Angie, 6, and her sister, Polly, 4, are utterly distraught when they arrive at Cathy’s house, having been taken from their home by social workers, after their older half-sister, Ashleigh, accuses their father of raping her.

It was the first time reading one of Cathy's, and I found her writing style to be somewhat simple, which in turn made it difficult to follow. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. In my opinion, they should have questioned the teenager and her boyfriend way more in depth early on and months of separation for the other two kids could have been avoided. We were all there so we know what it was like, but it was every other paragraph was about covid restrictions!They appear to have been well looked after and the family has never come to the attention of the social services before. One of the things that captivates me about her books is that the stories she tells are not isolated.

The police and social services have no choice but to remove two-year-old Jamey from home after his mother leaves him alone all night to go out partying. Their older half-sister Ashleigh has accused their father of something horrible, and the two young sisters have been removed from home to keep them safe. This memoir toys with the readers emotions as they try to find the truth within this family's chaos. I didn’t feel it was one of Cathy’s best books to be honest, and it didn’t seem like the same person had written it!The baby is coming to her straight from hospital and will have no contact with her teenage mother, Haylea.

Each book I’ve read has left me with the lingering reminder that the primary issue addressed is incredibly widespread. I hope that readers can accept this saddening story for what it is and acknowledge that when false allegations are made it can be devastating to the family. I just hope that the readers don’t think that is the norm and shy away from these important roles out of fear. She is supposed to have phone contact with Polly and Angie but doesn’t want to speak to them, which seems strange. This book in particular was hard to read due to the subject matter, and the intense distress it clearly caused to all family members involved.She should have stood by her daughter throughout the process and then she never would have lost the younger two. Her work is strongly identified with both the True Life Stories and Inspirational Memoirs genres, and she has also written a parenting guide to bringing up children, Happy Kids, and a novel, The Girl in the Mirror, based on a true story. And the book’s description of the “ripple effect” of a child’s removal from his own home, however bad, shows it to be enormous, however good the foster home.