The Offering by Angela Hunt

Amanda Hocking is a typical young wife and mother struggling to make ends meet. She decides to help a childless family by becoming their gestational surrogate, hoping to achieve some financial stability of her own. After a few false starts, Amanda finally gets pregnant with another couple’s embryo, but just as she is entering her final month of pregnancy, her soldier husband is killed. Devastated, Amanda goes through the motions trying to regain her equilibrium and raise her daughter alone.

Three years later, Amanda finally sees a photograph of the child she carried for the other family. He looks remarkably familiar; is it possible she gave birth to her own biological baby and unknowingly gave him away? When a DNA test confirms her mistake, Amanda must choose between the desires of her grieving heart and what is best for the child she has never truly known.

My thoughts...

This book was so good, I hated to see it end. Hunt is such a great writer, she has taken us right into the Lisandra family with their wonderful family dinners and get togethers as well as their problems. Amanda's husband is a soldier and frequently leaves on a mission in the middle of the night, he's so in love with her he would promise her the moon. He agrees to her idea of being a gestational carrier for a couple in France. When he is killed in the line of duty Amanda goes into a deep depression. Losing her husband and giving up the child she's been carrying for nine is just too much for her.

Two years later she receives a picture of the child on his second birthday and is shocked by how much he looks like her daughter. Having a lock of his hair she has a DNA test and the results show he is her son! What ensues is an emotional story of a mother wanting the biological child of her husband and the only mother their child has ever known. The pain each endures is heartbreaking.

I loved the book and give it 5 out of 5 stars! I have to say I am pleased with Amanda's decision.

I received a copy of the book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.