Helen has a troubled childhood. She was close to her parents, she was happy. Now she just calls them April and Bill, not mum and dad! At a young age, too you to really understand, she gives birth and has her daughter Lily taken away and put into the adoption system. Years later Lily, who is now Ingrid, comes back into Helens life. She and Andrew are expecting a baby and she wants Helen in her life. But Lily needs answers! Helen doesn't want to discuss it.

Although the story is heartbreaking it's told in quite an upbeat and quirky way. I enjoyed this style of writing. It's wrote with different points of view, which I always love because you get to know the characters much better. The book flits from past to present but it flows really well. You are given little hints about what has happened in Helens past throughout the book. She comes across as a bit slow but this adds to her charm, you can't help but feel sorry for her. I really enjoyed reading this book

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This story is told alternately by the characters of the story, each with their own hopes, fears, anger, confusion and blind spots. 
Helen, the tragic heroine. She left home as a teen and though her own telling, a lot of BAD things happened to her. We suspect,  abuse coupled with mental illness. She is surprised to find one day that she has given birth to a beautiful baby girl, that she names Lily. Though she does her best, she is not able to care for her while reality sips from her fingers, and Lily is taken from her and put up for adoption. 20 years pass and suddenly Lilly in back in her life, now named Ingrid. 

Ingrid/ Lily is pregnant and married to a wonderful man named Andrew. They seem to have a good life together when suddenly Ingrid decides that Andrew annoys her with his niceness, and she wants a divorce. Helen sees what is happening but is afraid of losing her tenuous contact with Ingrid and the baby, named Aisha, is helpless to prevent Ingrid from ruining her own life. Ingrid craves something from Helen, a missing piece of family that Helen can’t provide becuase her trauma is too great.

The lives of her Grand bees- what she calls her grandchildren is a different story. Though terrified, Helen will overcome a lot of her fears to protect them, at any cost. 
Such the story goes as Helen, Ingrid, Aisha and others  tell their stories, tugging on each other. The unfolding of the story and what happened to Helen kept me engaged. The story is full of heartbreaking relationships of mothers and daughters and how they disappoint each other all the while loving each other with everything they have. The story isnt a particularly happy one, with a lot of difficult subject matter covered, though it does have a happy ending. Recommend

Twenty years ago  Helen was forced to give up her new baby daughter Lily. Now living in a small flat there is a knock on the door and Lily is there,  right infront of her.
This story is told in Helens quirky voice and after getting used to that I was drawn in.
Topics such as race,  identity and mental illness are all covered in a sensitive way.
This book was compelling and a true reflection of modern day life. 
Definitely a sure fire hit!

This is a lovely thought provoking read that is written in a very gentle and artistic manner. It is simply beautiful and more a work of art than a novel. I will remember this for a long time and highly recommend it.

I just wasn’t a fan of this. It’s honestly my own fault. I don’t usually like this type of story, so I have no idea why I thought that this would be different. The writing was really gorgeous, but I just could never get into the plot, and that’s on me. This is by no means a bad book, and my problems with it were my own fault. So I really don’t think that my review speaks for the quality of this book. Most people would absolutely love this, but it just wasn’t for me.