Sorry Isn’t Good Enough Jane Bailey
published in hardback by Orion 3rd February 2022
Think The Trouble with Goats and Sheep meets Good Me Bad Me: this is a coming-of-age mystery with a dark core.
‘The trouble is, we don’t recognise every danger when we see it. And that’s how Mr Man manages to creep into our lives.’
It is 1966, and things are changing in the close-knit Napier Road. Stephanie is 9 years old, and she has plans:
1. Get Jesus to heal her wonky foot
2. Escape her spiteful friend Dawn
3. Persuade her mum to love her
But everything changes when Stephanie strikes up a relationship with Mr Man, who always seems pleased to see her. When Dawn goes missing in the woods during the World Cup final, no one appears to know what happened to her – but more than one of them is lying.
May 1997, and Stephanie has spent her life trying to bury the events of that terrible summer. When a man starts following her on the train home from London, she realises the dark truth of what happened may have finally caught up with her.
My review
I absolutely loved the prose of the style throughout this story Sorry Isn’t Good Enough. I did wonder why this book was given the title for this novel, well it all became quite clear early on while reading, Sorry Isn’t Good Enough.
My favourite character was Stephanie Townsend as my heart was completely touched the by the sad life she leads.
All because her father who is a preacher and a Bible class teacher didn’t believe in vaccinations it left poor Stephanie with a wonky walk caused by a disease. Stephanie wants to know why can’t Jesus make her foot better.
Life simply isn’t fair for Stephanie she didn’t have a television in her house as her parents believed all the television does is brain wash you.
The only friend Stephanie has is Dawn who is spiteful, smart, spoilt and prone to tantrums. Dawn blames Stephanie about loads of things, getting Stephanie into a lot of trouble all the time at home and at school. Really Stephanie should find a new friend.
Young school girl Stephanie thinks she loves Mr Man who she has a good relationship with. Dawn comes up with a plan that Stephanie must go along with but it leads to Dawn disappearing.
The trouble is, we don’t recognise every danger when we see it. And now that’s how Mr Man manages to creep into our lives.
I found sorry Isn’t Good Enough impossible to put down, where there was something on every page pulling me along sweeping me onto page after page.
I must say I need to recommend this book as this novel is very much unptdownable. It’s a real must buy, must read.
Author Jane Bailey is a brilliant writer who has weaved in so many expertise surprises that I found myself being drawn into, giving me the pleasure reading more from this author in the future.
I would like to thank compulsive readers for inviting me to take part in this amazing blog tour and for Tracy and Orion sending me this proof copy to read and review.
About author Jane Bailey
Jane Bailey was born and brought up in Gloucestershire, where she now lives. She has written seven novels, including Lark Song, What Was Rescued and Tommy Glover’s Sketch of Heaven, and has been shortlisted for the Dillons Fiction prize and the RNA award. She has edited four anthologies of work by young people as Writer-in-Residence for Cheltenham Festivals, First Story and Gloucestershire Hospitals Education Service
Welcome to Jane Bailey’s website
Bookread2day 
What a great review. My heart just breaks for Stephanie.
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I think a lot readers will feel the same as us 💕
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