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The Girl with the Saddest Secret

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An uplifting true story from foster carer and Sunday Times bestselling author, Angela Hart.Why has no one given Jasmine the safety and care she desperately needs? Angela is determined to find a solution.Jasmine is a little girl with a difficult upbringing whose current foster carers have refused to keep her on as they can no longer handle her behaviour. Social Services place her with specialist foster carer Angela Hart. Angela does her best to provide a secure environment for Jasmine in the hope that she can begin to move on, but it proves challenging as Jasmine often breaks out in bursts of anger and sometimes physical violence. Can Angela show Jasmine what safety looks like? And can she help Jasmine's beloved grandparents – who have been campaigning to become her full-time guardians – persuade social services that they are best placed to look after this troubled little girl?The Girl with the Saddest Secret is the eighth book from well-loved foster carer Angela Hart. A true story that shares the tale of one of the many children she has fostered over the years. Angela's stories show the difference that quiet care, a watchful eye and sympathetic ear can make to those children whose upbringing has been less fortunate than others.

303 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 20, 2020

69 people are currently reading
207 people want to read

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Angela Hart

61 books110 followers

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5 stars
288 (66%)
4 stars
117 (27%)
3 stars
24 (5%)
2 stars
3 (<1%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for Erica⭐.
479 reviews
October 4, 2020
Why has no one given Jasmine the safety and care she desperately needs? Foster carer Angela is determined to find a solution.Jasmine is a little girl with a difficult upbringing whose current foster carers have refused to keep her on as they can no longer handle her 'off the wall' behaviour. Social Services place her with specialist foster carer Angela Hart. Angela does her best to provide a secure environment for Jasmine in the hope that she can begin to move on, but it proves challenging as Jasmine often breaks out in bursts of anger and physical violence. Can Angela show Jasmine what safety looks like? And can she help Jasmine's beloved grandparents - who have been campaigning to become her full-time guardians - persuade social services that they are best placed to look after this troubled little girl?
Profile Image for Gail murray.
143 reviews3 followers
December 8, 2020
I like Angel harts style of writing ive read all her books and enjoyed them

This is a good page turner and hard to put down. I won't give any spoilers but I recomend that you read it
Profile Image for Kelly Ferrett.
288 reviews9 followers
October 14, 2020
The Girl With The Saddest Secret. by Angela Hart.
This book is intriguing as it delves into a mystery of what has happened to Jasmine in her life.
Jasmine is a 8 years old girl being fostered by another couple who have asked for a couple of days respite ... Angela is asked to meet the young girl in the hope she will want to do the respite ... such a lovely girl .. very chatty ... the foster mum looks like she needs a break! Angela agrees to help .. should be the following weekend ... no! They are asked to take her the next day ... two days respite goes alright but then they are asked to do one more night ... again and again ... The foster carer won’t have her back and Angela and her family take her on ... with very limited background information ... their lives are about to get hectic ... No real information is forthcoming ... some of the outbursts are very mysterious and can be dangerous. A lot of ups and downs and accusations ... kept me interested until the end.
Profile Image for Michelle.
135 reviews10 followers
October 28, 2020
A good read not a great read

I felt this book dragged on and didn’t capture or hold my attention. Angela’s books are usually a hard to put down read however this one seemed to drag on.
Profile Image for Pammi Walker.
38 reviews1 follower
May 6, 2022
Great read

This is my first book I've read of Angela hart, as I've read alot of foster carers books I'm now looking forward to reading the rest of her books .
Angela and Johnathan do a fantastic job looking after these children but Im disappointed the way things happened with social services in any job u don't take yr home problems to work and esp in this kinda job when yr dealing with vunerable children ,
But this is a "MUST READ" and decide for yourself
44 reviews
December 18, 2021
One of Angela Hart’s best

Angela has gotten better at writing her stories. They are always fascinating but she has lost the slightly patronizing tone. Maybe not patronizing, but a bit of lack of emotion maybe. A gripping story for sure and you just don’t know how it will end until the very end.
8 reviews
November 17, 2022
Lovely book and so sad in parts

This book deserves the 5 stars because it was well written and kept the reader in suspene in parts
Its hard to believe this is a true story what that child must have suffered before she came into care.
Well worth a read
11 reviews
March 18, 2023
As with all books on fostering and abuse this was an amazing book, I felt that Angela and Johnathan worked really hard for this little girl, but in the end her grandmother and grandfather came up trumps and took her home.
An excellent book brilliant read don’t miss out
7 reviews
January 27, 2024
The girl with the saddest secret.

Interesting read and brilliantly written by Angela Hart. There are some scenes which are quite shocking and some scenes that just bring a tear to your eye on how a child can feel like that without themselves.
43 reviews
April 28, 2021
A sad story

This was a sad story, but I am glad that Jasmin ended up at Angela’s house. I was happy that it all ended well.
125 reviews
September 7, 2021
Good book by Angela. Foster carer memoir,
It did keep you guessing and wondering along the way what had happened.
Profile Image for Elizabeth Ray.
940 reviews1 follower
September 21, 2021
Great book! I can hardly believe they were able to keep Jasmine as long as they did and so happy it ended well.
Profile Image for Paw.
218 reviews
December 15, 2025
A terrible child emotionally and mentally abused, told by an amazing foster carers family who took her in at a young 7 years old.
5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Profile Image for Paul.
815 reviews47 followers
August 31, 2020
Fascinating book about a foster child with a temporal lobe disorder and how the wise and kind carer helped her to a normal life.
Profile Image for Noorhana Hanafi.
6 reviews
February 24, 2021
This book gripped every bit of my heart.
Page 186 captured me most.
"Beneath every behaviour there's a feeling, and beneath each feeling is a need. When we meet that need, rather than focusing on the behaviour, we begin to deal with the cause not the symptom."
Profile Image for Amanda.
341 reviews13 followers
February 13, 2023
Brilliant read but shocked at the treatment of the ss workers towards the Foster parents and the child. I can't help but feel that the Foster parents should of spoken up more and made a formal complaint against the ss workers. So glad the school made a formal complaint though against one of the ss workers.
23 reviews
December 7, 2020
Wow! I can honestly say this was an emotional rollercoaster. Thank goodness for empathetic, caring, understanding and patient foster carers. I am not going to write about the content but I am going to thank the author Angela Hart for her honesty and sharing her experiences.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews

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