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The Probable Son
Cindy Jiban
Publication Date: December 2nd, 2025
Lake Union Publishing
255 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction | Women’s Fiction
Too much gleek and not enough heft.
Elsa is a high school teacher with a fourteen-year-old son. She has always believed he was switched at birth, but no one believes her, so she plays along. Then one day, a new student named Thomas shows up at the school, and he looks a lot like Elsa’s family members and has the same birthday. This brings her fears to the forefront of her mind and starts her on a search for the truth. Will she risk the son she raised and loves for the boy she thinks is her biological one?
This should have been a moving story of a mother’s love and what defines the word. I love family dramas, especially those with secrets and a mystery attached. BUT the writing in this one seemed clumsy, for lack of a better word. It felt forced and disjointed. It was a slow-paced slog to get through, and it was only 255 pages! I didn’t feel any tension, and I found the main characters’ decisions frustratingly stupid and inconsistent, so I didn’t feel invested at all. The emotions I should have been feeling never came; the ending was underwhelming and felt rushed. What could have been a powerful story of family ended up feeling convoluted and forgettable.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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