In 1983, seventeen-year-old Felicity is pregnant and cast out by her parents. She finds sanctuary at the women’s peace camp at Greenham Common, a place of solidarity and hope. But when the camp is raided by police and the women are arrested, Felicity goes into labour in a cell, and her baby is taken from her.

In 2024, Emma is serving time in prison, haunted by the tragic accident that changed her life forever. When her new cellmate Amanda shows kindness, Emma begins to confide in her, but trust can be dangerous behind bars.

Elsewhere, Adele’s world collapses when her daughter disappears on her way home from school. As the police dig into her family’s past, Adele uncovers a web of lies she never imagined. To find her daughter, she must unravel a decades-old secret before time runs out.

This is a gripping, fast-paced thriller that weaves together past and present with skill. The 1983 setting is particularly vivid, especially for those who remember the events surrounding the Greenham Common protests. Emily Gunnis captures both the emotional weight of the women’s struggle and the relentless suspense of the present-day mystery, making this an unputdownable read filled with tension, compassion, and twists that keep you turning the pages.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

This was a great read, multi layered with a heartbreaking back storyline and a fraught present day situation.
1982 and the Greenham Common women are still singing during their protests, it's hard and tough, as the authorities are determined they should stop their protest. At 17 Fliss joins them, abandoned by her wealthy parents for falling pregnant, she feels safe and amongst friends for the first time.
WPC Rachel Rees has empathy with the women but has a job to do, but the discovery of a foundling baby takes her mind away from the arrests.
Present day, Adele has always had a difficult relationship with her mother, shes never felt enough and that Felicity has always held back, but when her daughter Sophia goes missing she hopes for some closeness.
This wasn't my first Emily Gunnis read, I love the unique storylines she writes about, her characters are relatable. I really like her style of writing and this book was no exception. I really couldn't put it down
I am grateful to Netgalley and Headline Publishing for the advanced copy. I have left my review on Goodreads, Bookmory, Storygraph and Fable and will review on Amazon and Waterstones on publication day

I really wanted to love this book. The story and the characters are great and the historical link to Greenham Common well researched and it makes for a good part of the book. It was predictable and I worked out what was going to happen quite early on but there were just a few inaccuracies that ruined it for me.
Fliss in 1982, 7.5 months pregnant sleeping in the boot of her mini as mentioned a couple of times, extremely unlikely and then when Adele goes to Port Talbot to see Hazel, she does a press conference at 3 and is back at home at 5:30pm! In another part it says she’d known Hazel for twelve days and a couple of pages later it said she’d known her ten.
It could be a really good book but just not checked well enough for my liking.

This was a fast paced book with multiple timelines and POC, this really gave layers to the story. The book was tense and really kept your attention. Characters within the book were well developed and showed growth.

Whilst I’ve heard of Greenham Common I knew nothing about events there and I found the subject both horrifying and fascinating although it only accounts for a small amount of the story. The main story is set in the present day and features a missing child case told from the perspective of the child’s mum and the police FLO as well as chapters featuring a character in prison. There’s a lot of angles to this story which do weave together but takes while to make sense to an extent but there’s a lot of family history and secrets and it’s more family drama than crime read but still a strong story which is well told.

This was a fascinating, fast-paced thriller. The era in which the early part of the novel was set added an extra layer of interest for me as I remember many of the events of 1983 very well especially the plight of the women who protested at Greenham Common.

Felicity's predicament was real and extremely moving, and her decision to join the Greenham women was very plausible. This part of the novel gave an interesting insight into the terrible hardships the women faced in fighting for their cause. I welcomed the factual background given in the author's note at the end, as some readers may not know of the Greenham Common story.

There were many different subplots in this story all of which were successfully resolved at the end. Lately, I have read a lot of books that have left the reader hanging in suspense at the end. This book certainly did not do this, which in my view is a major plus.

A really good read!

This was a thoroughly good book with so many twists and turns through it, at many points it is an emotional journey as you follow the different parts that make up the story.

I enjoyed this book a lot

Blurb

1983. Pregnant at seventeen and turned out by her parents, Felicity finds refuge at the women's peace camp at Greenham Common. But when the camp is raided by police and the women arrested, Felicity goes into labour in a cell and her baby is taken away.

2024. Serving time behind bars, Emma is haunted by the night her careless actions caused a tragic accident and left her alone in the world. When her new cell mate Amanda shows her kindness, Emma doesn't think twice about sharing all her secrets, but who can she trust?

Adele steps into a nightmare when her daughter vanishes on her way home from school. When the police start to ask questions about her family, Adele is shocked to discover a hidden trail of lies. But can she unravel the secret that will lead to her missing daughter - before it's too late...

This was a step out of my normal genre. I remember the women demonstrating on Greenham Common but had no idea how long they did it for nor any of the details given in the book.

It was an interesting read from that point of view but definitely not a favourite book for me. It was a bit on the slow side and I’m not a fan of books where you switch timelines quite frequently.

Sorry, just not for me.

