No Child of Mine - Susan Lewis

4 Stars!

ABOUT THE BOOK -

Alex Lake’s life is centered on helping people. Her job as a social worker in a British seaside town is more than a career: It’s the very essence of who she is. And though there are frustrations, Alex takes to heart the rewards of placing a child in a safe and loving home. But when she encounters three-year-old Ottilie Wade, Alex is completely unprepared for the effect the sweet, shy little girl has on her. Though on the surface Ottilie seems to want for nothing—she’s perfectly healthy and lives in a very nice home—she’s mysteriously silent and asocial. Alex knows that something is not right in the Wade house. And the deeper she looks into the case, the more Alex comes to feel that she and Ottilie are being drawn together by fate.

As disturbing evidence mounts and Alex’s superiors seem unwilling to help, Alex knows she will have to risk everything—her job and the life she loves—to save Ottilie. But Alex will also have to wrestle the demons of her own past before she can secure a future for this child in need.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

Susan Lewis is the internationally bestselling author of twenty-nine novels, including Don’t Let Me Go, the follow-up to No Child of Mine, as well as Missing, A French Affair, and Stolen. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the deeply moving and often hilarious memoirs of her childhood in the sixties. Having resided in France and the United States for many years, she now lives in the rural county of Gloucestershire, U.K. 

Visit her website - HERE

MY REVIEW - The last half was well worth the slow beginning. To think I almost quite reading this after page 50. I am so glad I didn't give up! This book was amazing, but very difficult to read at times. Just so I can get the complaining out of the way - this book is waaaaay too long. At over 500 pages I really felt like a lot of it could have been cut and it would have been much easier to read and quicker to get into. Longer is not always better.

OK that being out of the way -

The last half of this book was incredible. It was so emotional, so descriptive and had great character development. This is a story about child abuse (I was going to say "of the worst kind" but is there any better kind?) there are some pretty graphic details and the language is rough (a lot of swearing). But to be honest, that's what makes this so real. If she had left all that out it would have been just a pretty cover-up of what had happened. I was hoping for details, expecting them, and I got them.

I had guessed what was going to happen at the end (I will not give it away). Just because it was predictable to me did not take away from the story.

The characters - I did like Alex. I was rooting for her. I thought she seemed very good at her job. But the one you really fall in love with is little Ottilie! I could just picture her, what a cute and sad little girl. You just want to pick her up and hold her and tell her everything will be ok, but will it? The other surprising character I fell for was - Erica, Ottilie's mother. She is obviously a very disturbed woman who desperately needs help. I don't think anything that had happened was her fault. It she had been receiving the kind of medical help she needed instead of basically being held prisoner in her own home by her husband I don't think she would have allowed any of this to happen.

"Today, this morning, she'd finally stopped feeling like a person. She was nothing now, a no one, an entity that had no more substance or form than the voices in her head. They were silent now, but for how long?"

There were really several pieces to this story. There was Ottilie and what was happening, with Alex desperately trying to uncover what was going on. There was the Mom Erica and her deep illness. And then there was Alex's own past, there are a lot of hidden skeletons in her closet.

I am glad that the author put in so much detail about the abuse and what was happening. A lot of other reviewers complained about this but I do think it was important to really get a picture of what was going on. Like I said before it would not have seemed as real if she left out the details. There are bad things that happen in the world, not everything is roses everyday for everyone! If you want pretty - read a Romance.
But just be warned - this might be a hard book to read and there is a lot of swearing.

Thank you "Librarything early reviewers" for sending me this book to read and review.

Get yours from Amazon - HERE

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