Luke, an only child, was adopted, he's always known he was, his parents told him when he was 8 and then took him to boarding school. There he met Ben and they became best friends. Luke never felt loved, or wanted, he always knew that there was someone else, that maybe wanted him more, but couldn't love him. But his adopted parents never told him anything about his adoption, so he never really knew the truth. At birth, his parents named him Charlie, now he is Luke.

Now it's 2000, and a 28year old Luke meets Hannah, she showed him that she loved him more than anyone else could. And he loved her right back. Their love was united, unexpectedly, with the arrival of baby Samuel. His sweet precious little self sends longing though Luke that makes him wonder about his real mother and so, he starts searching for her, and along comes Alice.

Alice was at 47 amazing to look at and everything Luke could hope for, she adores Samuel and has so much in common with Hannah, as her job is arts correspondent for a national newspaper and Alice trained at The Slade, an art University in her youth and was best friends with Luke's father the renowned and internationally known artist Richard Fields.

They begin to slowly get to know each other and eventually, they find that as they cant find a nanny to look after Samuel when Hannah has to go back to work, Alice solves the problem perfectly.

This is a real psychological thriller at its best. Told from the points of view of Luke and a younger Alice, from the 70's when she meets Rick at Uni and Jacob a up and coming rockstar, his band The Disciples are tipped to be the next best thing. Jake becomes her and Alice become lovers - they both suffered traumatic childhoods and so their connection is deeply rooted by this. They spend a summer in Italy and dream about living there one day. Rick is her best friend and without giving too much else away, Alice does her best at continuing to hide secrets and having had so many years to hide them shes pretty good at it. The relationships between the characters are written so well, the guilt from Alice for giving up Luke as a baby, from Luke for betraying his adopted Mother - Christina and Hannah for leaving Samuel to go to work, the passion and love are clear from the outset.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mine and really hope you do too, its a thought-provoking read and one which brings many subjects matters together and deals with them individually.

Luke is 27 and works in the music industry as an artists and repertoire (A&R) man and runs his own record label, Epic, and his girlfriend, Hannah, also 27, is an arts correspondent for the culture section of The Sunday Times. They’ve recently had a baby, Samuel, who is three months old.

Luke was adopted and has always felt that he didn’t really belong anywhere. Becoming a father has made him think about his birth parents. When he tracks down his mother, Alice Garland, they meet up and there’s an instant connection. He learns more about Alice, who is now aged 47, single, has no other children and is an artist, and his father, Richard (Rick) Fields, who is a famous artist. Hannah is looking to go back to work, three days a week, and they’ve been unable to find a suitable au pair. Alice seems the ideal person to look after Samuel and she readily agrees.

As Luke and Hannah get to know Alice, and then Hannah goes back to work, things seem to be going well and Alice shares a great bond with baby Samuel, taking him to cafés, the library and the park, and having a great time. Luke, though, suffers from mixed emotions as he feels that he’s no closer to having a relationship with his biological mother and he’s jealous of her closeness with Samuel and also begins to become suspicious of her motives and behaviour and there are a few red flags that things aren’t right.

The story is told in two timelines: the ‘Now’ in 2000, which begins with Luke meeting Alice after all these years, and the ‘Then’ in 1972, where Alice and Rick are 18/19 years old and two of only 12 students on the fine arts degree at the Slade, the best arts school in the country.

We learn more about Alice’s past and the carefree but intense times she shared with friends and the relationship that defined her younger years, which all ended with the birth of Luke and subsequent act of giving him up for adoption.

At the beginning of Luke’s chapters, the paragraphs from Who Am I? The adoptee’s hidden trauma by Paul Harris, were an interesting insight into Luke and Alice’s emotions and feelings, and explained a lot of what they were experiencing. (I assume this is a fictional book as I couldn’t find it online.)

Mine was an intriguing and compelling story, with some great descriptions of music and art, and was cleverly written with a plot that built up nicely, with a great sense of tension, foreboding and fear. I felt that something bad was going to happen but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what!

