All The Missing Pieces

About the Book

Reviews:

Alexandra Daye delves into the past to bring the characters in All the Missing Pieces to the present and beyond leaving them with a hope for the future. She describes Sara Woods pain in giving up her baby daughter for adoption so she could have a better life than what Sara could offer her. Saras loss is described in such real terms the reader can truly feel her pain as she tries to go on with her life. Even though Sara later gets married and raises two beautiful sons whom she loves very much, her life can be compared to putting a jigsaw puzzle together and not having the final pieces. It is just not complete without the final pieces. As Sara searches for her adult daughter, the reader is again filled with empathy as the mystery unravels as Sara finds not only her daughter but also the birthfather. Now, their lives are made more complete because the missing pieces have finally been found and put in place, creating a beautiful story.

Being a happily reunited birthmother myself, I could feel the emotions throughout and could not put this book down until I came to the end

--Sharon from Springfield, MO, Reunited in Feb. '95 With Lori from Kansas City, MO

I read this book as a favor to a Friend. Ordinarily it is not one I would have chosen. As it turns out this favor to a Friend ended up with my total absorption in the Novel.

I was riveted by the intensity of the emotion of Sara, her Frustration as she sought her firstborn, her Tension as she waited for that fateful call, her Joy as she found at last her long lost Daughter, her Anger at herself and the Birthfather for the decision she made so long ago.

Sara is simply a Survivor. One of those strong, intelligent women who would, in another time, have been a Pioneer Woman struggling across the long Oregon Trail to California, never for a moment doubting that she would finally succeed in her Quest.

This is a book written by such a woman, for such women, but one that should be read by every man who has ever loved such a women.

--Bill Pugh

I heard about this book from an online support group and once I'd finished the first few pages, I couldn't put it down until I had finished it. It is a compelling read.

All the Missing Pieces is the story of Sara, a young woman who falls pregnant to her lover, but decides that marriage under these circumstances is impossible. She leaves her boyfriend, family and familiar surroundings to move to a strange city, where she has her baby and gives it up for adoption.

I follow Sara as she courageously exposes her thoughts and feelings of this great personal loss, both from her perspective as a young girl, and in present time. She has been married and divorced, has 3 fine sons, which she raised alone after her marriage ended, and has now married again. Sara has also searched for and found her first born daughter.

The excitement mounts as the reunion approaches. Other issues arise. Sara has also found the address and phone number of her first love, her daughter's father. The dynamics of all the complications of relationships and feelings these events uncover in Sara's life, and that of the other people involved, weave a rich, enthralling tapestry.

Alexandra Daye manages to make me feel as if I am walking beside her through her personal adventure. Even though at times, she moves through disquietening scenarios that threaten her marriage and equilibrium, her honesty, as she charts her emotions, is impressive and insightful.

As a birthmother, I found All the Missing Pieces to be very relevant to the problems arising from the relinquishment of a child to adoption. The reunion of mother and child, the coming together of not always compatible people, linked only by the child conceived and then adopted out, and the subsequent roller coaster of emotions and twists of fate that accompany such complicated human relationships, are all well represented

About the Author

Though living in the beautiful California foothills inspires creativity, Ms. Daye applies her psychological training when writing mainstream novels about how cruel life experiences motivate human behavior.