As mentioned on forestofglory's post, Catelyn Stark in A Song of Ice and Fire certainly qualifies. Cersei Lannister... um... technically non-abusive? certainly loves her kids? but not really a role model.
Copying over my comment from there:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Lady Jessica in Dune, one of the most powerful and significant SF/F mothers of all time.
In Jane Yolen's Great Alta books and Tanya Huff's Quarters books, the heroine of an earlier book has a child who grows up to be a protagonist in a later book. The earlier heroines do fade into the background a bit once they become mothers, but they're there and significant.
I don't exactly recommend David and Leigh Eddings's Belgariad/Malloreon series, but Polgara is actually a pretty great mother figure (she's technically the hero's many-times-great-aunt but raises him from a baby) and her mother, Poledra, is a significant side character in later books. The series heroine, Ce'Nedra, becomes a mother between series one and series two, but her child is a baby/toddler for all of series two and is also kidnapped very early on, so we don't see her being maternal in any real way.
Ygrawn in Patricia Kennealy-Morrison's Arthur books definitely deserves a mention.
Toll in James K. Schmitz's The Witches of Karres is the mother of the titular witches, and doesn't show up much but is terrific when she's there. (She is an almighty good witch.)
I realize there aren't any recent books on the list... I will keep pondering.
On the non-SF/F front, Marilyn Pappano's A Man to Hold on To, a contemporary romance, has a widowed heroine with teen stepkids who's absolutely wonderful. The book is very much about what it means to be a mother—the kids' bio mom basically doesn't want them, and Therese has to step up for them even when they push her away. A real tearjerker, like most of Pappano's books.
I'm not going to get further into women's fiction and contemporary romance because mothers abound there!
no subject
Copying over my comment from there:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Lady Jessica in Dune, one of the most powerful and significant SF/F mothers of all time.
In Jane Yolen's Great Alta books and Tanya Huff's Quarters books, the heroine of an earlier book has a child who grows up to be a protagonist in a later book. The earlier heroines do fade into the background a bit once they become mothers, but they're there and significant.
I don't exactly recommend David and Leigh Eddings's Belgariad/Malloreon series, but Polgara is actually a pretty great mother figure (she's technically the hero's many-times-great-aunt but raises him from a baby) and her mother, Poledra, is a significant side character in later books. The series heroine, Ce'Nedra, becomes a mother between series one and series two, but her child is a baby/toddler for all of series two and is also kidnapped very early on, so we don't see her being maternal in any real way.
Ygrawn in Patricia Kennealy-Morrison's Arthur books definitely deserves a mention.
Toll in James K. Schmitz's The Witches of Karres is the mother of the titular witches, and doesn't show up much but is terrific when she's there. (She is an almighty good witch.)
I realize there aren't any recent books on the list... I will keep pondering.
On the non-SF/F front, Marilyn Pappano's A Man to Hold on To, a contemporary romance, has a widowed heroine with teen stepkids who's absolutely wonderful. The book is very much about what it means to be a mother—the kids' bio mom basically doesn't want them, and Therese has to step up for them even when they push her away. A real tearjerker, like most of Pappano's books.
I'm not going to get further into women's fiction and contemporary romance because mothers abound there!