Emotionally charged and beautifully written, Mine was an interesting look at the impact of adoption and how, for Luke, it defined him and had affected his whole life and relationships with others and meant that he had a sense of not belonging. Alice had also been deeply affected by giving up her son and had never got over it, which was equally sad.

Overall, I really enjoyed Mine; it was very thought provoking and emotional, and I liked the way the heartbreaking story unfolded and we got to know the real truth about the past, which several of the main protagonists had tried to hide in various ways. I’m really looking forward to reading Him now, which I bought over a year ago!

Having a baby is frequently cited as a life-changing experience by many parents but for Luke the instant love he feels for his son, Samuel is bittersweet as he was adopted and though he had a privileged upbringing, he has always felt like an outsider. However, he has managed to trace his birth mother, Alice and Mine opens with their first tentative meeting.
The narrative switches between Luke's storyline and his desperate need to connect with the woman who gave birth to him but then gave him away and Alice's experiences twenty-seven years previously which eventually come to explain why she reached the decision to let her baby son go. Although there is a creeping sense of dread in both storylines, Mine isn't so much a psychological thriller as a beautifully observed, empathetic domestic drama which doesn't seek to assign blame but instead sensitively explores the need to feel wanted and to belong to somebody.
Many of us will have seen television programmes where an adopted child is reunited with one or both of their birth parents but other than a brief update, we don't always discover how these strangers who are so closely related manage to negotiate their new relationships with each another. It's not uncommon for people to claim they feel an instant bond with a long-lost parent or child and that's reflected here with Luke and Alice experiencing an intense connection with one another. Luke's girlfriend, Hannah immediately clicks with Alice too and when they are introduced to Rick, the successful artist who Luke has learned is his father, there is a natural warmth between them all that suggests Luke will finally experience the feeling of belonging he believes has always been missing from his life. In contrast, his relationship with his adoptive mother seems strained and awkward and though she offers to help with Samuel, it seems that she is unable to respect their parenting decisions and instead looks to assert her own beliefs on child-rearing on them.
In 1972, the nineteen-year-old Alice is in her first term at Slade but doubts whether she deserves her place as one of only twelve students accepted on the fine arts degree. Fortunately she has Rick to bolster her confidence and throughout the course of the novel, I loved the beautiful depiction of the friendship between the pair which epitomises the value of platonic love. However, it's her relationship with Jake which I found to be the most compelling part of the book; as a rock star who has already tasted success and looks set for stardom, his interest in the much younger Alice could have felt predatory but the passionate love affair that develops between them is actually deeply touching. As the story progresses and we learn more about their formative years, it isn't surprising that the pair should be so drawn to one another but even when things seem to be almost perfect there is always a sense of uneasy foreboding because we know that eventually Alice will reach the point where she becomes unable to keep her son. There's a heartrending poignancy to these chapters and it's here that the truth as to why the modern day Alice behaves as she does, is finally revealed.
The relationship between Alice and Luke is absolutely fascinating; both are immensely believable, flawed characters who are driven by their pasts to take increasingly desperate action to protect those they love. Although there are times when they are evidently in the wrong, it's impossible not to feel deep sympathy for their anguish - Clare Empson so perfectly captures the unbearable pain of love and loss here. The sense of time is rendered superbly too, especially in the parts of the book set in the seventies where the the attitudes of the time - particularly regarding sexual liberation and homosexuality - are examined, and the music and fashion of the era is used to great effect.
Mine is one of those books that got under my skin, I genuinely cared about these vulnerable, very real characters and although I expected the tears, the intensity of the emotions evoked in the latter part of the novel still caught me by surprise. There's hope here too, however, with the recognition that love and families come in all forms. Engrossing, sensitive and heartbreaking writing such as this deserves every plaudit coming its way and Mine should be an enormous success. I highly recommend it.

