Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

My latest...I'm actually surprised I picked this up.  Reason:  I usually am not attracted to books that have a central plot and setting in Asia.  This one takes place, partly, in Mumbai, India.  It's a place that fascinates me but not because I would ever want to visit there.  No.  Instead, I'm fascinated by the hugeness of it.  The poverty.  The crowdedness that I can't imagine ever living in.  After reading this book, I have a different view of the place.

Synopsis:
Somer has a life that she's always wanted - a wonderful husband, a brand new career as a physician and the promise of what those two things will bring.  Unfortunately certain dreams are dashed when Somer and her husband Krishnan find out that she will not be able to have kids.  That same year, Kavita, a poor Indian mother is forced to give her baby girl up for adoption for fear that her husband will kill her because she wasn't a boy.  It is a choice that follows her for the rest of her life.  That baby, "Asha" is adopted out of the Mumbai orphanage and is placed in the loving arms of Somer and Kris.  These two worlds are thus bound together forever. 

I really, really enjoyed this novel.  How hard must it have been for Somer (blond-haired Californian) to never be thought of by strangers as Asha's mother.  Such a scary disconnect that she had with her daughter and something that her Indian husband could never grasp.  I felt a better understanding of the type of place that India is as well.  Maybe poverty-stricken in many areas but no less full of the same love we all feel for those special people in our lives.  Definite must read!