This was a great novel that stayed with me long after I put it down. Looking forward to Daniela Petrova's next book!

A slow burn thriller that was very character driven so much so that I almost lost my patience a few times. Overall I’m not mad I read it though just wish it was a little faster paced

Her Daughter’s Mother gripped me from the start with its premise of Lana, a woman who, in the midst of a failing relationship and job, accidentally meets the woman who donated her eggs to her and forms a sort of friendship with her. When the donor, Katya, disappears soon after, Lana is seized with the need to find out what happened to her baby’s biological mother. Aside from the multiple suspects and now-and-then unravelling of the story, this book poses some interesting questions about what parenthood means in the age of IVF, which added an extra layer of interest for me. This is a great pick for fans of Ruth Ware or Tana French, and a really strong debut from the author.

Solid domestic thriller with an infertility story line. I see a lot of thrillers that include an infertility aspect, and I feel like its been worn out already (maybe its because I deal with infertility myself and I'm just tired of the rep being misunderstood). The characters were written really well in this book and had some great personalities.
This book would definitely be good for those new to the thriller genre - if you have read a lot of thrillers, then you probably can guess the twists in this book like I did. This book kind of reminds me of Mother Knows Best, except not as sci-fish.

This book was wild from start to finish! It seemed heartbreaking in the beginning when Lana and Tyler couldn't get pregnant. I wasn't sure if this book was going to be too sad for me. But then, it took a wild turn. When Lana accidentally followed and befriended Katya, I knew there was nothing good that could happen next. True to form, it only went downhill from there with Katya going missing, Lana and Tyler having a strained relationship, and a search that lead to some dark places. Everyone looks suspicious in Katya's disappearance, and everyone has secrets.

Her Daughter's Mother first grabbed my attention with that gorgeous cover. The story inside lives up to the cover. You won't want to miss this debut thriller novel by Daniela Petrova!

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me a sneak peek at this book, I will say, the way this book was constructed was, _ i know_ meant to ramp up tension and suspense. Unfortunately for me, it did neither. It was very confusing for me to skip between the three main characters and the time frames of THEN and Now, oftentimes in the same chapter. Having said that, the premise and plot like was strong. I simply couldn't get behind any of the main characters and I figured out the ending of who did what long before the middle of the book.
Overall, not a great read for me.

I requested and received a galley for this debut novel based on a review I read on another blog. Thanks go to Net Galley and Putnam for the DRC. This book is for sale now.

The concept is terrific, and it is what caught my attention. A Manhattan couple is unable to get pregnant, and they sign up with an agency to use a surrogate. All the details are supposed to be confidential, but the infertile mother has requested a bio-mom of an ethnicity that is pretty rare, even in New York City; using this fact and some skillful research, she finds out who the woman is…and she starts following her around. An unforeseeable event forces them to meet; a friendship develops. Soon we learn that the pregnant surrogate knows perfectly well who this woman is.

The execution didn’t work as well for me. There’s a lot of information about infertility, surrogacy choices and blah blah blah that slows the pace significantly. The book is billed as a thriller, and if I were locked into the genre, I’d have called this a two star novel, because in places, it just drags. The issues between the expectant couple create more drag. I’d like to see tighter writing with more urgency. I guessed the ending when I was ten percent of the way into it.

At the same time, the writer clearly has potential, and since my own children are grown, I am most likely outside of the target demographic for this novel.

Unless the reader is also dealing with infertility and surrogacy issues, I recommend obtaining this book free or on the cheap if you go there. At the same time, I wish this author well; she has promise and is a writer to watch.

What an atmospheric thriller! I have to say, I was drawn to this book because of the beautiful cover, but the story was really gripping from start to finish. Recommended!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2632515406

Love the story and the different point of views. Beautifully written and the characters were all believable. I particularly found Katya interesting through her therapy sessions. So manipulative but wounded.
I kept turning the pages eagerly to find out what happened next.

Completely insane and weird at the same time! I can't believe it is the author's first book. Her story is very gripping and kept me guessing till the end. Read a thriller after a really long time and I was not disappointed.

Wow, what a great book! Working in the fertility field, I always go into books like this with hesitation, but there was no need with this one. The scary what-if's of donor/surrogate relationships for prospective parents can be quite scary and this book sucked me in from the start.