Alice is reunited with Luke, the son she gave away 27 years ago. He found her after having his own child. Now Luke needs to negotiate a new relationship with his birth parents and be sensitive to his adoptive mother.
Alice agrees to help out with childcare so that Luke's partner Hannah can return to work. But is her interest in her grandson as healthy as it should be...?
The narrative of Mine is divided into Luke in the present and Alice in the past. The daunting prospect of Luke's fragile relationship with his birth parents is juxtaposed with Alice's carefree love affair with a singer in a band in the 1970s.
Mine is a highly emotional book. Alice is trying to make amends and pushes all her maternal love onto her grandson but it does have sinister undertones and drives her further apart from her son. Hannah is dealing with the guilt at returning to work. Luke struggles to feel loved and accepted by bothe his birth and adoptive parents.
We read about the developing relationship between Alice and Jacob in the past with growing trepidation as we know it must end in tragedy due to the adoption. My heart was in my mouth reading the final chapter and epilogue (no spoilers!). Clare Empson's writing is so easy to relate to and tugs at the heartstrings from the first page to the last.

Clare Empson hit the ground running with her bestselling debut, 'Him', and now she is back, once again, to give readers sleepless nights, as they ponder what they have just read, and eagerly turn page after page to find out what happens next.

This story is beautifully balanced-on the one hand, is the adopted Luke, birth name Charlie, a grown man and father, who has never quite moved on from the disconnect he feels as an adopted child. His new role in being a partner to Hannah and father to Samuel, has meant a massive upheaval in his emotions and his need to create a secure bedrock for his son . Part of this has him searching for his birth mother, a fact he keeps secret from his adoptive mother.

Luke's tale is alternated between the 'Then' of his birth mother Alice, an art school student with dreams and ambitions at a time when you could act upon them, hired to create album art for an upcoming band. It is supposed that Luke's father is famous artist Richard -or Rick- but as Alice's story unravels, you become less certain of the facts as they have been told to Luke, and begin to feel the ground beneath you wobble, as it does for Luke.

The genius of this book is in it's quiet, almost simplistic story telling nature, it is so cleverly constructed that you don't even realise how much it has sucked you into these people's lives until you have to get up and turn out a light, feed yourself or the pets because you have been reading all day and suddenly it's nighttime. The complex nature of parenthood, the notion that children 'belong' to you and are beholden to you to make successes of their lives, is explored through all the intertwining relationships. There is Alice, with her cold mother and alcoholic father. Jacob, the talented musician and his violent grandfather. Luke with his adoptive parents, sent off to boarding school. Christina, Luke's adoptive mother and the child she was unable to have versus the one that society deemed her fit to raise.

And in the midst of this emotional whirlpool is not only the mystery surrounding Luke's paternity, there is the relationship between Alice and Samuel. With Hannah going back to work, she seems the obvious solution to their child care needs;after all, Samuel loves her and they can all get to know each other better as time passes. What no one has accounted for, however, is the unwelcome guest at the table-jealousy.

Is Luke Charlie if he lets his birth mother become a mother to him as a grown up? Where does his sense of identity lie? How does that change his relationship to his own son and adopted mother? Without an undercurrent of character development, each of these people would have felt like tropes, but Clare writes so well from the point of view of both male, and female, characters, that you feel you are getting an insight into a very real set of people.

With your heart in your mouth , you are completely engrossed in what happens, a very human, very real story with no obvious good vs bad characters and a complex situation which does not gloss over how challenging it is to be a parent. The affirmation of love in contrast to the disdain, or outright hatred that some of these adults exhibit towards their progeny is so well realised.

A thriller,yes, a mystery and a character study, this book suspends your belief and takes you outside of yourself as you let Clare's characters in. She treats all of them with a sense of realness that belies the 'this is the villain', 'this is the good guy' writing which could so easily create stereotypes of maternal/paternal abandonment. Clever, moving and just so engagin, I thoroughly recommend this 5 star read. And a bit of a lie down after finsihing to catch your breath, And then go and buy 'Him' because really, Clare is a rising star of fiction writing and you are going to want to add her to your list of favourite writers.

