Review: Secret Daughter (Shilpi Somaya Gowda)

Title: Secret Daughter

Author: Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Genre: Adult Non-fiction

Pages: 346

Rating: 5 out of 5

Challenges: PoC; Reading from my Shelves; Awesome Authors; TLC Book Tour

FTC Disclosure: I bought this book

Summary (from the author's web site): On the eve of the monsoons, in a remote Indian Village, Kavita gives birth to a baby girl. But in a culture that favors sons, the only way for Kavita to save her newborn daughter's life is to give her away. It is a decision that will haunt her and her husband for the rest of their lives, even after the arrival of their cherished son.

Halfway around the globe, Somer, an American doctor, decides to adopt a child after making the wrenching discovery that she will never have one of her own. When she and her husband, Krishnan, see a photo of the baby with the gold-flecked eyes from a Mumbai orphanage, they are overwhelmed with emotion. Somer knows life will change with the adoption but is convinced that the love they already feel will overcome all obstacles.

Review: I LOVED this book! I hope to convince my book group to read it so that I have people with whom to talk about it. I bought this book ages ago, put it on the overflowing TBR shelf and kept not choosing it to read. Then Trish from TLC Book Tours had it listed as one of her books for April and I jumped at the chance to participate in a tour with a book I already own. What took me so long to read this book?!

I loved the writing and was pulled in from the very first sentence. The writing is just the style I like: not too flowery or descriptive, but it gives the reader enough to have a wonderful picture of the place, the characters, the smells, and the sounds.

The story, well, what can I say? I adored the characters, the plot, the setting, the everything. I sympathized with the characters, whether they were young or old, male or female; they are all believable and likable. I truly believed that these characters could be real people that the author knew, that she had lifted their experiences from her own or those of people she knows. I struggled along with them when they were sad (and, yes, shed many a tear) and I rejoiced with them in their successes.

I just don't know what else to say about this book except that it was the perfect book for me at the perfect time and I want everyone else to love it too.

Geography Connection:

Click to see my updated Google Map. Yet another book based in India that I have really enjoyed! Here is a list of other books based in India or about Asian Indians that I have read....

• Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai
• The Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins
• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
• The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine
• Sold by Patricia McCormick
• Shine Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger
• Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth
• Invisible Lives by Anjalie Banerjee