Thursday, March 31, 2011

Somebody Else's Daughter by Elizabeth Brundage *Review*


A young couple, strung out on drugs and one dying of AIDS decide to give up their infant daughter in the hopes of giving her a better life. And all seems to go well for Willa as she grows up. Her parents are wealthy and able to give her what she wants and they love her very much on top of it all.



Her biological father, Nate, now clean from drugs and living a respectable life as a teacher and struggling writer has a yearning to get close to her. He doesn't want her to know who he is, he just wants to be able to see her and reassure himself that she's doing okay and he's done the right thing. He accepts a position as a teacher at the same private school that Willa attends. In fact, she is one of her students.




But Nate is not the only one at Pioneer Academy that has secrets. And some secrets could be deadly!



Somebody Else's Daughter was not what I had thought it would be about. I was hoping for more of a focus on the father/daughter/biological father relationship as the dust jacket had hinted. Instead I was broadsided with something I was not expecting about halfway through the book. It made me squirm... it was a little uncomfortable... and quite graphic but having already invested enough time to get halfway through I decided to stick with it and see where it was heading. I still don't believe the book needed this "secret" to get to where the story needed to go and because it was not a subject I felt comfortable with I chose to give this book 2/5 stars.