I was a huge fan of this author’s first book so I was very excited to read more from her. Mine is another intense, powerful read which I have continued to think about long after I have finished reading.

I’ve often wondered how traumatic and life changing giving up a child must be for everyone involved. It’s a decision that must haunt you for years and something you often think about. I therefore had a lot of sympathy for both Luke and Alice for the situation they find themselves in with all the raw emotion that they were both feeling.

As emotional as Luke and Alice’s meeting is, things soon becomes quite frightening as Alice forms a strong attachment to Luke little girl. Alarm bells started ringing and I found myself feeling quite uneasy as to how things were going. There’s a strong sense of foreboding hanging over the whole book as the reader gets the sense early on that something bad is going to happen but has no idea what and when. I found myself trying to read faster to find out what it was going to be.

The thing that most stood out for me in this book was how connected I felt to the characters. Despite everything that happens I felt very close to them and felt I understood why they were acting the way they were. It’s definitely a heartbreaking read at times due to the subject matter but I think it would make a great read for anyone who likes psychological thrillers as it is very gripping.

Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Orion for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

This is the kind of book that you read mostly holding your breath. The kind of book that you just have to race through to find out what happens. And one that, by the end, reduced me to a quivering emotional wreck. I found it to be such a moving and powerful novel that I have thought about it often since I turned the final page.

Luke is adopted. When he finally meets his birth mother, Alice, he has a son of his own. MINE is set out in dual timelines and alternates between the two. We follow Luke’s story in the present day as well as the story of Alice’s youth and the events leading up to and after Luke’s birth. There is a creeping sense of foreboding throughout this novel: a certain knowledge that something bad is going to happen but you’re not quite sure what that’s going to be and who is going to be at fault. Emotions run HIGH and it really got me thinking about issues surrounding adoption and reunions between birth and adoptive families. Though I can’t profess to know about this first hand, I thought that the book’s personalities and their emotions felt realistic, causing me to really empathise with them. Each of the central characters battle their own mental health struggles, and as the story unravels we see how the sum of their individual problems results in some devastating consequences.

As soon as I started the first few chapters of this book, I was totally engrossed. Each chapter keeps you wanting more. Mine is an intense and engaging character drama. It’s hard to look away, like watching a car crash, as you turn the pages waiting to find out the truth.

Superbly plotted with enough red-herrings to ensure that the reader is never quite sure what really happened. A myriad of surrounding cast were great characters, multi-dimensional and full of depth. I kept changing my mind over who to trust and who not to as the author led me along numerous wrong turns.

The pace is a brisk one, one where the tension never lets up, and there are plenty of mini-dramas to keep the reader entertained so this book doesn’t suffer with the mid-book slump which sadly seems to afflict psychological thrillers. What starts as a novel about a missing child turns into something that is dark, chilling and quite intoxicating. It is simply spine-tingling to read with a cleverly woven plot that tells of lies, secrets and will leave the reader gasping at the final reveal.

There are two protagonists in this story, Alice and Luke, and the story is told from their perspectives. Alice is Luke’s biological mother, and Luke only recently found her. Alice integrates into this family really quickly, until Luke realises that something is not right. Alice is sharing her story with the reader, her life in the seventies, when she was a young art student, that had a beautifully heartbreaking relationship, that caused her to give up Luke for adoption. I really liked Alice’s parts of this story, it was very absorbing and romantic. Luke’s parts were less interesting to me, even though that was were the mysterious events were happening, I found it a little slower paced. I think the author allowed me to connect with the protagonists through their thoughts and all the challenges the characters had to endure. 

The narrative has a nice contrast between the past and the present, and this combination made this read more intriguing and absorbing. This novel breaks the barrier between genres, we have a romantic story and a domestic thriller mixed together, and I really enjoyed this way of storytelling. The plot had tendencies of kind of plodding along sometimes, and I would have liked a little more pace and twists added to it. It is a really emotional read, filled with depression, wishes to belong, secrets, abusive parenting and many more.

