Romance Readers Connection Review

Hill, Donna - WHAT MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME

WHAT MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME
Donna Hill
Kimani Press
ISBN-13: 978-0-373-83143-2
March 2009
Women Fiction- Multicultural


This story introduces three women that have more in common than they think. Each woman has challenges and struggles with their mothers that cause them to suffer from heartbreak. The first woman Parris McKay has lived her entire life believing that her mother was dead and all she had was the love of her grandmother. She never thought that the woman who loved her like her own would hold a secret concerning something as special to her as having the chance to know the woman that gave birth to her. But just before her grandmother left this earth she not only told Parris the truth, but unlocked the door that would lead her to the one woman who held the answers to her past and the secrets that would change her life forever. But upon her journey to the truth Parris finds out that the mother she believed had died years ago, had really buried her past in the past as she turned away her only child once again.



Next there is Celeste, born with a silver spoon in her mouth and the world at her feet. She had everything materialistic that a person could dream of ever having. But the one thing she wanted more than anything else was love. She craved for the love of her mother and the love of a man. What she got was a mother concerned with appearances and a man that her mother liked and one that she had no feelings for. She’s been living a lie and is happy to do so, until Sam enters the picture. Sam makes her feel like a real woman for the first time in her life. There’s just one problem, he’s African American and doesn’t match the family picture her mother has painted for her.



Then there’s Leslie. She has her career as an interior decorator and the responsibility of caring for her sick mother. She doesn’t know who her father is and she blames herself for the condition that her mother is in after they have a fatal argument. Her comfort is food and her dreams are of a time when her mother’s friend Uncle Frank made her have feelings that she only wished she could have today. As an adult she knows that what happened to her was wrong, but when you don’t have anyone else to love you even those memories are better than the loneness she feels today.



As these three women each struggle with the drama in their life, they build a friendship that gives them the courage to take the next steps necessary to find peace of mind. Walls are torn down as Parris, Celeste, and Leslie decide what’s important and how to cope with the secrets and lies that have kept them from being all they could be. And just when you think they have overcome all the obstacles in their path, Ms. Hill throws in another scenario that makes you want to scream. What a great way to start your year, with a great book that opens your eyes to the reality of what secrets really mean when they are finally revealed.


Reviewed by Lora McDonald

Rating 4 1/2
Romance Readers Connection