Review: My Husband's Daughter

My Husband's Daughter

About the Book:

Cara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘She’s not just my daughter,’ she said as she turned in her seat to face Jack. This man she had once loved, but who she hadn’t seen for nearly five years. ‘Sophie is your daughter too.’

It is past ten o’clock on a cold Friday night when Rebecca and her husband Jack’s doorbell rings. Outside is a woman who introduces herself as Jack’s ex-girlfriend Cara. And she’s holding the hand of a shivering, blue-eyed, four-year-old girl. Who she claims is Jack’s daughter.

Rebecca is shocked to discover he has a child from his last relationship – even one he hadn’t known about. Because becoming parents isn’t part of their life plan. They like children, but they also love their freedom and spending time together uninterrupted; the way that, if they wanted to, they could travel the world at a moment’s notice.

But Cara needs them. Because Cara has a devastating secret that she can’t tell anyone yet. Not even her daughter. A secret with the power to change all of their lives.

A secret that will ultimately mean Rebecca has to ask herself – could she find it in herself to welcome her husband’s child into her home, and into her heart?

My Comments:

Even if you love dessert, a diet of nothing but dessert (besides being unhealthy) gets overwhelming and even the sweet addict wants something else.  Even when you prefer books to come with happily ever after guaranteed, sometimes one that makes you cry can be a nice contrast.  My reading lately has tended toward mindless romance novels but just like after eating too many of my own desserts at Christmas I wanted some flavor other than sweet. On my last trip through NetGalley's offerings, I went looking for a book that went in another direction and came upon this gem.

One by-product of the sexual revolution has been a large increase in children born out of wedlock.  While some of these children know and have relationships with both parents, plenty do not.  Sophia has never met her father until the day that she and her mother Cara descend upon Jack's doorstep.  

It is clear that Cara and Jack have lived different lives.  She's a single mom who is devoted to her daughter.  She lives in low-income apartment and has a low-income job.  Jack and his wife have decided to never have children.  They want to be free to do the adult things in life when they want to do them.  They have a nice home and plenty of disposable income.  

What would you do if someone showed up on your doorstep with a child they claimed was your spouse's, especially if the child was well past infancy?  There is never any suggestion that Jack has been unfaithful to Rebecca--this was clearly something that happened before they were together.  However, as Rebecca notes, if she had known Jack had a child, she would have never gotten involved with him.  

The relationships between the affected adults, along with the relationship with the child would make an interesting story in almost any case, but Cara's secret (which is revealed pretty early in the story) adds another dimension, and of course there is a monkey wrench thrown into the works as well.  By the end of the book I was both smiling and crying and I'm sure that was Emma Robinson's goal.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade B+