“A moving portrayal of a teenager coming to terms with a secret about her mother that her father decided to keep from her… was he right to do so? Saffron must work that out… Seventeen year old Saffron discovers a secret in the attic – a secret that changes both her past and her future… Having believed ten years ago that her mother had become ill and subsequently died, Saffron learns that her mother is in fact alive and well. Angry at the years of deceit from her father and step mother, she goes in search of the truth about her mother – and leaves home. Homeless and alone, Saffron has to deal with the mental turmoil and anger at her father as she processes the lies she has been told. And then Saffron comes face to face with the dangers of being a homeless teenage girl…”
⭐ ⭐ ⭐
After being on my shelf since before it’s publication date in 2019 as I managed to get my hands on an early copy, I finally picked it up after it being packed away for god knows how long. This is my first book of 2022, and I read it in less than 24 hours, in only two sittings, and we all know how much I love a book that I an fly through thanks to such short chapters.
Saffron has been living the past 10 years of her life thinking that her mother died when she was only seven, but the book opens with her finding out that the past decade of her life has been nothing but a lie, and her mother is in fact still alive. Sure that her dad and his new wife are the reason behind her mother walking out on her and her brothers, Saffron sets out on the mission of finding her mother, without letting anything get in her way.
On her way to finding her mother, she finds herself living on the streets as the one friend who she thought would be there for her isn’t. Tom has his reasons for not letting Saffron stay with him, but no matter what, you wouldn’t let your friend go homeless for the sake of yourself. There isn’t really a reason for her to be on the streets, she is just stubborn and wants to take it out on the family around her. Don’t get me wrong, she has every right to be as outraged as she is after finding out this information, but I thought she would want to stay at home and get information out of her father and her step mum. I don’t know. That seems like the most rational thing to do. I understand if she walked out and didn’t come back for a few hours so that she could calm down and collect herself, but not the running away.
This book is set across the course of a week, so it doesn’t seem like Saffron was very true to her not going back home until her father tells her everything, and of all people to get her to go back home, it wasn’t the person who I thought it would be.
I felt like the romance aspect of this book could have been avoided, and it seemed like it was just included for the sake of including it, but other than that, I did quite enjoy this book, but not as much as I did Shrimpton’s debut novel Sunflowers in February which was released back in 2018, and was a great read that I also flew through, much like this one.
I look forward to reading more from Shrimpton in the future.
Much love,
Tea Stains and Book Spines 