Sins of the Mother by Tara Hyland

Title: Sins of the Mother

Author: Tara Hyland
Publisher: Atria Books
Acquired: Received free for an honest review
Age Group: Adult

Grade: 82% or B-
Buy It: Amazon

From the author of Daughters of Fortune comes a sweeping family drama that follows a mother and daughter through the poverty of post-WWII Ireland and London and into the glamour of 1950s Hollywood and beyond, revealing the ways in which family ties can never be broken.

The novel opens in 1946, when Franny Healy is a beautiful and spirited teenager living in the poverty of County Cork, Ireland. Franny wants nothing more than to escape to the excitement of London. But when she discovers she is pregnant, her boyfriend abandons her. Undeterred, Franny flees to the city, where she finds work as a nightclub performer. She shines onstage and is soon propelled into a life she’s only dreamed of, filled with Hollywood stars, glamorous parties, furs and fashion, plus a new husband—who must never know of the daughter she left behind in County Cork with her mother.

My Thoughts::
It took me a few days to actually start REALLY reading this book. Sure, before I'd read a couple of pages at a time but that never gets me anywhere. I'll admit it, I thought I was going to have to sludge through this book. Since I didn't read much at a time I couldn't be pulled into the story, which made it hard to find it interesting. Fortunately, I took a day to just read all of it, and I was able to get into it.

Wow, just wow. You saw how I walked into this book with low expectations, which might have made the experience that much better for me. Just imagine that the plot is one big ball of knots, we slowly get to unravel the lives of this mother and daughter, but by then end we're left with a could of big knots still, and those we must wait until the very end to unravel. The last thing that I expected while reading this was a mystery, but that's what I got. I didn't even realize it until some of the things I thought I knew began to be questioned.

What I liked a lot about this book was the all knowing part of it. I have never read a book that let me into the mind of just about every character that I met. We knew their thoughts and their opinions about what the main characters were saying. It was also cool to see all sides to a lifetime. I would have one opinion while reading a Franny chapter, but then my opinion would change after reading a Cara chapter. How cool is it to see a character grow from childhood, and then see her daughter become an adult?

Overall this book was better than I thought it would be due to it's unexpected mystery and lovable characters. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the life bond of a mother and daughter.