Spilled Milk by K.L. Randis

Brooke Nolan is a battered child who makes an anonymous phone call about the escalating brutality in her home. 

When social services jeopardize her safety condemning her to keep her father’s secret, it’s a glass of spilled milk at the dinner table that forces her to speak about the cruelty she’s been hiding. In her pursuit for safety and justice Brooke battles a broken system that pushes to keep her father in the home. 

When jury members and a love interest congregate to inspire her to fight, she risks losing the support of family and comes to the realization that some people simply do not want to be saved. 

Spilled Milk is a novel of shocking narrative, triumph and resiliency.

Imagine physical, mental, and sexual abuse growing up. Imagine your mother is disabled and you are terrified of your father. You have siblings that you must protect at all costs. There is not always food in the home and a beating is not unusual. This is the life that Brooke lived.

Things at home were really bad, but how does a child know that this is not the life everyone has? Brooke always thought something was not right, but she never knew until there was a glass of spilled milk.

Brooke keeps a secret for her father. She contacts social services and tries to get her secret out. But Social Services failed her. Then a close friend listens and watches Brooke she helps Brooke get the help she needs and an opportunity to let the truth out.

When Brooke finally tells the secret and gets the help that she needs she chances losing the ones she loves the most. Then another secret is revealed that can break Brooke even more.

Personally I felt like I was with Brooke on this journey. I could feel her emotions and frustration.

There were so many times as I read I wondered how nobody knew what was happening. Or is it that someone knew and did not help? Social Services, that were supposed to help Brooke, actually put her in more danger than she was already in. The school system should have taken more measures to help Brooke in this situation.

The book was a page turner for me. I felt I was there with Brooke and I would find myself saying one more page. I had a hard time putting the book down because I was so engrossed in it. When I reached the end I found myself thinking about the book and how the system failed a child who needed help.

This book is based on a true story. There is discussion Guide Questions located in the back of the book. This book was the #1 child abuse book on Amazon for 8 months consecutively. There are 266 pages in this book.

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Knevits