I actually won this from Readers First earlier this year yet I have only just got round to reading it- we all know what it’s like to have a TBR list that is NEVER ending right?
I won’t lie, this is quite a difficult book to read given the subject matter, at a young age Cassie had been taken into care and then adopted by Tom & Grace Haines, you might think that the problems started because she didn’t know she was adopted, but that is not the case for this story, she knew she was adopted, but she just didn’t know the story of her birth mother.
It would be wonderful to say that she found the answers she was looking for, but was the search for her history that started the problems.
While Tom & Grace were honest about her adoption to some extent, they also kept a huge secret from her- Cassie had an older sister called Leah, who unfortunately hadn’t had the same type of upbringing that Cassie was given.
I don’t actually believe Leah to be a bad person, she had tried to protect Cassie to some extent, but unfortunately driven by jealousy of Cassie’s “fake” family and a lifetime of pain Leah was more than unstable.
Not only did she put Cassie at risk by introducing her to Naz, but she was constantly putting herself at risk as well by seeing him herself.
I think if she had been given a stable upbringing she would have been able to have a proper relationship with Cassie and her “other” family.
Caroline Bond created such a heart wrenching story that actually felt so real, as I was reading, my emotions were all over the place. I felt anger towards Leah to some degree but then I also felt for her. I found myself growing irritated with Cassie the more she pushed her family away while putting herself in danger by going to visit Leah without telling anyone. I truly felt for Erin because to her, Cassie was her older sister and she was being ignored by her in favour of a “stranger”
I am hoping that after the end of the novel, Leah is able to start over without Naz, and maybe she can be included in Cassie’s family- after all before she had Tom and Grace, she only had Leah.
To lose your family is heart-breaking
To be forgotten by them is unforgivable
I won’t lie, this is quite a difficult book to read given the subject matter, at a young age Cassie had been taken into care and then adopted by Tom & Grace Haines, you might think that the problems started because she didn’t know she was adopted, but that is not the case for this story, she knew she was adopted, but she just didn’t know the story of her birth mother.
It would be wonderful to say that she found the answers she was looking for, but was the search for her history that started the problems.
While Tom & Grace were honest about her adoption to some extent, they also kept a huge secret from her- Cassie had an older sister called Leah, who unfortunately hadn’t had the same type of upbringing that Cassie was given.
I don’t actually believe Leah to be a bad person, she had tried to protect Cassie to some extent, but unfortunately driven by jealousy of Cassie’s “fake” family and a lifetime of pain Leah was more than unstable.
Not only did she put Cassie at risk by introducing her to Naz, but she was constantly putting herself at risk as well by seeing him herself.
I think if she had been given a stable upbringing she would have been able to have a proper relationship with Cassie and her “other” family.
Caroline Bond created such a heart wrenching story that actually felt so real, as I was reading, my emotions were all over the place. I felt anger towards Leah to some degree but then I also felt for her. I found myself growing irritated with Cassie the more she pushed her family away while putting herself in danger by going to visit Leah without telling anyone. I truly felt for Erin because to her, Cassie was her older sister and she was being ignored by her in favour of a “stranger”
I am hoping that after the end of the novel, Leah is able to start over without Naz, and maybe she can be included in Cassie’s family- after all before she had Tom and Grace, she only had Leah.
To lose your family is heart-breaking
To be forgotten by them is unforgivable