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marceelf's review
4.0
http://www.anurseandabook.com/2015/04/stolen-child-by-laura-elliott.html
This was one of those books that started slow but then ended up engrossing me in the characters.
In the beginning, as Susanne suffers her miscarriage, and sneaks off to steal Carla's baby, I thought the book would be focused on that and stay in that time period. However, Susanna's kidnapping is successful, and so the book spans the life of Isobel/Joy as she grows into her teens.
Susanne's guilt over what she has done, coupled with the grief over her last miscarriage lead her into an emotional shutdown, incapable of ever relaxing into the motherhood she desperately desired.
Carla can't let go and move forward, losing her career, her privacy, her marriage.
As their lives go forward, you see where they are interconnected, in their past and their present, which originally motivated Susanne, but now causes her to live in terror. Carla wonders if her past choices brought this tragedy on her.
When I first started reading this book, I remember looking down thinking I must be halfway finished and looking down to see I was only at 24% completion. Yikes. But by the time I got to the second half, I found myself sitting in a parking lot pulling it up on my phone's Kindle app so I could finish it.
Thumbs down on the budding romance between Carla and David. That was the only time that I thought the author took the easy way out. Not too realistic, but a tidy way to end an untidy story.
Current Goodreads Rating 3.76
ARC provided by Bookouture and Netgalley in return for an honest review.
This was one of those books that started slow but then ended up engrossing me in the characters.
In the beginning, as Susanne suffers her miscarriage, and sneaks off to steal Carla's baby, I thought the book would be focused on that and stay in that time period. However, Susanna's kidnapping is successful, and so the book spans the life of Isobel/Joy as she grows into her teens.
Susanne's guilt over what she has done, coupled with the grief over her last miscarriage lead her into an emotional shutdown, incapable of ever relaxing into the motherhood she desperately desired.
Carla can't let go and move forward, losing her career, her privacy, her marriage.
As their lives go forward, you see where they are interconnected, in their past and their present, which originally motivated Susanne, but now causes her to live in terror. Carla wonders if her past choices brought this tragedy on her.
When I first started reading this book, I remember looking down thinking I must be halfway finished and looking down to see I was only at 24% completion. Yikes. But by the time I got to the second half, I found myself sitting in a parking lot pulling it up on my phone's Kindle app so I could finish it.
Thumbs down on the budding romance between Carla and David. That was the only time that I thought the author took the easy way out. Not too realistic, but a tidy way to end an untidy story.
Current Goodreads Rating 3.76
ARC provided by Bookouture and Netgalley in return for an honest review.
steph1rothwell's review
4.0
I felt like I could be onto a good thing with this novel when it started with an all time favourite poem, Stolen Child by W B Yeats.
It was very easy to read from the start and liked the characters even though I did struggle with Suzanne at times. I thought that her relationship with her daughter was heavily affected by the guilt that she felt, some of ways she controlled Joy were very chilling, especially when told from a child's point of view.
A touch overlong but I still enjoyed the novel.
Thank you to the publisher and the author for the invitation to read this novel via NetGalley.
It was very easy to read from the start and liked the characters even though I did struggle with Suzanne at times. I thought that her relationship with her daughter was heavily affected by the guilt that she felt, some of ways she controlled Joy were very chilling, especially when told from a child's point of view.
A touch overlong but I still enjoyed the novel.
Thank you to the publisher and the author for the invitation to read this novel via NetGalley.
sarahs_bookish_life's review
5.0
This is a story alternating between Carla, whose daughter was snatched from her and Susanne, who took her.
Laura Elliot has done a wonderful job with this book, a story alternating between having your world ripped apart and never giving up hope and also a story of having to live with the guilt of what we have done and questioning whether getting what we wish for can really make us happy..
The storyline had me hooked from the start but I would say that the last 20% of the book was just breath taking. My emotions were all over the place and even now writing this my heart is beating ten to the dozen.
I felt empathy for all the characters involved in the book and was drawn to quite a few of them, David and Joy especially.
An absolute must read and will certainly be reading more by this author.
Laura Elliot has done a wonderful job with this book, a story alternating between having your world ripped apart and never giving up hope and also a story of having to live with the guilt of what we have done and questioning whether getting what we wish for can really make us happy..
