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The Secret Daughter: A beautiful novel of adoption, heartbreak and a mother's love Paperback – June 17, 2015

by Kelly Rimmer (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 111 ratings
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As I saw my new-born baby’s face for the first time I tried desperately to capture her face in my mind—to stamp it onto my eyelids. As she was taken from me I knew I might never see my daughter again.

37 years later…

‘You were adopted’. Three short words and Sabina’s life fractures. There would forever be a Before those words, and an After.

Pregnant with her own child, Sabina can’t understand how a mother could abandon her daughter, or why her parents have kept the past a secret.

Determined to find the woman who gave her away, what she discovers will change everything, not just for Sabina, but for the women who have loved her all these years.

From the bestselling author of Me Without You comes another touching, beautifully told story about the pain of separation and the enduring strength of love.

Find out what readers are saying about Kelly Rimmer

‘This book got under my skin and I think it'd be the same for many other people - You don't need to like romance books, you just need to want to read books that are about people, that have simple but incredibly important stories.’ Petit Moi

‘I fell in love with this amazing book after the first sentence and would read it all over again. A wonderful mixture of emotions, real love, secrets, laughter and sadness. If you want a gripping and touching story, here it is, read it now!’ Sky’s Book Corner

‘What a heartbreaking, tearful, emotional read with scenes that are traumatising, hilarious and in many more scenes inspiring. A story about how love changes the characters- breaks hearts and at the same time restores faith.’ Talking Books Blog

Previous page
  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    June 17, 2015
  4. Dimensions
    5.06 x 0.69 x 7.81 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1910751081
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1910751084
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bookouture (June 17, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1910751081
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1910751084
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.06 x 0.69 x 7.81 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 111 ratings

About the author

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Kelly Rimmer

Kelly Rimmer

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Kelly Rimmer is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and internationally best selling author of contemporary and historical fiction novels including The Secret Daughter, The Things We Cannot Say, and Truths I Never Told You. Her latest novel, The Warsaw Orphan, was released in June 2021. Kelly lives in rural Australia with her family and a whole menagerie of badly behaved animals.

For further information about Kelly's books, and to subscribe to her mailing list, visit www.kellyrimmer.com.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
111 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jan Niblock
5.0 out of 5 stars A story that looks at all sides of the adoption triangle -- wonderfully written
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2016
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I purchased this book because it was about adoption and was not disappointed at all. This story really gets to the heart of what it is like to be part of the adoption triangle. I know that it mostly dealt with forced adoptions but I believe it also takes in the emotions and trials of any type of adoption from the child, the first/birth mother and the mother.

Okay, there may be spoilers here and I will try not to but it will be hard to talk about this story and not give some spoilers. So you may not want to read on from this point, then just go and enjoy the story as it unfolds.

