Originally released in August 2019 with Harper Collins, Home Truths will be released in mass paperback in January 2020.

Home Truths shines a light on the reality of being faced with poverty and crippling debt, the possibility of being without a roof over one’s head.

We are very familiar with the saying of being two pay packets away from homelessness and, although we all see evidence on our streets every day of folk huddled under damp sleeping bags in a doorway, Christmas really brings it home. How lucky for those of us who have a front door to close every evening, a place we can call our own. But for many out there the story is very very different.

Susan Lewis introduces us to the Watts family. On paper the Watts had it all. They were the perfect family and life was very good to them. Angie Watts, the Mum, loved her home, her husband and her three young children but for Angie, her life was to change beyond recognition.

Liam, Angie’s eldest, was always a little different growing up. He was a child with a very open and trusting heart, a child who was targeted by the bullies, a child easily influenced by his peers. When the teenage years arrived, Liam became involved with a bad lot. In his need to be wanted, to be included in a gang, Liam was picked up by a menacing and troublesome group. For months the Watts family were pained by Liam’s actions. He had changed and Angie could no longer get through to him. One evening Steve, Angie’s husband, had enough of Liam’s behaviour and the affect it was having on the family dynamic. In a rage he went in search of Liam but Steve never returned home. He was brutally attacked and left for dead.

In the months that followed Angie was distraught. She vowed never to let Liam inside their home again. She needed to now protect her two youngest children and was prepared to do whatever it took to keep them safe.

Angie Watts is a caring person with a heart of gold. Working numerous jobs to keep the roof over their heads proves very difficult but Angie refuses to be beaten. Working alongside her sister Emma for a charity that looks after the homeless, providing assistance and shelter, Angie has seen firsthand the impact losing ones’s home. one’s job can have on the individual. Her fear for herself and her family is real.

Angie reaches a very low point as the bills mount. With no light in sight and an eviction looming Angie is struggling, losing her foothold in society, fearful of disappearing down the cracks.

Angie’s torment is very well portrayed as the reality of her situation hits her. She is first and foremost a mother who will do anything to protect her children but Angie’s financial and housing situation are too complex and too heavy a burden for her and she falters.

Home Truths and the themes it tackles is, for the most part, a shocking read. I did shed a tear as Angie’s life started to implode no matter what she did. As a mother myself, her pain was so very evident and was heartbreaking to read at times. If I have one issue with the book it would be the ‘fairy-tale’ element of the story. In my rather humble opinion, it reduced the impact of Angie’s experience, jumping a little too far into fantasy-land. The grit, the fear, the panic, the anxiety of Angie’s world was very real but other parts of the story just didn’t quite gel for me and were a little too good to be true.

Home Truths is an important read in many ways with much to consider. It is a thought-provoking tale that exposes the helplessness and the pure fear for the individual as their life begins to fall apart. The devastation depicted is very frightening to read. Aside from the rather predictable ending, Home Truths is an emotional family drama, a poignant tale.

Order your copy online here.