This is a beautifully written novel about one woman‘s search for her daughter given up for adoption when she was still a teenager. This is such a poignant read and has stayed with me long after I‘ve finished reading, I can completely understand why it has been longlisted for the Booker Prize. A must read!

This was quite a sad novel looking at missed chances and trying to make up for past decisions in later life. It was also an interesting exploration of family life and society in Trinidad and Tobago contrasting with life in London for Dawn, our narrator.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

This story was a tender tale of a young mother who had her baby taken away for adoption at birth and how it affected the rest of her life. Born in Trinidad and now living in London, the story meanders timelines, generations and geography to form a vibrant story of family ties. There is no question that the decisions made on her behalf where well-intentioned and made with love but we are left saddened by the implications.

A spontaneous, not really thought-out decision results in an unplanned pregnancy for 16 year old Dawn Bishop. Her parents clandestinely send her from her Trinidadian home to Venezuela, where nuns care for her and then place her daughter up for adoption. Dawn tries her best to get on with her life and marries, moves to England, has two sons and a successful career, but never forgets the baby she had to give up. Now in her 50s, and fresh off a divorce, she's active in an internet forum seeking to match adopted children and birth mothers and is contacted by a woman who believes she could be Dawn's daughter.

I found this a gentle and very compassionate take on adoption. With the possible exception of Dawn's parents, who genuinely believed they were doing the right thing for their daughter, there were no bad actors. We don't see much of Dawn's time with the nuns, but they seem to have been kindly and caring. Dawn's possible daughter is not a scammer; nor were the couple that adopted her anything less than loving. Dawn's sons do not judge her when they learn of her earlier pregnancy, and even older family members seem supportive of Dawn's effort to find her daughter, albeit concerned about any hurt of disappointment she might encounter. The novel really highlighted the enduring bond between a mother and child; how even if that bond is legally severed by adoption it still remains, with mother and child aware of and frequently searching for the missing part of themselves.

The characters were well-drawn and fully rounded with the interactions between them feeling believable and real. The settings, none moreso than Trinidad, were especially vividly depicted with plenty of everyday details, as well as some specific political and economic details that helped tether the story to a particular time and place and contextualised some of the characters' decisions. Themes including class, agency, forgiveness, family dynamics, and memory were meaningfully explored but not in a heavy-handed, didactic manner.

The writing was strong, especially the arresting opening scene when Dawn is transported to Venezuela as a 16 year old, and the closing scene when she is in Venezuela more than 40 years later remembering and reconciling with her past. The final lines were bittersweet perfection, made all the more powerful by the fact that I was snuggling my sleeping granddaughter as I read them. While there were no weak elements, undoubtedly the overall strength of this novel lies in its poignant exploration of the vein of quiet sadness that ran through Dawn's life as a result of the absence of the daughter she was unable to keep.

At just 262 pages, I flew through this book in a matter of heatwave days. In 80s Trinidad, Dawn Bishop – pregnant at 16 – is ferried off to Venezuela and cared for by nuns until she gives birth to a baby girl, before leaving her to be adopted. She returns home, changed forever, and thus begins a new life where she must try to carry on. Forty years, a move to England, a marriage, a career, two sons, and a divorce later, Dawn lives a quiet life alone, yet she still thinks of the child she had in Venezuela and of what might have been. A chance online encounter from an Internet forum leads a woman to message Dawn, and thus ensues an exploration of what it means to be a mother, a daughter.

Beautifully arresting from start to finish, Love Forms enwraps you in Dawn’s love and grief. There’s a deep sense of sadness and longing (of course) when Dawn begins to quietly retrace her steps and turns the idea of ‘motherhood to a daughter’ in her mind, over and over. It’s quiet and slow and human, and unravels in such a way that you look around and wonder how you got there. I am slowly becoming more of a literary fiction reader: wonderfully human stories like these can’t be beaten in a world of devastation.

This is a gentle and hauntingly sad novel about a woman who gives up her baby and then spends her life thinking about what might have been, From a Catholic family in Trinidad and Tobago to a divorced middle age in London, Dawn doesn't stop thinking about the baby she left behind in Venezuela, and at moments in her life as she qualifies as a doctor, has two sons, and lives a life, she is haunted by the loss and also the part her family played in the situation. A very moving read.

I really enjoyed this book. I was unsure if I would after reading the description but I was hooked from the first page.

I’ve never read a book about Trinidad and Tobega, or Venezuela, so I really enjoyed reading about those countries and their culture and traditions.

Dawn’s story drew me in; there is a lot of narrative about her life in London with her husband and sons, but I felt this helped us to understand Dawn in more depth.

