Review: Not my usual kind of read, but this is a beautiful and emotional read.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 5, 2013
Child of Mine is about a woman named Katie and her quest to have a child of her own. She has her dream job of being a midwife. She helps plenty of women to deliver their children and make sure her their kids are good and healthy. But Katie and her husband David are trying to create their own child. They have been trying for years, but time and time again it never goes through. David believes they should adopt, but Katie isn't sure. She herself was adopted and doesn't know if she wants to put a child through that. David thinks she should try looking for her biological parents first to help her. On her search, she discovers secrets she may not have wanted to know.This is the debut novel from Judy Walters and what a debut it is. Child of Mine was such a beautifully written book that is packed full of emotions. You instantly have a connection to Katie. You feel so sorry for her situation. She is trying so hard to have her own child. Her and husband spend so much time and money on treatments to get pregnant. They either don't work at all or she ends up with a miscarriage. With all of this piling on her, it makes working as a midwife difficult. She can't have a child, but she helps so many women deliver theirs. It hurts worse when they don't want the child or they just got pregnant by accident.Katie also has to deal with taking care of her sister, Lila, who is suffering from depression. Lila just had a baby boy, Jake, and she can't handle it on her own. She has always dealt with depression when she was younger. So bad that it has frightened her family a time or two. It was quite a sad backstory. Lila always needs Katie to help. She never does anything on her own. Lila's husband, Mike, and David believe that Lila needs to do things on her own. She is getting too dependent on Katie. I absolutely agreed with them. Lila was kind of awful in the beginning. I know she was depressed, but my goodness, she was killing me in the beginning of this book. But things change when Katie starts the search for her parents. I really liked this part of the book.The story was quite emotional and heart wrenching. Experiencing Katie's struggle was hard and you keep hoping and waiting for her to get the whole family she wants. I loved the journey she took to find her birth parents. I was quite shocked what she found out. She finds that she has been lied to and as you can imagine, she is hurt. She is desperate for answers and feels stuck and helpless. You definitely feel for her and her situation.I don't usually read women's fiction, but I was curious about what she would find. The book is very easy to relate to. The book does such a good job of showing all the emotions involved with adoption and how it effects you and your family. I loved the family dynamics in this book. The heartache, the helplessness, the disappointment, it all felt real. This could easily be a biography. This is worth checking out.