My thanks, however, go to the author, the publisher and to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I enjoyed this book and it was the one I took on holiday. It was just what I wanted, something to get lost into.
The book is set in and around Greenham Common, both in the 1980's and the present day. There were plenty of strong female characters that have a link, not initially obvious. It's a plot turner, that makes it compulsive reading. I didn't want to put the book down. A baby that was born in the time of the Greenham protests has a complicated life story and her life is difficult to piece together. There are twists and turns in a search for the truth.
I really did enjoy my holiday.
I look forward to reading more from this author

I hadn’t read any books previously by Emily Gunnis but will look out for her novels. I can remember the Greenham Common protests but didn’t know a great deal about them. This gives the book an emotional charge and shows the humanity behind it. I had worked out the plot quite early but still enjoyed this book and how the characters unfolded. It was good that there was a timeline at the beginning of each chapter taking the story back and forward from the 1980s to 2024. An absorbing read. Thanks to Netgalley and Headline for the opportunity to review.

Enjoyed this booked
The fact that this book was set in the area that I now live enhanced my enjoyment as I recognised most of the places mentioned
I loved the storyline and the way the author seamlessly straddled past and present day made the book more interesting
The characters were loveable and dislikeable in equal measure
I felt every moment of despair that Adele felt
The main character, police officer Kate was both professional and empathetic in equal measure
In parts I felt the book did go on a little too much hence the 4*
It’s interesting to read about Greenham Common and the women that protested during the hardest of times
I had forgotten about this and I am of an age when it was always in the news
Overall a good read and, for me a book that once started had to be finished but not devoured

This is the first book I've read by Emily Gunnis, and I was not disappointed. It was a fast paced, dual.period, dual narrated and emotion-fueled novel that really captured my attention.

The author has developed the characters really well, and I loved how they all showed growth after their experiences. I really felt for Emma, from her upbringing to where she found herself later in life, so I was glad she got a good ending and that she could finally heal.

It was rather tense in places, and although I did guess what had happened with Sophia, it didn't take away any enjoyment as there was so much more to the plot.

It's a great read, so I'll definitely be looking out for more by Emily Gunnis.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC.

Wow, another fantastic and tense thriller from Gunnis. What a treat this book was. I found myself desperate to carry on reading. The characters are horrific, to the point where I clenched my fist! I love authors who can make me feel that way about a fictional character. Gunnis writes to perfection. I also adore her use of a dual timeline and how it all ties up together at the end. Fantastic. This will be popular.

Felicity is 17 when she gets pregnant by a friend of her parents who is nearly 3 times her age, he doesn't want to know but gives her a phone number of someone who will take care of it. When she finally rings the number it is too late, what will she do now. Her MP father and socialite mother will not want the scandal, she leaves home and joins the women at Greenham Common.
Her daughter Adele does not know any of these details and they have always had a strained relationship until Adele's daughter Sophia goes missing. Will this bring Adele and Sophia closer together.
Beautifully told with a lot of detail about Greenham Common that I did not know.

A really exciting read. The first book I've read by this author and I have already been looking at her previous novels and intend to read them at some point. When Felicity is homeless and pregnant at a young age she finds herself living with the other protesters at Greenham Comman but when she gets arrested she gives birth in prison and the baby Emma is later abandoned . Bought up by her adopted parents she ends up in prison and meets someone who she thinks is her friend but things are not what they seem and when a young girl Sophia goes missing what is the link between the families. It will grip you from the beginning and as things start to unravel can shebe found safe and why was she taken . I really loved this book and highly recommend it found it really interesting reading about Greenham Comman and the brave women who faught to protect it

This is the first time that I've read a novel by this writer, and it will certainly not be the last. It is an altogether engrossing story that spans several generations amid cruel separation, betrayal even among family and friends. It is fast paced gripping thriller which delves into the past present and future that makes the reader want to find out what links these women together and how they survive to eventually triumph when a missing child is found and brings all the threads together. If you enjoy fast moving, well researched historical thrillers then this is one for you. I recommend this most highly and would like to thank NetGalley and Headline Publishing Group for letting me read this novel as an ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This book piissseddd me offffff, or rather, one specific character pissed me off. I really enjoyed the story, with the emotional background story of the Greenham Common nuclear protests. It helped really connect to the characters and appreciate them more. The name of the book I found quite fitting as well as the ending, nothing too far fetched or hard to believe, all in all a good book.

A Child in the Storm by Emily Gunnis

I once worked with a woman that had spent time living at Greenham Common so it was great to be able to read this to get an insight to how life may have been.

It was an excellent read , and even better as it also had a timeline theme running through it which helped being the women and the story alive.
It also taught me a lot on how life living there may have been for many of the ( troubled ) women who lived there , with some obviously escaping an already unhappy life .
I thought the author told the story in a great way that bought that era alive .

This book really did engage me I remembered hearing about the women at greenham common so took me back a bit. It spanned three generations of women and told their stories. Alongside there was the main story which centred around the disappearance of Sophia. There is a bit of jumping back in time and forward to present day but as soon as you get your head round the characters this is easy to follow.

A very well told story where the past certainly influences the present.

Loved it