Ive taken one star away for the ending. I felt it was too abrupt and I would have liked loose ends to be tied up.

I had never read anything by Claire Adam before but I will be looking out for her name again. This is one of those quiet novels in which not much may happen but it is so beautifully written that you are swept away with empathy for the main character. This story stayed with me long after the last page. A lovely, lovely read - thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

This book introduces us to Dawn, a middle aged woman who has moved from Trinidad to London and is grappling with choices she made in the past. She gave up a child for adoption and the ghost of who she is or could be looms over Dawn and her family.

The book is very quick to read and has a decent pace. I did find the narrative voice a bit clunky and weird. Some things were overly descriptive (like how London front gardens has bins, that there are several and how terraced houses work) etc that just felt really out of place and weird. If Dawn was telling the story to someone who had never been this could make sense but there isn't ever a specific you addressed. This overly descriptive voice who goes into minute detail disappears around halfway through the book and the latter half feels like it flows better and has a better narrative voice. It got way better towards the end.

There isn't much intrigue or excitement but the book still moves at an OK pace. The characters also aren't particularly interesting but Dawn's origin story is. Not really a big arc in the story but an OK read all the same.

Love Forms by Claire Adam

In 1980, 16 year old Dawn Bishop travels from Trinidad to Venezuela to give birth to her baby girl who she leaves with the nuns to be adopted. Now aged 58 and living in London, Dawn has been married and has two adult sons, but still yearns to find her daughter. When a woman from an internet forum gets in touch, it seems she may finally have succeeded, but she's been disappointed before.

I absolutely loved this book and am bereft now that it's over. Dawn herself is the narrator and her voice/personality are so vivid and real that I felt as though I'd met her in real life, perhaps randomly in a coffee shop, and got to know all about her and her life... so much so that I felt genuine loss on finishing the book. I loved the settings of Trinidad and Tobago, descriptions of Dawn's family, the details of her life in London, the ending... all of it! Very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

In 1980 in Trinidad, 16 year old Dawn Bishop falls pregnant. She is sent away to Venezuela to have the child and gives birth to a girl who is given up for adoption. Dawn goes on to move to England, train in medicine, get married and have two sons. But she never forgets her daughter and has made several unsuccessful attempts to find her. When another woman gets in touch claiming to be her daughter, Dawn has hugely mixed feelings but is desperate to find out the truth. The book is written from Dawn’s perspective and we find out about her, her family and ultimately, how her experience at 16 impacted her life and relationships. But you’ll have to read the book to find out if she is successful with her search.

This is a beautifully written book that I feel is ultimately about family and mothers and the love that many have for their children. I am often guilty of trying to guess the purpose of a book as I’m reading it and trying to work out where it will end. With this, it was difficult to do either and that made the book more compelling. However, I don’t feel (even with the subject matter) that I emotionally engaged with the book as much as I thought I would and that there was some repeated information, That being said, I thought the characters, particularly Dawn, were wonderful and I thought the story ended in a really good way.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

3.5

Love Forms tells an all-too-common tale of a woman, Dawn Bishop, who finds herself "ketch" (pregnant) after a one night stand with a tourist to Trinidad's Carnival. As the daughter of a rich family Dawn is taken to a convent where she gives birth and then gives up her daughter.

Years later, now a divorcee with two grown sons and living in London, Dawn is still searching for the baby girl who she gave up for adoption.

The story follows Dawn's journey and her efforts to be reunited with the child despite not remembering much from that time and encountering resistance from her parents and brothers.

I confess to being a little disappointed with this novel. It seems to sort of meander along in a circular motion with Dawn being thwarted at every turn. However it's well written and the characters are sympathetic. I'm not sure what I wanted from the book but something with more impact perhaps. And, at times, it felt a little more like a travel guide for Trinidad and Venezuela.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Faber & Faber for the advance review copy.

A beautifully written very descriptive novel.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Dawn lives in the UK having been brought up in Trinidad and has had a very emotional 58 years with its ups and serious downs. She sets off on. Journey to fulfil her anxiety over what happened to the baby she had as a sixteen year old when she was despatched to Venezuela for the birth.
She conveys well her conflicted life and her complex familial relationships

this book depicts the lingering sadness of a mother who never got to be her babies mother. that sadness i felt in my own heart. i cannot imagine the very real situation some woman find themselves in. the courage it must take to even blink the next day after having your child either taken or forced to give them up.
this is the story of Dawn Bishop. when she was 16 she is scurried away in shame over being pregnant. she is to wait until the birth, with the nuns, and then hand over her child. she then has to return. she then has to carry on with life. but she never does. well,not completely anyway.
but she is now older, she is now 58, she is now needing answers. she needs to know how to fill the whole her lost daughter took out of her.
she knows shes not had the worst life. she has a home, shes been married now divorce and she does have two sons although they are now grown up.
but she knows she must search for what happened to her child.
we are then taken on a journey of her search. not only learning of what she is having to go through now but also of her life and just how that one event has rippled through everything.
i thoroughly enjoyed this book. i was swept up in the feeling of a main character and wanted to both cheer her on and cheer her soul up.

