While trying to make decisions about her life in present day, Saoirse encounters Maura who tells her the remarkable story of the women who fought to give other women a choice with their selves and their bodies in Ireland. In the 1970s, women weren’t allowed to work after marriage and contraception was illegal, even though it was readily available in Northern Ireland. A brave group of women banded together and one day they rode a train to Belfast and returned with contraception, thus paving the way for Irish women to have control over their lives. Maura, who married "well" but whose husband turned out to be an abuser, recounts her life along with Bernie’s, a beloved wife and mother of three who is told that she could die if she conceives another child.

While the characters are fictional, this book is based on true events.This is an important story. So many younger people don’t realize what it was once like and the sacrifices that brave young women and some men made to give them the life, freedom, and choices that they are living now.

This is a well written story that takes you in and won’t let go. I found it heartbreaking, charming, poignant, infuriating and I couldn’t put it down, reading well into the night to finish it. With well developed and captivating characters, these women's resilience is inspiring. This is a story that needs to be recounted no matter where you reside for women the world over have to be aware of the history that provided their present day freedoms and how easy it is to have their options limited.

This story moved me to tears as I recognize the forces in the country in which I live who want females to go back to, as the author describes it, “the dark ages.”

I highly recommend this book. It is truly a #Timely #CautionaryTale.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Unputdownable!

A powerful fictionalized account of the fight for contraception and equal rights waged by the women of the Republic of Ireland in the 1960s/1970s. So relevant as American women are battling for their own reproductive rights in our upcoming election.

I will recommend this book far and wide!

Thank you Gallery Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this digital ARC!

This is absolutely the right moment to read this compelling novel about the struggle of the women of Ireland to be allowed to use contraception. No, this did not take place in the 1800’s, but in 1970. The author has set this novel within a modern day encounter between a young woman and a dogged feminist rights leader on a train.

An old photo encourages the retelling of the moment that women, taking a train, demanded the right to obtain contraception. Of course, this became the catalyst for women of Ireland to obtain other human rights. The story is told by a survivor, Maura, who struggled under the physical abuse of her doctor husband. It is Maura and her intrepid friend Bernie who lead the way, bravely, to allow women to make the personal decisions about their families.

I enjoyed the novel and the very interesting way it reminded me of the basic need for women to determine their futures free of abuse, physical, emotional or legal. I highly recommend this novel. I think our woman’s studies seminars and book clubs can use this novel as a jumping off point for discussions about the past and the FUTURE.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC which is both engrossing and timely.

This was one of my favorite books that I have ready this year! I was so engaged in this story. This is an emotional and beautiful story that I will recommend to everyone!

I both adored and devoured this book! A lovely storyline about friendship that turns into progressive thinking about contraception in Ireland where it was illegal. The characters have real depth. The plot is told in dual timelines and the writing is marvelous. A must read!