I liked the author’s writing style in this novel, it was creatively written and well delivered. I enjoyed the research done for this book in the music and arts industries, it was intriguing to read about the music bands lifestyle. The setting of this book constantly changes between seventies London and present day, and I really liked the ability to learn more about the past. The chapters had a decent length and didn’t drag to me. I really loved the ending, it left me shocked and nearly in tears, I really wasn’t expecting it.

So, to conclude, it was a very layered novel, filled with artistic and creative characters, that are intriguing and complex at the same time. The plot is constantly changing and indulging, but I would have liked more pace and suspense.

Well, it’s a fact she did it again! Clare has broken me again! This is the second book I’ve read by her and Him was my book of the year last year, so when I picked this up I thought I knew what to expect! I was wrong.

I knew she would write a story where she had snappy chapters to keep me reading because I had to know what the frick would happen.

I knew she would write a story where we saw what happened in the past to shape the future and then write the present day to see the fallout.

I knew she would write a story where love would be so encompassing and passionate but also destructive.

What I didn’t expect were the number of tears there would be, I still knew there would be some. When we reach the catastrophic events in the past, I was shocked, my world had been rocked because even though you knew something like that would happen you still didn’t expect it to actually happen. Again, Clare has broken me. How a few sentences in a book can destroy you is unreal. You become protective of the people that are involved and you want to change the author’s words to make it all right in the world again. Problem is, as we know, we can’t. We have to somehow accept the events and we have to deal with it just like the characters. Man! How do we do that!

Alice is damaged due to what happened in her past, in the 70s, and Luke, he is damaged due to this past. It is euphoric when we see them meet for the first time, and there is so much hope. A hope that things can finally be different. As in Him, Mine is pivotal around love and destruction and it pulls you in from the opening pages. I couldn’t let go of Alice and Luke’s journey.

Even though this is not a short book, I felt everything was rushed. It was just over too quickly, I mean I just devoured this book and now I am feeling so annoyed with myself that I didn’t savour the book more. I am so bloody gutted it’s over! I just know that anything Clare writes I will be reading, it’s like a compulsion I had to read the story written.

Mine tackles a subject of adoption and the impacts on everyone’s lives that it can have. It is incredibly emotive and it is one that will stay with me. My only complaint is that it is over way too quickly! I do not know what else to say, it will definitely be in my list at the end of the year.

4☆ Highly Compelling, Enthralling and Poignant, A Must Read!

Mine is a highly compelling story about family, jealousy, bonding, adoption, guilt, relationships, it's gripping and at times a rollercoaster of emotions

Alice gave up her Son Luke for adoption.
Luke has always wanted to find his birth parents and to find out answers. So he seeks out Alice.

So when Alice and Luke meet he now has a family, a Wife Hannah and a son called Samuel.
As they get to know each other, after all these years, Alice offers to look after young Samuel.

Alice loves Samuel as a grandparent would, but in seeing this bond Luke craved and missed out on, sparks up a touch of jealousy and he begins to wonder if letting Alice care for Samuel is such a good idea after all!

I loved learning about Alice's story and why she came to the painful decision to give Luke up for adoption.
Then there was Luke's story, the impact of being adopted, finding Alice and how it would/is effecting his relationship with his adopted parents, the impact it has on his own relationship with his mother and his family and son.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading MINE, it was completely enthralling, there is so many layers to this book. It has a psychological feel, yet it's poignant, and cleverly plotted.
It's very much a character driven story set between two time lines, which I loved as it gave the plot so much depth.

If you love your Family Thrillers to be so much more than a thriller, that take you on a rollercoaster of emotions then I highly recommend this fantastic book!

Thank you to Compulsive Readers Tours and Orion Publishers for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily

I don't have triggers and book themes that I avoid but this one hit home for me as an adopter.    

It is a mild psychological/family thriller but the relationships and issues that are woven throughout are extremely well written and almost a plot within itself.  Each character was explored in depth and brought out some intense emotions in me as I was reading.     

