Michelle Mason comes out of a coma 18 months after
experiencing a deadly car crash. She still must go through a
lot of rehabilitation to try to regain her overall strength
as well as the use of one of her arms that was injured in
the crash. In addition to her physical issues, she seems to
have no memory of the accident. This is a real problem
because a young man, Noah Butler, was killed in the crash.
No one knows why he was even with her in the car. On top of
that, now that she's come out of the coma, there's a lawsuit
waiting for her.
The day her husband brings her home from the hospital,
there's a small gathering of friends waiting at her house
along with her son, Tyler. They have cake and champagne and
present her with a little welcome home party. Everyone seems
to be acting a bit oddly, though, and Michelle can't really
figure out why.
After a rather awkward intimate reunion with Drew, her
husband, that night, she sleeps late the next day. When she
does get up, she finds that her daughter, Nikki, still isn't
home. That's when Drew is forced to admit that Nikki ran
away months ago and that he has no idea where she is. Not
only that, Drew has relocated to New York part time to work
and is going to leave the next day to return there.
Michelle feels as if everyone around her has lost their
minds as she weaves her way through one undisclosed secret
after another. One thing she knows is that she's going to
find her daughter if it's the last thing she does. Others
may have just decided to let this be, but Michelle won't.
Nikki is her daughter and there's nothing that a mother
won't do to protect her child.
WHAT A MOTHER KNOWS is actually an excellent book. It draws
you in and holds you there while Michelle hunts for her
daughter as well as tries to figure out what others are
keeping from her, and there's a lot that's being kept from
Michelle. The plot is engrossing and makes you feel as if
you have no choice but to see it through to the end.
There's even a huge twist at the end that will stun you.
Now, having said that, I found it very hard to like most of
the characters in WHAT A MOTHER KNOWS. This doesn't take
away from the book, but it did make me rather annoyed while
I was reading it. There's probably one truly likeable
character in this book and that's Tyler, Michelle's son. I
ended up feeling very badly for him. Her friends are part
time friends, at best, and don't even get me started on her
husband! I was thinking the whole time I was reading that I
would not want to have Drew for a husband if I was
recovering from an accident that nearly killed me. What kind
of a man brings his wife home from the hospital and then
takes off a mere 48 hours later to leave her on her own
while he jets across the country for 2 weeks to work?
In the end, WHAT A MOTHER KNOWS is definitely worth your
time. This is a puzzle that you won't walk away from until
you've put that last piece in place.
An unsettling, emotional and suspenseful novel of the
unshakable bonds of motherhood, in which Michelle Mason not
only loses her memory after a deadly car crash, but can't
find her 16-year-old daughter, the one person who may know
what happened that day. But the deeper Michelle digs, the
more she questions the innocence of everyone, even herself.
A dramatic portrayal of the fragile skin of memory, What a
Mother Knows is about finding the truth that can set love
free.