This story explores some really dark themes but it tries to be uplifting and unfortunately the very nature and immenseness of the issues mean that any humour naturally falls flat. The premise is heartbreaking; two women in a hospital give birth but only one of them has a baby. The mother to a stolen baby is the most likeable character in the whole book and I feel like her story is kind of glossed over. The dad, Julius is a horrible parody of people most of us know in one form or another, not necessarily in politics, but a narcissist who loves no one as much as himself.

My main issues with this book other than the massive issues at hand, were the massive inconsistencies in the story, for example, the parents who abduct Minnie are described as of Jamaican descent and African. They are both black. The other couple are described as black and nordic white. So the baby, Florence, is obviously mixed race. How was nobody in Hope's family querying how two black people could have made a mixed race baby. Putting that aside for the moment, because I do get that genetics can throw up some anomalies over the years, they don't just let you give your heart to someone, literally. That's not a thing. Especially a convict terminating their lives for that very purpose, and given they're not actually biologically related, how on earth did she know she'd be a match?

The police officer characters were actually offensive to police. I have no idea what police she has met but they are not real world police, they are 'Allo 'Allo characters. The weird clothes swapping bit near the end I have no idea what to do with. You are struggling to get dressed because you don't know who you are but a police officer giving you her clothes makes sense. Also the little ogling of the boobs moment was completely out of left field.

I could have given the book two stars but actually Dawn does know how to write in an interesting way and I read it quite quickly which usually means I'm engaged so I upped the score a bit.