Firstly I would like to thank Readers First for providing me with an ARC of this book to read. All opinions discussed here are my own.
I was really intrigued by the concept of this book and having read the first look I thought I would be hooked but I found myself to be disappointed by this read as a whole. The book is rather slow and we seem to see the same scenes from different perspectives and the motives and character arcs take a long time to develop. I don't feel like anything really happened throughout most of the book and at times I just wanted to shake some of the main characters, especially the parents who just seemed to have no clue what was going on in their children's lives and no real interest in finding out.
I do think this book explores some really important themes through adoption and child neglect, and aspects of this are done well. Leah's circumstances of foster care are so realistic for our young children and there isn't enough work done to recognise the impact of this. I did feel my heart go out for her as she is clearly just stuck in a cycle that she can't get out of. And nobody can blame her for feeling envious and angry with Cassie and her parents.
But this was the sticking point for me. The adoption process is rigorous and if you are assessed an approval recommendation is made about how many children you can have and their age range; you can go back to panel for this to be varied but it can't just be changed on a whim. And in terms of siblings; a sibling assessment would always be done to consider their relationship and the potential risks they pose to one another to consider whether they should be kept together. It would never for one moment be the decision of the adoptive parents. They wouldn't get to pick and chose which child they had out of siblings and a rigorous assessment about the siblings needs would have been done. So this part really irked me.
Although i've said the book was slow it also felt rushed towards the end; everything that happens with Naz and Cassie is just brushed over as is the car accident. It felt that the author wanted to start with this shocking plot but then struggled to figure out how it made sense with the book. I also feel there were a lot of unanswered questions and issues that weren't really addressed. None of the characters bar from Erin were overly likeable and Cassie's attitude was so up and down I couldn't keep track. Tom and Grace clearly should have been more honest with her about her circumstances, but telling a child you come from a home where your mother is a drug addict and you were constantly neglected is not an easy conversation to have.
Overall I think this book brings some important issues to the center but doesn't necessarily handle them well. Not one i'd be reading again or keeping on my shelves.
I was really intrigued by the concept of this book and having read the first look I thought I would be hooked but I found myself to be disappointed by this read as a whole. The book is rather slow and we seem to see the same scenes from different perspectives and the motives and character arcs take a long time to develop. I don't feel like anything really happened throughout most of the book and at times I just wanted to shake some of the main characters, especially the parents who just seemed to have no clue what was going on in their children's lives and no real interest in finding out.
I do think this book explores some really important themes through adoption and child neglect, and aspects of this are done well. Leah's circumstances of foster care are so realistic for our young children and there isn't enough work done to recognise the impact of this. I did feel my heart go out for her as she is clearly just stuck in a cycle that she can't get out of. And nobody can blame her for feeling envious and angry with Cassie and her parents.
But this was the sticking point for me. The adoption process is rigorous and if you are assessed an approval recommendation is made about how many children you can have and their age range; you can go back to panel for this to be varied but it can't just be changed on a whim. And in terms of siblings; a sibling assessment would always be done to consider their relationship and the potential risks they pose to one another to consider whether they should be kept together. It would never for one moment be the decision of the adoptive parents. They wouldn't get to pick and chose which child they had out of siblings and a rigorous assessment about the siblings needs would have been done. So this part really irked me.
Although i've said the book was slow it also felt rushed towards the end; everything that happens with Naz and Cassie is just brushed over as is the car accident. It felt that the author wanted to start with this shocking plot but then struggled to figure out how it made sense with the book. I also feel there were a lot of unanswered questions and issues that weren't really addressed. None of the characters bar from Erin were overly likeable and Cassie's attitude was so up and down I couldn't keep track. Tom and Grace clearly should have been more honest with her about her circumstances, but telling a child you come from a home where your mother is a drug addict and you were constantly neglected is not an easy conversation to have.
Overall I think this book brings some important issues to the center but doesn't necessarily handle them well. Not one i'd be reading again or keeping on my shelves.