Review: Etched on Me by Jenn Crowell

Etched on Me by Jenn Crowell 

Publisher: Washington Square Press

Pages: 336

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon Amazon 

Goodreads:  On the surface, sixteen-year-old Lesley Holloway is just another bright new student at Hawthorn Hill, a posh all-girls; prep school north of London. Little do her classmates know that she recently ran away from home, where her father had spent years sexually abusing her. Nor does anyone know that she's secretly cutting herself as a coping mechanism...until the day she goes too far and ends up in the hospital. 

Lesley spends the next two years in and out of psychiatric facilities, where she overcomes her traumatic memories and finds the support of a surrogate family. Eventually completing university and earning her degree, she is a social services success story;until she becomes unexpectedly pregnant in her early twenties. Despite the overwhelming odds she has overcome, the same team that saved her as an adolescent will now question whether Lesley is fit to be a mother. And so she embarks upon her biggest battle yet: the fight for her unborn daughter.

Kritters Thoughts:  A heart wrenching story that at times I had to remind myself that there was truth in it - a young woman with a checkered past has mostly overcome her demons only to be judged as she wants to raise her own unborn child.  She was able to find support in many different people and as she became pregnant they even more so rallied around her to help her be a single mom able to raise her own child.

Although the book spends quite a bit of time describing the horrible childhood and rough young adult years of this woman, when she becomes pregnant, there was not stopping to set it down!  There were so many moments that were hard to read and I felt as though I just wanted to cheer her on to find hope within herself, I was thankful that although she found ways to fight her demons, they were still there - it felt true.    

This book raised the debate about how to define someone as fit to be a parent and how do we judge if a person is healed enough to take care of their own children.  I hope that others will read this book and a dialogue begins to help define when someone is in the process of healing and able to take on the responsibilities of life.

Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Ebook 2014 Challenge: 6 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.