CLP Blog Tours Book Review: Aggravated Circumstances by Michele Shriver
Michele Shriver is now on tour with CLP Blog Tours and Aggravated Circumstances
Summary:
A family can be torn apart in an instant. Putting it back together is a harder task.
A relapsed addict opens the door to find a cop with a search warrant, setting off a chain of events that will cause four lives to intersect.
Devin Lenox has already lost one child to the system and this time she vows it will be different. If she’s going to make it, though, she’ll need something she’s never had before- someone on her side.
Her battle with depression behind her, Elisa Cahill looks forward to resuming her legal career. Devin’s case seems like the perfect opportunity to do that, and bury her own past demons in the process, at least if old grudges don’t prove to be her undoing.
Child protection worker Taylor Ross struggles to balance a social life with her demanding job and has little sympathy for people like Devin, at least at first. When Taylor starts to see Devin in a new light, she finds herself at odds with her superiors. Will she be willing to go to bat for Devin, and what price will she pay if she does?
Sarah Canfield is a compassionate judge who is not afraid to make difficult decisions, but will her past link to Devin undermine her objectivity and cause her to put her own family at risk?
A look inside the child welfare system, the people who work in it and the lives it impacts, Aggravated Circumstances is a story of despair, hope and recovery.
Review:
This book was fascinating, and quite hard to put down. An emotional and deep story, I found myself talking to my friends and family about the situation of the women involved, about the system, and about the processes that come along with a parent who struggles with addiction. I loved getting a POV from all involved, and think it worked really well to have Devin’s POV in first person. She would definitely be the hardest to relate to and not the easiest character to stand behind, so I think that format worked out really well. This is a novel that will make readers become emotionally invested in the story, and I highly recommend.
4.5 stars
