novel in a day and really enjoyed it. I had mixed emotions as I turned the pages and I am sure anyone who reads this will also experience anger, frustration, and yet love for these two characters.
Amy has a life most would love to have, but she just can’t find it in herself to embrace it, being a mother isn’t what she thought it would be, and her relationship with her husband is on shaky ground most of the time, which leaves her feeling overwhelmed. Most days she can maneuver through her life, but there are days when she downright hates her life, and against her better judgement takes her frustrations out on her young daughter. And those are the days that she is certain motherhood and domesticated life just wasn’t meant for her…
Sarah knows what it is like to come from a broken home, and what it feels like to be abandoned by the ones who are supposed to love you, and she wouldn’t wish that on her worst enemy. Her mother never seemed to have the motherly touch, and her father tried, but his efforts were always lacking. Then she meets young Emma, and she instantly recognizes the hurt written on the young girls face, it closely resembles the look she has carried for years, and before she really comprehends what she is doing, she kidnaps the young girl with the promise of giving her a better life. The very one she always wished she would have had, she knows what she is doing wrong on some level, but the more time she spends with Emma the more ways she finds to justify her actions…
Not Her Daughter is a haunting tale that follows two women and young child on an unforgettable journey, one is her uncaring biological mother and the other a good intention-ed woman who kidnapped her with the hope of giving her the loving home she deserves. Between the pages of this exquisitely crafted tale you will find a story that pushes you to your breaking point, makes your heart ache, and gives you hope. This is by far one of the best first read my eyes have landed on this year, this powerful story hit me deep, and made me feel the intent behind every word… it was downright astounding! If there is one book you pick up this year, make it this one, you won’t be disappointed with what you find!!
I requested an advanced copy of this title from NetGalley, and voluntarily read and reviewed it.
A twist on the usual kidnapping plot- Sarah Walker is shocked when she witnesses a mother’s treatment of her daughter in an airport. When she sees the girl again in a chance encounter, she is compelled to learn more about the girl. Suddenly, an opportunity presents itself and Sarah finds herself on the run with 5 years old Emma Townsend. Sarah doesn’t see herself as a kidnapper but as a rescuer. Meanwhile, Emma’s mother is under scrutiny herself by the local police who think she might have something to do with the disappearance.