A Daughter's Secret

by Eleanor Moran

Mia is a highly successful child psychologist, hoping to be made a partner in the company she works for. But then she accepts a case that will change her life for ever. Gemma is a teenage girl whose father is on the run for embezzlement. The police think Gemma knows where he is and they want Mia to talk to her.
Both women are hiding devastating secrets, and both women need the other to survive. The question is, can they trust each other?

Genres: Fiction, Crime, Mystery, Contemporary, Mystery Thriller, Chick Lit, Book Club

432 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 2015

About the author

Eleanor Moran is an author and BBC TV producer.

Eleanor's Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/EleanorMoranB...

Reviews

[Dale Harcombe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mia is a psychotherapist who comes up against thirteen year old Gemma. Gemma’s father is believed to be on the run and Gemma was the last person to see him before he disappeared. He has vital information about a major criminal trial. Could he have passed on his whereabouts to Gemma? How influenced by her father has Gemma been? Is she a victim or a manipulator? But Gemma is not the only one whose father had a major impact on her life. Mia has her own father issues which come to light as the story progresses, switching between the present day and Mia’s early life and teenage years. As the Mia’s and Gemma’s lives intersect, it places a lot of pressure on Mia. And what about the issues of confidentiality and trust?
I had a mixed reaction to this book. Pacing for me was uneven. At some stages I found it quite boring and wondered why I bothered to keep reading. At other times I was turning the pages quickly. Add to that I didn’t much like either Mia or Gemma. And I got over the use of bad language, predominately the f word abut also another which I object too and that Mia herself recoils from the violence of. Whether you really enjoy this story will, I suspect, depend a lot on how you react to these aspects. But I never found it overly 'gripping' or 'emotional' as one writer claims on the cover.

[ReadAlongWithSue ★⋆. ࿐࿔catching up · Rating 4 out of 5]

We meet Mia, Mia is a psychotherapist but she also has a past.

We meet the young girl, Gemma.

Gemma is the last person to see her Father before he ran. The Police are anxious to talk to her.

Mia takes Gemma on her caseload, but Gemma is a disturbed young girl and has plenty of issues.

We watch how Mia breaks some of them down. But we also see that she is on the edge of compromising her career.

Somehow, somewhere there lives are crossing over. Mia remembers her Father.


Its a good read and certainly did have me in the grips of its palms, that's for sure.

Definitely a woman's read though.

I love this cover, don't you.


** Thanks for Simon & Schuster UK for my copy of this lovely book to read and review **

[Helena Wildsmith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really disappointed by this book as the blurb made the story sound really exciting. Instead I found it dull, dreary and that it irritatingly skipped over important plot points so quite a lot of the time I didn't have a clue what was going on! The characters were hard to relate to and all had unrealistic reactions to each other so I found I just didn't care what happened to anyone. One book that will be going straight to the charity shop!

[Louise Mullins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mia is one of the most authentic protagonist's I've read this year.

Mia is a therapist. Gemma, her client is a troubled child. The secret she is hiding bears similarities between Mia and her own father, Lorcan's relationship.

I raced through the pages to finish the second half of the novel as it just kept getting better. This book is filled with suspense and has echoes of Jane Shemilt's work in the pages.

A very well written novel, deserving of five stars. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really wasn't expecting gangland - or a story driven by a police investigation, or the complexity of father-daughter relationships. The book is also a tender and beautiful - relatively conventional - boy-meets-girl love story. But everything comes together wonderfully in this book, with Mia as its fascinating centre. We have the complex story of Mia's childhood, her experiences both helping and complicating her professional and personal relationship with thirteen year old Gemma. We have Gemma herself - and the difficulty of knowing whether she's a victim, a pawn or a master manipulator. And then we have Mia in the present day - her relationships, her choices, her patience as a psychotherapist sometimes in stark contrast to her occasional bluntness with friends and colleagues.

The characters are wonderful, the dialogue sparkles, and the story itself kept me turning the pages into the early hours. I thought it was quite perfectly paced, filled with tension, and so very well written. The only difficulty comes in defining it - not something I like to do, but just so that I can maybe say "if you liked x you'll love it". It's a psychological thriller, part police procedural, part love story, family drama... ah, whatever! I think the best I can do is tell you how much I enjoyed it...

