Stolen from Her Mother: An utterly heartbreaking World War Two page-turner set between Ireland and America

What a heartbreaking tale.My husband’s family came from Ireland in 1850. They were very poor. They were given land grants for New Brunswick, Canada. They had to clear the land, build some kind of home and be able to turn the land into farms. Records show the youngest son, 7, was sick on arrival. He would soon die. The mother probably died too, but no record has been found yet. A young daughter, took care of the house and prepare the meals. Not much more than a child herself.Their generation helped open the area of New Brunswick, Canada.The Father never married again and neither did the daughter.A couple of the boys found wives and had families. Eventually, two of the boys came to Massachusetts. They settled and had families in the area of Boston. My husband’s grandfather married his Grandmother in Boston. Eventually, they found their way to Connecticut.My youngest daughter and her husband tried for 10 years to have a child. Eventually, they fostered to adopt. They now have a beautiful set of twins. These children, a boy and a girl will be 9 years this summer. Beautiful and very smart.Only the little boy was wanted. The little girl had both of her legs fractured before she was 9 months old by her own Mother. She had terrible nightmares. Cuddling with her new Mom and Dad is what finally got her sleeping through the night. Being reassured that they wouldn’t let anyone hurt her again. She was soon walking. Talking came next. Neither could speak a word upon arrival.As a Mother myself, after losing a child in the 17th week of my pregnancy, I knew what it was like to want a baby and have empty arms. My heart broke for my daughter and for Kate.I gave my daughter and son-in-law lots of credit. Although I love children, I could never have a child placed in my arms and then have to give it back.There has never been consequences for men when it comes to unplanned pregnancy.My oldest daughter gave birth five days before her 16th birthday. I had the option to place her in a home for unwed Mother’s. I refused. Today, my oldest daughter and her husband (the baby’s father), are still together. They raised their two daughters and adopted my son’s oldest daughter and have raised her too. That first baby...she turns 30 this year. Last September she married her awesome best friend. They aren’t sure they even want children yet. Both work and that granddaughter bought her first house at the age of 25. She has paid off her car and saved enough to put a huge down payment on her house. She was born when I was 38. Her and I are extremely close. Probably because she lived with us for her first three years so her Mom could finish school. Without college, my oldest daughter became a pharmacy tech. Her and her husband have a beautiful house and enjoy traveling around the US so far.

Wow! What a powerful story. Shame on Ireland and shame on the Catholic Church for treating these unwed mothers as criminals. The cruel and inhumane treatment is not much better than that of the people put in concentration camps by the Nazi's. Surviving on very little food, working all day, being berated, slapped and beaten for even speaking. Their children taken away and sold to rich American's and Englishmen. Then they have the nerve to say if the girls cannot pay the large amount to buy their freedom than they have to work for three years at the home for unwed mothers to pay for their care for the time they are there before and after delivering their child. Some perish and never leave. The babies that don't make it are buried out back in unmarked graves with no funeral. Some of the girls are very young and there because of rape or incest but they are still treated as criminals, absolutely no sympathy or compassion. The thing I found the hardest to believe is that they were put there by their families who shunned them.Kate is a loving daughter with a loving father and an overbearing mother with a sympathy for the Nazi's. Kate works on her parent's farm with her brother Joe, the rest of the children already have escaped to the cities. Kate's mother wishes her to be a nun, Kate wants to escape and wants freedom to live her life how she wishes.Kate is a dutiful daughter and does as she is told. When her Uncle asks for her help in another village her father agrees to let her go for a month to help out. It's there that she meets an American airman tony and falls in love. They plan to be married when Tony returns after the war is over. Soon after Tony leaves she finds she is to have his child. When her Uncle finds out he is horrified. She is shunned by the village and a kind priest goes home with her to talk to her parents. Her parents shun her as well and she is sent to the home for unwed mothers and her mother refuses to have anything further to do with her. Eventually she has a little girl and calls her Eva.Meanwhile in America a young couple, a doctor and his wife Josh and Carol are reeling after a car accident causes Carol to have a miscarriage and lose their child. When she finds out she can have no further children she is devastated. After having a breakdown she is sent to an asylum by her mother in law for treatment. It is all a misunderstanding and should never have happened, but it did. This causes the couple to be turned down for adoption. A Priest who is a friend of Josh tells him of the unwed mothers home in Ireland and how he can adopt a child in return for a very sizable donation to the church. Josh adopts Eva.Kate has no say in this and is totally devastated that her daughter is gone and she has no way of finding out where she has been taken or who the adoptive parents are. Now Kate has to find a way to escape from the unwed mothers home and search for her daughter. Will she succeed and will she ever find her daughter?This story is one of the most heartbreaking stories I have ever read. I cried for Kate and for Gwen and for the other mothers in the story. I do recommend this story.Thanks to Rachel Wesson for writing a great story, to Bookouture for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available for me to read.

