Stripped Bare

by Heidi McLaughlin

A quick easy read that seemed to be over far too soon. I was just beginning to get comfortable with the whole situation when suddenly it was all over and Macey was on the flight home. I was left nervously tapping my front tooth wondering what the heck I had missed or worse still was my copy missing a chapter or two because I was completely confused. I fervently flipped back a few pages to re-read and suddenly the penny dropped, this had a way to go yet and was far more involved than I had cottoned onto previously, the other component of this story wasn’t in Vegas.

I felt for Macey, a single mom with a home life that was barely above the poverty line and that was working her butt off ( literally) to make ends meet and provide for her daughter, with absolutely no-one but a stellar best friend she was at her wits end and when it is suggested that a few days working in Vegas may earn her enough money to get out from the hovel that is her mother’s place and into a home of her own, she eventually relents and makes the decision to take that step, her daughter deserved more and if this was the only way she could get it, then she was Vegas bound. I admired her strength, her determination but I could have quite honestly throttled her when all her plans and hard work all apart in a moment of madness.

When a blast from her past sees her in her moment of distress and offers her a way out, little did she know the feelings that that offer would ignite in either of them and for Finn well let’s just say he was in alien territory!

I was initially in two minds as to how I felt about Finn and his offer but despite the fact that on the surface it seemed far from ethical, I understood why he put it out there and I also got that he meant no harm when he did so, she needed financial help and since money was something that he had more than enough of, what was the harm when what he needed was a distraction, a diversion of sorts in the shape of someone beautiful and Macey fitted that bill to a tee!

There is a strong message burbling along under the surface of this, it spoke volumes of the people involved and the dilemmas that are faced on a daily basis, we all act on face value seeing no further than the façade that those in front of us are willing to share, but when the whole truth is unveiled, when the bigger picture is revealed how many would have acted the way Finn did…I would hope the majority but I have my doubts.

This was an honest read, as strong as you would expect from Ms McLaughlin and as poignant as I could have ever wanted, in the end one little girl who had nothing but the love of a mother that would stop at nothing, to be what she needed could end up with she needed most, her family!!