A family story told from two different time lines and two different genrations.
1980 Josephine escapes her family in Ireland hoping never to return, and tells one part
1997 Josephine is called home with her two children, and ten year old Clare tells the other part.

I felt the build up to the actual story took too long and left me bored and skimming pages waiting for something exciting to happen. The story is a gentle read but promises more than it delivers.

The story told in two parts by Josephine and her daughter Claire. I enjoyed, rather than loved this book, and I think its because I found the story of the reasons why Josephine left to be so upsetting. I liked how the story was told by both of them, and was upswt to see how the past affected Josephine. I wouldnt say I loved this book but that was because the subject was disturbing, howveer, it was a good and interesting read.

Well writen and quite gripping I just didnt find the subject matter very comfortable to read about. I am not a fan of books that feature abuse therefore I feel that perhaps my review is biased as this would not be my usual genre. I was offered this book by the author and didnt know anything about it before I started it.

Her Mother's Daughter by Alice Fitzgerald is written from the perspective of Josephine and her daughter Claire. It toggles back and forth over time to give you a background of Josephine's life so that we can see how she was brought up and why she is the way she is and why she escaped her life in Ireland for a new life in London.

One phone call brings her home again and unravels the secrets that she's been keeping to herself her entire life.
Claire, unaware, is looking forward to her holiday in Ireland and hopes this is the cure to end her mother's sadness and drinking.
Very moving and sad story. I really felt for Claire and could feel her pain about the rejection from her own mother.
Not a "feel-good" sort of read, but one that I am glad I gave it a go.

In the 1980s Josephine cant wait to get away from her family in Ireland and leaves for London where she gets married and has two children.....but can she really escape her troubled childhood? In 1997 Josephine's daughter Clare is 10 years old and already knows how to avoid her mother's mood swings and drinking, so when she finds out that they are going to Ireland to visit the grandparents she is very excited....but what secrets will come out of the woodwork!

A good book but definitely harrowing in parts - it is told by both Josephine and Clare so you get the real impact of the child's thoughts and also the backstory

3.5 stars

Her Mother’s Daughter is a family saga which uses a dual time setting: 1980 and 1997.

The book opens with Josephine as she eagerly leaves her Irish home for the opportunities she hopes await her in London. At home she was expected to run the household and care for her siblings; London offers her freedom to live her own life. At times secrets from per past make her fearful, but she marries a man who adores her and they raise a family together.

In 1997 Josephine’s ten year old daughter, Clare, is looking forward to the summer holidays. She hopes a visit back to Ireland will cheer her mum up. We see how observant Clare is of her mother’s mood swings, drinking and her obsession with weight-loss. But when the trip to Ireland opens old wounds, family relationships are pushed to breaking point.

This is a book about abuse, both emotional and physical, and the long-term repercussions it can have on everyone involved. Children look to their parents as the providers, carers and protectors. Sadly, as in this case, many are let down by their parents.

The story is told through the eyes of Josephine and Clare. Clare’s part is written from the point of view of a child, with childish observations which make her character genuine. The style of narrative is factual, like many young children who ‘tell it’, with nothing held back. The down-side of this is that it takes the reader out of the book, making them a spectator, rather than being fully engaged with the storyline. I thought the quantity of this form of story-telling unusual in an adult book.

Josephine is less likeable than Clare, and harder to empathise with, but she is still portrayed well. She is the middle one in a three generation mother-daughter relationship. As patterns of behaviour are hinted at in Clare’s conduct, will the abusive cycles ever be broken?

Overall, this book is a fictional example of many a true tale of abuse within families. It is a sad fact that this happens, but it does.

A harrowing storyline, well written and highly believable, making it a most disturbing read at times. This is a strong debut that undoubtedly be well received.

I sincerely hope there is nothing autobiographical about this book. Not for the faint-hearted, it is a devastatingly realistic story of emotional and physical abuse and how its effects continue to be felt down the generations of women in one family. I have a low tolerance, though, for stories of abusive relationships, especially involving children, and was squirming with worry throughout as to where this was going. Incredibly well written with utterly convincing characters and situations, alternating narration between mother and daughter, often showing the same event from the two perspectives. It would be impossible to take sides - my heart went out to both Josephine and her daughter Clare as I think was the author’s intention - and my main concern was how the cycle could be broken. An accomplished debut novel.

Her Mother's Daughter is the moving story of how, many years after the event, a woman's childhood can directly affect her own daughter. It moves between the 1980s and late 90s and is told from the point of view of the mother, Josephine, who leaves Ireland to make a life for herself in London, and her daughter, ten year old Clare.

Thanks to events in Josephine's past and even though she is married to the very caring Patrick, she is unable to be a good parent to Clare and her brother Thomas. Things come to a head when Josephine learns that her own mother is dying and she reluctantly agrees to take the family back to Ireland and face her demons.

Although I sympathised with Josephine's plight and understood the reasons for it, I found it hard to forgive her treatment of Clare in particular. But Clare's voice rings out so clearly it makes the book a winner to me and I hope this remarkable debut by Alice Fitzgerald gets the attention it deserves. Thanks to NetGalley, Atlantic Books and Alice Fitzgerald for the opportunity to read and review Her Mother's Daughter.

Her Mother's Daughter by Alice Fitzgerald alternates between Josephine's viewpoint and her ten-year-old daughter Clare's viewpoint. Because it is written in the first person and present tense, the novel switches back and forth between different decades to provide the reader with the backstory to Josephine. I found I had to check the date and the viewpoint repeatedly as the story jumped about so much and this can be jarring. I personally find this way of introducing the past in first person present tense stories to be irritating. I had a preference for young Clare's viewpoint and I felt compassion for her and her love/ hate relationship with her mother.
We find out how Josephine's dysfunctional family and horrendous early life have scarred her and, when she returns to her native Ireland for the summer holidays, more family secrets are revealed. I enjoyed many of the observations of family life in the 80s and 90s and how each generation is shaped by their early years. Not my usual choice but a good read.

Her Mother’s Daughter is the story of how a family holiday brings reminders of a mother’s traumatic childhood and unravels the threads of her family that she is trying to hold onto. Josephine came over from Ireland to London and marries Michael, escaping home and the abuse of her past. Now she has her children, Clare and Thomas, but is battling her demons and cannot look after her children properly. Ten-year-old Clare can’t wait for their summer holiday to visit family in Ireland, hoping that it’ll make her mummy feel better, but things don’t go as smoothly as they all might hope.

The narrative moves between Clare’s point of view in 1997 as she tries to navigate her mother’s mood swings and emotional abuse and Josephine’s point of view starting in the early 80s and moving to catch up with the other story, showing her coming to London and dealing with the trauma of her past and the difficulties of motherhood. Clare’s sections are the more compelling partly because you are given only the view of a ten-year-old, and must piece together details in a way similar to other books with a child’s point of view. Josephine’s sections also try and reflect her mental state, particularly once her narrative has caught up with Clare’s.

Her Mother’s Daughter isn’t necessarily the kind of story I would typically pick up, but it makes a good read, using perspective to show emotional abuse and the lingering aftermath of assault as well as the ways in which they affect other family members.