My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for my advance reading copy

[Nivedita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating:4
This book really surprised me...It deals with pretty intense topics.
The plot is based on the child psychotherapist Mia who encounters with an unusual client Gemma.Gemma's father, a millionaire was missing and she was the last person to see him.It is Mia 's job to derive this information from this broken child.But Mia unexpectedly has to connect with her horrific past which at the end leaves her conflicted with her feelings for Mia and her secrets.
I had a really different experience reading it.I really liked the way the entire aspect of MIa's life and her struggles.It was taken on really well by the author.I really could understand Gemma and her struggles.I really learned a lot from their sessions.I was really proud of Mia and Gemma by the end of the book and the beautiful relation they formed which warmed my heart.Mia was such an inspirational character who was a fighter even though there were several breakdowns throughout the novel.I had a lot of feelings throughout the book and it definitely surprised me...
Well, there are several things I didn't enjoy:
#1 The romance was unnecessary.I didn't enjoy the relationship nor the person and it just felt too fast and with little chemistry.
#2 The thriller element was lacking.I wanted more information about the case of the missing man and at times I felt it drift away from the plotline.
#3 The ending just fell flat...I felt it was a bit cliched.
But nevertheless, this book covered all this up with its unique storyline and truly explains how your past doesn't define you.

[Zoe · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very boring, misleading book.

The blurb has this down as some kind of exciting thriller with an interesting story of a child psychologist trying to get the bottom of a difficult case involving a young girl and a missing father. What this actually was - was an utter mess. A disorganised plot. A ridiculous romance in the background. Not a single likeable character or a single person's back-story that was even remotely gripping. Very dull.

[Lauren Draper-wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the writing is fantastic but at times it falls flat with notable repetition. I found Mia to be immature with little development despite the flicks between her childhood and present day as a thirty-something.

A good storyline that held my attention but peaked before a withering dragged out ending.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an easy read and dealt with many emotional relationship storylines. I enjoyed being able to read about Mia's childhood in some of the chapters as it helped me understand why she helped Gemma in the way she did. Would have liked a bit more detail in certain places as some potentially interesting storylines were overlooked (don't want to give spoilers). The ending was satisfying.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written. An exploration of father-daughter relationships and how they shape us.

[Megan Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mia is a psychologist who faces her toughest case in the form of Gemma, a teenager who was the last person to see her father before he disappeared. The catch is her father is Christopher Vine, a vital witness in a case to bring down a bigger criminal. The police need to find Christopher desperately and will stop at nothing to find him even if it means using his teenage daughter. Through this Mia finds herself in contact with Patrick, a representative for the police who needs Mia to tell him what Gemma tells her and the two find themselves experiencing a different relationship to what they should have. Alongside this are flashbacks to Mia growing up and the difficult relationship she has with her father, Lorcan, this provides a perfect symmetry to what Gemma is experiencing in the present day and make for harrowing reading. Then there is the story of Mia's love life, currently in a relationship with Marcus, an older, successful man, she is left questioning her relationship. To top all of this off Mia has to fight for her professional career as she finds herself making some dubious decisions. There is so much going on in 'A Daughter's Secret' but I loved it, I did not feel like Moran had crammed the plot together, it all flowed and worked and balanced other aspects of the plot perfectly. The characters were also wonderful and incredibly realistic and it was very easy to sucked into their lives and feel their emotions as they do, especially Gemma and Mia. As Gemma is a teenager it is quite hard to read about some of what she is going through and this adds more emotion to it. I absolutely loved this and could not put this down, I loved it so much that I started it in the morning and finished it in the evening as I wanted to know what happened so much. I highly recommend this as a harrowing read about father daughter relationships.

[Melanie Trevelyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in just a few days and it was one of those that you want to continue reading to find out what happens next. Mia is a therapist with great empathy, probably because she has issues in her own past that help to relate to those of the clients she sees. Gemma is a new client, caught up in a case involving some very dangerous people. She is grieving the loss of her Father, who has disappeared with the money of many innocent investors!

To complicate matters Mia discovers her own family has money invested and she is faced with an investigator who suspects that Gemma is in contact with her Father and knows more than she is letting on and is hoping Mia can help him uncover the truth! Mia of course thinks she has come to terms with her own demons, she has stopped therapy, is in love with a wealthy man who adores her. The issue is of course that his children don't approve of the relationship and he is a bit of a control freak who is away a lot and Mia is coming to realise seems to be more in love with the idea of her than with her. She feels uncomfortable in the expensive restaurants he chooses and the apartment that she disparagingly calls The Fridge!

