This book was both good and heartbreaking. I did really enjoy it though.
I couldn't put it down and will look out for more of this author

Well this is a tear jerker, tissues at the ready. It defies belief that this kind of thing happened in a children’s home.
The descriptions are rather powerful, but you have to keep going to find out if justice prevails. Loved it.

I read this book In two days very easy reading - this is a true story and not the type of book I normally read it was absorbing in a strange way and heart wrenching. It was so sad reading how awful family life was and how much abuse the author suffered.

Heart-breaking tale.

This was a quick page turner-but by no means an easy read. Unthinkable how even the hardest circumstances could lead to a family deciding this was the best for their children.

It's 1959, and Marie is just six years old, and at primary school. The family lived in a small rented house in Oldham. They had no carpets, hardly any furniture, it was all very basic, bad conditions, a lack of everything. Times were very hard-and the family kept on growing. Pregnancy after pregnancy, mum having had seven children in as many years. So sad that the rows and chucking stuff about were frequent, so the kids thought it was just as normal, they were used to it.

Imagine the excitement when young Marie is told she and her brother are going on a holiday. So sad that they're lapping up the journey, having never been in a car before, or on holiday. They have no idea what really awaits them. How terrible when they find out they are being discarded and sent to a convent, at the mercy of the nuns who are supposed to be taking care of them, but they do anything but. Treatment is terrible, abuse is all they get. So sad and heart-breaking. Gripping reading as you wonder how much longer her family will leave her here, will they come back for her, will things get better? A powerful story, and circumstances which no one should have to go through.

I’d like to thank Mirror Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Convent’ by Marie Hargreaves in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Marie’s family live in poverty, her father struggles to find work and her mother suffers from a mental illness and endures another new pregnancy each year. They send the two oldest children, Marie aged six and seven-year-old Freddie, to “Our Lady’s Convent” in Billinge, Lancashire, where they’re kept for four years until the Convent is moved to Liverpool and the children returned to their family home in Oldham. This is the true story of Marie and the beating and sexual abuse inflicted on her by Sister Isobel and the older girls who were encouraged to perform the vilest acts on her.

‘The Convent’ is the grim and tear-jerking story of a girl who at the age of six is removed from her family, has her long brown hair chopped off and is put to work scrubbing floors. The brutal treatment she endures is hard to read about, depressing to take in and unbelievably sad that religious women could be so cruel and wicked to little children. As I’ve continued to read about Marie’s life I’ve found it uplifting at the same time as she explains that with the love of her husband and children she finally discovers happiness and her place in the world. This story is beautifully written and although more than once I had a tear in my eye I’m so glad that Mirror Books has given me the opportunity to read it.

I have previously read a few books based on the same thing. I would not have liked to be brought up in a convent or by the nuns. These children went through such a hard time.