07 July, 2011

Book Review - Love and Other Secrets


Love and other Secrets is a riveting story of the fierce bond between a mother and her child. The story begins with Jane's dream - a memory of one of her worst days of her life. The memory is brought on, as it is the day her daughter Florence at the age of 35 is giving birth for the first time to her well planned baby.

Flo has never forgiven Jane for this and does not want to know how hard her teenage mother fought to keep her. Flo was an accident, the product of her mother Jane's first and only one-night-stand when she was just 17. From getting disowned by her parents for getting pregnant so young, to making the choice of not giving up the baby and bringing her up, Jane goes through a lot to keep baby Flo.

When Flo's own, extremely well planned, baby arrives, and her perfect, controlled world turns upside down and for the first time in her life she turns to her mother for help. Holding her newborn grandson, Jane is suddenly overwhelmed by memories she's buried for decades of the tumultuous year when Flo was born, her parents' fury, the new freedoms of 1960s London passing her by, and the rash consequences of the overwhelming love for her child.

I got this book thinking it would be one of the many light chic lits to finish of in a few hours. I never expected it to be something that would touch my heart the way it did. The last time I cried as much while reading a book was when I was reading Jane Eyre; and I don't really remember why I cried so much back then! I guess because it was the first classic that I managed to read!! 

Its a sweet reminder of how much love a mother is capable of; the mother who sits with you while you study for your exams, the mother who does not sleep when you are ill, the mother who will fight the world for you and the mother is the most happy when you smile.  


They say a daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart. So, whenever I am in doubt, whenever I fell sad, I know she is always there... she is my strength. My Mum.

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