Broken Lives by Brenda Kennedy

I loved Alec and Emma in Broken Dreams and was keen to catch up with them in this the second book in the series. And the book delivered everything I have come to expect from Brenda Kennedy.

Jam packed with emotion!

Alec is dealing with an unwanted visitor from his past, his wife, Molly.

I know took me by surprise too!!

Knowing Alec, this surprise appearance gave me chills because I knew that there had to be a painful history there for him to have shut her out so completely from not just his but his daughter’s life.

What I hadn’t expected was the full extent of that agony and the unravelling of the horrors that Molly had not just inflicted on herself but subjected her family too.

This sad woman has hit rock bottom and as deluded as she is, there is just no chance that Alec will ever be able to forgive and forget. Alec has a life now that she is no longer a part of, he has plans that mean his future lies with Emma, she is all he needs and more to the point, all he wants.

But having kept Molly a secret up until now is a bitter pill to swallow for Emma, she has only ever needed his honesty and by omission he failed her. But Alec can’t and won’t give up on what they have together, she is everything to him, the light at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel, one that doesn’t seem to want to go away.

Molly has lost everything in her battle with drugs,  a fight that she is still in the grips of and that has her making decisions that are not in anyone’s best interest.  But can she see beyond her next fix and face up to the fact that she needs the help that both her parents and Alec are offering to her? Addiction is drowning her and the chance to save herself is agonisingly close but she has to want to go to rehab, they can’t force her, maybe her daughter will be enough to help her face the demons and get her life back on track, I have everything crossed that she can garner some inner strength and battle back to be the mother her little girl deserves.

But Alec on the other hand will never go back, his bridges with Molly are well and truly burnt, his only worry now is how to protect his daughter from the reality that is her drug addict mother.

What a situation to face!

As much as I loved both Alec and Emma and in this book it was for completely different reasons, I have to say that the storyline with Molly had me completely entranced. It is the most difficult of subject matters to include in a book that is trying to show that life in all its many guises is complex.

Alec had a good thing with Emma and she had an empathy and compassion for him that was just beautiful to read but they were in a situation where the main protagonist in their lives was beyond their control, beyond even her own control – she was been driven irrationally and uncontrollable into a place that could see them all fall apart.

Emma was doing everything she could to stand by her man but only time will tell if they can truly survive the pain that Molly has brought into their lives and to take the leap they want in order to prove that their love is enough and they will survive.