Rabid Reader's Reviews

Publication Date: October 21, 2013

In Finding Mother by Anne Allen, Nicole has lived a tumultuous romantic life with a man who has simply been unable to stay faithful. She ends her marriage and leaves her mostly comfortable life and sets out on a journey to find her biological mother. Nicole’s journey reveals secrets long held but will they be destructive or transformative?

This novel was given to me by author Anne Allen in exchange for my review.

Finding Mother is the second novel in the Guernsey novel series. This is a family saga connected by setting by author Anne Allen.

Anne Allen has talent. She is an author who writes a story seamlessly, melting the past and present together with a sense of real lives lived. In Finding Mother, Allen plays on the idea that we all have things we might have changed given the chance.

One of my favorite things about Allen’s writing is the care with which she writes her characters. We’re able to feel softness for each of them because no one is purely good or purely bad. The characters are simply real. Allen writes real people trying to do their best in a world that cannot help them. She takes risks with her characters, but those risks are done in a way that benefits the plot and leads the reader to feel a deeper level of concern for what happens within her plotline as the story develops.

There is a light character link to the first book in the series Dangerous Waters — Mystery, Loss and Love on the Island of Guernsey (if you missed the review of the first book in this series: click here to read my review). Given the compact locale, it would not be logical to set the novel in Guernsey and not have a connection. What that connection gives those who have read the first novel, is a feeling of familiarity. We kind of slide back into the warm feeling of that first novel and our affection for its characters.

As a story of a woman in flux, looking for her roots, Finding Mother could have been quite a heavy narrative. Allen’s writing style lends a very human feel. Life is not all about downs for most folks. There are humor and lightness and, sure, the dark days, but it is those moments of little victory that allow us to go on. She infuses the story expertly with those moments in their perfect time.

I’d be remiss if I did not talk about Allen’s vivid depiction of her setting. These are areas she knows well and loves and is able to paint on the page for her readers. Guernsey is really a secondary character with its own personality and charm. Read our reviews of Echoes of Time (The Guernsey Novels Book 5) and The Family Divided (The Guernsey Novels Book 4).

If this sounds like a book for you, read an excerpt and buy Finding Mother by Anne Allen on

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