When Your Mother Doesn't

A Novel

By: Jill Kelly

Narrated by: Jill Kelly PhD

A Revealing and Intimate Story of What a Mother Will - and Will Not - Do for Her Daughters

What kind of women do daughters become when their fathers are missing and their mothers can't love them? How do they find love and ways to love themselves?

Nearly three decades of secrets lie between Lola Ashby and the two girls she reluctantly raised. Now, prompted by the one father figure she respects, older daughter Frankie agrees to drive from Portland to visit her ailing mother, who abandoned the girls when they were in high school. When younger daughter Callie announces to Frankie that she's moving her fashion-model career to Los Angeles from the East Coast, Frankie badgers her sister into meeting up in the Idaho panhandle for a family reunion to dilute the impact of their mother's indifference.

However, on Frankie's first night on the road, the trip gets more complicated when a well-dressed elderly woman at a rest stop dumps a young boy in her lap with a request to take him on to Montana. And Callie's exit from Pittsburgh is fraught with its own shady and violent difficulties. Meanwhile Lola strengthens her resolve to keep the past and its secrets where they belong.

©2015 Jill Kelly (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

A little hard to follow, but good story!

It was a little hard to follow jumping around from past to present and back into the past - but I thought the story was interesting.

Disappointed

I really liked the story but I didn't like the way it ended. It left you hanging. It seemed liked there should have a sequel but I couldn't find find one.

Left hanging!

I felt like the author suddenly got tired of her own story and just wrapped it up with so many unanswered questions. I was totally invested in the story and then nothing

Confusing

Too much switching of time. Depressing lives, lousy ending. I hate endings that leave you wondering what happened.

Beautifully written but truly depressing

I feel sad to say this was not a good read after being locked at home for over a year during a pandemic. The narrator, who is also the writer, had the tone and cadence perfect for the depressing story.

I loved it

I liked the format and style, how she wrote it kind of out of order-anyway, the characters were rich and real. I so enjoyed the story and the ending was the best for explaining it all. Thanks Jill Kelly, good writing.

Great story but BORING narration

When I saw the author was the narrator, I thought great, who better to set the intended tone? Unfortunately, there was really no tone, except monotone. I thought the story was great but the narration was not at all engaging. If I would have known, I would have read it, instead of listening.

Tough but good read

This story was sad but it was written well. I would have liked to see it have better closure at the end.

Storyline wasn't bad but narration was hard

I wanted to like this story but it was hard to listen too. Narration was clear and concise but difficult to keep up with who was talking since the narration had no difference in inflection or emotion.

Thought-provoking novel about the importance of stability in childhood.

All 3 of the characters were tragic, and had their own sad story, but none were very likable.