Review: The Someday Daughter, Ellen O’Clover

I fell for Ellen O’Clover’s debut, Seven Percent of Ro Devereux, last year. Obviously, I was eager to read more from this very promising YA contemporary author. Let me tell you this: I wasn’t disappointed, at all.

The Someday Daughter by Ellen O'Clover
Published by HarperTeen on February 20, 2024
Genres: contemporary, young adult
Format: ARC
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
Buy on Amazon, Bookshop, Blackwell's
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From the critically acclaimed author of Seven Percent of Ro Devereux comes another nuanced, heartrending, and ultimately healing novel, about a rising college freshman forced to spend a summer with the self-help superstar mother she’s never felt truly connected to.
Years before Audrey St. Vrain was born, her mother, Camilla, shot to fame with Letters to My Someday Daughter, a self-help book encouraging women to treat themselves with the same love and care they’d treat their own daughters. While the world considers Audrey lucky to have Camilla for a mother, the truth is that Audrey knows a different side of being the someday daughter. Shipped off to boarding school when she was eleven, she feels more like a promotional tool than a member of Camilla’s family.
Audrey is determined to create her own identity aside from being Camilla’s daughter, and she’s looking forward to a prestigious summer premed program with her boyfriend before heading to college and finally breaking free from her mother’s world. But when Camilla asks Audrey to go on tour with her to promote the book’s anniversary, Audrey can’t help but think that this is the last, best chance to figure out how they fit into each other’s lives—not as the someday daughter and someday mother, but as themselves, just as they are.
What Audrey doesn’t know is that spending the summer with Camilla and her tour staff—including the disarmingly honest, distressingly cute video intern, Silas—will upset everything she’s so carefully planned for her life.

I received this book for free from NetGalley, Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

☂️ TRIGGER WARNINGS: (click to reveal)

anxiety, panic attacks.

There are no spoilers in this review.

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I ENJOYED…

☂️

• Before anything else, The Someday Daughter is a beautiful, compelling, emotional story about family. The story focuses on Audrey, forced to go on a book tour with her mother, with whom she has a complicated relationship.
• It’s also about the complicated relationship between Audrey and her mental health, especially her anxiety. I’ll be honest: I didn’t quite see the way this book would hit me coming, when I first started reading it. But oh, it did. The way Audrey feels about her own mental health, the way she thinks about her own anxiety and just, feels… not going to lie, it hit me hard. It made me cry. I think I cried like, three times while reading this book and woah I did not expect that. So, that was good.
• Audrey’s a great main character to follow, really. Aside from her very relatable anxiety, she’s determined, she has goals, she’s ambitious and just does not want to give up. I loved her for that and cared for her so, so much.
• I just loved the way the secondary characters were shaped, as well. They’re all three dimensional and, as you get to know them a bit better, you start understanding them, as well. I just felt things for everyone and it was such a great, well-rounded cast of characters overall.

• It feels secondary in this book, but The Someday Daughter has such a lovely romance, as well. I absolutely adored Silas, the way he cares, the way he is, his adorable little pug with him always. I found the way their relationship grew as the story went on fantastic. It wasn’t overwhelming, nor did it cast a shadow on the main topic of the book (a.k.a family and anxiety). It was just great okay.
• I smiled, I cried, I felt things, I just loved this okay.

OVERALL

☂️

I think it’s safe to say that Ellen O’Clover is one of my favorite authors. I just adored The Someday Daughter and can’t wait to read everything and anything she will write, next. Highly recommending this one for any YA contemporary fans, especially of books dealing with family and mental health.

FINAL RATING : 5 stars!

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Did you read The Someday Daughter, or do you want to? Can you recommend me more books dealing with family issues? Let me know in comments!

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