A Million Ways: Stories of Motherhood - Various - ★★★.¾

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AUTHORS: Various
GENRE: Anthology
RATING: 3.85 stars.

In a Nutshell: Loved this anthology of stories pertaining to mothers and motherhood. You don’t need to be a mother to love it.


"There's no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." - Jill Churchill
The above quote sets off this anthology of twelve stories, all of which are about mothers. You might assume that such a theme would get repetitive too soon. Yes, there were certain themes in common, primarily connected to love (or the lack thereof.) Regardless, each story still feels distinct from each other in terms of content and hence the book doesn’t get boring.

A good short story for me is one that keeps me invested from start to end regardless of its length. And this is what happened to me for most of the stories in this collection. The tales aren’t limited to stories about pregnancy or new motherhood. Rather, we get to see single mothers and stepmothers, dedicated mothers and disgruntled mothers, contemporary mothers and historical mothers, almost-mothers and no-more-mothers.

A detailed informative note about the authors is present at the end of their respective stories. I always appreciate this as we get to know the author better right after we experience their writing.

Did I enjoy these stories better as I am a mother? Quite possible. But the beauty of the storytelling is such that the themes are universal. Replace the mother character with a father or a sister, and you might still experience the same emotions. Moreover, we might not all be moms but we do have/have had moms. The appeal is therefore not restricted to readers who are also moms.

As always I rated the stories individually, and quite a few of them left a strong mark. In fact, I didn’t outright hate any story. The only ones that didn’t work too well for me were either heavily conversation-dominated, or were somewhat stereotypical in their content.

My top favourites were the below, each with 4.5 stars or more:

Soon, Hope - Sarah Branson – 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 - How a woman continues working as a midwife despite suffering through a miscarriage. Poignant. The only reason this wasn’t a straight 5 star is that it seemed to have some unusual word choices that weren’t explained.

Mother's Last Flight - Josephine Gentileschi - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 – A WWII story set around a German woman pilot torn between her duty and her motherhood. Loved the author's note at the end of the story. First time I've seen such a detailed note for a short fiction.

If I Tell You My Name - Pamela Stockwell - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 – How a girl reaches new heights of achievement, thanks to the strong support of her mother. Captivating all the way.

Everything Left Unsaid - Gina Andrew - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 – The last story of the book and my absolute favourite. Highlights different love languages between mothers and daughters.


Definitely recommended to short story lovers looking for a touching feel-good collection dedicated to mothers. This anthology would also make a wonderful gift to any book-loving mom.

3.85 stars, based on the average of my rating for each story.

My thanks to Writer G.G. Andrew LLC and NetGalley for the DRC of “A Million Ways: Stories of Motherhood”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Content warning: Miscarriage, death.

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