Found Family | Mental Health Awareness | Young Love

⭐️ 4.5

A beautiful coming of age story that explores mental health and a complicated mother daughter relationship. In the beginning, the story is slow as we learn about Audrey and her rough relationship with her famous author of a mom, Camillia St. Vrian. Audrey’s personal story develops wonderfully and brought me close to tears so many times. I also cheered and wanted her to be/feel happy

This is my first Ellen O’Clover book and I enjoyed every moment. Her writing is thoughtful and intentional. The way the moments about anxiety and depression was approached was relatable. I was right there with Audrey when she touched on her anxieties or was reliving past experiences. The relationships she formed with the other characters in the story really pushed her to grow as an individual, which was beautiful to read.

I am honored to have read this beautiful and powerful coming of age story. Thank you Ellen O’Clover and NetGalley for the ARC 💕

I will admit that the cover featuring a pug was what first drew me to click on The Someday Daughter, but I loved the idea of a story centering on the daughter of a self-help guru who built her career dolling out advice to her someday daughter. Even though a romance plays an important secondary story, the main story features the mother-daughter relationship and all it's complexities, which I absolutely adored.

The Someday Daughter by Ellen O'Clover
Thank you to Ellen O'Clover and NetGalley for the eARC!

Audrey St Vrain has her whole summer planned out. Go to a UPenn intensive for incoming pre-med students, prep for her freshman year at Johns Hopkins, and remain as focused as always.

Her mother, famous author Camilla St Vrain, has other plans however. For the 25th anniversary of her book, Letters to My Someday Daughter, Camilla has a book tour scheduled across the country and she wants Audrey to come along as that Someday Daughter.

Living in the shadow of this book her whole life, Audrey wants nothing less than to be on this tour but she begrudgingly goes, putting her summer plans for school prep in jeopardy.

Maybe she'll finally gain some insight into who Camilla is and where Audrey fits into her life.

Ellen O'Clover weaves an emotional tale of family drama, self limiting, anxiety, trauma, and love so well planned and executed I could only sit and stare into space when I finished. Audrey was not my favorite FMC at the beginning but she definitely grew on me. Silas is adorable and just so 🥹😍. I see myself in Camilla as a young mother.

Everything about this book is an absolute must read in my opinion. Ellen's story telling is so perfect it's not even funny. It also helps that she's the sweetest person ever. I cherish that I got to meet her at the Columbus Book Festival.

I'll leave you with my favorite quote:

“And no matter how much you’ve learned, how smart and impressive and self-possessed you are, you can’t white-knuckle yourself out of anxiety. You can’t pretend a panic attack away.”

This was a lesson I had to learn for myself, the hard way just like Audrey.

Thank you, Ellen, for writing about anxiety and therapy in a YA book so well. I know this will help so many young people who are struggling with that monster and don't even realize it, just like me.

Ellen O'Clover has done it again! Her gift for character development, following older teens through crucial turning points in their lives, is unparalleled—the premise of this one is big and splashy (going on tour with your bestselling mom who wrote a book about you before you were born!), but my favorite moments were quiet: in the development of the romance arc, in the healing of the mother/daughter relationship, in the slow moments of discovery about her path. A total joy, and a book I can't wait to reread.

This was my first Ellen O'Clover novel and I can confidently say it will not be my last. I absolutely adored this book! The relationship between Audrey and Camilla is full of surprises and hard truths. But I think the real gem of this book is the relationship Audrey has with herself. For anyone who has ever struggled with finding their identity this story is not one you should miss. I laughed and I cried multiple times. There's also romance, mother-daughter relationships, and a dog named Puddles. Read this book and take a long look at yourself. It'll be worth it.

“Needing help from the people around us, and giving that help back to them in turn, isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s what makes us human.”
In her final summer before college, the last place overachiever Audrey wants to be is on a tour for her mother’s book, which has defined both of their lives and their relationship with each other. Instead of attending a prestigious pre-med program with her high school boyfriend, Audrey is stuck traveling across the country with her mother and the tour’s eccentric staff, including Sadie, a kind mentor with a secret, and Silas, the disarming and enthusiastic intern. Over the course of this tour, as she interacts with her mother and the staff, Audrey will surprise herself as her outlook on life and relationships change dramatically.

The Someday Daughter is a powerful coming-of-age story that explores family and personal relationships, identity, and self-acceptance. Told through the compelling voice of 18-year-old Audrey, the story beautifully navigates Audrey’s struggles with trust, anxiety, and finding herself. As Audrey embarks on this dreaded book tour, one of the most touching and pivotal elements of the novel emerges in the “found family” storyline. While a majority of the book’s focus is paid to Audrey’s relationships with her mother and Silas, the dynamic between her, staff members Mick and Cleo, and Puddles (the dog) are also incredibly meaningful. Each of these side characters serve an important role in pushing Audrey to find meaning and enjoyment in her life. Silas, especially, is a catalyst for the change in Audrey’s outlook, and their relationship is one you can’t help but root for. However, at some points, it feels like Audrey relies on Silas, just as she relied on her highschool boyfriend Ethan, to determine her needs. For this reason, I wish there would have been more time devoted to Audrey acting and growing independently from the context of her personal relationships. Audrey’s path towards healing is not linear, and her constant internal conflict demonstrated how challenging it was for her to confront the long-held resentment she felt towards herself and her mother. However, as the novel progresses, Audrey and her mother both make great strides in working to communicate with and understand each other, and some of the conversations they have are especially touching and thought-provoking. Their dynamic speaks to the importance of understanding and empathy, offering a lesson in open-mindedness to all readers.

