Title: At the Feet of Angels
Author: Vernon Bargainer
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 978-0595005772
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 241
Reviewed by: Lisa Brown-Gilbert

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An evocative journey through survival, powered by sheer will, and determination, Vernon Bargainer’s, At the feet of Angels, offers a harrowing vision of child abduction, and black-market adoption.

This thrilling and intense, emotion rending tale of survival, focuses on three-year-old Jenny Burnett, innocent, sweet and intelligent, she proves a memorable central character. Altogether her experiences as an abducted and illegally adopted child disturbs the heart, and peace of mind lead by an unexpectedly fierce range of emotions including rage, indignation, and especially sympathy. Truly engaging from the start this is a reading experience which makes you want to hug your children.

An intense start to the story, immediately draws you in, with a scene developing where young and all too trusting Jenny is lured from her mother’s car by a friendly face, her uncle. Enticed with the promise of a treat, Jenny soon finds that her uncle does not intend to return her to her mother’s car, but her options to escape are little, as she is very young and cannot put up much of a fight. Disturbed, confused and wanting her momma, poor Jenny gets moved from one location to the next as she is being sold to a couple as a black-market adoption.

Throughout, the narrative, author Vernon Bargainer does a fabulous job of honing in on Jenny’s emotions and reactions to her traumatizing situation, with keen authentic detailing and insight, leaving you often holding your breath, as you delve deeper into Jenny’s experience.

Meanwhile, with her new “Mom” and “Dad” trying to be perfect parents, Jenny seems to be surrounded by a beautiful home, nice new clothes, decent food and people who want nothing more than to love her, a dark element comes into play. Albeit while attempting to be perfect on the outside, her new parents particularly her new mother, Sheila, seems to have some dark issues of their own. Sheila dotes excessively on Jenny and tries to establish a connection with Jenny but soon finds she is triggered into reverting to some unsavory behavior patterns, as dealing with young Jenny seems to be more than she expected or can handle charging the environment in the story with Jenny’s enhanced terror and fear, as violence comes into play. From then on, the narrative takes on a unique intensity as various heart stopping scenes take place between Jenny and Sheila.

Overall, I enjoyed, At the Feet of Angels, the narrative was well written perfectly plotted, ultimately presenting a shocking view of the good, bad and ugly of human nature as well as brought about a distinct awareness to the seamy world of child abduction and black-market adoption. Author Vernon Bargainer has given readers much food for thought with this literate journey through child abduction.