This Child Is Mine: A Novel [Hardcover]

Henry Denker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1995

A young, unmarried mother gives her baby boy up for adoption. She feel that neither she nor the baby's father can provide adequate care for the child. The Salems adopt the child and raise him as their own for two years--until Lori and her boyfriend decide they want their son back. The dramatic courtroom struggle seems ripped from today's headlines.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What should have been a volatile, straight-from-the-headlines story of the custody battle between a child's birth and adoptive parents is defused by the cliched characters in Denker's (Mrs. Washington and Horowitz, Too) latest novel. When struggling NYC actress Lori Adams finds herself unexpectedly expecting, her struggling-actor boyfriend Brett Mann proposes marriage. But the ever self-sacrificing Lori won't jeopardize Matt's nonexistent career; she returns home to the Midwest, where she chooses adoption over single motherhood. As parents for her son, Lori selects Bill and Christine Salem?good, honest folk who are a mite dull around the edges. Time passes. Brett becomes a soap opera hunk and hires a detective to locate Lori. Finding her and discovering that their son has been adopted, he vows to marry Lori and to fight for custody of Scotty Salem, now two. But Denker's failure to make either couple sympathetic enough to spark the reader's concern leaves the courtroom confrontation lukewarm and the conclusion uninvolving. Trite dialogue and characters' less-than-credible emotional responses further undermine the novel's impact. A Reader's Digest Condensed Book Selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

What new twist can be added to the change-of-heart-following-an-adoption genre? How about giving the two-year-old child, "Baby Brett," a lawyer of his own? A good idea, but that small innovation does not rescue Denker's formulaic plot, in which he sends a predictable cast of characters into the courtroom to wrangle over their parental rights. On one side are the boy's recently reunited biological parents, the Mannings; on the other, the adoptive Salems. The trial becomes a media event because the biological father, Brett Manning, is a popular soap opera star. Shifting points of view allow readers to visit the lives of both families, but the novel loses intimacy when its focus turns to the life of the judge deciding the case. Despite these faults, many readers will find enough suspense and sympathetic heartache to keep the pages turning. For large popular collections.?Keddy Ann Outlaw, Harris Cty. P.L., Houston
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 330 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (May 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688141250
• ISBN-13: 978-0688141257
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,742,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, Well Paced Novel., May 26, 2000

By 

Mrs. Fitz "fitzeesmrs" (MA/NH Border, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Child Is Mine: A Novel (Hardcover)

This books begins with an unemployed actress who gets pregnant with her unemployed actor boyfriend. She decides to put her baby up for adoption after she moves home and splits up with her boyfriend. A married couple who lost their first child to SIDS adopts the baby. Two years later, circumstances change and the acting couple has reunited and hit it big. They decide they want their baby back and take legal steps to do so.

As we all know, this book was taken out of the headlines in the newspapers. The author was smart and careful NOT to try to sway your sympathy too much one way or another. He didn't demonize either party but presented their side of the argument as fairly as he could. I really liked that.

This book appealed to me as a mother, how would I feel in either situation. Can't say much about the ending (HATE it when people give it away) but I really enjoyed the book. Hope you will too.