Book Review: Before I Let You Go

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This is my book review of Before I Let You Go by Kelly Rimmer.

A moving contemporary drama about family secrets and grief…

How far can the ties of family love be stretched before they finally break?

Book Summary:

Dr. Lexie Vidler gets a 2 a.m. call from her sister Annie. Annie, a longtime substance abuser, always calls Lexie to bail her out of trouble.

Annie is pregnant and very sick. Lexie and her fiancé go to the rundown trailer and take Annie to the hospital.

Once she’s been admitted, Annie is charged with endangering her unborn child because she failed the drug test.

She delivers a baby girl, whom she names Daisy, who must go through withdrawal due to her mother’s addiction.

Annie is mandated by the judge to finish court-ordered rehab. Lexie has paid for rehab many times before, and Annie always ends up leaving before she’s kicked it.

But this time Lexie hopes Annie’s baby will be the reason Annie finally makes it. Meanwhile, little Daisy remains in Lexie’s custody.

My Review:

I truly enjoyed this book, though the subject matter was emotional and loaded with our society’s serious problems involving people with substance abuse problems. This book highlights women giving birth to addicted babies.

The author helps the reader look beyond the mother’s selfishness to address the broader problem of people with drug problems. Because we all know that women are expected to be perfect during pregnancy. And that isn’t always the case.

The problem goes much deeper. And the deeper psychological problem needs to be addressed as well.

About The Author:

Kelly Rimmer is an Australian author. With each of her four novels, she tackles a different genre and topic.

Her first novel, “Suspending Reality,” was published in 2012. It explores the limits of people’s unhappiness and the lengths they will go to change their lives. The novel follows three women, all on the run from various problems in their lives. And it asks whether or not they will ever be able to outrun the ghosts and afflictions that seem to follow them.

Rimmer’s third novel, “Me without You”, took on a new, different tone. It is a love story about heartbreak and learning to love again. It is a much more emotional novel than “Suspending Reality”, which is more conservative with philosophical questions.

Her fourth novel focuses on a woman who was adopted as a child. As she approaches the birth of her own child, she grapples with what it must have been like for her birth mother to give her up for adoption. She becomes obsessed with finding the woman who let her go.

Kelly Rimmer works in IT and writes in her spare time. She is a passionate reader and can usually be found devouring a book or working on her next novel. Kelly lives with her husband and two children in rural Australia.