Review: All The Acorns on the Forest Floor by Kim Hooper

For many women, becoming a mother is the strongest expression of love they know, for others the conscience choice to not have children empowers them to live their truth. Motherhood looks different for all of the women in Kim Hooper’s, All the Acorns On the Forest Floor.

Alex is pregnant with her second child, fearful because her first pregnancy ended at 16 weeks. Deb is reckoning with the fact that she was abandoned as a newborn by her mother. Wendy is wrestling with her early feelings on having children. These stories are interwoven into the stories of other women who are intentionally childless, adults reckoning with adoptions, and unwed women who had to make difficult choices.

This novel-in-stories is designed to tug at the heart strings, but also provide hope, comfort, and insight into the true nature of women’s shared experiences with the narrative of motherhood and society’s expectations. We see the women at their most vulnerable, making decisions that will forever change the course of their lives. As each character’s narrative unfolds, the book illustrates how small and connected people’s lives really are, no one’s circumstances are as unique as they feel.

All the Acorns On the Forest Floor is a novel about mothers and daughters and the sometimes difficult relationships they have with those closest to them. These are stories of the deep, abiding love mothers and children have for one another, but also of how fragile those relationships can be when difficult decisions must be made.

Review: I really loved with this book and connected with it on a whole level that I didn't expect. This is a collection of short stories and so it fitted really well with my current lack of attention span for physical or eBooks because I could pick this beauty up, read a story or two and come back to in a couple of hours later. If you haven't tried short stories before this would be an excellent place to start because all the stories in this one are linked by a common theme and have characters in common with one another. 

This book does come with a care warning for baby loss and infertility but these issues are handled really well in the book through stories and characters that feel familiar and relatable. Some of these stories are definitely sad, some ever heart breaking but the connection that they all have of motherhood in one form or another is incredible uplifting. There are some funny moments and some really intriguing characters throughout this book. 

A short story collection like this one is great because if you don't gel with one of the stories, you can move on and even come back to it after reading the next. I didn't necessarily read them all in order either and their vary in length, This book came along at the perfect time for me and I really do recommend this novel. 

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US