Red Coat by Isobella Dunn – Review by M Policicchio

Red CoatRed Coat by Isobella Dunn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Red Coat by Isobella Dunn

3 out of 5 stars

Red Coat by Isobella Dunn is a heartwarming tale of rekindled love, learning to trust again, and finding family that strums all the appropriate heartstrings.

Sara, finding her latest foster placement no longer safe, decides that it is time for a new one. She has been warned that if she attempted to run away again, she would have to be moved. Hoping the threats are real, that is exactly what she does. Luckily, the threats are true but that means leaving her best friends behind.

Ten years later, Sara is now a Social Worker working for a foster care placement agency. Sara specializes in hard to reach children. Rachael is brought to the agency because she has run away, again. Sara is called in on her day off to try to talk to Rachael to find out why she doesn’t want to remain in her current foster placement. Rachael finds Sara different from all the other adults in her life that just make decisions for her, never really listening. Sara earns Rachael’s trust enough for Rachael to disclose the real reasons she doesn’t want to return to the foster home, a reason Sara knows all too well.

Rachael’s former foster father is on the run because Rachael talked. Sara promised that he would not find her but when he calls the group home she was placed, Rachael decides to make it so he won’t find her by disappearing in the middle of the night. Rachael runs to the one place Sara doesn’t want to return, the same town Sara abandoned years before. When Sara arrives in town to retrieve Rachael, she discovers that her former best friend, Colin, is the town sheriff. Now Sara must rely on Colin to keep Rachael safe from looming danger.

Can Sara and Colin rekindle the friendship and possibly find love? Is Sara the family that Rachael is longing for? Will the danger follow them?

This book contains triggering material for some. Graphic descriptions of domestic assault, child abuse, and attempted rape throughout the book may make this a difficult read for some. Inaccurate portrayals of the foster care system and its processes ruined the overall enjoyment of the story this reviewer. Some of these inaccuracies were key parts of the plotline causing the rhythm and flow to be off. This is not the first story I have read by Ms. Dunn. Where I do enjoy her storytelling ability, this one was a bit of a disappointment due to this and some other minor issues in character and plot development. I look forward to reading her next story.

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