A stroll through this woman's childhood and early adulthood are a lesson in living with abusive, narcissistic parents, emotionally absent parents, and the struggle to grow up and thrive in spite of those early experiences. I felt like the middle dragged a little bit, but overall the story was captivating and the conclusion was satisfying.

It's always difficult to describe the reading experience of a book about abuse. It's shocking and heartbreaking, just as you would expect, yet you can't stop reading. You want to understand how someone can treat their loved ones this way, how it goes unnoticed by those around them, and how the victim keeps silent for so long.

I definitely recommend this one. The writing is smooth and never feels slow or long-winded. Despite the upsetting content, I wanted to get back to it every day. I wanted to know more about Teressa and her family.

The book is about Teressa and her two sisters growing up in a home with an abusive father. I had to read this book in small doses, because the things Teressa tells of her childhood were difficult to imagine. I found myself very angry at her Mother for not standing up for her own children from the abuse of her husband. Her Mother was a woman who chose her husband over her children from the moment she met him. The way Teressa tells things you feel like your right there with her. I loved the book and thought she is so brave to finally tell her story.

Emotional moving sad.The authors father is abusive first to her older sister then to the author.In some ways it was difficult to read but I couldn’t put it down.So well written so real highly recommend.#netgalley#she writespress

Shelton's upbringing was hellacious to read. Her father was a complete SOB and an abuser. Her mother enabled his behavior although he cheated on her and verbally abused her. It was appalling to read the horrors inflicted upon Shelton and her sisters. Her mother gave away her oldest child because her second husband refused To have him. Shelton is a survivor and her memoir illustrated that although her home life was a wreck, she survived and got out. Race yourself for gritty, disturbing scenes when you read it.

The Sergeant’s Daughter, an honest, unflinching look at life growing up with a father in the military. Quite a sad but eye opening read that is very well written.

Teressa Shelton tells her story in this memoir of growing up with an abusive father and a mother who never stood up for her children, a mother who actually gave up a child to keep her husband happy. It's an interesting read and I tore through it. For me personally though it felt a little bit surface - I wish Shelton had delved deeper into her feelings then and now, rather than what felt a times a mere reporting of events.

This is a pretty heartbreaking memoir about three girls and their military father. Told by Teressa, the middle child, it describes how her dad went easier on her and her younger sibling Karen while her older sister Debbie bore the brunt of his anger. He had terrible anger issues and took them out on the children and his wife. It's hard to read in places and quite uncomfortable. I couldn't describe this as an enjoyable read but its certainly worthwhile.

I read this in 2 days. It was a page turner, but so sad. The author is very honest about her feelings and tells a story of anger, guilt and resentment in an incredibly engaging way. The writing is excellent and I really wanted to know what happened to the family. I recommend it highly.

This book was a highly personal read for me because I too was a sergeant’s daughter. My sergeant dad also had a violent temper and resorted to corporal punishment although not as frequent or brutal as the author’s father meted out to her and her sisters. So many things in The Sergeant’s Daughter were familiar to me. I lived in Anchorage as a child before it was even a state. One of my two sisters was born at Ft. Riley Kansas and the other in Wurzburg Germany where my father was stationed next. All of us military “brats” know what it means to live from house to house (some quarters better and some worse), to always be the new kid in school, and what the parental order to police up the yard means. After growing up this way you become adaptable. Home is nowhere and yet everywhere. This book was of course meaningful to me but I recommend it as a very readable story of one person’s childhood experience of growing up in the military life.

As a little girl, Teressa knows that her father dotes on her, whilst her older sister Debbie is mocked & picked on. Teressa thinks that Debbie must have done something to deserve this treatment, until she gets older & he begins tormenting her too. Her father attempts to run his family like a military establishment, requiring absolute obedience, a spotless house & any misdemeanour resulting in punishment for all three girls.
Over time, Teressa realises that home life is not "normal" and she seeks places that she can escape - her beloved Grandpa, a kind neighbour, a best friends house (where the mother would invariably know there was something wrong but were powerless to do anything other than provide a safe haven) or a trusted teacher. She knows that she is considered the "clever one" and endeavours to make her father proud of her by gaining good marks in school but when her father bans books she realises that he just wants to control every aspect of her life. In many ways, Teressa's father's military life provided a cover for his abuse as they moved so often.
The discovery of family secrets and a realisation that her mother was under "Dad's" spell and would never put her children first, makes Teressa realise that the only way out of the life she has is to forge her own path. A marriage very young helps her to take the first steps towards achieving this, but she soon realises that her own happiness doesn't need to be dependent on others.

This is a difficult book to read, and as a memoir the writing style is quite choppy and doesn't flow well. It is a harrowing book at times but thank you to Teressa for being brave enough to share her story
Disclosure: I received an advance reader copy of this book free via NetGalley. All opinions are my own