Overall, The Someday Daughter is a moving and insightful novel that speaks to the power of overcoming self-doubt and finding yourself.

Ellen O’Clover’s The Someday Daughter is a wonderful story about figuring out who you are when you grow up believing that you’re something else. It shows how the relationships between mothers and daughters can be rocky and it had a sweet love story at its heart.

This book packed a punch. Full of mother and daughter emotional tension. It really makes you either appreciate what you have or you can definitely empathize with the main characters.

It was an engrossing and compelling read. You fully understand where the characters are coming from even when they make decisions you wouldn’t agree with.

I really enjoined this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I absolutely love this cover! It drew me in so fast. The colors are so rich and beautiful. The dog is so cute. The frustrated emotion is so real and relatable. So I was definitely invested and had high hopes going into this novel. And it did not disappoint. I just fell further into love with the protagonist. I kept rooting for them through the entire (engaging) story line. A great quick read that I highly recommend.

Excuse me while I attempt to put back the pieces of my heart. The Someday Daughter was a punch to the gut. It's everything I've always felt but could never articulate. This book combines all these complicated issues and turns them into something beautiful. I annotated my copy as if my life depended on it.

Yes it's YA but I can see this becoming universally loved.

I absolutely loved The Someday Daughter! The summer between high school and college can be life-changing, and no one knows that better than Audrey St. Vrain. She has the perfect plan for how it's going to go—attend an esteemed pre-med summer program with her boyfriend, score a coveted student job at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and finally free herself from her mother's world forever. But none of that is so easy when your mother is Camilla St. Vrain, the world-famous self-help figure who wrote the bestselling book Letters to My Someday Daughter. Audrey is tired of being put into the box of "The Someday Daughter," and just wants to be her own person. When Camilla asks Audrey to go on tour with her to promote the book's anniversary, Audrey is sure it's going to go terribly—but she just might be surprised. As she grows closer to her mother, the group of interns along for the ride (including the refreshingly candid, frustratingly cute Silas!), and the mysterious Sadie, Audrey learns some important lessons about her family, her life, and maybe even herself.

This book warmed my heart! I loved Audrey—I loved how ambitious she was, I completely related to her anxiety and the pressure she felt to succeed and please others. I thought those parts were so beautifully and thoughtfully done. The side characters were great too (especially the adorable Puddles, of course!), and I appreciated how they also felt like real people with their own personalities, motivations, and struggles. It was just as satisfying to follow their journeys as it was to follow Audrey's. And the romance was so sweet! Silas was so encouraging and supportive of Audrey, gently pushing her outside of her comfort zone while also reminding her that simply being who she is, is already enough. I seriously can't say enough good things about this book—Ellen O'Clover is certainly a YA author to watch. Will definitely be picking up her debut novel, Seven Percent of Ro Devereux, too! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wish I'd had this book as a teenager, and as a mom of two small girls, I hope I remember to read it when they are teens.

The story is about the complicated relationship between a mother and daughter, but it is so much more. It's about understanding and being understood. It's about hard decisions we make and how we choose to live with them. It's about picking yourself up and moving forward when your carefully laid plans don't go as planned. It's about forgiving and forgiving yourself. It's about friendship, love, family and hope.

This book reminded me that being a teenager is hard, and being a mom is hard. Have a little grace.

So, I highly recommend you go and pre-order this book right now. You won't be disappointed.

To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect with this one when I picked it up, but I ended up absolutely devouring it! This is the perfect book for any teenager who feels like they have it all figured out only for it to fall apart while feeling like no one really understands you - it gave me big "The Summer I Turned Pretty" vibes. I wish I had this when I was a teenager and butting heads with my own mom - despite her mom being a celebrity, I think many of us could relate to Audrey's complicated relationship with her mom and feelings of never being on the same page. It tugs at my heartstrings a little more now that I'm a new mother myself. I really loved Audrey's character and felt connected to her the entire way through - I thought her relationship with her parents felt authentic and loved the chemistry between her and Silas! She showed so much growth and it's something I think my older middle school students will find value in. I already plan on checking out O'Clover's other novel and can't wait to see what else she comes up with!

Thank you to Ellen O'Clover and Netgalley for the eARC!

When you read the second book by one of your favorite authors, you feel both elation and terror. What is this next book going to look like? Will I love it? Or...will I not like it as much as the first?

And I am here to tell you... I loved The Someday Daughter. As much as Ro Devereux and for entirely different reasons.
I am so incredibly thankful for the opportunity to read this book early and to give you a little glimpse of what to expect.