The storyline had me hooked from the start but I would say that the last 20% of the book was just breath taking. My emotions were all over the place and even now writing this my heart is beating ten to the dozen.
I felt empathy for all the characters involved in the book and was drawn to quite a few of them, David and Joy especially.
An absolute must read and will certainly be reading more by this author.
fuzzywuzzy's review
2.0
I wanted to love this but I just didn't. It was a GREAT story line but the writing just wasnt there for me. It wasn't even the 500 pages, it was the fact that it just bored me. When I was away from the book I didn't find myself missing it and wanting to get back to it.
jennthumphries's review
3.0
3.5 stars. A very interesting character study of two very different women. The only thing that kept this from being 4 stars is that I thought the story dragged a little in the last act. I skipped a few passages. But besides that a very fascinating read I would recommend.
alisonannk's review
4.0
I thought this would be a miserable book because of the subject nature. However, although unavoidably bleak at times, it was well written and sensitively handled. The characters overlap throughout the book and their paths collide in a way that is probably highly unlikely in real life. However, I can see what effect this was designed to create. It also helped keep you hooked on the 'what if' and highlights the diverging, yet interwoven, paths of the two women. It also had realistic responses to a tragic situation (and subsequent tragic situations) when looking at how they handled it emotionally. While some events were a bit unbelievable in terms of how people's lives end up and which relationships form, I liked the inter-connectedness of it all.
booktrovert420's review
5.0
Genre: Fiction
Plot:
A child is stolen from a woman and her husband by another woman who has infertility issues. The viewpoint of both women is followed as well as the view point of the child in later chapters. The story takes place in Ireland.
Pros:
- Another book of many that I've read about motherhood and child rearing. I love that type of stuff in books!
- The kidnapper, Susanne has a way of making you feel sympathetic towards her even though she's quite obviously a terrible person.
- The story takes place in Ireland.
- All of the characters in the book tie together in someway by the end of the book, even the seemingly insignificant characters.
Cons:
- It's a quick read. I like that in a book but some people don't.
- I can't think of any other cons. Usually I have at least two cons but I seriously can't think of a second one!
Favorite qoutes:
"...All men were shits, untrustworthy post-modern bastards"
"...someone in whom I can confide the reasons why I have such a compulsion to hide myself away"
"How civilized were are, Carla thought. How immune to pain we have become"
"Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive"
"Dangerous business trying into past territory"
"'Forgiveness,' she says, 'is written in the book of repentance. When you are ready to forgive yourself, then your forgiveness will reach out to others'"
"The blood is no longer flowing. It's found its source"
My thoughts:
I love mom/daughter books so this immediately sparked my interest. I didn't even know until I started reading it that it was set in Ireland which was a nice surprise because I just love Ireland and always have. This book was so sad at first. When I realized what was going on and that Susanne was planning on stealing the child and from someone who she worked with previously I felt sympathy for Carla and Robert. Carla doesn't seem like the brightest crayon in the box when it comes to the tabloids and paparazzi and magazine articles and all that. Robert even warns her about it but she goes ahead with it anyway. I didn't want to hate Susanne. I tried to put myself in her shoes but I've never felt the pain of losing a child. I just can't imagine wanting a child so bad that I could justify stealing someone's else's baby. There were times during the reading that I did feel bad for her but overall my feelings towards her character were negative. I figured ok, she's going to steal this child and love her so much and treat her like the sun shines out of her ass and guess what? She doesn't do that! She treats the poor girl her whole life like a burden. She makes the girl feel inadequate. Susanne made her daughter and her husband pay for the guilt she felt all those years for taking something that didn't belong to her. As to be expected, Carla's name and face haunted her all those years. The paranoia would have been unbearable but that is to be expected with a crime of such nature. It would have been so easy for anyone to find out that Joy was not biologically related to either her nor her husband. Ultimately that fear that someone medically would realize they don't match is what ended her life. I must say although I didn't particularly like Susanne, I was a bit relieved when she died knowing that she wouldn't have to face her families judgement and jail time. I just loved this book. I always look for books that I won't be able to put down until I find out what happens and this definitely falls under that category.
My rating; ★★★★★
I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
dwalm90's review
4.0
Read it in a day hard to put down!! Some parts made for boring and sometimes un realistic reading but all in all a good read
nolo77's review
5.0
This book was well-written although it had some very dark moments and some harrowing scenes.