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hannaws's review
4.0
A gritty post-war family-saga novel that will break your heart
-Pam Howes
For that I can definitely agree with this book! We follow the life of Dora who's in the middle of an divorce with her ex-husband Joe. They have two daughters, Carol and Jackie. Dora has had it hard previously in her life with losing one of her kids, her friend died as well as her father and then there was an affair between Joe and his friend Ivy.
In this book we continue following her life which ain't getting any easier. Someone's reported her to the welfare and they've come to her door to take Carol away to live with her father. It's a very heartbreaking road ahead of her.
This book really got me through a heartbreak, I cried a lot during this book. Dora's life definitely ain't easy. All the hard feelings start from the beginning of this book, which I particularly liked. Not the hard feelings but the fact that I didn't have to read through the whole book before I actually got to the point of this novel.
I also liked the fact that nothing was given away immediately. The reader has to think and wonder during this book about the possible causes of everything happening, is there probably a person behind all this? Is it probably the one that's pretty obvious? And then the matter of only Carol being taken away, why not Jackie too? Shouldn't Dora be neglecting them both then, not just one of them?
I really connected with Dora at some levels as I've been cheated on too. Though I can only imagine what it would feel like to have my kids taken away from me! Pam Howes really knows how to write about all these hard subjects because the reader, at least me as a reader, could really get in her shoes and go through all the feelings she was going through. I loved all the side characters too. They are very well written, each of them.
And Ivy... oh Ivy. I think she really deserves to be mentioned in this as a total bitch, okay?
Overall I rate this book with solid 4 stars. As the story really was catching and it was hard to put the book away and do some real life stuff too, I was still left to grave something a little more about this one. At least I would have hoped to get all the problems with Ivy solved a little more, now I feel like it was kind of swept under the rug and she was left to continue with no consequences.
-Pam Howes
For that I can definitely agree with this book! We follow the life of Dora who's in the middle of an divorce with her ex-husband Joe. They have two daughters, Carol and Jackie. Dora has had it hard previously in her life with losing one of her kids, her friend died as well as her father and then there was an affair between Joe and his friend Ivy.
In this book we continue following her life which ain't getting any easier. Someone's reported her to the welfare and they've come to her door to take Carol away to live with her father. It's a very heartbreaking road ahead of her.
This book really got me through a heartbreak, I cried a lot during this book. Dora's life definitely ain't easy. All the hard feelings start from the beginning of this book, which I particularly liked. Not the hard feelings but the fact that I didn't have to read through the whole book before I actually got to the point of this novel.
I also liked the fact that nothing was given away immediately. The reader has to think and wonder during this book about the possible causes of everything happening, is there probably a person behind all this? Is it probably the one that's pretty obvious? And then the matter of only Carol being taken away, why not Jackie too? Shouldn't Dora be neglecting them both then, not just one of them?
I really connected with Dora at some levels as I've been cheated on too. Though I can only imagine what it would feel like to have my kids taken away from me! Pam Howes really knows how to write about all these hard subjects because the reader, at least me as a reader, could really get in her shoes and go through all the feelings she was going through. I loved all the side characters too. They are very well written, each of them.
And Ivy... oh Ivy. I think she really deserves to be mentioned in this as a total bitch, okay?
Overall I rate this book with solid 4 stars. As the story really was catching and it was hard to put the book away and do some real life stuff too, I was still left to grave something a little more about this one. At least I would have hoped to get all the problems with Ivy solved a little more, now I feel like it was kind of swept under the rug and she was left to continue with no consequences.
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