1
of
1
Please Don't Hurt Me
The brand-new book from Sunday Times bestselling author Maggie Hartley
Brief Description
It's all my fault, I was supposed to be looking after her! After suffering domestic abuse from her boyfriend, teen mum Sherrie has her four-month-old daughter Maisy sent to live with Maggie. Torn between being protective of Maisy and heartbroken for Sherrie, Maggie is unsure what...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
Please Don't Hurt Me
$2799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Latest News
TV Show Review on: Carrie
Liam's Review Carrie 26’Carrie has been on my radar for a while now, probably my...
The Struggle of Working Somewhere That Sells Beautiful Books
The problem is…I work in the cutest little (I said what I said) bookshop and...
New Releases to add to your TBR this week (12th October)
There's new dark romance from one of our favourites, the brand new US edition of...
Recent Releases I Would Add to My Classroom Library
Lizzy is rounding up a bunch of the recent children's releases that she thinks would...
Anthony Byrt visits Book Hero
We were lucky enough to hear from author Anthony Byrt as he was going to...
See moreA powerful, moving true story from Sunday Times bestseller, Maggie Hartley, Britain's most-loved foster carer. Perfect for fans of Cathy Glass.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
It's all my fault, I was supposed to be looking after her!
After suffering domestic abuse from her boyfriend, teen mum Sherrie has her four-month-old daughter Maisy sent to live with Maggie. Torn between being protective of Maisy and heartbroken for Sherrie, Maggie is unsure what to do.
In the meantime, Maggie meets fourteen-year-old Kayla, in need of short-term foster care after her mum is sectioned. Though Kayla is quiet and polite, Maggie soon realises the deep trauma and responsibility she has had to carry.
As Kayla finds herself drawn into a relationship with an older and increasingly controlling boy, Sherrie returns to her abusive relationship. Can Maggie help protect Maisy and Kayla, or will it be too late?
From Britain's best-loved foster carer, a new and inspiring true story of abuse and hope.
*
Readers LOVE Maggie Hartley:
Wow! I did not want this book to end. This story was unlike any other ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazon reader review
Very gripping and powerful read... makes you see what can be going on behind closed doors ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazon reader review
Series: A Maggie Hartley Foster Carer Story
View all-
Denied a Mummy
When Maggie’s latest placement arrives on her doorstep, the three young siblings have clearly been through unspeakable traumas in their short lives. Violent, malnourished, and showing signs of sexualised behaviour, the two brothers and their big sister have been left to fend for themselves by their drug-addicted parents. Maggie must use all of her skills and experience as a foster...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Tiny Prisoners
Evie and Elliot are scrawny, filthy and wide-eyed with fear when they turn up on foster carer Maggie Hartley's doorstep. Aged just two and three years old, this brother and sister have hardly set foot outside their own home. They have been prisoners, locked in a terrifying world of abuse, violence and neglect. Maggie soon realises that Evie and Elliot...Paperback$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Little Ghost Girl
Ruth was a ghost of a girl when she arrived into foster mother Maggie Hartley's care. Pale, frail and withdrawn, it was clear to Maggie that Ruth had seen and experienced things that no 11-year-old should have to, that she's been conditioned to 'see no evil, speak no evil'. Ruth is in desperate need of help, but can Maggie get...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Don't Leave Me Here
'Don't leave me here! Please, don't leave me.' What possesses a mum to kidnap her own child? That's what Maggie asks herself when she's asked to foster 13-year-old Saskia, the subject of a bitter custody battle between her parents. When Saskia's mum, Rosa, fears the courts are going to favour her ex-husband, James, she takes matters into her own hands....Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Exploited
'He said he loved me.' Fourteen-year-old Hannah comes to live with foster carer Maggie Hartley after her mum pleads with Social Services to take her into care, unable to cope with her daughter anymore. Previously a good student, a loving daughter and sister, Hannah is now playing truant, drinking, and taking drugs. Angry and mistrustful, it seems that nobody can...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Battered, Broken, Healed
When six-week-old Jasmine is placed into her care, foster mother Maggie Hartley is delighted to have a baby in the house again. Maggie's been given temporary custody of Jasmine after social services were concerned that the baby was failing to thrive and develop. Her mother Hailey vehemently denies that anything is wrong, however, and social services allow her to have...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Groomed to be a Bride
Mama is gone and I cry every night. When a terrified young girl is discovered hiding in the back of a lorry, she is quickly taken into the care of social services. Arriving on the doorstep of foster carer Maggie Hartley, she is painfully thin, bruised and unable to speak a word of English. What atrocities has she escaped to...Paperback$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Too Scared To Cry
Maggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. This inspiring collection includes three heartbreaking, true short stories about the children who have passed through Maggie's care. Too Scared to Cry When Ben and Damien arrive on Maggie's doorstep, the two toddlers are too scared to speak. More disturbingly still, their baby half-brother Noah is completely unresponsive—he doesn't...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Sister's Shame
‘My heart felt heavy with sadness for these two little girls.’ Foster carer Maggie Hartley is used to all manner of children arriving on her doorstep, but nothing can prepare her for sisters Billy and Bo when they arrive at her home. It is clear from the moment she sets eyes on them that four-year-old Bo and seven-year-old Billy have...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Please Don't Hurt Me
It's all my fault, I was supposed to be looking after her! After suffering domestic abuse from her boyfriend, teen mum Sherrie has her four-month-old daughter Maisy sent to live with Maggie. Torn between being protective of Maisy and heartbroken for Sherrie, Maggie is unsure what to do. In the meantime, Maggie meets fourteen-year-old Kayla, in need of short-term foster...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Please Don't Take My Sisters
Three-year-old Lexie, five-year-old Amelie, and thirteen-year-old Leo come to Maggie after Leo confesses to a teacher that his mother's addiction problems and her latest violent relationship have left him as the sole carer to his younger sisters. Maggie welcomes the three children into her home and is touched by the gentle care Leo shows to the two little girls. It...PaperbackSold Out -
Who Will Love Me Now?
