My Husband's Child by Alison Ragsdale

 

My thoughts

Another heartfelt story by one of my favorite authors. Alison Ragsdale captures your heart with her stories. They are always so realistic that I wonder if she has lived it or knows someone who has. Her books always make me shed tons of tears. 

Cora Campbell is a divorced woman who was raised by loving adoptive parents. Before them she had been in foster care and it was hard. She's always wanted a family. Children. When her husband told her he fell for someone else it almost did her in. Then when he started a family with this woman it devastated her further. 

One night there is a knock on her door and standing there in the dark are her exe husband's children. The older is a girl about three years old and her baby brother who is eighteen months. She brings them in and takes care of them. She does everything she should to make sure they are protected. How could their mother do such a thing. How could their dad. And why...

There is a mystery involved in this story that will keep you guessing. The why of a mother and father leaving their children. With her exe's dad's help Cora is able to gain the children's trust and love. But when their mother, Holly, returns what will be her excuse. Then shortly after their father, Frasier, also returns. Cora and Frank, Frasier's dad, are willing to fight for these children. They also want what is best for them. 

When certain secrets are finally revealed Cora is stunned. So was I.... I expected a whole other direction but this was done perfectly. I was glad I didn't guess it. 

This book is about some abuse. Both child and spousal. It's not graphic so no trigger warnings. But it does eventually come out. 

I loved this book. It was, like her other books, a page turner. One that was hard to put down. This story was about a subject that I have not read much at all about. It was very heartfelt and sad. But it did have a good ending. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #Bookouture, for this ARC. This is my opinion of this story.

About

When I find a little girl standing on my doorstep, I don’t know what to do. But as I take her small hand in mine, she whispers words that will change my life. ‘Mummy said you’d look after me.’

Ever since her husband left her for another woman, Cora has been trying to put her life back together. But when she hears he started a family, her heart breaks all over again. And so, when the doorbell rings late one night, the last person Cora expects to find is her husband’s child.

The little girl is shivering, clutching her baby brother’s hand. With no other choice, Cora ushers the children into her home. As she settles them by the fire, she tries to work out what happened. But as the days pass and her phone calls go unanswered, she realises the children’s parents have vanished without a trace…

Over the following weeks, Cora grows to love the children as if they were her own. And as she tucks them into bed each night, pressing a kiss to their foreheads, her heart feels fuller than she ever could have imagined.

But when her ex-husband’s wife reappears, Cora senses she isn’t telling the truth about why she abandoned her children. And when Cora’s ex-husband returns, claiming the children aren’t safe with their mother, she faces an impossible choice. Should Cora believe him or the children’s mother? And should she trust her instinct that something is terribly wrong?