Jessica M Simpkiss

Bone in the Blood Jessica M Simpkiss

There are secrets hidden in the whispers between parent and priest, the noiseless nod between Sister and scornful mother, and the unabashed look that a caretaker bestows upon a scared, young woman shunned by those meant to love her most. Secrets that everyone knows, and wish would stay hidden. Meet Maren, a young woman living in Balleybrook, Ireland in 1956, doing the best she can with the hand God dealt her. Forced to grow up in poverty, under the care of a drunken mother and a deviant stepfather, she learns early not to expect too much from life. But just as her faith in man is restored, an unexpected pregnancy lands her in the local home for unwed mothers. Here, she meets Oona, a young, naïve girl convinced that God is the only man she will ever love. But He has vastly different plans for her. Then there's Bria, a girl struggling with her identity in 1980s London, who, through the death of her mother, discovers a secret the Church tried for decades to hide and whose validity can only be substantiated by the women who lived it. Three women tied together by a dark secret. A society's desperate need to hide them away. And a truth that not even God himself could keep buried forever.