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Freedom’s Child
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Freedom’s Child
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Freedom’s Child
Ebook365 pages5 hours

Freedom’s Child

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this ebook

A heart-stopping debut thriller about a woman named Freedom, who will stop at nothing to save the daughter she only knew for two minutes and seventeen seconds.

Call me what you will: a murderer, a cop killer, a fugitive, a drunk…

There's a lot people don't know about Freedom Oliver. They know she works at the local bar. They know she likes a drink or two.

What they don't know is that Freedom is not her real name. That she has spent the last eighteen years living under Witness Protection, after being arrested for her husband's murder. They don't know that she put her two children up for adoption, a decision that haunts her every day.

Then Freedom's daughter goes missing, and everything changes. Determined to find her, Freedom slips her handlers and heads to Kentucky where her kids were raised. No longer protected by the government, she is tracked by her husband's sadistic family, who are thirsty for revenge. But as she gets closer to the truth, Freedom faces an even more dangerous threat.

She just doesn't know it yet.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 30, 2015
ISBN9780007595891
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Freedom’s Child

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Reviews for Freedom’s Child

Rating: 3.6625001124999996 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

40 ratings10 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wenn auch diese Geschichte sehr abgedreht ist, so ist das doch definitiv ein spannender und ungewöhnlicher Thriller, ein echter Pageturner.Freedom Oliver, die nach 20 Jahren im Zeugenschutzprogramm ihre verschwundene Tochter sucht, ist ein erstaunlich guter, sehr eigenwilliger Charakter. Und auch die anderen Figuren haben was, v.a. Peter. Da kann man die gehäuften Klischees schon verzeihen. Denn das Buch ist aufregend, hat überraschende Wendungen und ist einfach unterhaltsamer Lesestoff, inklusive Tränlein am Ende.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I think of this book as the "kitchen sink" style of writing, as in "throw in everything but the kitchen sink". In the first 100 pages I was treated to: the protagonist, now named Freedom Oliver (as she repeats every other page), who starts her days with farina and spiced rum, a mother who locks her adult, disabled son out of the refrigerator and a bat shit crazy preacher (and that is an extremely abbreviated list of the warped characters in this book). There were also incidents of, or references to, rape, incest, drug and alcohol abuse, insanity, suicide, dementia, beatings, kidnapping, murder, stroke and cardiac arrest. I've probably forgotten some. As the dark incidents piled on relentlessly, the book became more and more preposterous. This was just an unbroken stream of bleakness. I could not continue. The writing wasn't bad, so I've given it three stars, but for me it was a one star descent into awfulness. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When Freedom went into the witness protection program, part of the deal was to give up her two young children for adoption, a deal she regrets. Falsely accused of killing her police officer husband, she feared, because of her testimony against his brother, that his family would be out to get her and find the children. Now she learns her daughter has gone missing and sets out on her own, without the fed’s protection, to find her.Freedom is a very flawed character that I couldn’t help liking. She’s brash, angry, and reckless but at the same time strong and likable. With a multi-layered plot and lots of action, the story took off right from the first page and never let up. Characters were interesting and well-developed, even though many were not very nice people.This was an engaging thriller with a satisfying ending where loose ends are tied up, puzzles are resolved, and questions are answered.Audio production:Narration was performed by Hillary Huber and MacLeod Andrews. This was an easy story to follow even though there were quite a few characters and the setting moved to a few different places. The narrators did a nice job keeping the characters distinct throughout the fast-paced adventure. The story was well-written and I was always clear where we were and what was happening.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Freedom’s Child – An Addictive DebutJax Miller has written a highly addictive debut thriller in Freedom’s Child that will literally blow you away and keep you reading from the first page to the last. The only regret will be that you will have to wait until Jax Miller’s next book, because she certainly knows what makes readers excited keep turning the page and wanting more. This really is a powerful, grabs you by the throat addictive that is seriously one of the most compelling thrillers of the year.Freedom Oliver has spent the last 18 years of her life in Witness Protection living in a small town in Oregon, working in a biker bar this place really is the boil on the arse end of the world. The place is as dead end as it really gets, as she fights her feelings of killing herself and being as drunk as a skunk. Her children she is forced to watch them grow up from a far as they were adopted when she was sent to jail for murdering her ex-NYPD husband Mark. Freedom is living on the west coast as her husband Mark’s family the Delaney’s have sworn to find her and kill her especially as her brother-in-law is serving a prison sentence for the murder. It is when she has a visit from her two US Marshal ‘guardians’ who advise her that Mathew Delaney has been released from Prison and she needs to be aware but not to worry they do not know where she is.At work she often logs in to Facebook to observe from afar her son and daughter who were adopted by Virgil Paul and his wife Carol, who is leader of the Third Day Adventist Church down in Kentucky. He son, Mason is a hot shot defence attorney making waves at his law firm and disowned by his adoptive father for leaving the church.It is when her daughter goes missing, the daughter that she only knew for little over two minutes, who she gave birth to in prison, is snatched away, and goes missing does her world collapse. He first thought is that the Delaney’s have her and she needs to rescue her from them and sacrifice her life to spare her daughter.So begins the roller coaster ride of Freedom’s escape from the Witness Protection Programme to find her daughter and sacrifice herself to save her. During this we get a picture of the life and thoughts of the Paul family as well as the ever present Delaney family both families are rather suspect, and send a chill down the spine.It is a Freedom fights to save her daughter that she discovers the truth as well as discovering the truth about her true friends and family. Freedom is well aware that she is racing towards her own downfall but all that is preferable to what the Delaney’s could do.We know from the outset that Freedom is a flawed character of questionable values, who is completely unlovable and nasty at times, but she will still strike a chord with the reader as she grows on you. She is a person who tends to do the wrong things for the right reasons, feared and despised equally by law enforcement and families alike.Jax Miller has written a terrific thriller that will shock you that it is her debut as her characters are well written and thought out; she has learnt her craft and has excelled with the characterisation. Freedom is the sort of person that naturally you should dislike and distrust but throughout the book you are rooting for her. Jax Miller has not toned down or even softened Freedom’s character which I am sure many others would have done so she is heart –rendering as well as powerful.Freedom’s Child is a book that once you start you will not put down, it is addictive as crack, and shows even the nastiest of people can do good things, occasionally.