Freedom's Child, by Jax Miller, is an extremely difficult book to read. And I don't really mention that as a negative. In fact, its harshness, its unflinching and dark look at a life that has spun out of control, is the very thing that makes it such a page turner.
Freedom Oliver is a raw, tortured, and wounded soul. She's an alcoholic who spends too much of her time at the local bar, sleeping with random men, and getting arrested for public drunkenness. She's also - as we find out in bits and pieces, slowly teased out of the story - not Freedom Oliver at all, but someone formerly named Nessa Delaney, who had a previous life, and two children, and an abusive police officer husband who was eventually killed.
The story begins with her hiding out in Painter, Oregon, in the Witness Protection Program. When she learns that her daughter, adopted by another family, is in danger, she sets out on a mission to find her. Pursued by both police and her ex-brother in law (recently released from prison for the killing of her husband and set on revenge), she takes off for Kentucky in an effort to save her daughter and ultimately find herself.
The story is fast-paced and brutal, with a whole set of rough characters with dark secrets and dishonorable, ie: murderous, intentions. Freedom herself is an angry and foul-mouthed individual who has more or less given up on herself until the motivation of righting the wrongs done to her children give her a reason to keep pressing on. Ultimately, an unlikable character becomes sympathetic, but it's not a pretty ride to get there.
Overall, a good, suspenseful page-turner, with a fairly satisfying (though not exactly what you'd call happy) ending. It's a frank look at an incredibly dark and seedy world though, and definitely one to skip if you're bothered by vulgarity.
*I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*
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