The novel is told from the perspectives of Luke and of Alice (his biological mother). They are narrated across a dual timeline of the present, and Alice's student days.  Learning about Alice as a younger person and her reasons for giving up Luke were done tenderly and with respect.  Luke grows up with adoptive parents but always having unanswered questions and feeling like he has missed out, he is thrilled to meet his birth mother, Alice. 

As Alice forms a strong and loving bond with Luke's son Samuel, it stirs a lot of dormant feeling in Luke.  Jealousy, loss, grief? They are all there inside and the raw emotions are integrated into the characters well. 

There is an element of thriller in this novel, mainly driven by the incredibly well written character's rather than events.  The tension builds throughout and there are a few little surprised in there too.  For me though, the emotional aspect of this book was something I was unprepared for but truly loved.  

This is my first novel by Clare Empson and it will not be my last.  Highly recommended.

I was not prepared for the avalanche of emotions that I would feel while reading this book. Ms Empson broke me with this absorbing story of motherhood, family and true love.

Told over dual timelines the story begins with 27-year-old Luke meeting his birth mother, Alice, for the first time. We then follow as they get to know each other and as Alice meets Luke's girlfriend Hannah and baby son Samuel, and Luke meets his father Rick. Their reunion goes so well that when Hannah returns to work after her maternity leave, Alice is the one to look after Samuel. But as Alice gets closer to the family, and Samuel in particular, Luke begins to question how well they know her. Can they really trust her with their baby? Or is Luke being paranoid because he feels he's being pushed out by his mother all over again?

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started this book, but it certainly wasn't something so emotional. The story is steadily paced with flashbacks to Alice finding her true love, becoming pregnant and giving up the baby she wanted to raise running parallel to the story of the two of them reconnecting twenty-seven years later. I liked the author’s decision to only have Alice's point of view in the flashbacks as it added to the sense of mystery and put us in the same boat as Luke with wondering what happened when he was a baby and what her intentions are now. It also added to the sense of foreboding that is present throughout the book, though you are never quite sure what it will mean and where the story will take you.

The characters slowly reveal themselves in the same way people do when getting to know each other. You could tell the author had researched the emotional impact of adoption on everyone involved and she brings that to each character expertly. The author has a way of reaching into your heart and soul so you feel everything they do: elation, trepidation and optimism when Luke and Alice meet and become part of each other's lives, the passion and intensity of Alice and Jacob falling in love, and Luke's heartache and confusion as his feelings for his birth mother become more complex. Both narrators were likeable, relatable and sympathetic. I was rooting for them individually and as mother and son, hoping for a happy ending after the heartache they’ve both suffered.

Mine is an engrossing, poignant, hopeful and heartbreaking story. This is the first time I’ve read anything by this author and I will be buying her first book so I can read more.

This book is listed as a psychological thriller, and although it did have the elements of a thriller, to me it seemed like so much more than that, this had me feeling a whole array of emotions that I didn’t know wether I was coming or going.

The book opens with Luke meeting his birth mother Alice for the first time and the story follows them getting to know each other.

The book is told from two perspectives in two different timelines, you get the ‘Then’ chapters which follows Alice from the age of 18 and you get to see how she came to the decision of putting Luke up for adoption. The ‘Now’ chapters are told from Luke’s perspective & you get to see things from his side, how it feels to meet his mother & watch her bond with his young son Samuel.

All seems perfect right? You soon learn that all is not always as it seems on the surface and that everyone has secrets and a past that they can’t always deal with.

There were some twists that I didn’t see coming and others that I predicted, but I couldn’t put this book down and had it finished within a few hours!

One word…Wow!

What an emotional story Mine was, I say emotional but actually it was an emotional roller-coaster. The synopsis tells you the basics you need to know about this story and to be honest I am not going to really expand on that.