The Sunday Times Bestseller At just ten years old, Kirsty has already suffered a lifetime of heartache and suffering. Neglected by her teenage mother and taken into care, Kirsty thought she had found her forever family when she was fostered by Pat and Mike, whom she comes to see as her real mum and dad. But when Pat has a...PaperbackSold Out
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781399638579
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 13 August 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Seven Dials
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 30.0mm
Width: 128.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 235g
Pages: 272
About the Author
Maggie Hartley has fostered more than 300 children while being a foster carer for over twenty years. Taking on the children other carers often can't cope with, Maggie helps children that are deemed 'unadoptable' because of their behaviour or the extreme trauma that they've been through. She's looked after refugees, supported children through sexual abuse and violence court cases, cared for teenagers on remand and taught young mums how to parent their newborn babies.
Find her on Facebook /MaggieHartleyAuthor, where she would love to hear from you.Also by Maggie Hartley
View all-
Denied a Mummy
When Maggie’s latest placement arrives on her doorstep, the three young siblings have clearly been through unspeakable traumas in their short lives. Violent, malnourished, and showing signs of sexualised behaviour, the two brothers and their big sister have been left to fend for themselves by their drug-addicted parents. Maggie must use all of her skills and experience as a foster...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Exploited
'He said he loved me.' Fourteen-year-old Hannah comes to live with foster carer Maggie Hartley after her mum pleads with Social Services to take her into care, unable to cope with her daughter anymore. Previously a good student, a loving daughter and sister, Hannah is now playing truant, drinking, and taking drugs. Angry and mistrustful, it seems that nobody can...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Tiny Prisoners
Evie and Elliot are scrawny, filthy and wide-eyed with fear when they turn up on foster carer Maggie Hartley's doorstep. Aged just two and three years old, this brother and sister have hardly set foot outside their own home. They have been prisoners, locked in a terrifying world of abuse, violence and neglect. Maggie soon realises that Evie and Elliot...Paperback$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Little Ghost Girl
Ruth was a ghost of a girl when she arrived into foster mother Maggie Hartley's care. Pale, frail and withdrawn, it was clear to Maggie that Ruth had seen and experienced things that no 11-year-old should have to, that she's been conditioned to 'see no evil, speak no evil'. Ruth is in desperate need of help, but can Maggie get...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Don't Leave Me Here
'Don't leave me here! Please, don't leave me.' What possesses a mum to kidnap her own child? That's what Maggie asks herself when she's asked to foster 13-year-old Saskia, the subject of a bitter custody battle between her parents. When Saskia's mum, Rosa, fears the courts are going to favour her ex-husband, James, she takes matters into her own hands....Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Battered, Broken, Healed
When six-week-old Jasmine is placed into her care, foster mother Maggie Hartley is delighted to have a baby in the house again. Maggie's been given temporary custody of Jasmine after social services were concerned that the baby was failing to thrive and develop. Her mother Hailey vehemently denies that anything is wrong, however, and social services allow her to have...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Groomed to be a Bride
Mama is gone and I cry every night. When a terrified young girl is discovered hiding in the back of a lorry, she is quickly taken into the care of social services. Arriving on the doorstep of foster carer Maggie Hartley, she is painfully thin, bruised and unable to speak a word of English. What atrocities has she escaped to...Paperback$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Too Scared To Cry
Maggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. This inspiring collection includes three heartbreaking, true short stories about the children who have passed through Maggie's care. Too Scared to Cry When Ben and Damien arrive on Maggie's doorstep, the two toddlers are too scared to speak. More disturbingly still, their baby half-brother Noah is completely unresponsive—he doesn't...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Sister's Shame
‘My heart felt heavy with sadness for these two little girls.’ Foster carer Maggie Hartley is used to all manner of children arriving on her doorstep, but nothing can prepare her for sisters Billy and Bo when they arrive at her home. It is clear from the moment she sets eyes on them that four-year-old Bo and seven-year-old Billy have...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Family for Christmas
Maggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. This inspiring collection includes three heartbreaking, true short stories about the children who have passed through Maggie's care. A Family for Christmas A tragic accident leaves the life of toddler Edward changed forever and his family wracked with guilt. Maggie must help this family grieve for the son they've...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Please Don't Take My Sisters
Three-year-old Lexie, five-year-old Amelie, and thirteen-year-old Leo come to Maggie after Leo confesses to a teacher that his mother's addiction problems and her latest violent relationship have left him as the sole carer to his younger sisters. Maggie welcomes the three children into her home and is touched by the gentle care Leo shows to the two little girls. It...PaperbackSold Out -
Who Will Love Me Now?
