Review: Have Mother Will Travel by Claire & Mia Fontaine

Have Mother Will Travel by 

Claire and Mia Fontaine 

Publisher: William Morrow 

Pages: 320 

Format: ARC 

Buy the Book: Amazon 

Goodreads:  A mother, a daughter, and a life-changing adventure around the world . . .

Their bestselling memoir, "Come Back," moved and inspired readers with the story of Mia Fontaine's harrowing drug addiction and her mother, Claire's, desperate and ultimately successful attempts to save her. Now it's a decade later and Claire and Mia each face a defining moment in her life, and a mother-daughter relationship that has frayed around the edges. At fifty-one, Claire's shed her identity as Mia's savior but realizes that, oops, she forgot to plan for life after motherhood; Mia, twenty-five and eager to step outside her role as recovery's poster child, finds adult life isn't all it's cracked up to be. Determined to transform themselves and their relationship once again, the pair sets off on a five-month around-the-world adventure.


Kritters Thoughts:  A piece of nonfiction which was perfect as a read a long with my mom!  We were both provided the book for review and decided that it would be neat to read it together so we could talk about it.  

I knew that it was written by a mother/daughter duo and assumed that I would fall in love with the daughter's voice because it would be so similar to my own thoughts as we are close in age, but this was not the case.  From the beginning I loved reading the parts written by the mother, Claire - her words challenged me, maybe because I am used to hearing the daughter perspective in my own mind and like to read the other side of the coin!

The one quote that stuck out for me and has stayed in my mind even a few days later as I write this post - (not direct quote) - It doesn't matter what life benchmarkers there are out there, you shouldn't be worried if you are not hitting the benchmarkers at the same time as your peer group.  I am challenged about this on a daily basis, as I hit 29 today, I thought I would be further along in life, but I need to remember that in 12 days I am going to marry a really great guy and we are happy, nothing beyond that matters.

A book that I would recommend to all mothers and daughters to read together, it really made me think about the moments that I am blessed to share because my mom lives right down the road from me.  She is able to be there for both the big and little moments, from challenging the seamstress for my wedding dress to going to lunch in the middle of the work week, this book reminded me I need to be thankful of all the moments because some mother/daughters do not get them as much and for awhile I lived far away and wasn't able to get the small moments as often.


My mom has posted her review of this book on her blog - Ope's Opinions, go check out her thoughts!


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.