Extremely slow moving. Far too much backstory. We get it.already Angue is poor and so is her sister.

This one obviously isn't for me.

I thought it was a really good story of a family faced with one tragedy after another and how they coped, survived and eventually thrived. Angie and Steve now that Liam is different from other kids, but he is such a loving child befriending other kids even when they pick on him and tease him. As a teenager, Liam gets caught up with a gang and doing drugs and the threat of the gang harming his family if he doesn't comply. Steve fed up with Liam's after their youngest son finds a syringe goes looking for Liam and the gang. Unfortunately Steve is beaten to death with Liam possibly being a witness. Angie know is navigating all that Steve handled and looking for work while raising her other two kids Grace and Zac. 13 year old Grace trying to help her mom is all over social media soliciting ideas of how to make money. What happens to Grace, Angie losing their home and the desperation of finding a way to keep her family together was miraculous.

An incredibly emotional read, I was left thinking about what I would do in her situation and it brought up so many emotions about how and why you make the decisions you do every day. A great read but make sure you are in the right mind space to handle real-life situations.

My first time reading Susan Lewis and this dramatically emotional driven read could at times hit close to home.
Angie Watts has a life that most yearn for... from the outside looking because being on the inside looking out it feels pretty suffocating to try to keep together. It all starts out great having a wonderful husband and three wonderful children until one day she realizes how grown up her son Liam has become when her 5-year-old is found holding a syringe and what was a wonderful child is now a teen standing on the edge of no turning back. Steve Angie's husband goes to find Liam to confront him about the syringe and his bad acts and never comes back home now Angie loses a husband and a son when she tells him to leave for good. She is the story of a single mom struggling to give her other children the things they desperately need to survive while grieving for the life she lost and the loss of her husband and son. This book showcases Angie as the survivor she needs to be for her children and this raw emotional read is not for the faint hearted, this has many elements of truth. Thank you NetGalley for the copy to review.

3 Brutally realistic stars

This book paints a brutally realistic picture of how easy it is to have your life fall apart. Angie is married to Steve, and they have three children, living in England, and life seems to be going swimmingly. Then, Steve is brutally murdered, Angie is forced out of her home, her oldest son is missing, and the debts are piling up.

This one was hard to read as Angie tried all the avenues to find proper housing for her family, only to be turned away. She tried working odd jobs but couldn’t earn enough to make a dent in her bills. She’s really at her wit’s end when she breaks down in front of one of Steve’s old clients. He is able to help her start to work her way out of the mess. It takes a while, but things begin to turn around for Angie.

This one had lots of things going on – cyber stalking, drugs, gangs, and homelessness. I’m glad I stuck with it, but the brutal reality made it hard to hope for Angie. I wondered what would happen next to her.

I have to say that it ended on a hopeful note, but it was a long road!

Sad story. Maybe too sad for me. I can relate to a mother fighting for her children, but this seemed too over the top.

Heartbreaking and hopeful. Some events are completely devastating and you wonder how can they recover and carry on? You find yourself really pulling for this family and wanting something to help their fortunes turn around. Very engaging audio book with excellent narration.

**I received a digital copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

This was my first novel by this author and it just was not for me. The characters felt hollow and like their sole existence was to draw sympathy. The story was slow moving and had no real point other than to see what other ridiculous thing would happen next.

In Home Truths readers will meet a mother trying to keep her family together after the loss of her husband and rock. Her desperate need to hold her family together is so great she struggles to do so at great cost and takes it too far. This family faces it all (human trafficking, bereavement, financial insolvency) and you want to know if they will ever be able to be happy again. It's a heartbreaking family drama that will keep you completely enthralled from start to finish, and leave you questioning how far would you go to protect the ones you love? Everyone should read this though provoking fast-paced book. I highly recommend!!

Angie Watts is a widow going through the motions, trying to keep her family afloat and failing miserably. Her husband Steve was killed in a brutal gang attack, her son Liam is missing ever since she blamed him for Steve's death, and her disgusting landlord is coercing her to prostitute herself and her 13 year old daughter Grace to pay down their debt.

Angie is in denial that things are worse off than they really are and when they lose their home she finally faces the fact that she may not be able to get them out of this predicament. Meanwhile, Grace is also trying to get the family out of their financial problems and puts herself in danger in the process.

Can the Watts' family survive?

Thank you #WilliamMorrow and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read #HomeTruths in exchange for an honest review.

What a fascinating book. I was impressed by the storyline and the characters were all well written and complex. Where there are complex storylines combined with intriguing characters the reader experience is magnified tremendously. To have a book that is well written as well as entertaining is a delight. Reading is about escaping your world and entering another one. Here I forgot about my own life and was immersed in the world created by the author. I would recommend this book.

