Dear Child by Romy Hausmann

DEAR CHILD is not an easy book to read as it is about a young woman who is abducted, forced to live in a remote cabin in the woods with two children. Her name is Lena and you cringe a lot when you read about her ordeal. Then she escapes and the real story emerges. The dead abductor, the woman who isn't Lena but another abducted woman and the two children who must now be introduced to a world they know nothing about. Everyone should be relieved but Lena (really Jasmin) is still hovering on the edge of a breakdown and the children's grandparents are still grieving their missing daughter while trying to help the creepy grandchildren. Psychological cat and mouse game where no one is of sound mind. Translated from the author's native german, this will appeal to readers of ROOM and true crime followers of cases where men have hidden away families for years without detection.  4 stars