On the 1st January 2000 two women, Hope and Anna, give birth to baby girls just a few delivery suites away. Both women have had long, drawn-out labours. One is there with her supportive partner whilst the other is with her husband who is a complete jerk. if you want something special and a well done and written story, that is heartbreaking and makes you feel with the mothers and the child that goes through what’s happening in this book? Unfortunately, Hope’s baby is stillborn whilst Anna has a beautiful baby girl she calls Florence. A few hours later as Hope is heading home she goes past Anna’s room where both she and her partner are asleep and she sneaks a peek at the baby. Little Florence lifts her hand to Hope and at that moment she loses all sense of what is right and wrong and puts the baby in her night bag and carries her out to the car where her other half is waiting. a man’s girlfriend steals a baby from the hospital after her own baby dies. He accepts the child as his daughter. Criminal daddy the promptly leaves for Sierra Leone because he can’t lie to his daughter....even though him feeling a true, deep need be a father is the reason he doesn’t turn his girlfriend in.

Because of You is a story of a mother’s love, loss and sacrifice and shows how those bonds between a mother and child can never really be lost. I have to admit to being rather wet-eyed by the end. You may well need tissues. There might be some aspects that seem rather far-fetched but for me there could have been no other other way for the story to go. Harrowing but uplifting . . . It is a book about mistakes, regret, forgiveness and unconditional love Daily Mirror Florence isn’t noticed as missing for some time with her parents asleep and the midwives leaving them to rest. When the news breaks the hospital presume Hope left way before Florence was taken and she isn’t a suspect. I think feeling sorry for Hope also came from knowing that Florence’s dad was a self-loving idiot who would have ruined his daughter’s life, just like he did his wife. I like the way that Dawn French kind of made him out to be the baddy in the book, and that he was an MP too. An enlightening and feel-good read offering a fresh look at life and how to embrace it. Funny and enjoyable to the end We Love This BookWise and poignant, Because of You is a story about mothers and daughter, love and loss, mistakes and regrets, and family bonds Eastern Daily Press For eighteen years Hope kept the secret from everyone, not telling anyone her real daughter was stillborn and the daughter she has now, Minnie, isn’t really hers. But as time goes on Hope realises what she did was wrong and she needs to come clean, but what will happen to her perfect family once the world finds out? As if its want to be this light and fluffy story but the plot itself doesn’t really fit with that, and its too silly and full of plot holes that honestly don’t make sense, if the author actually sat down and researched a little?

Obviously without giving the story line away, the premis of the book is the switched baby scenario. The writing in pleasant and engaging and it did hold my attention. However her narrative has more holes than my Granny's crochet blanket. She will have you believe that a baby is taken from a hospital, and the crime is being investigated by a lone detective sergeant and a couple of detective constables. Her treatment of the police is woeful and fuels prejudices that are quite unbecoming by authors of her caliber. I think she has relied solely on her fertile imagination in favor of any kind of research into police procedures' , or still birth hospital procedures. I'm finding it difficult to distill what I thought about this story. The blurb says 'told with her signature humour, warmth and so much love'. And we can hear Dawn French's voice throughout. If you follow Dawn at all, you know what I mean. But I actually thought that hearing Dawn's 'voice' throughout was distracting. And the humour, such as it was in a difficult story such as this, was like 'cheap'. And I didn't laugh, and after the first couple of throw out lines, didn't even smile. It began to annoy me. This was an awful book. I found the beginning and the end very distressing, and most of the rest of it farcical and not funny. It’s a Marmite book: I’m really not sure it’s one you could be on the fence about.

Dawn French captures all the characters wonderfully, and of course introduces her trademark comedy in the form of a policeman, Inspector Thripshaw, who, without fail, misquotes sayings and well-known phrases. I previously read the author’s “A Little Bit Marvelous” and commented that it was an “inoffensive read and the last chapter goes some way to redeeming the stereotyped characters, unlikely central drama and all’s well that ends well (as well as slightly unlikely) resolution” – and a lot of that could apply to this novel also.