Thank you to Beauty and Lace and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read the amazing book, Amber by Heather Burnside.
At the beginning of the book, Heather Burnside explains that this has been the most difficult of her novels to write, because of the sensitive subject matter of sexual abuse. She feels it is a story that needs to be told. Sexual abuse takes place every day, often swept under the carpet.
The Present: We meet Amber. She is a prostitute and a drug addict. She is at work. As she puts on the costume requested by her client, a school uniform, and her hair in two pigtails, memories surface. Distressing memories from her childhood.
The Past: Amber used to be Amy. Amy lived with her parents Loretta and Greg, and younger brother Nathan. They lived in a big house in an affluent suburb, they had lots of friends. Her dad died suddenly, changing everything. Loretta, a stay-at-home mum, discovers that she has no employable skills to be able to get a job.
It didn’t take long for the debts to accumulate, forcing her to move the family to a rented house on a housing estate. Soon her friends from the old neighbourhood stopped contact and with Loretta’s posh clothes and accent, the school mums in the new neighbourhood ignored her. To cope with the loneliness, one glass of wine a night soon became two glasses, one bottle of wine a night soon became two bottles.
As the debts accumulate again, she remembers words from a previous friend “You’ll meet a nice man one day and marry and get out of this place”. Loretta makes it her mission to begin dating again.
Amy realises that when her mother has a boyfriend, who she is to call Uncle, there is always food in the house, there are gifts and her mother is happy. Over time there are a lot of Uncles. One day Loretta is made an offer that she feels is too good to refuse, as it would solve all her financial problems.
The Present: We journey with Amber as she works in her profession and gets to know her co-workers. The highs and lows of their lives, with a surprising twist towards the end of the book.
Although Heather says it was a difficult book to write, it is not a difficult book to read. Amber is a character you engage with and feel her pain and suffering. The story is told in a sensitive way, swapping between her past to her present.
This book is well worth the read. It is not just Amber’s story, but Loretta and Nathans too, as they face their individual challenges.
It is a thought-provoking book, reminding us that should someone disclose that they have been abused, that they are believed and supported to get the help they need. A wake-up call for us all.
A brilliant read. 5 stars.
Amber is the 4th book in the series “Working Girl” books. I will certainly be reading these other three!
ISBN: 9781838939618
A selection of Beauty and Lace club members are reading Amber by Heather Burnside. You can read their reviews below, or add your own!
I love to read, any book on any topic. I now love ebooks as they are easier to store, I was running out of bookshelves! My other interests are family, gardening and our beautiful King Charles spaniel dog who is my reading companion.
Thank-you Beauty & Lace for giving me the chance to read & review ‘Amber’ by Heather Burnside.
This was a really difficult book to read, initially I felt a lot of sympathy for Loretta and her children, life doesn’t always work out the way we want it to. However, as a mother myself I just can’t accept the decisions Loretta makes in her effort to remain in a financial state, even if the decisions were often fuelled by her need to get another drink to blot out her misery.
I felt terrible for Amy, wishing that some grown-up would come in and save her from what was clearly going to happen, Amy just wants to be the good girl in helping out her mum but really is too young to realize that what is being asked of her is so wrong. One uncle after another Amy is changed into Amber working for her family and also making enough money to erase the pain with drugs and alcohol.
Along the way she meets others in her situation such as Crystal who is able to get of the game and protect her own daughter, unlike Amber’s own. In the end I had no sympathy for what happened to Angie, even though Amber went spiralling further out of control afterwards. Fate finally gives Amber a helping hand, Amber may be able to lead a better life – I so wish that she was able to overcome all odds and have a happy future and not repeat the mistakes of her own mother.
This was a really difficult book to read, as a mother I was horrified at what another mother would accept happening to her child, the men involved were just as responsible. The book was well written but left me feeling very sad for all the lost children out there like Amy. Thank-you ‘Beauty & Lace Bookclub’ for the opportunity to read ‘Amber’ by Heather Burnside.
Amber by Heather Burnside was a very confronting read. Burnside acknowledges the upsetting nature of the story in a letter at the beginning of the novel, preparing the reader for the tale ahead.
