The Mother I Never Had

By: Gary Goldstein

Thank you to the author, Gary Goldstein, for the gifted copy of this book!

Nate Cronin is a landscape designer in Los Angeles.  Raised by a single dad, he finds himself alone when his father dies when Nate is only 30 years old.  A new client, Amy, hires him, but has ulterior motives.  Nate soon finds himself on a journey he’d never thought he’d be on.  Now, he is struggling to accept the truth of his past, and what that means about the life that he had known.  Concurrently, Nate struggles with commitment, and longtime girlfriend Jennifer, is ready to give up on Nate.

The Mother I Never Had makes the reader analyze how they would react in a situation like Nate’s.  Would you welcome a new family member who had kept a secret from you your whole life, with open arms?  How would you feel if your world has been turned upside down, and the life that you had known wasn’t what it appeared to be?  How do you handle the loss of a parent?  Goldstein explores all of this in a beautiful, brilliant, and truly honest way.  I didn’t realize that I was so emotionally invested in Nate until the end.  While there was a little too much prose for me, and I wish it was told in a first-person point of view, I still think that this book is gripping, and a page turner.  It definitely gives you all the feels.  I highly recommend it.  4 stars!

Get your copy of this book here.