J.P. Delaney
September 2022
ASIN : B09MVVW1HT
About:
The child you never knew
knows all your secrets . . .
Out of the blue, Susie Jukes is contacted on social media by Anna, the girl she gave up for adoption fifteen years ago.
But when they meet, Anna’s home life sounds distinctly strange to Susie and her husband Gabe. And when Anna’s adoptive parents seem to overreact to the fact she contacted them at all, Susie becomes convinced that Anna needs her help.
But is Anna’s own behaviour simply what you’d expect from someone recovering from a traumatic childhood? Or are there other secrets at play here – secrets Susie has also been hiding for the last fifteen years?
My Review:
I have read a lot of J.P Delaney books and always enjoy their gritty and well through out stories. This one has a thought provoking unlying issue of what happens when a child is adopted.
The story moves quite fast at the begining with Susie receiving a message from the daughter Sky (Anna) she gave up as a baby. However it becomes quite tedious when Susie doesn’t see reason from her husband Gabe who gets advice from a friend who adopts children with issues and the obvious messages received by Sky’s adopted parents.
She falls into the trap of solely focusing on her mistakes and cannot separate the fact that how Sky grew up and choose her own path has no bearing of her giving her up for adoption. Sky on the other hand plays on this, the fact Susie is living a dream life, plenty of money, big house and a rock star husband makes her envious and jealous she was given up.
J.P Delaney plays with issues that are long buried but I found myself bored with reading about Susie’s constant struggle with guilt. It is all wrapped up rather neatly at the end which is a bit of an anti climate
