Her Daughter's Mother by Daniela Petrova

Author : Daniela Petrova
Title : Her Daughter's Mother
Publidhed : 2019
Publisher : Putnam Publishing Group
Pages : 320
Genre : Mystery / Thriller

     Lana Stone has never considered herself a stalker--until the night she impulsively follows a familiar face through the streets of New York's Upper West Side. Her target? The "anonymous" egg donor she'd selected through an agency, the one who's making motherhood possible for her. Hungry to learn more about her, Lana plans only to watch her from a distance. But when circumstances bring them face-to-face, an unexpected friendship is born. Katya, a student at Columbia, is the yin to Lana's yang, an impulsive free spirit who lives life at the edge. And for pragmatic Lana, she's a breath of fresh air and a welcome distraction from her painful breakup with her baby's father. Then, just as suddenly as Katya entered Lana's life, she disappears--and Lana might have been the last person to see her before she went missing.

     Her Daughter's Mother is one of those books that grabs you from the get-go.  To start with it is one of those books that has a beautiful cover. It makes you want to pick it up and dig a little deeper. And when I started to read the blurb I knew it was a book that I would have to take home with me. The subject of being an egg donner is not one that I really know all that much about. But I would imagine that should you not be going through it then it's not something would come up too often. But much like anything else in life it does come with its own set of risks. How much would you want to know about where they were coming from. Family history looks psychological profile. When does it all become too much information? or do you just go for the first one that comes your way?

     Ther is a lot to be said for Lana and Katya, the would appear to be to halves lost in the world. So when a not so chance meeting happens they seem to complement each other. Both trying to bring out the best in the other. Lana feels like she was always meant to be a mother. She does it to those around her without even thinking about it. But she is also desperate to find out all she can about where her new eggs have come from. It would only seem natural to want to better understand who your child might turn out to be. For me, her logic is perfectly natural although her means may stray from the path that I would choose to take. For her it is all about understanding be it about her donner or what comes after. when it comes to Katya things start to get a little more off the beaten path. She is someone who is clear carries a great deal of baggage with her. The world is a troubling place and she is on her own quest. Between them they make for a combustible pair, I was left never knowing what the next twist in their story would bring me. 

     As we dig into there story we get to see it from many different perspectives, each shedding light on how this tragic story played out. But it is not just a simple matter of flicking between each of these people. We get to jump around in time as well not only giving us the events that take place after Katya goes missing but also how each of the dominos fell. At first, it all seems fairly simple but the author soon ramps things up. She likes to play with us, turning the story on its head more than one. Ther is a certain thrill to be found between these pages as Lana and Katya's friendship develops and blooms into moments that you would not see coming. As I came towards the end I could see so clearly all the little moments the author had sowed. She has an elegant style to her writing feeding us a plot that I could just not put down. But while it is at its heart a thriller egging us to find the clues. It is also a heartbreaking tale about life. How we all want the best but sadly it has other plans for us. And no matter how hard we fight sometimes it's just not enough. 

     This book delivered all I had hoped for when I started it. A Timely tale of just what we must all go through in the pursuit of our hopes and dreams. And a cracking thriller to keep the best of us guessing as to what really happened to these two people. I can highly recommend Her Daughter's Mother to all of you.