The Midwife's Secret- Book Review

The Midwife's Secret by Emily Gunnis

Genre: Historical/ Multiple Timelines 

3.5 Stars 

One Liner: Too many things maybe. 

Yew Tree Manor has seen a lot of tragedy and hides many secrets. No one knows what happened to Alice, the seven-year-old girl who vanished one evening in 1969. 

It’s 2017, and the Manor is all set to be demolished to develop a new series of buildings. However, history repeats when Sienna, the six-year-old of Leo Hilton, disappears the same way. Leo is Alice’s elder brother and the current owner of Yew Tree Manor. 

Willow James is the architect overseeing the project. She’s the daughter of Bobby James, the last person to see Alice alive, the boy who grew up into a broken man in a detention center. Willow knows there are secrets around her and intends to dig out the truth, come what may. 

The task isn’t easy, of course. The story began sometime in 1945 and much before that. Willow’s great-grandmother was a midwife and lived in the Vicarage on the grounds of Yew Tree Manor. She was wronged and declared guilty for a crime she didn’t commit, and things have never been good for long ever since. 

Can Willow put an end to the pain and justice for her family? 

Confused by the blurb I wrote? The story pretty much moves on similar lines. It was a little easier because I copied the chart provided on the book's first page and referred to it. 

The story moves in three timelines with different characters as the focal points. All of it is the limited third person, and some sudden shifts were confusing. Not the ones between the chapters but the shift between immediate past and present in the same chapter. 

The beginning is slow but picks up pace as more information is revealed. The twists were transparent enough to see most of the time. I’m not sure if this would be classified as a mystery as such. 

What I Like: 

• The track dealing with Tessa (the midwife) and how much hatred women like her had to face. 

• Bella was an effective character, and Nell was cute as a child. 

• Sienna was endearing despite having a limited role in the book. 

What Could Have Been Better: 

• With so many characters in focus, I couldn’t feel for any of them. Tess and Bella were the strongest. Willow’s arc didn’t feel effective enough. There wasn’t enough of her to feel a connection. 

• Charlie felt more like a prop than Willow’s boyfriend. He goes in and out of the story, and I feel bad for him. 

• There were too many themes in the book, and none of them got full justice. The midwife’s secret isn’t even a secret, as it was revealed during the initial pages. I was expecting another bigger secret that would turn things upside down in the present, but that didn’t happen. 

• I love happy endings. Still, this one felt a little too neat and convenient. 

To sum up, The Midwife’s Secret was underwhelming, which could be due to many topics it tries to handle at once. The effort is commendable. I liked the portions related to the title. 

Thank you, NetGalley, Mobius Books, and Headline Review, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

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