Rachael English

What a beautiful book. I love getting lost in Irish history.

I am a fan of Rachel English novels, and this is the third book I have have really enjoyed. The story is so well constructed, moving, entertaining with some great lines that made me laugh out loud. I think she really captures a sense of Irishness, It’s Irish without being twee.

Inspired by true events this historical fiction story is told in two time frames and each story within the timeframe is as compelling as the other.

Journalist Jessie Daly loses everything she holds dear and travels home to Ireland’s west coast with her tail between her legs. To keep her busy and out of trouble she embarks on a Project along with a friend who is researching life during the Irish Famine. Jessie becomes drawn into the heartbreaking story of a brave young mother Bridget Moloney and her daughter Noah. The more she researches the more she begins to understand the impact of the famine on she own locality and family.
Across the Atlantic Ocean in Boston Kaitlin Wilson is researching her family tree and uncovers some uncomfortable truths about her past and uncovers an unexpected connection to Ireland.

This is one of those novels you pick up and fly through. It’s a moving and heartbreaking historical fiction story and yet it never becomes depressing. I really enjoyed the characters and loved Jessie, she is a modern woman, warts and all but she has a way with words that made me laugh out loud on so many occasions. Fantastic storytelling with characters that are entertaining and believable.

I think readers who enjoy historical fiction novels, or authors like Diane Chamberlain, Kristin Hannah may well enjoy this novel.… (more)

A truly beautiful and enchanting read, and a story that was uplighting and believable.

This is Rachel English’s fifth novel and having read and enjoyed [b:The American Girl|36198772|The American Girl|Rachel English|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|57827740]. I really wanted to read another novel by this author and the blurb on this book caught my attention.

Inspired by true events.
For almost fifty years, Katie has kept a box tucked away inside her wardrobe. It dates from her time working as a nurse in a west of Ireland mother and baby home in the 1970s. the box contains a notebook with the details of the babies and young women she met there. It also holds many of the babies identify bracelets. Following the death of her husband. Katie makes a decision. She posts a message on an Internet forum, knowing that the information she possess could help reunite adopted people with their birth mothers.

I hold a special place in my heart for mothers who’s children were taken away from them and placed for adoption, for decades Ireland’s mother and baby homes were shrouded in secrecy and only in the last number of years have has the veil been lifted and we are discovering the pain and heartbreak that women and their children went through.

I loved how Rachael English handles this story, it’s vivid uplighting while highlighting the stories of a number of young woman and their adopted children. It’s one of those books that where you get so immersed in the story, rooting for the characters and reading time flies by.

As a journalist and Radio show presenter, the author has first hand experience of working on stories down through the years that involved mother and baby homes and puts her knowledge to good use in this page turning story.

I think readers who enjoy writers such as [a:Diane Chamberlain|93345|Diane Chamberlain|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1564952664p2/93345.jpg] or [a:Diane Chamberlain|93345|Diane Chamberlain|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1564952664p2/93345.jpg] may well enjoy this novel.

Another book for my real life bookshelf.… (more)

What a wonderful read Rachel English's American Girl was, Fresh, entertaining, witty, rich characters and just an all round good story that will have you turning the pages to find out more

I picked this up after hearing the author interviewed and was immediately drawn to the premise of this story. Boston 1968 Rose Moloney is seventeen, smart, spirited and pregnant. She is shipped off to a baby home in Ireland against her will. 2013 Martha Sheeran's is struggling to come to terms that her marriage is over and is urged by her daughter to look for her mother who gave her up for adoption over 40 years ago.

I really enjoyed this page turner, with its wonderful sense of time and place and for me a terrific reminder of all things 80s. I enjoyed the writing and the sensitive way Rose's story was handled and yet I had so many laugh out loud moments in this book as the writer has a wicked way with words that comes across so natural in her writing without been Cheesy or twee.

Loved the characters, and the small Irish town setting and having a teenager myself I felt the character of Evanne was so well protrayed as in fact were all the characters as they felt real and full of life and I could identify with them which made the book so enjoyable.

Martha watched her crouch to get a better shot of the slate-coloured church . It was funny, she thought, how small a part religion played in the lives of Evanne and her friends . For them the catholic church was a source of indifference. Like thatched cottages, slow sets at the disco and black and white TV, it belonged to to the past.

A terrific summer read, and one I will be recommending to friends to pact for holidays as its a really entertaining and a well written novel.

I think readers who enjoy [a:Diane Chamberlain|93345|Diane Chamberlain|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1564952664p2/93345.jpg] , [a:Heather Gudenkauf|2875124|Heather Gudenkauf|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1531697584p2/2875124.jpg]. or [a:Maeve Binchy|3532|Maeve Binchy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1206566579p2/3532.jpg] might also enjoy this novel.… (more)

The Paper Bracelet. Rachael English. 2020. I think I would have enjoyed this book more, had I not just read The Girls of Ennismore. I didn’t finish it as I just couldn’t get interested in the characters, and I have read enough about the homes for unwed mothers run by the nuns to know the horrific story. A woman who was sent to such a home and later became a nurse in the home secretly saved the paper bracelets put on the babies when they born and taken off when the babies were adopted. No girl was given the option of keeping her baby. This woman puts an ad in the paper and an announcement on the Internet and offers to try to help the mothers and children find each other.… (more)