Sunday 19 February 2017

The Stranger In My Home







Alison is lucky and she knows it. She has the life she always craved, including a happy home with Jeff and their brilliant, vivacious teenage daughter, Katherine - the absolute centre of Alison's world.
Then a knock at the door ends life as they know it.
Fifteen years ago, someone else took Alison's baby from the hospital. And now Alison is facing the unthinkable.
The daughter she brought home doesn't belong to her.
When you have everything you dreamed of, there is everything to lose.

What I thought:

"I thought she was my daughter. I was wrong." That line alone was enough to make me want to read this book. It sounded to me like an absolute nightmare and I just had to know more.

Alison had a pretty bleak upbringing, sad, oppressed and limited, but she was determined to make a better life for herself. When she marries and has a daughter of her own, she devotes her life to ensuring she has every opportunity to thrive. Katherine, now fifteen, has grown up nurtured and adored. Her parents have provided everything and more for her and she has become a star pupil in both academics and sport.

Alison is happy and content with her life. She knows she 's lucky and along with her husband Jeff, she is so proud of her popular, successful daughter. Then a visitor calls with the news that Katherine isn't their daughter after all. There was a mistake at the hospital and they brought the wrong daughter home. Alison's world crumbles around her.

I felt so sorry for Alison. After surviving such a hard, loveless childhood, she had done everything she possibly could for her daughter, only to have it all snatched away from under her nose. I admired her strength and determination, both as a teenager and then again as an adult when her life was turned upside down.

I loved this book. It had me hooked from the start, a truly thrilling read. Don't be mistaken though, it's not just about finding out that your fifteen-year-old daughter isn't your daughter after all, it is so very much more. For Alison and Jeff, it's the nightmare that just keeps on giving. For the reader, it's a jaw-droppingly good book. Highly recommended.

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