Freedom’s Pursuit

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

A mother is capable of many things, some good and others bad. With an opening line of “My name is Freedom Oliver and I killed my daughter,” Jax Miller’s Freedom’s Child begins with the promise of being an interesting tale.

Hidden within the Witness Protection Program, Freedom Oliver has been separated from her children for twenty years and keeping her husband’s murder a secret, along with some other less savory secrets. But just because she’s been separated from her children doesn’t mean that Freedom has become resigned to allow her son Mason and daughter Rebekah fade into the past; rather, she keeps up-to-date on their lives through their Facebook pages and the online church sermons of their adoptive parents. So when Rebekah’s page goes silent for several days, which is out of character, both Freedom and Mason become concerned about Rebekah’s welfare. Freedom begins her frantic search to reconcile with the daughter that she knew for all of two minutes, which leads her to uncovering something greater and more frightening.

It was easy to get drawn into the story as it had all the makings of a Lifetime movie, one of those guilty pleasures you might afford yourself on a rainy weekend afternoon, but the story was ultimately rather cliched with very little nuance to set it apart from already established stories (and history). The chapters were kept brief to keep the suspense building up to the ending, which was ultimately quite trite. This narrative was entertainingly crafted so long as you weren’t looking for something original, but I certainly appreciate the flawed characteristics of Freedom as a protagonist–it made her seem more human.

Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.