Amber tells the story of Amy, a young girl who moves across town with her mother and baby brother after her father unexpectedly passed. The life the family were used to is no more and Amy too soon is forced into a life she doesn’t want or deserve in order to keep her family housed and fed. The novel jumps back and forward between present day and the past showing how Amy became Amber and forced into a way of life she felt unable to get out of. Amy’s mother Loretta is to blame for the autrocities Amy faces and is easily portrayed as a weak, pathetic and unfit mother. There is however also a level of sympathy for the situation she found herself in and how her life slipped away. The novel tells horrific tales of what a young daughter is willing to do to help her family and how a mother can go from a comfortable life and happy wife to an unrecognisable burden.
This was certainly not an easy topic to read about nor story for Burnside to right though well written and a quick read.
Thank you to Beaty and Lace and Head of Zues for the opportunity to read and review this ebook.
‘Amber’ by Heather Burnside was not what I expected. I haven’t read any of Heather’s books before and to be honest, although I think I would like to read some more, I will need time to process this story before starting another one. This story was very real and raw and so completely different from how many of us would be living out lives, but I could easily see how a life could end up like Amber’s with a little bad luck along the way. It was a very difficult book to read, but opened my eyes to life on the other side. The only thing I was disappointed about was that the end of the story felt very rushed to me. Without giving anything away, as always a very big thing happened and it would have been good to live that part of the story as I had lived the rest of it. Thank you Beauty and Lace for letting me review this book – it’s a reminder for me to be grateful for the life I have every day.
This is an earnest and well meant novel that, unfortunately, feels more like a lecture than a novel. Burnside never really engages the reader with the characters’ thoughts and feelings. It’s a readable novel, but not one that drew me in.
Amber is a young prostitute working the streets of Manchester. The story is told through dual timeframes: one thread follows Amber as a child, to illustrate how she wound up on the streets. Another follows Amber in the present day.
Amber is particularly vulnerable – she has a drug habit, she lacks education or skills, and she has no-one on her side. No family, no friends. She does have a pimp who’s also her sometime boyfriend. However, she slowly realises that he may be more dangerous than protective.
Burnside does a lot of telling, not showing. As a result, I never felt I was in characters’ heads. I was distanced from them, and found it hard to care about them. The lack of engagement meant there was no real tension in the story, no particular need to see what comes next.
The plot is fairly predictable, and fairly obvious. It feels rather like Burnside is walking through a series of steps, dutifully covering the ground laid out in her outline; it was all somewhat dry and didn’t flow very naturally.
There is no doubt that Burnside cares about the subject matter (child abuse and the lives of sex workers on the street). She’s made an evident effort to be careful in her language and sensitive in her approach. While this is commendable, it again means that we’re distanced from Amber, rather than viscerally involved in her problems.
This is also oddly paced, with a number of plot lines wrapped up in a few neat pages. Again this worked to remove a source of tension. I thought it sold the story short, too, making the resolution far too easy and unrealistic.
This is an adequate novel, but I didn’t overly enjoy it and find it hard to recommend it. It was fairly boring to read and offered nothing particularly memorable to last once the book is closed. There’s nothing new here, and many writers have done much better with similar material.
Amber by Heather Burnside is my first by this Author but even though it was book 4 in a series that wasn’t a problem although it would have given the back story of some of the other characters. I struggled to become invested in Amber/Amy as it jumped around a bit. What she went through at a very young age was horrific and condoned by her mother which was very confronting.
It was very hard to put myself in their shoes as I have never hit rock-bottom and don’t know what I would do in that situation and adding drugs and alcohol to the mix is never a good thing.
This was not an easy book to read because of the confronting nature of the topic and the writing style which I found a bit slow at times but with an ending that seemed rushed. I can’t say that I enjoyed this book and won’t be rushing to read more from this author but thank Beauty and Lace and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone.
First time I have read a book written by Heather Burnside and it really made me feel Amy’s (Amber) pain especially when she was a little innocent girl who craved her mother’s love and wanted to be a normal, happy family.
Such a misfortune turn of events from her mothers decisions and 1 very terrible decision with no coming back from.
