Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Sister’s Promise | 2007 | Anne Bennett | Buy |
| 2 | A Daughter’s Secret | 2008 | Anne Bennett | Buy |
| 3 | A Mother’s Spirit | 2009 | Anne Bennett | Buy |
| 4 | The Child Left Behind | 2009 | Anne Bennett | Buy |
The Sullivan Family series by Anne Bennett traces an Irish family across two countries and two world wars, exploring how poverty, death, and institutional cruelty scatter families — and how the bonds between them survive anyway.
A Sister’s Promise (2007) opens the saga with young Molly Sullivan, separated from her baby brother Kevin after their mother’s death. Sent to live with her harsh grandmother on a farm in Donegal, Molly endures years of hardship before war breaks out and she must brave the Birmingham Blitz to find Kevin and bring him to safety. The remaining books — A Daughter’s Secret (2008), A Mother’s Spirit (2009), and The Child Left Behind (2009) — continue through the next generation of Sullivans, each dealing with loss, hidden truths, and the cost of protecting the people you love.
The series shares Bennett’s recurring concerns: Irish immigrant life in Birmingham, the damage that secrets do to families, and women who hold everything together through sheer determination when the world gives them nothing to work with.