Book Review for Mothers of Fate by Lynne Hugo

 

Mothers of Fate by Lynne Hugo

Published:  April 22, 2025 by Blank Slate Press

 

Taken from Goodreads:  From award-winning novelist Lynne Hugo, Mothers of Fate, a masterful story of three women and a young man navigating the complexities of adoption and its aftermath that raises a question for every reader. Does fate direct our lives—or do our own choices?

Deana Wilkes, who's needed braces to walk since a disabling accident long ago, seeks out Monica Connell, an attorney, to find the child she was forced to relinquish in a closed adoption thirty years ago. Back then, Deana believed that the passion between her and Tony, her married boss, meant they were destined for each other. It was wrong, Deana knew, but believed it was also meant to be. Tony's long gone now, and Deana's constructed a life out of the wreck of their affair. She's ready to finally make things right and meet her son. But Monica's wife, Angela, was adopted herself after an early history of abandonment and foster homes. Devoted to the memory of her parents, she's certain that closed adoptions need to remain closed unless the adoptee seeks contact. She draws a red Monica cannot take the case. Monica, though, feels compelled to help Deana by her own complicated history, one she's never revealed to Angela. As this wedge between them hardens, will Angie or Monica have the best custody claim to their own beloved adopted baby? Nobody knows what Deana's son wants, including his adoptive parents. Not even redheaded Suzanne, and the possibility of love. After all, as an Iraq war vet and a long-distance truck driver, Daniel knows everything about hitting the road to avoid the confusion that's plagued his life. Lynne Hugo's thirteenth novel takes on the reverberating effects of sexual power dynamics in the workplace and vividly portrays lingering psychological wounds as characters struggle to reconcile self-determination with the sacrifices love demands.

My Thoughts:  Mothers of Fate is my book of 2025.   It is a book that is going to stay with me forever.   I am going to reread this book often and feel that I will find something different that will pull at my heart.  

Every character in this book has a story to tell.   Each story pulled at my heart in a different and special way.  I did not choose one character to connect with, I chose many.   It was easy to cheer them on, to want to be their friend, to want to understand what they are going through and how they feel.  

Mothers of Fate is a special book.  It is a book full of emotion and family drama.  

Thank you GetRedPR for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

 

Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads

Purchase your own copy on Amazon

Meet the Author (taken from her website):  Lynne Hugo is an American author whose roots are in New England. A National Endowment For the Arts Fellowship recipient, she has also received repeat individual artist grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Her publications include eleven novels as well as a memoir, Where the Trail Grows Faint, which won the Riverteeth Creative Nonfiction Book Prize. Her latest novels are The Language of Kin (7/2023) and A Matter of Mercy, 10th Anniversary Edition (8/2024). She has also published two books of poetry and a children's book. Hugo lives with her husband, a photographer, in the Midwest. The couple are parents of two, have three grandchildren, and an energetic beagle/Lab mix who excels at barking, retrieving tennis balls, and terrorizing squirrels.

Follow Lynne on Instagram or Facebook

Sign up for Lynne’s newsletter  HERE