The Good Daughter by Alexandra Burt

This is an odd tale.  It begins with two women telling the story of their lives.  They have separate chapters, their stories are piecemeal, and none of these families are normal.  It seems dysfunctional families breed more dysfunctional people.  However, the tale draws you in and makes you want to see where the author is going with her story.

Berkley Books sent me an ARC of this book for review (thank you).  It will be published February 7th.

Quinn's story begins as a young girl.  She has a boyfriend she sneaks out to see and she finally makes love with him.  She doesn't regret that but she regrets running into hunters on the way home.  She barely survives her time with them and now she's infertile.  But she doesn't tell anyone that.  Her mother arranges her marriage with a young man who owns a farm.  But Quinn will never be the same.

You know something odd is going on when Dahlia's story talks about constantly being on the run.  They live a transient life, she gets almost no schooling, everything is cash paid under the table and her mother won't tell her why.

As the mother's history starts to come out, it's of a life lived hard with terrible consequences.  There's a lot to make you think about and wonder about how you would react given the awful circumstances.  After reading this one, I'm very thankful for my family and how I was brought up.  Quinn wasn't the nicest person but she did what she had to.  Thank goodness I didn't have to do anything like that.

After all, Dahlia's a good daughter but whose daughter is she?