This book, The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman, is from my master book list. This book was on Youngest’s group’s list of previously read books. Youngest had started it, but had not finished due to time restraints.
The Home for Unwanted Girls is historical fiction. There are two story lines, one following the mother and the other following the daughter. Both the mother and the daughter are fictional. This is the correct way, in my opinion, fictional characters set in historical reality.
I listened to it, from start to finish in one day. It was compelling, I wanted to see how it ended. But it was not a favorite.
The daughter’s historical setting/story is pretty distressing. That storyline became very sad.
The mother’s story was soap opera-ish (to me) at points.
The Home for Unwanted Girls was easy to understand, with well defined characters. The plot was easy to follow. But overall there was an immaturity to the writing that I have seen in other historical fiction books. Historical fiction is definitely not my thing.
When I read The Home for Unwanted Girls, I thought it was a standalone book.
Completing my Goodreads entry for this book, I discovered there is a sequel.
It was not listed as a sequel on my favorite books in order website (bottom of this post).
But it is definitely a sequel on Goodreads.
I decided not to read the sequel.
The (sad but true) topic makes The Home for Unwanted Girls a good read for book groups, there are many good questions for discussion.
Here is an author interview about the book -
https://leslielindsay.com/2018/05/18/joanna-goodman-on-her-new-novel-home-for-unwanted-girls-repeating-family-history-more/
https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/joanna-goodman/
