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Borrowed Child
Borrowed Child is an intimate and layered story about what happens when love crosses boundaries of culture, class, family, and expectation. Author Marguerite Welch builds the book around two voices: Helen, a grieving mother who becomes a tutor and mentor, and Mia, a girl pulled from her beloved grandmother in Mexico into a crowded, unstable life in the United States. Their relationship begins at Eileen’s Place, a tutoring program, but it slowly becomes much more complicated than homework help. Helen sees Mia’s intelligence, tenderness, and potential. Mia sees in Helen’s home a kind of safety she’s rarely known. The title fits because Mia is never simply “saved” or adopted into someone else’s life. She’s “a borrowed child,” loved deeply, but never fully belonging to the world Helen imagines for her.
What makes the book so engaging is the way it lets both women speak. Helen’s chapters are full of worry, hope, guilt, and the ache left by the death of her son Sammy. Mia’s chapters bring the reader inside a life shaped by displacement, responsibility, violence, young love, and the need to survive before she’s old enough to understand what survival is costing her. The alternating structure keeps the story from feeling one-sided. We see Helen’s good intentions, but we also see how those intentions can become pressure. We see Mia’s choices, but we also see the loneliness and fear behind them. That balance gives the book its emotional honesty.
Welch writes especially well about the small moments that reveal whole lives: a girl clutching keepsakes from her grandparents, a dinner table that feels strange because people actually talk to each other, a bedroom with the shades drawn despite an ocean view. The book is full of painful material, including migration trauma, domestic violence, gang control, teen motherhood, and grief, but it doesn’t flatten Mia into her hardships. She’s funny, stubborn, observant, and capable of deep love. One of the most moving threads is her connection to the little quetzal carved by her grandfather, a symbol of freedom that stays with her long after childhood is taken from her.
Helen’s side of the story is just as important because the book is also about the limits of helping. She wants to give Mia opportunity, structure, college visits, safety, and a future. But she slowly learns that love isn’t the same as understanding, and that parenting across cultures means listening to what a child actually needs, not only what an adult hopes for her. The book’s strongest insight is that care can be sincere and still incomplete. Helen’s grief over Sammy shapes her bond with Mia, and Mia’s absence forces Helen to confront how much of her mentoring was wrapped up in her own longing. That self-awareness keeps the story grounded.
By the end, Borrowed Child becomes a story not just of loss and separation, but of repair. Mia’s return, her motherhood, and her decision to help tell the story give the book a sense of earned healing. The closing reflection, “I’m starting to have faith that time and love work miracles,” doesn’t feel tidy or sentimental because the book has shown how hard-won that faith is. This is a compassionate, conversational, and emotionally candid book about mentorship, motherhood, immigration, and the fragile work of loving someone without owning their path.
Pages: 328 | ASIN : B0FXBGL9X2
Deep, Soul-Level Understanding
Safe Haven follows a fallen Chicago news anchor who retreats to a crumbling farmhouse and finds redemption among strangers learning to live with their own brokenness. What inspired you to center Safe Haven around rebuilding after loss?
I love writing stories with broken characters—individuals struggling with grief, loss, and regret. People whose wounds run deep, whose silence often speaks louder than words. Yet within this brokenness, they somehow find a thread of hope, a quiet courage, a stubborn perseverance that keeps them moving forward. If they push through the pain, they come out on the other side changed in a way that makes them view the world in a different light. And when their eyes are open, they start to see the silent battles others are fighting. That recognition—that deep, soul-level understanding—is empathy. Empathy is not a character weakness. It is strength wrapped in softness. It is the heartbeat of humanity. To feel deeply is not to be fragile—it is to be brave. In my writing, I strive to illuminate the power of empathy, compassion, and hope for humans and animals alike.
The relationships in East Haven feel real. Were any of the characters or their struggles drawn from people you’ve known?
They didn’t come from any one person, but from a collection of individuals. People who have endured pain and carry wounds that don’t always show, but shape the way they move through the world. I’ve known people who have been through unimaginable tragedies, who have suffered physical, mental, and emotional abuse, and have found a way to heal those wounds through faith, hope, and love. Not in a religious sense—although many people find healing that way—but in a spiritual sense: in the presence of someone who cares deeply, in the quiet of nature, in the soul of an animal. Those are the kind of people I love to write about. The kind I find strength in. The kind that endures and transforms.
You write grief with so much restraint and honesty. How did you find the right emotional balance without tipping into sentimentality?
Finding that balance was incredibly difficult for me. I’ve always been someone who feels deeply, so stepping into Michael’s point of view—a man who struggles to name, express, or even acknowledge his emotions—was a struggle. His tendency to shut down or get angry felt foreign to me. But what started as a challenge became a blessing. It was a character fault that didn’t just serve the story—it shaped it. Michael’s silence, his internal battles, became a starting place for the growth he’d experience throughout the novel. Two things helped me keep the portrayal raw and honest. First, I created Mac—a character who became a mirror and a guide for Michael. Mac wasn’t just a sounding board; he’d done his own emotional work and could recognize the pain Michael was trying to hide. Through their dynamic, I could give Michael space to stumble, to resist, and eventually to speak. Mac helped him find language for the things he’d buried, and in doing so, helped me stay true to the emotional arc without forcing it.
Second, I had a writing partner who acted as an emotional compass. Doug wasn’t afraid to tell me when my own feelings were bleeding too heavily into the narrative—when Michael’s voice started sounding more like mine. That feedback was invaluable. And I learned that emotional truth doesn’t always mean emotional intensity. Sometimes, it means restraint. Sometimes, it means letting the silence speak.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
I’m currently working on the sequel to Safe Haven and, if all the stars align, hope to have it published sometime next year. I am also looking at publishing a collection of short stories.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon
On the eve of his 40th birthday, Michael Russo faces a devastating trifecta: the loss of his job, a crisis of self-doubt, and a broken engagement with the love of his life, Anna. On impulse, he buys a run-down forty-acre farm unaware the dilapidated barn, home to a one-legged turkey and a blind rooster, harbors mystery.
It isn’t long before Michael’s life is once again turned upside down and he finds himself raising his daughter, Brie, alongside Anna’s overbearing parents. While they fight about what’s best for Brie, she develops an enigmatic attachment to the barn’s residents. A bond that cannot be broken.
As Brie struggles with one mysterious illness after another, Michael discovers she was born with a unique gift. One that has the power to change the world, but also the potential to endanger her life.
In a race against time, Michael must face his greatest fear to safeguard his daughter, whose innocence and extraordinary talent have forever altered his life.
Elizabeth Stiles’ debut novel, Save Haven: Where Hope Lives, intricately weaves together themes of loss, resilience, and the unexplainable, culminating in a poignant exploration of the power of love, healing, and the interconnectedness of all beings.