This book was not for me. I only continued until the end because I had received an ARC from netgalley and felt I should see it through. What could have been a thoughtful look at important social issues (gangs, social services, grief) turned into a "handsome, rich man swoops in to save the day"

Home Truths by Susan Lewis is the story of one woman's journey into homelessness. Although Angie's story turned out better than many, it was more than frightening when her eldest son became involved with drugs and gangs and her husband was beat to death by the same gang with her son, Lima, looking on. She was miserable as were her remaining two children, but they were getting on, at first. But, as the months slipped by, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't keep up with the bills. Until, finally, her landlord started eviction proceedings. She ignored the mail, believing that it would be OK, until it wasn't. She found herself packing to move out of her house, where she'd lived with Steve, her husband, and having no place to go, she bundled her kids off to her sister's house and began sleeping in her van. She hated that. After a while it occurred to her that she could sleep in the storage room at the church, for whom she ran a home for homeless men. She managed to get a key and make a copy of it, until someone reported seeing a person around the room at night and they changed the locks. She was at her wit's end, asking Steve for help one day after being turned down time and time again for jobs, when she saw Martin Lawrence through the window at a restaurant. She asked him for a job and got so much more.

This is an eye-opening book about how the services for people needing help sometimes make things so much worse. The measures put in place by the government are not enough and overwhelmed. Too often these services are run by jaded people, because they, too, have seen too much. It's about internet trolls who target young people, drug them, and use them. About how families are threatened to seep low-level "soldiers" in line. I learned more than I care to know about the whole system, in a piece of fiction so kindly written that it brought tears to my eyes more than once. This is England, and things are run differently there, but the gist is the same. Everyone should read this book and think through how they could help; how their votes could change things; what it means to be human. I recommend it.

I was invited to read a free ARC of Home Truths by Netgalley. All opinions contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #hometruths

As a mother, would you do just about anything to keep your children safe? This mother, Angie, is facing her worst nightmare, her son has been in and out of trouble with a gang, but is now suspected of murder. She is widowed and has two other children to protect. It is a little too real, seems like it could easily happen. Gritty, real and moving.

An intimate look at the pain and destruction that gang violence and drug use can have on one family. While it does get fairly bleak at time, overarching themes of love and grace ultimately surface.

Thank you Netgalley for the digital version of this very interesting book. I enjoyed the story of Angie and her family. This book is very relevant to today’s issues affecting many. I gave it 3 stars because it was a little too fairy-tale like in the solutions that arose to Angie’s challenges and felt a little too unrealistic. I liked the style of the author’s writing and would be interested in reading other titles her.

Home Truths is the first book by Susan Lewis that I have read. I really wanted to fall in love with this story but it just fell flat for me. So much tragedy in this book but I never understood how a missing son seemed to take the backseat in a story.
Angie is a woman trying to do the best for her family after her husband Steve is killed, leaving her with debt up to her eyeballs and no way out. Her son Liam is also missing. What is a mother with limited resources to do?!
Lewis' writing was easy to read and follow. The chapters flowed nicely together in the present time and the story was told from Angie's point of view.
I would like to try another Susan Lewis book in the future to better gauge her writing and storytelling. Special Thanks to Susan Lewis, NetGalley, and Harper Collins- William Morrow books for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
#HomeTruths #NetGalley

Home Truths is an emotional family drama that runs the gamut from murder, local gang activity, sex trafficking via internet schemes, homeless individuals and corrupt property owners. The lead character Angie must deal with each of these issues and finds herself and her children homeless after failing to meet her debts as a single mother. The story was heartfelt and leaves one with an understanding of how easily one could find themselves in a similar situation given a certain set of circumstances. Although I do not think that Angie was foolish about her finances in terms of spending habits and I think that she put her children first, I find it a bit unbelievable that she would put her head in the sand for so long by ignoring payment demands and eviction notices. Especially as her job is helping homeless and displaced men. Also, while the ending was uplifting and happy, this too was bit unrealistic as unfortunately most people in these straits don’t go from desperate to having all problems solved. Regardless, I enjoyed the book and was frankly pleased with a happy ending during these trying times.

This was a great book to read. The writing is sharp and fast-paced; heartrending but with a Happily Ever After. It’s about human trafficking, bereavement, and financial insolvency. It’s also about a very strong woman who, with some assistance from kind people, claws her way out of poverty, homelessness, and hunger to save her family.

Home Truths is a powerful tale of persistence, dedication, perseverance, and survival in the face of repeated devastation. It shows the failure of the governmental support system to help those who suddenly or repeatedly, through no fault of their own, whether by unexpected downturns or not, find themselves without funds or accommodation, despite working hard.

You’ll find that this book brings you hope in the face of hopelessness. The power of friends and family when there is no one else to help you. How it is possible for the downtrodden to find justice, but that it’s a very hard road to get there and all are not so lucky.

The letter from Hamish was the hardest part of this book for me to read. It’s realistic, painful to read, paints a sad but true picture of what it’s like to be homeless, as well as what it means to be lucky.

There’s a lovely touch of romance. It’s definitely a slow-burn type of romance, and a damsel in distress rescue. It’s very much secondary to the main story, but it is important to the plot.

I loved this book. I’ll be looking for more books by Susan Lewis. I highly recommend this book.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. I thank them for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

This book was an enjoyable read.

A husband dies and the wife is left to care for her three children. One of the children is living in the street. As she tries to find her son, she is hit by some finincisl setbacks and unfortunately, she loses her house.

I thought the ending to the story was a little unbelievable but overall enjoyed this book.
Thank you for the copy.