A mother and daughter unpack a lifetime’s secrets while on vacation in Paris.

Every daughter has her own distinctive voice, her inimitable style, and her secrets.

Laurie Ormson is an artist, a collector of experiences. She travels the world with a worn beige duffel bag.

Every mother has her own distinctive voice, her inimitable style, and her secrets.

Laurie’s mother is the famous “Dr. Liz.” An elegant perfectionist. She travels the world with a matched set of suitcases.

When Laurie invites her mother on a trip to Paris and Norway, she sees an unexpected sparkle in her mother’s eyes. So begins Things I Wish I Told My Mother. You will wish this novel never ends.

Laurie and Dr. Liz are the female version of The Odd Couple.

Authors Susan Patterson and Susan DiLallo were inspired to write their moving novel by the shared experience of beloved mothers who lived into their nineties then died in the same year. Their co-author, James Patterson, was usually around to fetch coffee, tea, and sandwiches while the two Susans wrote.

Things I Wish I Told My Mother (Amazon US) ( Amazon UK) (Audible.com) (AbeBooks Used Books Marketplace)

Having lost my mother this past year, and hearing good things about Things I Wish I Told My Mother and seeing it featured on CBS Sunday morning, I decided to take a chance and read the book that is also getting rave reviews.

Sadly, this book wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. Yes, it’s about a complex mother/daughter relationship, but beyond that, I couldn’t connect with the daughter, which may explain why this book just didn’t quite deliver for me.

Laurie and her mother go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Norway to visit family and spend some quality time together following her mother’s terminal diagnosis. It doesn’t go quite as planned. Dr. Liz is a hard nut to crack, and Laurie has a hard time just accepting her mother for herself. I was expecting more in the way of a mother and daughter learning to communicate clearly with one another and work on a difficult relationship, but that didn’t happen.

There was a twist at the end of the book that I wasn’t expecting that genuinely shocked me and made the book redeem itself. However, a lot was left unresolved between mother and daughter, which I guess is the point of the book. I realize that some people may be moved by this book, but it just didn’t do that for me.

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