Title: SAVING NOAH
Author: LUCINDA BERRY
ISBN: 9781976189937
Publisher: Rise Press
Pages: 256
Source: Private Copy
A mother’s love is supposed to be unconditional.
But what if it shouldn’t be?
Noah is the boy everyone admires—an honor student, a champion swimmer, a hometown success story. Until he confesses to sexually abusing young girls during swim practice. In a single moment, his future evaporates, and his family shoulders the fallout.
After eighteen months in a juvenile sexual rehabilitation center, Noah returns home. But the town recoils, and his father refuses to let him back into their family’s life. Noah’s mom, Adrianne, is forced into an impossible role: the mother of a child no one believes deserves saving.
Loving Noah means losing everything else—her marriage, her community, and her certainty about right and wrong. As devastating truths emerge, Adrianne must confront the darkest question of all: when does standing by your child become a betrayal of everyone around you?
Official Summary
03 September 2026
Bloody hell, this was heartbreaking.
Not only does this book leave you wondering what you would do if it were your child, but also what you would do if it were your neighbour’s child. It is incredibly easy to understand both sides of this story, and that is what makes it so difficult. There are no easy answers, and every choice comes with consequences.
When Noah confesses to molesting two little girls, Adrianne is shattered. Her perfect, beautiful son—surely it cannot be true? She is determined to stand by Noah and support him in any way she can. She wants to help him through this nightmare and somehow make everything right again.
Lucinda Berry does an incredible job of introducing us to this seemingly perfect family. You can see how close they are and feel the love within their home, which makes Noah’s confession even harder to comprehend. You experience Adrianne’s disbelief and desperation as she tries to make sense of what her son has done.
When Lucas refuses to allow Noah anywhere near Katie, it is impossible not to understand where he is coming from. As a father, his instinct is to protect his daughter. However, his treatment of Noah is incredibly difficult to read, even when you understand why he feels the way he does. Watching a father turn so completely against his own son is heartbreaking in its own right.
Adrianne is then forced to endure one shock after another as she desperately tries to protect her son. She wants to make things better for Noah, but eventually she has to face the painful truth about who he is and accept that there may be no way to fix what has happened. Noah will have to live with what he has done for the rest of his life, and there will always be the fear of people discovering his past.
When Noah finally gets through to Adrianne, you become completely caught up in her final decision to help her son. The raw emotion on those pages left me feeling utterly wrung out, and towards the end of the book, I had tears rolling down my cheeks.
This was such an incredibly emotional read. It was heartbreaking watching everyone turn away from Adrianne until she was completely alone. Her only “fault” was loving her child and refusing to abandon him. I understood Lucas’s need to protect Katie, but at the same time, I struggled with the idea of a father turning his back on his son so completely.
Despite everything, I found myself admiring Noah for his strength and, ultimately, his desire to protect others. His story is incredibly difficult to read, but there was something deeply moving about the choices he made.
My eyes are still wet!
This is a very difficult book to read—not because of the writing, but because of the sheer weight of the emotions it evokes. Without a doubt, this is a five-star read from start to finish. I honestly cannot remember the last time a book reduced me to tears like this one did.
Absolutely heartbreaking, deeply thought-provoking and impossible to put down.
Also By Lucinda Berry
The Perfect Child
Christopher and Hannah are a happily married surgeon and nurse with picture-perfect lives. All that’s missing is a child. When Janie, an abandoned six-year-old, turns up at their hospital, Christopher forms an instant connection with her, and he convinces Hannah they should take her home as their own.
But Janie is no ordinary child, and her damaged psyche proves to be more than her new parents were expecting. Janie is fiercely devoted to Christopher, but she acts out in increasingly disturbing ways, directing all her rage at Hannah. Unable to bond with Janie, Hannah is drowning under the pressure, and Christopher refuses to see Janie’s true nature.
Hannah knows that Janie is manipulating Christopher and isolating him from her, despite Hannah’s attempts to bring them all together. But as Janie’s behavior threatens to tear Christopher and Hannah apart, the truth behind Janie’s past may be enough to push them all over the edge.
About the Author
Author bio from the author’s site
USA Today bestselling author Lucinda Berry is a former psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma. She’s written multiple bestsellers reaching millions of readers worldwide. Some of her bestselling works include The Perfect Child, Saving Noah, When She Returned, The Best of Friends, and Keep Your Friends Close. Her books have been optioned for film and translated into several languages.
If Berry isn’t chasing after her son, you can find her running through Los Angeles, prepping for her next marathon.
Lucinda Berry’s books are hard to read, but I absolutely love. I am working through her back list, so you can expect to find more about her books in the months to come. As always, thank you for visiting. Until next time…. Happy Reading!
