Book Review: Finding Emma by Steena Holmes

As a parent, my biggest fear is Something Bad happening to my kids. The ambiguous Something could be anything...sickness, disease, injury, the d-word, kidnapping, or anything else that would be painful and horrifying to them and prevent them from fully living a good, long life.. I'm going to make an assumption here that there are not many parents who would disagree with me. It's the stuff of nightmares, without a doubt. Before I had children, I couldn't have imagined the things that I now envision happening to my kids during my darkest moments.

Steena Holmes' novel, Finding Emma, explores what happens to one family when their young daughter mysteriously disappears. After two years, Emma's mom, Megan, is (as I see it) still naturally obsessed with finding her child, while her dad, Peter, feels the need to move on, find closure, and turn the focus of their lives to their two other daughters. While in theory I can see his point, I think the unknown would drive me to the brink of insanity. I'm not sure I could ever stop looking for my child.

Megan is faced with a brutal decision: move forward with Peter and stop her urgent search for Emma, or risk losing her family. Megan isn't sure she can go on without the love and support of Peter, but has too much damage been done to save their marriage?

After reading this book, I truly can't imagine what I would do in a similar situation. I would have three other children who would still need me and depend upon me, but I would undoubtedly always feel like I was letting my missing child down if I wasn't searching ceaselessly. I can only pray I'm never faced with such a reality. I try to avoid even thinking about things like kidnapping, so it was a little tough for me to read Finding Emma at first. But once I got into it, I had to know how it ended. I finished the whole book in less than 24 hours, which meant a little sleep deprivation, but it was worth it. The ending wasn't my favorite, but nonetheless I would recommend this book. Right now the Kindle version is only $2.99 (click the picture above to take you right to it), so I suggest you get right on it!

I was provided a complimentary copy of Finding Emma for review purposes, but all opinions are my own. Please note that 50% of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the Missing Children's Society of Canada.