Her own demons resurface as therapy progresses. Her own 'Daddy' issues with Lorcan resurface and through flashbacks her own past with best friend Lysette's brother and the subsequent fall out resonate with the way she deals with Gemma. Increasingly uncomfortable when Gemma shows up outside appointment times and brings her presents she begins to step out of the client - therapist relationship! As events come to a head and Mia enters a downward spiral both her and Gemma's issues reach a resolution as their paths cross once again. A good read, well written ,sympathetic characters and will keep you guessing.

[Michelle Ryles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a brilliant read - I whipped through it at a lightning pace and was reading long after I should have been tucked up sound asleep in bed. The two main characters were well written and instantly likeable - Mia with her naturally caring demeanour and Gemma with her hard outer shell giving the illusion that she's more grown up than she really feels.

Both Mia's and Gemma's stories, despite their similarities, were interesting in their own right, so I was doubly hooked. Both had an odd relationship with their father - Mia never called hers Dad, but called him by his forename, Lorcan, and Gemma's Dad treats her like a confidante rather than a daughter, putting huge responsibility on her young shoulders.

I loved the flashbacks to Mia's past - showing that she was and still is a little bit broken. The therapy sessions with Gemma made her think of the relationship she had with her own father. It was really fascinating to learn of Mia's past and unearth the secrets that she had buried for such a long time.

Gemma is a survivor and so cunning that you never quite know what she's thinking. One minute she's warming to Mia and the next she is playing with Mia's mind by digging into Mia's past. Obviously her loyalty is to her father and she will do anything to keep him safe, but at what cost?

The underlying story is the one of the criminal investigation but this plays a bit of a back seat as the father/daughter relationships unfold. It was absolutely compulsive reading, and I really enjoyed the emphasis being more psychological than thriller. I look forward to reading more from Eleanor Moran.

I received this e-book from the publisher, Simon & Schuster, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mia is a successful psychologist. She is involved with handsome wealthy older man, Marcus, with whom she is looking for a flat for them both to move in with. At work, she receives a new client - a young girl, Gemma, whose father has gone missing. Her dad is a vital witness in a criminal trial, and the evidence he has could convict a master criminal who is responsible for stealing millions of dollars of out pension funds. Mia wants to help Gemma, but hearing about Gemma's relationship with her dad brings up traumatic memories of Mia's own tumultuous childhood, with extra pressure from the handsome lawyer, Patrick, who is applying firm pressure on Mia to get information from Gemma to save the legal case. Can Mia get help Gemma and help Patrick solve the case while still dealing with the demons from her own past?

I enjoyed reading this book. The plot moves quickly, and this pace kept the pages turning and my interest piqued. I loved the relationship between Gemma and her best friend Lysette and I thought the flashbacks were I do have a few quibbles - Marcus is so unappealing I'm not sure why he was included. I felt that the book was trying to do too much and it would have been more successful if it had removed one or two of the plot lines (for example, Marcus). That said, I read it in a day, so I rate it an enjoyable (although I suspect somewhat forgettable) read.

[Geraldine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. It had many of the attributes of a good book but really wasn't.

On the positive side there was a good dramatic arc, decent timeline, and I really couldn't fault the author's writing style - tic free, readable but not simplistic, decent dialogue and so on. And it was adequate enough for me to read to the end rather than abandoning in a fit of cba.

Unfortunately, the characters were barely two dimensional. The main one in particular, Mia. We knew she had been to an independent convent school and to Cambridge University but she had no intellectual or cultural hinterland, and was utterly defined in terms of the men who had been in her life. Neither the teenage boyfriend Jim or the current almost live-in lover Marcus had anything going for them.

The key story didn't ring true - the whole Gemma situation. I could write screeds about how implausible it was but I actually can't be bothered. Too much overthinking, and that, I think is the fatal flaw of the book.

I got a real strong impression that this was a weak offering from a good author. As it happens I already own another by her thanks to a Kindle deal, so I shall give it a go in due course.

[Tracy Shephard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mia is a therapist, who’s client/patient Gemma, was the last person to see her missing father. The police are investigating him for criminal activity.

Flashbacks to Mia’s childhood, which was poor but loving, A Daughters Secret is a slow burning tale.

Gemma adores her dad, and her therapy sessions with Mia reveal that Mia has past issues of her own to confront.