Beautifully written novel which moves along at a good pace. When you pick up a book you want to be transported into that world and Love Forms achieves just this. Motherhood, family, relationships, youth and the passing of time were the themes that came to the surface, but I felt especially the idea of taking control of your life. As the key character is a girl, then a woman, that life-ownership for her thoughts, decisions and actions is something that time has definitely affected. She's grown and we learn along with her. The power and confusion of retrospection! I enjoyed reading it and would look out for another by the same author.

At 16 years old Dawn Bishop, is sent from Trinidad to Venezuela to give birth, and leave her child with nuns to be given up for adoption. It's now forty years later, and Dawn lives in England, has two grown-up sons, and is newly divorced when a woman from an internet forum gets in touch with her, claiming she might be her long-lost daughter.

The story is very intriguing from the very start; the beginning almost carries an air of mystery as it sets up, which I really enjoyed, and I feel like it did a lot to hook me. The characters felt very real, and the story itself was very interesting, which made it so easy to follow along Dawn's experiences. I do think the core of the story is the political, social, and relational conditions of Trinidad and Venezuela, which is incredibly interesting, but I also feel like it sometimes took you out of the story, which is a shame, because it truly is such a beautiful plot to follow. Overall, it is such a heart warming, delightful read, and I would love to read more from this author in the future.

'Love Forms' follows the experiences of Dawn, a 58-year-old Trinidadian woman living in Britain and recently divorced, as she attempts to trace the daughter she left in an orphanage in Venezuela after a teenage pregnancy. This is a beautifully crafted novel which moves between Dawn's memories of the past and how these have shaped the rest of her life, particularly her relationship with her two sons (now adults), her husband and her family back in Trinidad, all of whom believe that she should abandon this search. There is genuine suspense as we wait to discover whether the woman with whom she has made contact via an online forum (the fourth to do so) will turn out to be a DNA match - but the novel is about much more than this question, and more about how Dawn makes sense of who she is and the choices she made in the past.

Like Adam's previous novel 'Golden Child', the novel also gives us an insight into life in Trinidad and how this changes over several decades - we first meet her affluent family during the oil boom of the 1980s, but we see how they must adapt to the nation's changing fortunes. Much is made of the contrast between English and Trinidadian attitudes.

Overall, I found this a moving and compelling read - many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

Love Forms is a poignant exploration of motherhood, identity, and the enduring impact of past decisions. The narrative follows Dawn Bishop, a 58-year-old woman who, decades after giving up her newborn daughter for adoption, embarks on a journey to reconnect with the child she never knew. Her quest takes her from Trinidad to Venezuela and finally to London, mirroring her internal journey of self-discovery and reconciliation. 

Claire Adam’s prose is both lyrical and evocative, capturing the emotional complexity of Dawn’s experiences. The novel delves into themes of regret, longing, and the societal pressures that shape our choices. Through Dawn’s reflections, readers are invited to consider the multifaceted nature of love and the ways it can both wound and heal. 

While the pacing is deliberate, allowing for deep character development and introspection, i found the narrative’s momentum slower than I expected. Nevertheless, the emotional depth and cultural richness of the story offer a rewarding reading experience.

Love Forms is a heartfelt and introspective novel that examines the complexities of maternal love and the enduring quest for personal redemption. It’s a compelling read for those who appreciate character-driven stories that resonate with emotional truth.

We are introduced to Dawn at a pivotal moment in her life, taken away from her native Trinidad as a frightened sixteen year old to Venezuela, birthing and giving up her child. Feelings of regret and sadness follow her through marriage and divorce, and an inability to give up searching for this lost daughter, despite having had two sons, who are grown but distant. Disappointments seem to follow her through life, and the minutiae of everyday life just emphasise that she is going through the motions of a life without meaning. A wider story exists of the unrest and difficulties of drug smuggling and poverty in Venezuela at the time, adding to the difficulties she faces in her search. A very sad story of family trauma and unwanted pregnancy and how this was covered up at the time.