Review: The Irish Orphan’s Prayer by Rachel Wesson

August 27, 2026

Synopsis:

When a frail elderly woman with tears in her fierce grey-blue eyes whispers “find my girl”, former detective Caitlin O’Shea can’t walk away.

Aileen has spent a lifetime inside Ireland’s institutions, declared delusional by every doctor who ever treated her. But Aileen knows the truth: her baby didn’t die. She was taken.

In 1963, as a young American president waved to cheering crowds outside a convent wall, a midwife named Christina made a promise she would spend the rest of her life trying to keep. Her story – and Aileen’s – will prove more devastating, and more extraordinary, than Caitlin could ever have imagined. A story of breathtaking cruelty, quiet courage, and a love so fierce it survived six decades of silence.

Review:

If you want to get emotionally destroyed, this is the book for you. The beginning already left me feeling uncomfortable and, knowing what it foreshadowed, I expected to be heartbroken by the end. And that is exactly what happened.

The 1960s were not that long ago, and learning about and experiencing how these young women were treated left me speechless. Treated as lesser human beings, sent away by parents or family members who didn’t want to deal with them , they endured one of the worst things anyone can imagine. SA or simply acting impulsively and getting pregnant made you seem even less worthy of being treated like an actual person (it’s always the woman’s fault, apparently). It was as if your needs didn’t matter. Having your child taken away from you and never knowing what happened to them was the reality. This is the focus of the story, and seeing how it impacted people both then and today was something that deeply drew me in.

Inspired by real events, this is one of those books that left me feeling disappointed and hopeful at the same time. The first book in the series was already one of my highlights of the year, and this one only further demonstrates the author’s incredible work.

🌙 Recension: The Irish Orphan’s Prayer (The Irish Orphan Series #2) by Rachel Wesson
📚 Genre: Historical Fiction
📅 Release Date: August 25, 2026
📖 Publisher: Storm Publishing
📱 Read as: Kindle
📗 available in various formats
💸 I received an advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages: 312
⭐️ 5/5