This is a story about relationships and control, which I found very intriquing. Although a professional, Mia’s private life, I felt, is very much about making other people happy. Her boyfriend Marcus his daughter, her own mother, she seems to have trouble making a decision.

Although this isn’t a favorite read for me, I enjoyed reading about Mia’s friend Lystette, and loved how this developed in the story.

[Abi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, finishing it in one sitting!

The story is told from the point of view of Mia across two timelines, her past and present. I found both parts of Mia's life to be equally compelling and intriguing, the author had a knack for changing between times at exactly the right moment, always leaving me eager to get back to that part of the story.

The majority of characters in this novel are instantly likeable, with the vivid descriptions conjuring images of them easily. So much so that I would quite like to find myself a Patrick!

This novel covers corruption, confused and strained parental relationships, young love and much, much more. Moran's effortless writing is gripping and leaves you desperate to finish and not wanting to finish at the same time.

[Danielle Dent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the flashbacks to Mia's childhood and found that storyline far more engaging than the present day one which is supposed to be the more thrilling. It wasn't very gripping really though I did enjoy the banter and relationship between Patrick and Mia in the present day.

[Jade Whiteley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted it to be such a better ending...it could have gone so much better. I thought the first half was so good, but it kind of fizzled out, the storyline could have been so much juicier

[Saba · Rating 2 out of 5]

My top three thoughts on 'A Daughter's Secret':
1. The chapters in the beginning were fast paced. Towards the middle it became slow and then picked up again suddenly towards the end. The overall feeling I was left with was that this book dragged on till it came to a predictable end.
2. I found this particular message in the book very true...Some people just aren't meant to be parents. They become so by accident or because it's the natural course of events. In 'A Daughter's Secret', selfish, self centered fathers damage little daughters. These resilient, damaged children endure so much and become damaged adults. Sometimes, if they're lucky or get the right kind of help there's still hope for them for a non-toxic kind of life.
3. I actually loved all the therapy parts from Mia. I found her approach towards a lashing out Gemma very soothing and real. The words used very well chosen, kind, empathetic and positive.

[Simran Sardana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A daughter's secret is a gripping story of Mia, a therapist and Gemma, one of her clients🌠.
Lives of both of them are related in a way that it unfurls in the later part of the story📖.
Mia has had a bad childhood, and her life story comes into play in front of her when Gemma comes into her life🌈.
Gemma's father is on a run from the Government and the police, hiding from everyone in a safe house and using her to protect himself by manipulating her.
The more Gemma visits Mia, the more emotional bonding they both develop.
Mia sees her younger self in Gemma and tries to help her in every way she can.🌸
The end is pretty emotional but all of it is worth the read❤️.
You'll sometimes want to go and just give a tight hug to both Mia and Gemma for being through such a tough life.
The characters support the story really well🌸.
The language is subtle and compliments the writing style of Eleanor Moran.
The Author has done a great job and has definitely written a story that is worth reading ❤️.

[Julie Tombs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled to engage with this book. The characters were all a bit difficult to empathise with so I found I really didn’t care how the story finished. The protagonist Mia struggles with her own emotional baggage so I found it difficult to believe she was a psychotherapist and the child she was treating had her own issues but in her way was a master manipulator. Throw in a few deadbeat dads and a love interest with complications and the story got way too complicated.

The book covers the present and the childhood years of Mia to draw the parallel between Mias father and Gemma’s Dad. I probably will not reread this one.

[Pam Hutley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last day of my holiday and read this quickly. Found the story quite gripping - relationships - old ones and new ones- impact of family especially dads and daughters , and the intertwining of the therapists own teenage life with her clients current issues, make turning pages quick as you want to get to the bottom of things.

[May · Rating 3 out of 5]

Up until midway I was interested. Especially with my line of work, it was interesting to see how the process was broken down in fiction. But it got too annoying when the storyline became waffly and the writing felt like author was just trying to fill up to certain word limit.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't a bad book, but neither did it draw me in and keep me excited to read it. That said I did spend most of today reading it and I'm glad I've finished it, but it won't be a book that sticks in my memory long after I've put it down. It was ok but nothing special.

[Ms Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read

The book started a bit slow for me but then it got intense in places and l
thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Nicky Mottram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audio version of this book 📚- ok , bit boring in places but good narration kept me listening!

[Mandy Downie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tried to like this and liked the story matter... but unfortunately it was dull and boring.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this one. ❤

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ok read. Nothing too dramatic.