I admire Lilly so much she dealt with such a major issue, losing her daughter, but did not let it totally overcome her. She is strong enough to enjoy the rest of her life. I love the fact that she came to terms with what happened and was able to let go of her anger. While it was easy to dislike Megan, you find yourself surprised when you get inside her head. Sabina certainly benefited in the end from both nature and nurture.
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Baird-Greene
5.0 out of 5 stars Rimmer's "The Secret Daughter" grabs you from the first chapter and will not let you go until you finish it.
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2016
Verified Purchase
Only a handful of characters inhabit this emotionally raw and stunning story of forced adoption in 1973 Australia. Sabina's parents, Grae and Megan Baxter, confess to her in 2012, when she is 38 years old that she is adopted. Sabina is angry and feels betrayed. She wants answers. Her adoptive mother shuts down emotionally. Her adoptive father is adamant that Sabina doesn't require further information. An emotional tug-of-war begins. Sabina and her husband, Ted, learn that Sabina was born to an unwed mother in a maternity home. Even her birth certificate is forged. The story's narrators alternate between Sabina, her birth mother, Lilly, and her adoptive mother, Megan. Lilly is sixteen-years-old, a prisoner in a maternity home. She wants to keep her baby more than anything. Yet the system is ironclad against her. Lilly is an unwed mother, a minor with no legal rights. She learns too late that there is literally no one she can trust. Learning the truth about her birth, her birth parents and the deceit behind it all, shakes Sabina's world to its foundation.
2 people found this helpful
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Sandra Herrmann
4.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting Situation Beautifully Told
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2016
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I had heard of the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, but I had no idea the practice was so widespread. I always thought of Australia as somehow like our Wild West, where such practices were never used. So I found myself following in Sabina's footsteps as she peeled away the layers of lies and secrecy that kept single moms and their children from finding each other. I also appreciate the fact that Kelly Rimmer didn't try to go for the simplistic explanation for the practice and how adoptive parents' could be as trapped by the system as the young mothers. Rimmer shows a maturity, too, in portraying the growth for all of those involved in these horrors, from confusion and anger through a desire for retribution to a true healing, knowing that some pain is beyond the desire for vengeance. It is only possible to live with the scars until we can let go of it enough to forgive. Rimmer has a slow style, revealing her characters one piece at a time. We are allowed, in this way, to take the same trip that her characters are on. Prepare to be appalled, judgemental, compassionate and joyful, in turns.
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Antoinette C.
5.0 out of 5 stars rage and love. As a woman in her late 60's I ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2016
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It took me a minute to adapt to the author's style, but once I did, I couldn't put the book down. It's truly a lovely story filled with anguish, hopefulness, rage and love. As a woman in her late 60's I clearly remember the era in which unmarried young women were sent away to give birth to their babies and unwillingly surrender them. Here in the USA this abhorrent practice appears to have faded away some 10-years earlier than it did in Australia. The author did a splendid job of drawing the reader into the story and illuminating the raw emotions felt by her protagonist and other characters. Perhaps the telling of the other side of the adoption story, brought so beautifully to life in this book, will bring some comfort and understanding to any reader who may be questioning the motives of their own birthmother. Well done, Kelly Rimmer!
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Reader for Christ
5.0 out of 5 stars Good job presenting a difficult historically true situation
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2017
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This book has a unique story line for a true situation that occurred regarding adoptions about 50 years ago. The fact that this kind of situation occurred at all is very sad and disheartening for those affected. The story takes one probable situation from 2012 events back to 1973 events and then back and forth in various characters' thinking until 2013. I think Kelly Rimmer did a wonderful job of fairly presenting the feelings and situations the main characters were involved in during the 2 main blocks of time and ending the story in a very realistic and comfortable manner. I liked the fact that the Prime Minister had a task force to investigate what had occurred and united people to apologize and recognize what a terrible injustice had been done to many families and infants.
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Adrianne
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply written, simply wonderful. . . !
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2016
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It's difficult, these days, to find a well-written engaging story. Ms. Rimmer tells a story without the cliched, distracting language of most popular literature. Usually, it's gets tiresome and I skip paragraph to get to the point, and usually I stop reading. I have a demanding career, and want to get sucked into a story at the end of the day. I got sucked in, and stayed there. I'm a fan! Looking for more of her books. I would like to get to know Sabina's other family more. They sound like wonderful, fun people.
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T. Shaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous.
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2016
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I wasn't certain when I selected this book if I would like it. I loved it. The author either has first hand knowledge of the feelings of all people involved in an adoption or did a heck of a lot of research. I broke my heart which is rare and I was amazed at the history of it all. I recommend this book to everyone.
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Top reviews from other countries

Janet Bryan
5.0 out of 5 stars The story of Adoption and raw emotion
Reviewed in Canada on March 9, 2016
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This book was recommended by a friend as she said I was on her mind throughout the entire book. I was adopted but I was aware from an early age. The main character in the book wasn't told she was adopted until she was in her mid-thirties. The book focuses on her emotions as she finds her biological parents, deals with her adoptive parents and learns how to forgive. The story takes place in Australia where forced adoptions we're commonplace.
2 people found this helpful
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Queen Bee
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful, Powerful read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2015
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The Secret Daughter
Kelly Rimmer
Posted publicly as Queen Bee
This book peaked my interest as I too am an adopted only child who has experienced the reunion with both my birth Mother and her family and later on my birth Father’s family

I was immediately drawn in to this story as it unexpectedly resonated on many levels with my own story, although I was 12 when I accidentally discovered I was adopted and not 38.

My Adoptive parents took a similar approach to my accidental discovery as Sabina’s did in the book. They were reluctant to discuss any of it. ‘Yes, its true and now you know do you feel any better?’ was my Mother’s initial response. Then later, ‘Your life started the day we brought you home to us’ I was told sharply. As if I was meant to cross out the date on my birth certificate and fast forward 2 weeks. ‘Why would you be remotely interested in this?’ or the most devastating one for me: ‘this is my business, it happened to me, not you’. Her infertility, along with most things in our family life, remained a closed subject. I felt guilty for discovering a secret they had resolved never to disclose. They claimed to have absolutely no information about my roots, claiming they knew absolutely nothing about my birth circumstances and so back in the box of secrets it went, never to be brought out again. It taught me that the only person I could rely on in life was me, which at 12 years of age was a tough life lesson.