A well written book which left a sense of complete sadness of how life can change so suddenly and have huge impacts if you can’t get the support or help you need, especially for Amy.
Amy felt like she had no choice or support as she couldn’t even trust the one person she should have been able to rely on keeping her safe.
It was a surprising twist towards the end of the book which left me thinking I should have pieced it together but I didn’t.
5 star for a page turner and for making it easy to read a book that went back and forth in time which usually frustrates me a bit but it flowed very well.
Thanks for this unforgettable book
Wow Heather Burnside certainly writes great books and Ambers story is no exception
This book is amazing
Young Amber whose real name is Amy lives with her mother and brother, her mother is truly horrible and I mean truly horrible ( no spoilers )
Amber / Amy is a victim of child sexual abuse
Present day Amber is a working girl
This novel is gritty face paced and terribly sad with a surprise ending
Thankyou for giving me the honour of reading Amber by Heather Burnside.
I found it a little confronting at times . Reminded me of Kings Cross in Sydney and those troubled women with no one to help get them out of the rut they are in.
I like how the story got me to really understand Amber or Amy’s upbringing and life’s ups and downs especially focusing on her mum and her troubles of losing a husband at an early age and being pregnant with Amy’s brother.
I like how the author brought everything to life especially her mum and so called friends in Amy and Ambers life.
I loved reading the story of ups and downs and will be keeping an eye out for her other books.
A great read and found it easy to follow .
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
It was not an easy book to read but perhaps it was necessary for her to write it.
I felt very sorry for Amber having been born into this life and kept wishing someone would come along early in the story to save her. I can’t for the life of me imagine a mother doing this to her daughter but I guess it and worse must happen in some families.
I was glad that in the end Amber is saved by her friend Crystal, another who pulled her life together,.
Thank you to Beauty and Lace, and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read and review Heather Burnside’s latest offering, Amber.
This is the fourth book in Burnside’s ‘The Working Girls’ series’, but stands alone. In Amber Burnside deals with the difficult subject of minors who are pressured into prostitution at a young age and sometimes, as in this book, by the very people who should be protecting them.
The story begins with Loretta, pregnant with her second child, and a two year old daughter Amy devastated when her husband and love of her life dies unexpectedly at a very young age. With no life insurance, Loretta finds it increasingly difficult to keep up her standard of living and is forced to move to a council housing estate with her two children, Amy, and younger brother Nathan.
Here Loretta faces the reality of life when you are down on your luck, you discover that your friends drift away because you no longer fit into their social circle, and yet you don’t fit in your new environment because you speak and act ‘differently, posh’.
In her increasing distress Loretta turns to the bottle and pills, lack of money meaning there is often no food to eat. Periodically she gets a boyfriend and for a little while things look better, with food and treats and a happy mum. But invariably the relationship ends and Loretta retreats back into the bottle.
At some point boyfriends turn into paying clients and when one of them expresses an interest in then 11 year old Amy her mother does the unthinkable, and for the money he is offering agrees.
Burnside makes it clear that Amy is not happy with this arrangement, repulsed by the man, knowing it is wrong, but at eleven she doesn’t know who she can talk to, clearly not her mother, but if she spoke to her teachers would she even be believed. On her twelfth birthday he tells that she is old enough now, and a good girl, and for her birthday present he rapes her.
At fourteen her mother does Amy’s makeup, puts her in a dress and high heels, tells her that if anyone asks she should say she is nineteen, and drops her into the red light district to work her own beat.
We then follow Amy (now known as Amber) and Loretta’s lives as they spiral downward into the drink, drugs and danger of a working girls life, throw in a brother who just wants to distance himself from his mother, sister and home life, some working girls getting murdered, pimps and the ex street girl made good and you have the basics of the tale.
Burnside clearly endeavoured to deal with a confronting topic sensitively, acknowledging the difficulties faced by any child experiencing sexual abuse, and the difficult life faced by many in the sex industry. However I found Burnside’s writing style difficult to warm to, the characters had little depth to them, there was a tendency to tell not show and I found myself thinking how desperately it needed a skilled editor to take it from tedium to quality.
Overall it was an okay read, but I certainly won’t be rushing to read any of her other works and I would find it hard to recommend.