The Secret Women by Sheila Williams

Star rating: 4/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers for this ARC! The Secret Women will be available to the public on June 9th, 2020. 

Summary:

Elise, DeeDee, and Carmen all meet in a yoga class, joined together by laughter and the frustration of trying to master their headstand poses. When they get together after class, they discover that they have all lost their mothers and are still grieving. The three become fast friends, and they agree to help each other process their losses and sort through their mothers' leftover belongings. As each woman tackles their mothers' things, they learn more about who their mothers really were, and they are each faced with challenging decisions about how to move forward with their lives. The Secret Women is an emotional tale about friendship and the bonds between mothers and daughters. 

Review:

What a beautiful and relatable story this is. In The Secret Women, Sheila Williams captures all aspects of life - the good and the bad, the pain, the laughter. From the very first page, these characters are likable. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a yoga class and have wanted to swear out loud as I'm sweating and trying not to fall out of my pose. This is exactly what Elise does, and the laughter that ensues by Carmen and DeeDee brings these women together into a deep and beautiful friendship.    

As much as this book made me laugh, it equally brought me close to tears on several occasions. As a young woman with a complicated relationship with my own mother, reading this story made me face head-on what it will be like to someday lose her. The complexity of these women's emotions is portrayed so well - the guilt over what was left unsaid, the anger watching everyone else in the family seemingly move on, and the hard realizations that mothers have their own pasts, their own secrets, their own lives outside of being somebody's mom. 

Where this novel lost me was in the division of perspectives. It didn't feel to me that each woman was given an equal part of the story, with Carmen's mother being focused on for several chapters and Elise's mother hardly at all. DeeDee's story with her mother was arguably the most complicated, and I don't feel there was enough space given to it, with it being the last section of the book. Furthermore, while Elise, Carmen, and DeeDee were all very likable characters, they didn't feel particularly well-rounded, especially not compared to the rich descriptions and backstories we were given of their mothers. 

Overall, The Secret Women is an emotional and relatable book that is perfect for fans of Tayari Jones and Barbara O'Neal.