My 2nd pregnancy, after the stillbirth of my son, was the trigger which started my search for my birth Mother, I found her easily, wrote a short but polite letter to her explaining who I thought I was but that I would fully understand if she didn’t want to turn her life upside down for time with me. She appeared on my doorstep the very night she received my letter. She seemed overjoyed to be reunited with me and her new granddaughter who I had given birth to some 6 months earlier. She gave me the missing pieces of my jigsaw – she was first married at 19. The marriage was in trouble from the start but they had a son who was 4 years old when the marriage broke down. She had an affair with a married man who already had 3 children and I was the result of that affair. She decided very quickly she could not keep me and my birth father agreed. She took me in a taxi to the adoption agency together with my birth father and I was handed over at 2 weeks to my new parents.

She went on to marry for a 2nd time, had another son and was finally content.

Initially she said she could never tell her two sons about me and would I let her go again which I agreed to but then 3 months later she rang to say she had decided to tell them.

I decided to bravely tell my adoptive parents I had found her but wanted to assure them this would not change anything between us. I was asked what I had been told about my birth and so relayed the story. ‘I knew all that’ my Mother announced. The shocked look on my Father’s face told me he didn’t and he said so. To which my Mother replied ‘well its none of your business either’!

From that point on everything was in full swing with my birth Mother. None of her family had at the time of my birth, known of my existence, such was the secrecy in those days but in her excitement at this reunion, she did introduce me to many family members, throwing little get-togethers so people could meet me and listen to the story. She appeared elated and excited. She was undoubtedly the centre of a very exciting ‘soap-opera’ and she relished it. Like Sabina and Lily, there was an awkward episode regarding my childhood photographs and I naively compiled an album for her to keep and excitedly presented it to her believing she would be equally excited. The pain on her face as she trawled through each page was excruciating. She wanted so much to see them and hear the stories of my life but it was just too painful for her.

Over the following months at our various meetings I tried desperately to appease her obvious guilt for ‘what she had done’ but I realised in the end I had no right to try to take that away from her. It had become some kind of weird security blanket she clung to from the day she gave me away.

There is a paragraph in the book, which will probably stick with me for all time

‘Were we the missing pieces of their puzzle or were we extra parts that would never quite fit’

and that ultimately was what we became to her. Once the initial excitement had faded and the real business of ‘life’ remained, it soon became clear she had no place for us.

There were one or two episodes that hammered that home for me:

On one occasion whilst visiting her we were asked to leave her house and wait in the local garden centre because someone was coming to the house who ‘didn’t know about me’ and so we did as we were asked.

On another occasion when we were visiting, some friends arrived unexpectedly. She ushered me into her kitchen and told me not to disclose who I was. ‘Tell them you are the daughter of an old family friend’ she pleaded. That was the most uncomfortable afternoon for me and my family.

After her husband passed away we asked her if she would like to spend Christmas with us but she declined, preferring to spend it with her Grandsons, ex-girlfriend and their daughter who was about 3. “You have to understand Yvonne, that little girl is my granddaughter’, forgetting of course that my own daughter was her granddaughter too and those words devastated her.

Perhaps the most hurtful event came when my younger brother passed away tragically. I was misfed information of the date of the funeral and even the cemetery. I was not welcome at his funeral. When his headstone was erected and I was invited to go along to view it, my existence had been airbrushed from his life (we had become extremely close since reuniting). My other brother and his wife were on the inscription but I wasn’t. When challenged she said she didn’t want to cause confusion for everyone who didn’t know I existed.

Clearly I was always going to remain her embarrassing secret and I was expected to pop in and out of the secret box as the situation warranted. But although I had spent the majority of my young life feeling unworthy/self conscious/not up to standard I finally realised my daughter and I deserved so much more and so I explained we wouldn’t be part of this situation any longer. I simply wanted quality time with her to build on our relationship openly and if she wasn’t prepared to offer that then it would be better if we wished each other well and moved on. She didn’t argue infact I think she was actually relieved. She had had the reunion and learnt all about my life but now it was better to go back to the way things were before.

She is now in her 80’s and I haven’t seen or heard from her in 8 or so years. I think its very sad that she will probably leave this life without seeing me or her granddaughter again. She missed out on so much of my life and yet when a second chance presented itself, a chance she said she had dreamed of, she didn’t grab it with both hands and let me go again.

This book doesn’t sugar-coat this very difficult subject. So much is made in the press and on tv about reuniting parents with long lost children and how ‘roses round the door’ it might look but the author walks the reader through the reality of the anger, guilt and defensiveness of every character.

A fabulous if emotionally draining book (for me)
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5.0 out of 5 stars Book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2023
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Very good
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marie-linda
5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING
Reviewed in Canada on September 6, 2015
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Amazing...it's a book that you cannot put down....at the same time you don't want it to last.....very emotional,...i was crying most of the time.....
just love it , i will recommend it to anyone...
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Lori Templeton
5.0 out of 5 stars Another amazing book!!!!
Reviewed in Canada on June 18, 2019
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One of my top favourite books 😀
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