Fear of Falling

***What if the child you have longed for ends up hurting those you love?* ** Lydia and Bel have been best friends for years, from wild teenage days all the way through to motherhood. Bel becomes pregnant by accident and has a fraught relationship with daughter Freya, while Lydia and love-of-her-life Mac, after failed fertility treatment, choose to adopt. Gorgeous toddler Chloe challenges them more than either of them had ever expected and as a teenager her behaviour escalates increasingly out of control, pushing their marriage, and Lydia and Bel's relationship, to breaking point. ** A modern tragedy. A harrowing and heart-breaking story of the splinters that can tear mothers and daughters, husbands and wives - and friends - apart. **

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* *Praise for Cath Staincliffe:** ' **Harrowing and humane. A real knockout **' Ian Rankin 'It's always exciting to see a writer get** better and better **and** Cath Staincliffe is doing just that **' Val McDermid '** Remarkable depth **... The most grown-up writer in British crime fiction' *Telegraph* ' ** Complex and satisfying **' *Sunday Times* ' ** Powerful, humane and moving **' Ann Cleeves** 'Emotionally unsparing, powerful, humane and moving **. . . This is** a timely, brave and brilliant book * *'* Crime Review*