Fragile by Sarah Hilary

4 Stars from me

A beautifully told tale of how childhood trauma so often relates to damaged adults, unable to shake off the shackles of the past no matter how hard they try.

I felt so desperately sorry for Nell and also for Joe. Not at all for Meagan Flack – yet in her own way she saved so many little ones from a much worse fate.

The story is dark and brooding, there is a constant air of it all being about to go wrong – even when things are good, or at least steady, there is a sense of darkness lurking.

I found Fragile to be deeply engaging and I wished so much for Nell and Joe to be saved…

As a long time fan of Sarah Hilary, I was delighted to read this book.

Blurb: Everything she touches breaks . . .

Nell Ballard is a runaway. A former foster child with a dark secret she is desperate to keep, all Nell wants is to find a place she can belong.

So when a job comes up at Starling Villas, home to the enigmatic Robin Wilder, she seizes the opportunity with both hands.

Only her new lodgings may not be the safe haven that she was hoping for. Her employer lives by a set of rigid rules and she soon sees that he is hiding secrets of his own.

But is Nell’s arrival at the Villas really the coincidence it seems? After all, she knows more than most how fragile people can be – and how easy they can be to break . . .