#Blogtour The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker

 It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker.

About the Author

Ellen Baker is the author of Keeping the House and I Gave My Heart to Know This. She has worked as a bookseller and event coordinator at an independent bookstore. Originally from the Upper Midwest, she currently lives in Maine. Follow @EllenBakerBooks on X

About the book

In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago, promising to be back once she’s made enough money to support both Cecily and herself. But she never returns, and shortly after high-spirited Cecily turns seven, she is sold to a traveling circus to perform as the “little sister” to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. With Isabelle and the rest of the circus, Cecily finally feels she’s found the family she craves. But as the years go by, the cracks in her little world begin to show. And when teenage Cecily meets and falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto an entirely unexpected—and dangerous—course.

In 2015, Cecily is now 94 and living a quiet life in Minnesota, with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson. But when her family decides to surprise her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light the tragic love story that Cecily has kept hidden for decades but also throw into question everything about the family she’s raised and claimed as her own for nearly seventy years. Cecily and everyone in her life must now decide who they really are and what family—and forgiveness—really mean.

Sweeping through a long period of contemporary history, The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson is an immersive, compelling, and entertaining family drama centered around one remarkable woman and her determination to survive.

Review

Hidden within the folds of familial relationships and complexities is the realisation that the parents we know often only allow us a brief look into their lives, before they disappear again. The child, the teen and the young person who came before is often an unknown entity to the family and children they create. Secrets, trauma, mysteries and many a chapter locked in deep vaults forever.

If a DNA project had never opened said vault then chances are Cecily would have taken her past and her memories to the grave. Instead something as simple as a genetic story of connections opens up the door to answers and healing.

I think it's important to note the atrocities committed in the name of profit, of virtue signalling and with a general lack of empathy. Just another massive statistic of children, girls and young women who were left traumatised and maimed in the name of the greater good. Tragic.

It's a story that would work well on-screen and in a sense is written in a way that plays to that thought. Historical fiction with a nod to a contemporary family structure, which includes both flaws and bonds.

Buy The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Mariner Books, pub date 20 Feb. 2024. Buy at Amazon com. Via Bookshop org.