This book was amazing, I loved everything about it from the characters, plot to the writing style.
It was really enjoyable, gripping and totally unpredictable.
Highly recommended.

I had a hard time putting this one down! While the book will fit easily in the thriller genre, it's so much more. This novel explores relationships, how we cope when things don't go as planned, infertility, chance encounters, grief, families, friendships, and more. Lana is a strong female lead who is committed to starting a family, to the point that she's losing focus on aspects of her life that used to be priorities. She and her partner, Tyler, finally decided on an 'anonymous' egg donor. In a chance encounter, Lana meets her egg donor (Katya) and they form a connection. When something happens to Katy, Lana can't just let it go and starts investigating. She learns more than she bargained for. I enjoyed the alternating perspectives and converging timelines. I thought there was a good amount of character development and introspection. These characters have flaws and are self-aware which was particularly intriguing. It doesn't hurt that the cover is beautiful!

A first novel a thriller from a very talented author .Full of twists and turns characters that come alive off the pages I was so involved I could not put the book down.A new author who I will be eagerly following, #netgalley #putnamboojs

This was an excellent psychological thriller. I loved how the author seamlessly incorporated multiple characters into the storyline, all of whom were potential suspects in the death of a young Bulgarian Columbia student who is found dead under suspicious circumstances. I found the plot line both enjoyable and plausible, which is not always the case with books of this genre. 4 stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley, G.P. Putnam’s Sons and Daniela Petrova for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Definitely not what I was expecting - exceeded all of my expectations.

although this is Daniela Petrova's debut novel, she has a way of setting compelling stories and thrill/mystery. In a quest for motherhood, Lana "stalked" her egg donor, who is making her dream of becoming a mother come true until the donor fell off the grid...

Such an amazing thriller/suspense book mixed with psychological games that everyone should try to make time to read !

As a woman and a physician who’s undergone a fertility work-up, I was very interested in reading Her Daughter’s Mother by Daniela Petrova. Little did I know I was getting myself into a psychological thriller. Entranced, I stayed up until four a.m. to finish the book in one sitting.

Lena is a savvy woman, an art historian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has spent years developing her career. For the past eight years she’s been living with her boyfriend. They’ve struggled with infertility so long that they’ve lost sight of everything else in their relationship.
When at least they decide to use the eggs of an anonymous donor, Lena inadvertently befriends that young woman which leads to unforeseen tragic consequences in her life, that of her boyfriend, and that of the donor.

This book gripped me from the beginning, and I enjoyed all the plot twists and turns revealed through the points of view of three different unreliable narrators and interwoven with the events of the infertility process.

This story is more than a thriller, though; it’s also a story about women finding connections with each, searching for redemption, and defining “family.” At the heart of this novel is two women’s journey toward finding family, connection, and redemption, which took the novel beyond the usual psychological suspense.

This thriller kept me fully engaged from the beginning till the end. The author did an excellent job developing the characters and throwing enough diversions to keep me feverishly reading! It was a great debut and I will look forward to reading more books by this author. #netgalley #herdaughter’smother

*I apologize for the lack of names. I don't have my ARC available and I've read three other books since I finished this one.)

I really liked the premise of this book even though it was really far-fetched. I liked the red herrings and the number of surprises in the plot. Who exactly is following who? Who is in charged of this clandestine relationship between egg donor and expecting mother? What does the father's relationship with his student have to do with anything?

Where I did have a problem is the husband and wife not communicating - at all. The husband sets things in motion with the donor and then steps out the day before the transfer, all without saying a word? Uh uh. The wife decides to go through with the transfer without telling him? I didn't believe that either. These are both supposed to be intelligent, educated people that had a solid relationship for many years. I find it hard to believe they would both walk away so easily.

Spoiler Warning -----

As for the ending - I saw it coming, and Petrova set it up such that there really wasn't much choice in what happened. It didn't feel satisfying in any way. On the one hand, I thought it wrapped up all a little neatly. On the other hand, I thought the reunion of the couple felt hollow and fake. From everything that happened in the story, they seemed irretrievably broken, and then all of the sudden things are okay and they are going to walk into the sunset with their baby. It just didn't sit right with me.

I applaud the cleverness of the plot, but in the end it felt like the plot determined the characters, and that never works.