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Everything about this book’s description screamed made for me. I love a gritty emotional fast-paced read with a gusty flawed heroine. This book started off just fine with me quickly turning the page and then it just skidded off track for me. There were just too many characters with too many secondary storylines branching off.I think all of the diverse storylines would make for a great TV series. While this book was not my cup of tea, this Sons of Anarchy meets Easy Rider vibe will appeal to others.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    3.5 Freedom is the name she is known by now, she has been in Witness Protection for twenty years and that is how long ago she gave up her children. Gave them up so they could have a normal life, or so she thought.This is a tough, gritty, no holds barred novel and Freedom herself is rough, she drinks hard, loves hard and she is a terribly flawed but very human character. Her name was once Nessa Delaney and she thinks she is hidden, safe as she can be fighting only her own demons but her Mother in law, all 600 lbs of her has her own plans. To punish Nessa and get her grandchildren back into the family. A fast paced read, a read that maybe reminds us that our past is not always past, may just be hiding around the corner. Written in a very different, almost staccato style, a book that takes a stubborn Freedom who once again finds herself fighting for freedom for her children. I did think the author threw a little too much into this one, from revenge to retribution to religious extremism, from a brother trying to find his sister it does keep the reader reading but for me it was a bit much. Still a good entertaining read and will definitely keep a look out for this authors next.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a tough one on many levels: every character is either tough or tough shit. The protagonist is Freedom Oliver, in the witness protection program due to her brother-in-law's murder of her husband. After spending two years in prison for the same crime, and thinking she'd be serving a life sentence, Freedom had signed away her children to be adopted by a nice, religious couple who turn out to be a hideous combination of David Koresh and Jim Jones.The novel takes us on Freedom's journey backwards from her dead husband's unbelievably horrible family, and forward to rescue her children. And she's no prize - a nasty violent alcoholic.Yet the writing is first rate and there are some welcome surprises. And some magic Native Americans men. Give it a try.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Combine an unlikely heroine with a creative plot and you get a great summer read. Freedom Oliver is in a witness protection program after she beat a charge of killing her NYPD cop husband. However, she still spent two years in prison and lost custody of her two kids, one by her husband and the other by his brother. She moves across the country where she becomes a drunken bartender at a local biker bar. Somehow she befriends a local cop who tries to take care of her without much success. She is on a downward spiral until she hears that her youngest child Rebekah is missing. Bent on revenge against her husband’s sadistic family, she goes East to find her daughter with the help of her crippled brother-in-law, her estranged son and his fiancée, her cop friend and members of the ATF. It is a clever plot filled with twists and turns, with an unexpected ending.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    wo things I’m not a big fan of—religious, evangelistic, cult mysteries and very tense drama, and yet Freedom’s Child a debut novel by Jax Miller, which contains both of the above, had me riveted. It is tense from beginning to end.FreedomsChildThe prologue, which you should go back and read again after you finish the book, begins “My name is Freedom Oliver and I killed my daughter. It’s surreal, honestly, and I’m not sure what feels more like a dream, her death or her existence. I’m guilty of both.” From there you learn that Freedom is accused of murdering her NYPD husband, served two years in jail before investigators found and convicted someone else for the crime and Freedom was released, is under the Witness Protection Program and is living in Oregon.Freedom describes giving up her son, Mason, and daughter, Rebekah, for adoption when it was thought she’d spend the rest of her life in prison, how she’s managed to locate them in Kentucky and follow them on Facebook. When there is a lapse in Rebekah’s status updates, Freedom begins to worry. It is her mother’s instinct that says something is wrong and she needs to find her daughter.Freedom’s Child is told from Freedom’s perspective and many chapters open with “My name is Freedom and……” The story is interspersed with letters written (but never mailed) to her children, flash backs to her life before the murder and her incarceration, descriptions of her husband, her derelict brothers-in-law and mother-in-law. Miller keeps the suspense flowing from the beginning through to the end. While the book is not over graphic, you know how wicked the bad guys are.Readers experience a mother’s heartbreak at giving up her children, even if she knows it’s for the best. Readers experience the heartbreak of knowing your child is in trouble and needs your help while you are thousands of miles away. Readers understand the lengths a mother would go to help a child.Freedom’s Child is definitely one of the best books of the year.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Freedom’s Child by Jax Miller is a very difficult book to review without getting into too many spoilers. Miller has created a very multi-layered story with an exceptionally unique cast of characters, for better or worse, which make the story work. Freedom Oliver is a very complex character, she is working at a biker bar, she is loud, brash, and usually drunk, she is also not really Freedom Oliver, she is in witness protection, and in her past she made a deal with the Feds, she put her two children up for adoption, and she was arrested for murdering her husband twenty years ago. Freedom learns her daughter, whom was adopted years ago is missing and she chooses to leave witness protection to find her daughter. As Freedom heads back to Kentucky her past begins to catch up with her. Miller has created a very intense, fast-paced thriller, filled with complex and mainly unlikeable characters with very unique backstories which intertwine and somehow through Miller’s talented writing work. Freedom’s Child is indeed a thriller, however, it is also about a woman haunted by a past she cannot forget and the desire to right many of the wrongs that have been done. Miller’s writing is definitely distinctive and I would have rated the book higher had there not been so many scenes of intense violence.