The story is essentially two stories that are intertwined in a Now and Then format. The Now part of the story of Luke and how he finally gets to meet Alice, his birth mother, and how their relationship builds. The second story is about Alice and her journey through Art school, life and to the point of giving her son up for adoption.

There are obviously others in the story, Hannah is Luke’s partner and together they have Samuel, there is Luke’s mother as well. In the past there are those important to Alice, such as renowned artist Rick.

During this slower paced story the there are various aspects that the author has dealt with and I think has done very well. There is an obvious impact of reconnecting with a birth parent, expectations, questions, guilt are just the tip of the iceberg. The impact is felt for all that are part of the family and in someways careful managing is needed.

The emotion aspect of the story was gradually built up, from the initial nervousness of a first meeting to Alice becoming part of the family. While the story does have a psychological thriller feel to it, it is more about family relationships, and it has a more dramatic second half.

A fabulous read that had some surprises, and though I did have a nervous feeling I wasn’t quite expecting the way the author played her story line out. A cracking read for readers who like a book that has a slower build-up, that is as much about family life and relationships as it is the psychological thriller. It is one I would definitely recommend.

Mine deals with sensitive issues and really breathes life into the saying that your past is never really in your past. We are all a result of our upbringings. Memories. The laughter. Endless tears. It is all an echo that rings in the lost memories of our childhood. It is useless to try and outrun the fears that revisiting the past can open back up. You can lace up those trainers and try to get ahead of it, but it’s going to catch up with you eventually.

Mine is the story of Luke and his wife, Hannah. Together they have a son, Samuel. The novel examines the reawakening that occurs in Luke. The birth of his son has brought old scars back into the Frey. His past ghosts now inhabit his consciousness. He believed that he had moved on but now he is wrecked with thoughts about his birth mother. Every shadow and corner brings him back full circle – wondering about where he came from. It makes you wonder about the other side of the coin – how does the parent, especially the mother, move on from such an action? He meets his mother, Alice, now aged 47. A very attractive woman by all means who gave Luke up when he was only a few weeks old. She was an aspiring artist and now paints portraits of pets. Was it really worth it? Luke doesn’t gain much of a reason for why he was given up for adoption.

Mine certainly has a raw undercurrent of a melancholy tune. It is sadness for years lost. For an emptiness. The writing was magnetic. I was pulled towards it from the very first page. It was addictive and squeezed at my heart, especially as a mother. I don’t think I would have every fully moved on from that.

Alice was a deeply frustrating character for me. She was given the opportunity that doesn’t always come knocking for birth parents. He she has her baby boy back in front of her and she doesn’t grasp on to him with both hands. He represents a new life. A renewed future. A second chance. Instead he is greeted with this cold, standoffish persona. She never lets him in and I just want to grab her and shake her, make her realise just what an opportunity she has. As the story progresses we are afforded the details of why and you slowly come around to the idea that yes maybe she had her reasons, maybe even sympathise with her.

The story moves forward with Hannah returning to work. Try as they might, they cannot find a suitable Au Pair to look after their son. After seeing Alice bond with Samuel, it is suggested that this could be a perfect solution. Luke watches and becomes jealous of the relationship between his son and his mother. Can he really trust her with his son? Just how much does he know about her? It is clear to the eye that his issues with abandonment run very deep, he is unsettled but just can’t shake off the feeling.

Mine is successfully layered this novel with the coldness and fear of what abandonment can result in. Clare Empson has created a menacing atmosphere with darkly compelling characters that take up space in your head.

Mine is the unique, heart wrenching story of Luke and Alice; but it comes with distinct psychological thriller undertones. Full of emotional depth, this a read sure to grip you right to the very end.

Following the birth of his son Samuel, Luke goes in search of his own birth mother who gave him up as a baby. Empson immediately immerses you right into the heart of the story from the first page with Luke meeting Alice, his biological mother for the very first time. Luke is immediately enthralled by Alice; throughout his life he has always felt a painful sense of lacking so when he finally starts to build a relationship with her, it feels similar to falling in love. Yet the happy feeling of falling in love gradually turns to jealousy as Alice expresses much more emotional feelings towards Samuel than she has ever expressed towards Luke.

