The Midwife’s Secret, a review by Shelley

THE MIDWIFE’S SECRET
Emily Gunnis

Headline
Publication Date: December 6th, 2022
384 Pages
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I loved this author’s previous book The Girl in the Letter because of the authenticity of the story, this one not so much. I did like that there were three story threads and they were all in different timelines (1945, 1969 and 2017). As is usual for me I liked the older timelines much more, they were far more interesting and enjoyable. I find myself a little confused by the title because the midwife doesn’t really feature in the story much and her secret is revealed within the first few pages. I was looking forward to a book about a woman delivering babies and that doesn’t happen at all.

The two different families and their offspring are hard to keep track of as the story isn’t told in a linear fashion so you’re bouncing back and forth between time periods and houses. There is a family tree at the start of the book so I took a screenshot and kept referring back to it so I could keep everything straight. But with so many people involved and none of the adults had any redeeming qualities it was hard to concentrate on their story arc. I cared little for them or what happened to them.

The plot twist was underwhelming and I had figured out what happened to Alice in the prologue. The premise is a good one and Gunnis is a wonderful writer but the sub-plots were unnecessary. Although entertaining this book was very predictable, and as much as loved the writing I can’t give it more than three stars because there were some really outlandish situations happening that had me shaking my head in disbelief.