This story is soo sad in a myriad of different ways. Grief is a prominent one as well as many other types of loss, but what I took away from this story was hope, hope that we can move on. We never really stop grieving but every day we wake up and it hurts a little less, this does not mean we don't miss or forget our loved ones, just that we are honouring their life by being happy and continuing on.


I loved that this book was intergenerational...four generations to be exact. The novel shows how some things are nature but also nurture. I loved seeing both sides shine through. There is some teenaged angst here and also the problem or growing older, and we learn through the characters stories that you can't run away from your problems. I loved how the issues were delt with sensitivity but also very realistic. Many serious items were mention throughout the book, like teenage pregnancy, infidelity, menopause, PTSD, post-natal depression and the like. There was also a lot of humour in the book, a lot of times I found myself laughing at the characters inner dialogue. I loved this book on so many levels and I can't believe I have never read a Janet Hoggarth book before. Shame on me. All. The. Stars.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Boldwood Books and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Paced just perfectly, a lovely story about discovery, pain, acceptance and endings.

I really enjoyed this book. The writing was great with a perfect pacing and tension for the story. The story and the charcaters were both well developed and engaging and I was compelled right from the beginning until the very end. There were some hard hitting issues within the book but they were handled sensitively and with compassion so they didn't affect the enjoy,ent of the book for me. A great read.

This is a lovely story, exploring the complexities of family relationships.

When Maggie Pink's elderly, adoptive parents pass away she decides the time is right to find out about her biological Scottish mother, Morag. With her love of singing she has always felt different to her more straight-laced lawyer parents, so she is keen to find out where her creative streak comes from.

With fractures in her marriage to Adam, and a tense relationship with her 15 year old daughter Roxie, a break to Morag's home town in Scotland could be what she needs. As Adam is working away she takes a sulky Roxie along, hoping that this is an opportunity for them to bond.

The story examines the intricate nature of parent-child relationships across four generations and shows how traumatic events can affect and shape someone's life. History often repeats itself and the book suggests that  although these events have a profound impact, genetics and a person's innate character can also influence life choices. Maggie starts to discover that her  appearance is not the only thing she has in common with Morag.

I really enjoyed this book and the colloquial, yet vocabulary-rich style of the author's writing. I look forward to reading more from her!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC!

I wasn't sure what I expected when I started reading 'Who Do you Think You Are Maggie Pink', but it certainly wasn't the read it turned out to be - and in a good way! The story, although following Maggie Pink, when she goes on a journey, taking her reluctant teenage daughter Roxie along for the ride, to find her birth mother following the death of both her adoptive parents, is actually about a whole cast of people. The wonderful supportive cast include Roxie, Maggie's daughter; Adam, Maggie's husband; Angus, the troubled teenager who refuses to speak after a traumatic event; Fiona, Maggie's aunt; Agnes, Maggie's grandmother; Morag, Maggie's birth mother forced to give her baby up for adoption; plus a whole Scottish town full of wonderful characters....
During her journey to discover her past, Maggie uncovers explosive secrets, makes new friends, faces some of her own demons and questions her future. One thing is for certain, life will never be the same for Maggie Pink. Addictive, emotional, surprising and full of warmth. Highly recommended.

Three and a half stars.

Maggie Pink has always known she was adopted, her adoptive parents have been very open with her on that point, they were kind and good parents but she didn't really have much in common with them and they weren't overly affectionate. Nevertheless, Maggie never felt comfortable trying to contact her birth mother while her adoptive parents were alive.

In addition to being a virtual orphan, Maggie is also battling with a bolshie teenage daughter called Roxie and the disintegration of her marriage to Adam, the menopause, and the events of a few years past (yet to be revealed).

While Adam (a music journalist) is working abroad, Maggie and Roxie (albeit reluctantly) travel to the Highlands of Scotland to re-engage with her birth mother Morag, and find out why she was abandoned as a baby.

What Maggie and Roxie discover is more than just the truth of Maggie's birth and adoption, its a family history of shared experiences through the generations from Morag's mother, Morag, Maggie, and Roxie. Can they learn from the past to prevent a repeat in the future?

I liked this, but I didn't love this. First, it kind of reminded me of one of those generational books that used to be popular back in the 1980s (like Barbara Taylor Bradford's Emma Harte saga), with each generation making mistakes and paying the price, which sat uneasily with the modern. Second, there seemed to be an awful lot of traumas suffered by a small group of people - which I won't list because *spoilers*. Overall, I started to feel that this family tree was a genetic dead-end! Also the sheer volume of issues was so overwhelming it started to be funny. Secondly, there were so many different points of view, we hear Maggie, Roxie, Morag and even Morag's mother's internal monologues at different times which felt very fractured. Finally, the whole novel hinged on every generation keeping secrets: from siblings; spouses; and children, which just led to dissent, estrangement and missed opportunities.

From my brief skim of the start of the author's acknowledgements I gather that her mother was adopted and she has drawn upon that experience when writing this novel, so it is clearly an issue close to her heart. I just feel she maybe brought in too many variables and we didn't connect enough with a single character.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This was simply superb! The exact type of read I needed.

This is a story about family, grief, adoption, trauma and the importance of new beginnings. You meet Maggie Pink - a woman in her forties with a teenage daughter, Roxie, who is on a quest to find her biological mother.

But she finds so much more. The book hosts an entire ensemble of characters - all with vivid personalities and stories, you essentially meet a town and it is done perfectly in that their stories are separate enough to keep it interesting but intertwined enough that you’re not struggling to keep up.

It was told with such love, you can see the author has put her entire soul into this story - the plot flickered between the past and the current, it felt very much like I knew each character by the end of the story.

My only criticism would likely be the portrayal of the mute character. Whilst representation is important, it felt like he was written to serve a characters saviour complex, his own story was interesting enough without the constant plot of “Will he speak??”

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC ! I really enjoyed the read.