For fans of The Seven Percent of Ro Devereux, I want to give you a little comparison. The Someday Daughter is so much heavier than Ro. Reading about Audrey's anxiety and her strained relationship with her mother hit me in a way I can't explain with words. In all aspects, this book will grab onto your soul and twist your gut. I had so much swimming inside my head during this book that I felt overwhelmed constantly. During some parts, I'd turn all Mama Bear and be super protective of Audrey and in other instances, I would just sit there and sob uncontrollably. Yes, I did bawl for an ENTIRE CHAPTER (thanks for that, Ellen) - so much that my tears soaked my neck. I didn't even know a human could cry that much for a book. ... I'm just weird. And that's okay.

What I love most about Ellen's writing is her thoughtfulness and we see it here in even greater amounts than in Ro. Every word surrounding a person's feelings is intentional. She writes in a way that makes every single person feel valid: Audrey, Camilla, Silas, Mick, Cleo, Sadie, Mags. And I can picture every single character as their own PERSON, not stereotypes or tropes. They're...real. It feels like I stepped out of a found family and as soon as I finished the last word, I wanted to start reading again. And I will - when the book releases in February.

I want to touch base on one more thing and that is the romance. Here, the romance is not as much at the forefront of the book as in Ro. BUT Silas.... Is something else, isn't he? He's not cinnamon roll, Miller. He's a little chiller, a little more outgoing and goofy, less of a planner and I just.... I love him for Audrey. I love Audrey for him. I love Puddles for the both of them. The relationship here is very slow burn and he falls first. It's a gradual opening of feelings for Audrey and I enjoyed seeing it! (And yes, Ellen is also thoughtful with the Ethan thing (Audrey's boyfriend at the beginning) - don't doubt her, because I was scared of that part hahaha)

Also, side note: Ellen proves that you don't need to be solely focused in STEM (I know most of her knowledge comes from others) to write STEM GIRLS WELL. Audrey is magnificent - I LOVE her brain and her ambition and perseverance. GO ELLEN.

If there was one portion of the book that kind of held me up a little, it was the beginning. The book starts with a lot of flashback and some of it is disjointed and jarring. I wasn't sure where I was and when at times. It probably could have been fleshed out a little bit more - BUT that was so minor and once I got to the meat of the book, all of the emotions just POURED out. So if you're hesitant by the first 10%, just please trust me.... keep reading.

All in all... please pick up this book when it releases. Read and review it. Ellen O'Clover is a GEM; she could be the next Sarah Dessen of YA romance if we only just give her a chance and read her books. PLEASE.

Ellen O'Clover weaves an enchanting tale in 'The Someday Daughter.' The atmosphere she creates is simply captivating, drawing readers into the transformative summer between high school and college.

Audrey St. Vrain's journey is relatable and engaging, filled with heartfelt moments and unexpected twists. What sets this book apart is the vivid atmosphere that makes every scene come to life.

If you're seeking a book that combines a captivating atmosphere with a compelling plot, 'The Someday Daughter' is a must-read. It's a story that lingers in your mind, celebrating the beauty of storytelling. 📚✨

Is it really an Ellen O’Clover book if I don’t cry my eyes out? The Someday Daughter is full of heart and brimming with emotion. It was my most anticipated read for 2024 and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to read it early!

Yes, there is a romance and, yes, I did ADORE him. However, I would say this book is primarily about Audrey’s complicated relationship with her mother and her own anxiety. I felt so seen when Audrey discussed her anxiety, how she feels tightly wound by the internalized pressure to perform and succeed. I cried with her. As well, it was beautiful to see the family Audrey built for herself on the tour come together. Found family always does it for me.

Still, I would personally have changed a few aspects of this novel, so I’ll be rating it 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars. Thank you to HarperTeen and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’m at 15% of The Someday Daughter. (At 50+, I’m not the target audience, but I’m enjoying this one. Even though my mom isn’t a super rich mega star, I can still relate to the daughter. Mother-daughter relationships are often challenging. Even at 50+ I feel that I’m often not given the opportunity to make my own decisions.) I’m so enamored by Ellen O’Clover’s writing that I’ve downloaded her debut novel that was published Jan 2023.

Well ... I was planning on providing updates as I progressed through The Someday Daughter. I really liked the beginning. And I thought it was a good ending. As well as the authors acknowledgements.

Thank you to NetGalley for introducing me to a “new to me author”. Thank you to the HarperCollins Publishers for approving my NetGalley request for The Someday Daughter. This is an honest review in exchange for the opportunity to read the advance review copy. Publication date is Feb 20, 2024.

Ellen O'Clover's second book is a sweet coming-of-age romance novel that beautifully traverses the summer between high school and college and all the perils that come with that transition. Audrey St. Vrain, the main character, handles anxiety, hard conversations with her parents, and rejection-- learning that no one can handle all of those things alone. The book manages to navigate two love interests while displaying healthy relationship dynamics, conversations, and boundaries. The writing is beautiful. The romance makes you smile. And no one can resist Puddles, the adorable pug. A great read.