All They Ask Is All the things
Ladies’s Fiction, Household Life Fiction, Ladies’s Home Life Fiction
Lake Union Publishing
August 27, 2024
Book, Audiobook, Paperback
331
On this hopeful debut in regards to the silent struggles of motherhood, three very completely different girls need custody of the identical two little ladies―and study they’ve extra in frequent than the youngsters they’re preventing for.
Decided to be a greater mom than her personal, Hannah has devoted her life to her daughters. She ignores her rising exhaustion and isolation as a widowed mother―till a disastrous mistake lands the ladies in foster care.
Julie is single and lonely and desires of being a mom. After infertility points lead her to foster parenting, she falls head over heels for Hannah’s daughters. The extra she bonds with these candy, precocious ladies, the extra she worries about their earlier residence life and turns into intent on discovering a option to maintain them.
Just lately compelled into retirement, Elaine is devastated by the best way her daughter, Hannah, has shut her out. When she discovers her granddaughters are in foster care, she resolves to rescue them from the system: her one probability at a parenting do-over.
Every lady thinks she’s the very best mom, however none understands the complete fact. Previous hurts, long-held secrets and techniques, and budding new relationships collide as they battle for the ladies who may make them a household.
“Motherhood calls for items of your self…”
Hadley Leggett’s debut novel, All They Ask Is All the things, is a poignant story of motherhood, grief, and household that moved me to tears. In it, we’re launched to a few girls who’re struggling to fulfill their very own expectations of what it means to be a superb mom: Hannah, organic mom of two younger ladies, Wren and Ivy, who misplaced her husband to a horrific automobile accident; Elaine, Hannah’s estranged mom and energy legal professional who can also be a widow; and Julie, the one foster mom who takes the 2 ladies into her residence when Hannah’s world falls aside. The story takes place over the course of a couple of 12 months, after Hannah’s tragic mistake finally ends up together with her kids being taken into custody by little one protecting providers. As Hannah struggles to regain custody of her kids, the reader is drawn into her journey of discovering psychological well being help, together with the challenges of mending her strained relationship together with her mom.
Whereas studying Hannah’s trials (each out and in of the courtroom), I typically questioned what a choose would say about my very own parenting. Leggett did a implausible job exhibiting how motherhood is simply exhausting, even for one of the best intentioned of us. I discovered that I associated to Hannah’s (and all three of the ladies’s, actually) doubts and anxieties about making one of the best selections to your kids. We see on this story how the stress of motherhood typically collides with a foundation-shaking love for our little ones.
“Hannah may not make sure. The extra questions the courtroom requested, the extra she questioned her personal actuality. Did she present nutritious, balanced meals thrice a day? Typically. Different instances, when she acquired depressed, she supplied Twinkies and orange juice. …Not as soon as did they ask in regards to the issues that mattered — whether or not Hannah liked her daughters greater than breath itself, whether or not she’d danger every part to maintain them together with her. …However with every pointed query, the assistant district legal professional stripped away one other layer of her self-defense.”
Leggett additionally writes about experiences of grief and psychological well being on this story. The error that led to the lack of her daughters was largely pushed by Hannah’s profound grief over her husband’s loss of life, which additionally compromised her monetary stability. The creator highlights the necessity for parental help programs, and finally, the story demonstrates how sharing caregiving duties contributes to stronger, extra resilient households. The ebook highlights the unlucky actuality that many dad and mom endure the strains of caregiving to the brink of disaster earlier than looking for assist. By Hannah’s story, we witness the heartbreaking penalties of missing that vital help.
This can be a highly effective and hopeful debut novel, and I extremely advocate it. Like me, you might need your self a superb cry with this story, however you may additionally stroll away with a full coronary heart after such a touching ending that exhibits the collective energy of moms.
