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Groomed to Be a Bride
- Narrated by: Penny McDonald
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
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Maggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. These heartwarming and inspiring short stories show the power of a foster mother's love, and her determination to help the children who come into her care. Includes 'Too Scared to Cry', 'The Girl No One Wanted' and 'A Family for Christmas'.
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Little stories
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Three siblings arrive at Maggie's door after being taken into care. Teachers of eight-year-old Bobby spotted bruises while he was getting changed for PE and his dad, Lee, and stepmother, Brianna, have been uncooperative and hostile to Social Services. While they investigate, Bobby, as well as Brianna's daughters, Melodie and Poppy, are all placed in Maggie's care. But as the children settle in, a thought won't let Maggie go. While Melodie and Poppy are clean, well-fed and immaculately dressed, Bobby is pale, severely underweight and crawling with lice.
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Great book once again by Maggie hartley
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Named after the lager that christened her at birth, Stella's life is characterised instability and neglect. Her teenage mother abandons her in the first few weeks of her life, and left in the 'care' of her father, she ends up lying deserted in a house with no food, no water, no clothes and no warmth. She eventually lands in the care of foster carer Louise, who is determined to change her life for the better.
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Just So Sad.
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Enjoyable Yet Heartbreaking …as usual.
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the care, patients, and love Cathy has on fostering the children in her care.
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Maggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. These heartwarming and inspiring short stories show the power of a foster mother's love, and her determination to help the children who come into her care. Includes 'Too Scared to Cry', 'The Girl No One Wanted' and 'A Family for Christmas'.
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Nobody Loves Me
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Three siblings arrive at Maggie's door after being taken into care. Teachers of eight-year-old Bobby spotted bruises while he was getting changed for PE and his dad, Lee, and stepmother, Brianna, have been uncooperative and hostile to Social Services. While they investigate, Bobby, as well as Brianna's daughters, Melodie and Poppy, are all placed in Maggie's care. But as the children settle in, a thought won't let Maggie go. While Melodie and Poppy are clean, well-fed and immaculately dressed, Bobby is pale, severely underweight and crawling with lice.
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A sad story? But outcome of this outcome of this book is a happy ey
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A new memoir from Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Cathy Glass. Eight-year-old Aimee was on the child protection register at birth. Her five older siblings were taken into care many years ago. So no one can understand why she was left at home to suffer for so long. It seems Aimee was forgotten. The social services are looking for a very experienced foster carer to look after Aimee and, when she reads the referral, Cathy understands why.
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A 5-year-old boy, Ethan, is brought to Casey in the middle of the night after the sudden death of his young mother after a drug overdose. Estranged from her parents, Ethan’s mum had been abused by her ex-partner, and began taking drugs to cope. Ethan is obviously lost and bewildered, and regularly wakes up screaming for his mum in the night. He begins to lash out at other kids at school and his behaviour becomes more volatile.
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Good Book
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From the author of Number One bestseller Damaged comes the poignant and shocking memoir of Cathy's recent relationship with Tayo, a young boy she fosters whose good behaviour and polite manners hide a terrible past. Tayo arrives at Cathy's with only the clothes he stands up in. He has been brought to her by the police, but he is calm, polite, and very well spoken, and not at all like the children she normally fosters. The social worker gives Cathy the forms which should contain Tayo's history, but apart from his name and age, it is blank.
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What are Fantastic Outcome. !
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Jackson is aggressive, confrontational and often volatile. His mother, Kayla, is crippled with grief after tragically losing her husband and eldest son. Struggling to cope, she puts Jackson into foster care. Cathy, his carer, encourages Jackson to talk about what has happened to his family, but he just won’t engage. His actions continue to test and worry everyone. Then, in a dramatic turn of events, the true reason for Jackson’s behaviour comes to light....
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sad ending
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When foster carer Cathy Glass is asked to foster Darcy-May, a two-day-old baby, she is very concerned. The baby is coming to her straight from the hospital and will have no contact with her teenage mother, Haylea. Even more worrying, she will be brought to Cathy with a police escort, as it’s vital her extended family don't know where she is.
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I'd recommend any of Cathy Glass's books
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The Girl in the Mirror
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Sunday Times and New York Times best-selling author Cathy Glass returns with her first novel. The Girl in the Mirror is a moving and gripping story of a young woman who tries to piece together her past and uncovers a dreadful family secret that has been buried and forgotten. When Mandy learns her much-loved Grandpa is dying, she is devastated and returns to the house where she spent so many wonderful summers as a child. But the childhood visits ended abruptly, and those happy days are now long gone.
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I didn’t enjoy this one that much
- By Anonymous User on 04-01-2024
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Broken
- A traumatised girl. Her troubled brother. Their shocking secret.
- By: Rosie Lewis
- Narrated by: Madeleine Gould
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Nine-year-old Archie and his five-year-old sister, Bobbi, are taken into emergency police protective custody after an incident of domestic violence at their family home. Rosie collects the children from their out-of-hours foster carer on New Year's Day and instantly recognises Archie from a domestic violence workshop she helped with. Rosie remembers that when asked what he enjoyed most about the course, Archie said, 'The biscuits'. Social workers are concerned that Archie and Bobbi have been neglected.
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Poor children
- By Marianna Debono on 19-08-2021
Publisher's Summary
'Mama is gone and I cry every night.'
When a terrified young girl is discovered hiding in the back of a lorry, she is quickly taken into the care of social services. Arriving on the doorstep of foster carer Maggie Hartley, she is painfully thin, bruised and unable to speak a word of English. What atrocities has she escaped to bring her here?
Woken each night by the screams of Halima's nightmares, Maggie is desperate to reach this damaged young girl. But without a shared language, she fears that she may never uncover the truth behind her terror. Can Maggie help Halima recover from the horrors she has endured, and help her build a new life for herself? Or will Halima forever be haunted by the ghosts of her past?
A true story of hope from Sunday Times bestselling author Maggie Hartley, a foster carer for over 20 years.
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What listeners say about Groomed to Be a Bride
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Marianna Debono
- 20-08-2021
War heroes
This is a story of young girl who escaped horrors of war in Middle East only to have more challenges in a modern world.Very well written and narrated.
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Overall
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- Anonymous User
- 04-09-2020
Well written and Narrated
I’ve become quite addicted to listening to Maggie Hartleys’ books. Hopefully Penny MacDonald will continue to narrate Maggie’s novels, as she does an amazing job, and it wouldn’t feel right being read by anyone else at this point.
Regarding the review claiming Maggie’s books are fiction. Two points; one, would it matter if they were? I don’t believe they are, but so what if it was?
And two, Maggie has to be very careful to make sure the identities of the children she writes about are kept private. Obviously it would be important to change names, places, and possibly even nationalities of the people she writes about. It’s also highly likely she has to change the timeline of actual events; for instance, when writing about a child she fostered in the late 90’s, she may change things in the book to make it appear they were fostered within the last year or two, and vice versa. Maggie is likely also a pen name, are you going to be upset about that too?
Fiction or not, keep them coming, Maggie. I love hearing about your work, and have even picked up a few parenting tips along the way.
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