Synopsis – Irish Adoption House
Ireland, 1920. ‘Please. Don’t take her from me. Have some mercy, Sister. Just a moment longer.’ She clutched the bundle to her chest even tighter. But she couldn’t stop them. Hearing her baby’s cries echo in the hallway, she swore that one day they would be together again…
When the man she thought she’d marry suddenly disappears Maudie O’Connor is heartbroken. Then she finds out she’s pregnant. Refusing her pleas to keep the baby, her family send her to St Patrick’s Mother and Baby Home in disgrace.
Lying in bed after a harrowing birth, it’s all worth it as she cradles her precious little girl. But the nuns tear the newborn from her grasp. Maudie’s only solace is that she is able to spend a few minutes a day feeding her. Then, one morning, her baby is nowhere to be seen.
Determined to find out what happened to her daughter, Maudie sneaks out after curfew, past the nuns guarding the record room. And when she finds her entry, her breath catches. Not only has her little girl been given up for adoption, she’s been sent several thousand miles away: to Savannah, Georgia, USA.
With her family disowning her, and not a penny to her name, how will Maudie even start the vast and lonely journey across the ocean? With no one to help her and so little information to go on, how can she hope to find the family who adopted her precious baby? And even if she does – will her little girl ever be given back to Maudie, where she truly belongs?
Have the tissues ready for this emotional and page-turning historical novel set in Ireland, perfect for fans of Jean Grainger, Lisa Wingate and Diney Costeloe.
Author Bio
Michelle Vernal is the Amazon UK top 100 bestselling author of Christmas in the Little Irish Village. In 2015 her debut novel, The Traveller’s Daughter, was shortlisted for the Love Stories award and in 2020, The Letter won the Reader’s Favorite Gold Medal Award for Chick lit. In addition, The Autumn Posy, Book 1 in the Liverpool Brides timeslip series, was a finalist in the 2021 Page Turner Book awards. She also writes the popular Guesthouse on the Green series featuring the hilarious O’Mara family. Michelle’s books are full of laugh out loud moments and warmth. Her readers describe her novels as unputdownable, feel-good and funny. She lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, with her husband, two teenage sons and attention-seeking tabby cats, Humphrey and Savannah.
My Review
This is a well written historical fiction novel told in dual timelines. The brutal history of the way unmarried pregnant women were treated is hard to read. However, this book documents that history well. As a Catholic myself it is so hard to reconcile the atrocities that were committed in the name of religion.
The book follows Maudie as she is discovered to be pregnant and banished from her family to a Mother & Child Home. The subject matter is very tough as it explores sexual assault, murder, and forced adoptions. The subject matter is handled well as we follow a much older Maudie and her return to Ireland as an older woman.
