The story of two siblings, two ‘illegitimate’ children bonded with love, ambiguous origins and a destiny determined to keep them apart.Author Catherine Taylor takes time out from writing erotic fiction to relate her true-life story of growing up as an adopted child with her foster brother Michael. This often harrowing tale reveals their lives in the sixties and seventies, and through to Mother’s … through to Mother’s Day 1985 when Michael suddenly becomes a ‘missing person.’
In 2017, Catherine set out to resolve the facts surrounding her adoption by taking a DNA test. The results are not what she expects. An ambitious undertaking follows using genealogy records, DNA-matched relatives and the construction of a family tree of over three thousand people. As pieces began to fall into place, her search takes an unexpected turn.
While seeking an elusive parent, Catherine is vastly unprepared to receive news of Michael. The closed door of an unsolved mystery is suddenly thrown wide open and Catherine is faced with the aftermath affecting many more lives than her own.
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An amazing book.
This was a beautifully written memoir. So interesting, and fascinating with all the genealogical research and revelations. This is quite a short review from me-but I really don’t want to give anything away, so as not to spoil the read for anyone-there are just so many things going on, and many totally unexpected. I was totally immersed in this.
A gripping memoir of family secrets and lies, a tangled web, beautifully woven by Storm Catherine Taylor’s writing. Photos are included, and an actual letter from her brother, Michael.
Raw, gritty, honest, compelling:
Taking a break from her usual genre (which I haven’t read) in this story, the author writes of her childhood, the bond with her brother and the trauma and tragedy that stalked both her and his life was compelling from the first page. I was drawn into the story and couldn’t stop reading. Beautifully written, Catherine writes honestly (with a splash of profanity) and endearingly of her normal family, one that was a far from normal it turns out, and her search for the truth. She finds that truth in stages and reveals that truth as the book unfolds. You walk with her and cry with her and laugh with her right to the end. Highly recommended.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Targeted Topic Memoir with Fantastic Immediacy
I have never read the author’s fictional works because I don’t read erotica. But I was completely transfixed by this nonfiction book that she has written about her life and her family. Right from the first chapter, she is able to create a picture in words that pulls you right into her life. We relive an important Christmas with her when she was a young child. (In fact, I wonder how she can remember her very young life in such vivid detail.) I’ve rarely seen such a well-written, targeted-topic memoir that details someone’s life with such immediacy. Often in these kinds of books, it feels like we are being told what happened through the lens of someone looking back and adding their own, older-and-wiser judgment. Instead, this author lets us discover along with her as she did at the time. Brilliantly done.
Fans of Catherine Taylor, an acclaimed erotic novelist, will love this for its insight into her early years, including her own sexual awakening.
Fans of Australian literature will love this for its portrayal of a slice of life.
If neither is your genre, you’ll still love this book because Taylor’s true-life story has all the hallmarks of a classic mystery novel.
The story is filtered through the uncritical eyes of a little girl who thinks her family is normal.
And they almost are. A little girl who loves dolls, living with Mum, Dad and her adored big brother in suburban Adelaide in the 1970s, nothing could be more ordinary.
Michael and Me are a tight two in a contradictory world, whose search for clues to navigate the adult undercurrents ultimately leads to a locked drawer of her parent’s dresser.
As she grows from child to teenager, Taylor seeks to unravel the secrets of the past. Along the way tackling the taboo subjects of illegitimacy, sexuality, alcohol abuse and gang warfare – all with honesty and compassion.
Taylor’s is a family, which loved, not wisely but perhaps too well; a family where grief numbed by alcohol became the panacea for loss that too often follows love.
Illegitimately Yours could have been a tragedy but it doesn’t read like that. The story of Taylor’s life is buoyed throughout by the unwavering unconditional support from a family that, however unconventional, truly believes in love.
Beautifully written and a cracking good read.