A Daughter's Choice

by June Francis

Seventeen year old Katie is about to discover a devastating family secret...Katie is the apple of her mother’s eye and is being groomed to take over the family business. But when Celia, her natural mother, re-enters her life, her world is turned completely upside down.Tormented by her divided loyalties, Katie is plagued by a question Celia refuses to answer – who is her real father? ( Originally published as Somebody Else's Girl)

395 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 1998

About the author

Although, June was born in the seaside resort of Blackpool, she has lived all her life in the port of Liverpool, home of the Beatles. One of four children, her love of stories began when her father told her 'The Little Match Girl', which left her in floods of tears, but also with a desire to make up stories, herself. As soon as she could read she was doing a three mile walk to the local library. She passed the scholarship to Liverpool Girls' College where her English teacher told her that she had a great imagination. Despite this, June did not believe she could ever be an author, so on leaving school, she became a cash clerk. She married at twenty-two, has three sons, ran a church playgroup for ten years and it wasn't until her youngest started school that she joined a Writers' Club and turned her hand to writing articles about What She Knew for a woman's magazine. But her first love had always been books and eventually she wrote her first two medieval romances for Mills & Boon. After doing another two, she had an urge to write a family story set in Liverpool during WWII. This was bought by another publisher. Since then she has had thirty-three books published.

Reviews

[Lucy Crook · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s the kind of book which normally has a bit more depth but it was so basic. I disliked all of the characters and the storylines were all rushed. The big reveal which is in the blurb was in the first 100 pages and you knew the answer WAY before this anyway!

[mrs j glover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read xx

Would like to know what happens next to Rita and mick katie and Patrick really enjoyed this book fantastic book

[Suze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katie is going to take over the Arcadia Hotel. She loves working in the family business and is the only one of Kitty's children who would like to keep the hotel going. She's 17 years old and everything is going well until one day someone appears at the hotel claiming to be Katie's real mother. Her name is Celia and she used to date Katie's older brother. When Katie finds out the truth she leaves the hotel to live with Celia for a while. She misses her family dearly, but she needs to find out who she is and what she wants in life.

Kitty is depressed because Katie has left her. All she wanted was a little girl and when Celia left her baby with her she raised Katie as her own daughter. The hotel isn't the same without her. Her son Ben does everything he can to find her. He's still single, because the girl he wants to marry is trying to date his older brother. He's found the perfect way to win her back though. Katie also met someone she really likes, but she knows Kitty won't approve. Living with Celia isn't what she expected, sometimes it's like she's the mother and Celia the child. Does her family even want her back after she left them behind in such a hurry? What should she do, stay with Celia or return to the Arcadia?

I loved A Mother's Duty and was happy to read about the Arcadia again. I enjoyed this book just as much. Katie is such a lovely girl. Fortunately she's mature for her age. She's stronger than Celia and she is the one who needs to make sure they will eat and have a roof over their heads, because of this she has to grow up quickly. I loved reading about this journey. It was wonderful to read about Katie's boyfriend and about her work in a pet shop. Celia isn't the mother she expected her to be and Katie doesn't complain, but tries to do the best she can. She's such a great main character and this made me like the story even more.

It was really nice to catch up with everyone at the Arcadia. I couldn't wait to read about Ben as a grown man and I loved finding out more about what happened to him after a Mother's Duty. I was curious to see if everyone was still all right and think A Daughter's Choice is a great sequel. It could also be read as a standalone novel, but as both books are fantastic I recommend starting with the first one. If you like a good historical family novel, you should definitely read these books. June Francis knows how to tell a story. Her writing is fluent and easy to read and even though her stories are already quite long I didn't want them to end at all.

[Annie Burrows · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a follow up to A Mother's Duty and brings the story of the Arcadia Hotel and the family who own and run it into the 1960's.
Really gives the feel of a city coming out of the shadow of the war as the heroine, Katie, grows from girl into woman.