Beth's Review: Hope: Stories from a Women's Refuge by Rosy Stewart (Author), Rosie Larner (A
Author Provided Copy
Publisher: Cricket International
Released: February 5, 2016
Genre: Women's Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Length: 296 pages
Format: ebook
Buy Links:
Blurb
Sue Barlow is the manager of a women’s refuge in London. A brutal attack on Liz, one of the ex-residents, brings home the failure of a system that should protect women. She joins forces with Jade a young police sergeant, and Nina a reclusive Russian I.T. expert. Together they track down and tackle abusers. Very soon they learn that to succeed they must support each other to break the rules. This forces them to examine their own personal agendas to a depth they hadn’t bargained for. Each chapter centres around a different person that the team tries to help. These include a prostitute being terrorised by a gang; a wealthy woman imprisoned in a mansion by her servants; an abused woman with an identity crisis; an elderly woman found in the snow; a Nigerian woman trying to protect her daughter from a witch hunter; a young girl trapped in a religious cult; a woman trapped in a bogus refuge; a woman stalked by someone seeking revenge. The book follows the progress of ex-resident Liz in hospital and the hunt by Sue, Jade and Nina for Viktor, her abuser. The final chapter climaxes with a showdown with Viktor. Anyone affected by these issues may find useful links at our website http://slarner5.wix.com/hope
Four Boundless Stars
I was provided a copy of Hope: Stories from a Women's Refuge in exchange for an honest review. This is definitely a quick read. It’s written with London dialect; if you’re familiar with the everyday language from the area, it will be a smooth read as well. It is not long at all, so it would be a good read for a day at the beach or long waits for doctors’ appointments.
Hope: Stories from a Women's Refuge is extremely easy to follow, as it’s written to tell a different story with each chapter. Sadly, the stories are realistic views of lives of battered and abused women, as they are invited into a women’s refuge center. However; several situations are resolved quickly, which would be wonderful if it happened with this speed, unfortunately, real life issues are never remedied this fast. I feel Stewart did this to help the book flow nicely, it worked.
I applaud the author to approach a subject that is usually hidden from the light; it’s not the most fun subject, but it DOES happen. Overall, I loved the book and feel it to be worthy 4 Boundless Stars.