Book Review: Not Her Daughter | Rea Frey

An emotional, gripping, suspenseful, tug-on-your-heartstrings book that will have you questioning everything you thought you knew about morality and doing what is right! This is not a run-of-the-mill kidnapping book. Rea Frey debuts with a slam-dunk novel, Not Her Daughter, about crossing lines, rethinking your own ethical boundaries, and leading with your heart instead of your head! This book is riveting and filled with heart—it’s a book I won’t soon forget!

About the Book

Emma Townsend is 5-years old with grey eyes, and is an exceptionally beautiful girl. But Emma lives her life without much love. Her mother takes out her anger on Emma all of the time, and her father is barely present, worrying and spending his time on her baby brother. One night Emma’s mother gets so angry, she leaves Emma out in the yard. And then Emma goes missing…

Outwardly, Sarah Walker has it all—a successful business that she loves, and an amazing team of staff to support it. But Sarah also recently went through a break up with the love of her life, and is still working through some demons from her past. Sarah’s mother was emotionally abusive before abandoning her. Sarah is so filled with love to give, if only someone will be there to accept it.

And then one night Emma Townsend fatefully enters Sarah’s life. And Sarah does exactly what her head tells her not to do—she takes Emma and runs.

With a nationwide-search underway, Emma’s mother Amy questions whether she really wants Emma back. Maybe this is a chance at a new life? Meanwhile, Sarah must keep running if she’s going to save the most sought-after girl in the country. What will win, Sarah’s heart or her mind?

Reflection

This may sound like something you’ve read before, but it is anything but that. I went into this wanting to shame Sarah for what she did, because taking a child is firmly in the “wrong” category of morality. But when you read this, you will find yourself all sorts of confused! I questioned frequently how I decide what is wrong, when there are things wrong on both sides. I questioned how I would act in Sarah’s shoes, knowing what she lived through with her own mother and with a broken system in place to help kids in that situation. I questioned whether I am someone who always does what is “right”, because I was struggling to convince myself what right was.

And let’s talk about Amy for a moment. Amy is such a fascinating character, because all of her internal unhappiness with her situation and life is projected into her appearance and the way she treats both herself and her children. You will want to judge Amy (and trust me, she deserves a lot of judgment), but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a bit for her as well. She’s terrible in many ways, but she also speaks to how hard being a mother can be sometimes. I don’t excuse Amy’s actions or thoughts, but I imagine being a mother to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. Amy is unfortunately someone who doesn’t want to be a mother. It doesn’t excuse the way she acts, or let her off the hook for her responsibilities, but Amy’s is an important story to tell. It is a story that highlights all of the challenges that come when you become a parent.

It’s funny—I just started teaching an MBA course this semester on Decision Making. One of the concepts we talk about in the section on ethical decision making is the idea of moral obligation in decision making. In the classic Trolley Problem, the decision maker is faced with the decision to pull a lever on a trolley line to divert it. If it continues on it’s original track, it will kill 5 people. If the lever is pulled, it will switch tracks and kill one person. So the dilemma is, do you choose inaction and allow five people to die, or choose action and save five people, but kill one?

I bring this up (not to get too psychological) because it is such an interesting parallel to this book. Does Sarah choose inaction and allow a child to be abused, or take action and kidnap a child away from her mother, saving her from abuse? Of course, there are many other options to take. But the point of this exercise is to say that acting in these scenarios is not clearly better or worse than inaction. Pulling the lever saves five lives, but makes you the cause of another death. Not acting when you could intervene is not any better though.

What would you choose if you had the trolley lever? What would you choose if you were Sarah? Do we have a moral obligation to act when harm is coming to another person?

Book Bestie Approved

This was a book I read with five of my book besties! We absolutely loved this book, and actually chose it as a unanimously #BookBestieApproved read! I want to link reviews from the other besties. What I love about reading with other book bloggers and reviewers is that we each had a unique take on the book. Every time I read their reviews, I wish they were my review!

Many thanks to St. Martins Press for partnering with us and providing advanced copies of this book to review.

Happy reading!!!