This is an emotional story that really captured me and gripped at my heart; especially as it is also written from Alice’s point of view as well as Luke’s. The narrative is written using a dual timeline; when Alice finally escapes her unhappy childhood to study art in London throughout 1972/73; and in 2000 when Alice and Luke reconnect 27 years later. We soon realise that the ‘story’ Alice is telling Luke of his birth is not quite the reality of what actually happened.

As you know I’m a big fan of character driven reads, and Mine is definitely character driven. Yes, it is tense and gripping but as both Luke’s and Alice’s emotive stories are portrayed, their vulnerabilities are explored with authentic compassion. I really empathised with them – especially Alice.

As the plot ramps up to a dramatic, sweeping end, I was left shocked and heartbroken. But in a way, I was also left with my heart warmed as this is a book that also celebrates the power of love, friendship and forgiveness.

Mine is an ideal ‘lockdown read’ in my view. Yes, I know that the shops aren’t open at the moment for you to buy. But many bookshops including independent bookshops are doing deliveries – so please support them and buy your physical copy online NOW while you’ve got all this extra time to read. And for all you Kindle readers out there, you can have your e-copy in just a minute after buying.

Thank you to Tracy Fenton from Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be part of the blog tour to help promote this tense, visceral read. However a massive thank you to Clare Empson for keeping me gripped throughout.

This is a disturbing, gripping, interesting, scarily written book that touches on the effects of adoption, and families reuniting and a whole mess of other baggage that was woven intricately into everything that was going on. A heartstopping book that I recommend.

A great thriller which had me hooked. Well written and hard to put down, definitely worth a read.

Recommended.

This is the kind of book that you read mostly holding your breath. The kind of book that you just have to race through to find out what happens. And one that, by the end, reduced me to a quivering emotional wreck. I found it to be such a moving and powerful novel that I have thought about it often since I turned the final page.


Luke is adopted. When he finally meets his birth mother, Alice, he has a son of his own. MINE is set out in dual timelines and alternates between the two. We follow Luke’s story in the present day as well as the story of Alice’s youth and the events leading up to and after Luke’s birth. 
There is a creeping sense of foreboding throughout this novel: a certain knowledge that something bad is going to happen but you’re not quite sure what that’s going to be and who is going to be at fault. Emotions run HIGH and it really got me thinking about issues surrounding adoption and reunions between birth and adoptive families. Though I can’t profess to know about this first hand, I thought that the book’s personalities and their emotions felt realistic, causing me to really empathise with them. Each of the central characters battle their own mental health struggles, and as the story unravels we see how the sum of their individual problems results in some devastating consequences.


While the present day is a gripping family drama and psychological thriller, I really enjoyed how this was set against the beautiful love story of Alice’s youth. Alice’s bohemian lifestyle, consumed by art and music, feels evocative of the era allowing the reader to really connect with her. In the present, a slow and increasingly tense build-up leads to an emotional ending, and I found myself shedding more than a couple of tears. If you’re looking to completely immerse yourself in a book then look no further - highly recommended.

This is really a story of family and relationships more than a psychological thriller. Told in dual timeline, in the present we meet Luke, Hannah and their newborn Samuel and then it goes back to tell the story of Luke’s birth mother Alice.

This was a slow burn of a read really getting to the heart of the characters and the emotional effects of adoption and how the person adopted still feels that pull to know where they come from. I think especially once having a child of his own Luke really struggled to understand being given away and was desperate to connect with Alice.

But when Alice falls in love with baby Samuel, is she replacing the baby she gave away and giving herself a second chance? Luke’s jealousy and unraveling silently seethed from the pages and you really felt for him. I won’t go much more into the plot as this book would be so easy to spoil. Plenty of tension to keep you gripped, a few nice twists and a Kleenex worthy ending make this an emotional book well worth reading and this is one that will stay with you long after the final page is turned.