Excellent writing and so informative about a shameful Catholic run orphanage in the 1940's. While the story starts out slowly, if you stay with it, you will find yourself immersed in what actually happened to the author's mother. It is heartbreaking in the extreme to read an account of the shameful acts occurring in this orphanage run by Catholic nuns. These young girls suffered such extreme cruelty in so many varied ways, that it will not fail to disturb you. Only in reading and bearing witness were these priests and nuns stopped all over the world from continuing their abuses. The ending confirms my faith in the kindness of ordinary people.

Cecilia House was a really tough read but I knew it would be so before I read the first chapter. Patricia was a likeable character which made the reading of this book even more difficult, not that anybody on this earth, regardless of character, behaviour or actions, would have to endure the torment and sufferings that those poor residents of Cecilia House had to endure. I read on picturing her and her young friends, and the many more young boys and girls who suffered at the hands of those with whom their care was entrusted, teachers, supervisors, the religious, the lay people, it was unbelievable, unspeakable, God bless them all and may those who perpetrated these crimes upon them suffer consequences in the next life if not in this one.

A strange book to read but very believable of how things can happen to children .There was a storyline about a young girl and the life she had at home then at a convent. The abuse that the inmates received from the nuns.There was a lot of sadness and horror but the story did have a happy ending.

Three young girls are best friends. They do everything together. They play in their treehouse, they go to school together, they share their lives. They promise each other to he friends forever. They decide they will grow up and travel together. That is their dream.
As life goes on their lives change. Tragic and unfortunate things happen in their lives.
Pat, one of the three girls dies. Her daughter finds her diary about her life and things that had happened during her life. She is horrified! She never knew about the things her mother had lived through.
This is a story of friendship, love, family, betrayal, religion. Most of all it is a story of unforgettable courage and determination.
Definitely worth reading and reading again!
Absolutely Recommended!

Loved this book! I have read stories about these homes and the abuse the children received. It is horrifying and I am glad someone wrote a good book about it. Well written. I read it in a day, did not want to put it down!
#CeciliaHouse #NetGalley