Rachel Weston has again told a story that is very sad but at the same time is impossible to put down. It's so sad what some of mankind are capable of in iheir treatment of others, especially when it's done by members of a clergy or so called Christians who should be espousing the love, forgiveness and grace taught by Christ.

Finished the book in one day. I find these types of stories insightful. How cruel people were in days past! I still find it shocking that people will do horrible things because their religion dictates it. I hope that this is changing!

It's tragic to realize how different some cultures regard unwed mother's and their babies. This book made my heart ache for the cruelty and suffering both the mothers and their babies. I found the nuns be heartless and cruel. None of their opinions and action came from God. I cried for the poor victims, especially the babies.

This story made you keep reading to find out what happened next! It was a page-turner and I loved it!

It's very heartbreaking to read about how the young girls who were pregnant out of wedlock were treated in the homes run by nuns. The girls were either forced to give up their babies or the nuns signed papers to give up their babies without the moms being aware .This is my first book by this author. It was well written.

Being a mother of an adopted child, I could relate to adopted mother. When you are unable to bear your own child, you heart feels empty. My child’s birth mother chose us to be his parents and I can never thank her enough! I am fortunate to share a relationship with his birth mother!

Another great book from Rachel Wasson. Always the master storyteller and this will not disappoint. Kate's mother wants her to be a nun, but Kate wants to escape and wants freedom to live her life how she wishes. After a whirlwind romance with an American airman, Tony, Kate finds that she is pregnant soon after Tony is forced to go home. Her family is horrified and she is shunned by her family she is sent to a home for unmarried mothers.Kate experiences all that is shameful of the past within the Roman Catholic Church. Surviving on little food, working as little more than a slave while beaten, berated and experiencing no sympathy or compassion. And just when you think they cannot bear anything further, there is worse to come.Once you start reading this book, you won’t want to put it down until you have finished. But don’t forget the tissues!

I loved this book from the first sentence to the last. The story is set in Ireland during the war. We meet Carol, and lives in America and is desperate to have a baby. Then there is Kate in Ireland who lives with her parents on their farm. Kate’s father suffers ill health from injuries in the first world war. Kate’s mother a strict Catholic. We learn about the strictness of the Nuns in the Convent where unmarried girls go. Their lives and those of their babies is cruel and harsh. I sobbed at the treatment these girls and their babies are subject to. The story brings Kate and Carol together in time, but i won’t spoil anyone’s enjoyment of this wonderful story, which brings more tears in my case. I can thoroughly recommend this book. Another interesting and heartrending read by Rachel Wesson

Rachel Wesson is one of my favourite authors and this book did not disappoint. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book. Very well written to the point you are transported into the story. One minute you are smiling and the next there's a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes. An eye opening insight as to how unmarried mothers bearing a child out of wedlock were harshly treated by both their family and friends and the church it's so hard to take in the cruelty administered in these mother and baby homes. I'm not condemning all clergy as with the bad there is always good. Congratulations on another fantastic book Rachel.

This book was so good but very sad. When we say the good old days this kind of thing comes to mind. How strong the women had to be. Thank God we don’t have to be today. Brilliant author very full story with an ending that wasn’t rolled up in the last pages which most book are.I have purchased a second book look forward to starting in shortly

I read this book in 1.5 days. Although I thought I could guess what was going to happen, and I have heard of the convents for unmarried mothers, it still shocked me that people could be so cruel! I’m glad the book ended the way it did although I’m sure very few real life stories turned out this way. I love Rachel Wesson’s style of writing and haven’t been disappointed yet.