The best fostering memoir I've read in a while.

I have read quite a few fostering memoirs, but Louise Allen's are different: She was a fostered child, and was adopted. She tells of her experiences fostering children, but she has experience and empathy from the other side too.

This was so good! I was glued to the pages right from the start. Such a good read. Different to other fostering memoirs, e.g. Cathy Glass-she has a format, and they can be a bit repetitive-Louise Allen's have a totally different approach. So different, so unpredictable to any of this genre I've read before.

What I like is that you get to find out background; of what happened before the child was in Louise's care.

Even though about difficult times, she sometimes made me smile with some of the things she said.

The best fostering memoir I've read in a while.

My thanks to Mirror Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Milo’s Story’, book 11 in the Thrown Away Children series written by Louise Allen, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Michelle and Andy apply to become foster parents with an independent fostering agency and after many frustrating months of interviews and form-filling are accepted. Unfortunately, their reasons are mainly financial believing that the money paid to foster parents will enrich their lives and let them have new cars and foreign holidays. They soon find out their mistake when their first foster child is seven-year-old Milo whose behaviour is appalling as he runs amok through their home. They hand him back to the agency who offer him to Louise and Lloyd Allen who are experienced foster parents and with their own children Jackson and Vincent are currently fostering teenage Lily.

Although the names of characters have been changed, ‘Milo’s Story’ is a heartbreaking story based on the true experiences of Louise and Lloyd as they care for children who’ve been failed by the adults who should have been looking out for them. It focuses on Milo who’s seven yet acts more like a four-year-old and whose behaviour is challenging to say the least, but with a lack of paperwork Louise has cause to believe that his problems are greater than anyone expected. This story is in parts a shocking eye-opener of how children are being failed by bureaucracy and I’ve been left with a lump in my throat that wonderful people such as Louise and Lloyd take it on themselves to help a child that no-one in authority seems to care about. My heartfelt thanks to Louise for making us aware that there aren’t enough people wanting to become foster parents and I wish Milo love and best wishes for a wonderful future.