Home Truths by Susan Lewis ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

"'Our five year old son had a syringe in his hand', he raged, almost choking on the words.
'I need to find Liam, and when I do I'm turning him in to the police along with every other one of those lowlife bastards.'" (p1)

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

January 2020; William Morrow Paperbacks
978-0062906588
audio, ebook, print (480 pages)
women's fiction

Home Truths is an emotional novel about how quickly life can change.  One minute you can be part of a happy family and by a twist of fate, you become a single mother on the edge of eviction from your family home and depending on handouts for the food to feed your children.  The main character is a mother who will do anything she can to protect and take care of her children.

Angie and Steve lived in a nice home with their three children. Their oldest son, Liam, changed from a happy quiet child about the time he was 13. He was expelled from school and hanging out with a local gang. As the novel begins, Steve has found their 5-year-old son playing with a syringe left behind by his brother and Steve goes looking for Liam to confront him about his behavior. The result is that Steve is killed by the gang and Angie becomes the sole provider for her two children. Two years after Steve's death, Angie and her 2 children are about to be evicted from their home and as she tries to save her family home and protect her children, she still searches for her lost son Liam who has disappeared.

This novel alternates between two timelines - Angie as a young mother, getting married and with Liam as a happy child and Angie in present-day trying to keep her two children in their family home. Angie is a brave woman and tries to do everything on her own - she doesn't like to ask for help and by the time she does, her life is pretty hopeless. She is a loving mother whose main concern is her two children at home even as she yearns to find out what happened to her oldest son. I found it amazing how quickly life could go from middle class to extreme poverty and not having money to pay rent or buy food. Even though Angie worked several jobs, she still struggled with money. This is a dark and gritty book that deals with homelessness, drugs, human trafficking and prostitution and it will make you hope for the best for Angie and her family, and, yes, cry some tears for them too.

Angie and her family definitely deserve a happily ever after ending but will they be able to find their way out of their current circumstances and find happiness? or will life continue to keep them down? How far will a mother go to protect her family that she loves?  This emotional book by Susan Lewis will keep you turning pages while you hope for a better life for this family.

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Also available at HarperCollins | Barnes & Noble

Author Links: Website and Facebook

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter. 

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