The Sunday Times Bestseller At just ten years old, Kirsty has already suffered a lifetime of heartache and suffering. Neglected by her teenage mother and taken into care, Kirsty thought she had found her forever family when she was fostered by Pat and Mike, whom she comes to see as her real mum and dad. But when Pat has a...PaperbackSold Out
More from Politics & Current Affairs
View all-
One Last Question, Prime Minister
From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament Barry Soper has spent close to five decades questioning New Zealand's prime ministers.From the imposing, larger-than-life characters of Rob Muldoon and David Lange, to the golden age of Helen Clark and John Key, and the post-Covid era of Jacinda Ardern and the 'Chrises', Soper's insight and nose for a...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseFacing Up to Our Future
New Zealand's traditional “she'll be right” optimism is no longer adequate to the challenges facing the country. Facing Up to Our Future: Challenges and Choices for New Zealand brings together 21 of the country's leading thinkers to confront the long-term pressures shaping the nation's next decades. Edited by Emeritus Professor Peter Davis, the collection ranges widely, covering issues as diverse as...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Regime Change
From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House and the first year of his second presidency. Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administration’s most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader into...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$4299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseA Different Kind of Power
#1 New Zealand bestseller #1 Amazon bestseller #2 Audible bestseller #3 New York Times bestseller #3 Sunday Times bestseller #4 Australian bestseller From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Ockham WinnerA Different Kind of Power
What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she commanded global respect for her empathetic leadership that put people first. This is the remarkable story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt made...Hardback$4799Elsewhere:$5999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseDirty Work
Twelve years after they were exposed and discredited in the book Dirty Politics, some of the most cynical people in New Zealand politics are back. The epitome is Jordan Williams, with his abysmal attitudes to women, morality-free fundraising as a lobbyist for the tobacco industry and – worst and most destructive in New Zealand’s recent history – him and his...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Suicidal Empathy
The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseGo Hard or Go Home
From the front bench to rock bottom: Go Hard or Go Home is Kiri Allan's fearless memoir of ambition, disruption and survival in NZ politics and beyond. Kiri Allan's six-year political career spanned some of the most challenging times in recent history. Events a government might encounter once in a generation stacked up: a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, destructive and deadly...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen explores how Republicans have abused power, how Democrats have refused to exercise power when they held it, and how progressives should wield power if they are fortunate enough to win a free and fair election in a post-Trump world. The Day After: How to Wield Power in...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe Cauldron
How did an elderly cleric overthrow the Shah of Iran and change the world?Why did Bin Laden attack the USA - and why did the USA destroy Saddam?How did Britain and France carve up the Middle East - and why did the Kurds never get their own state? THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE MAKING OF TODAY'S MIDDLE EAST: A SPELLBINDING...Hardback$4999Elsewhere:$6000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four
In the drab and oppressive world of 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell introduces us to Winston Smith, a man haunted by the omnipresent surveillance and control exercised by the Party and its enigmatic leader, Big Brother. Winston works diligently at the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to alter historical records to fit the ever-changing narrative dictated by the...Paperback$1299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Discipline
Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...Paperback$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Politics & Current Affairs lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listPolitics & Current Affairs
2026 Longlist for The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
Celebrating the best of non-fiction writing, here are all 13 books on the longlist for 2026.View the list -
![]()
![Lucky You're Tough]()
![]()
Dylan's listPolitics & Current Affairs
Reading Before Voting
As we head towards New Zealand's general election on 7 November 2026, here are some books that explore many of the issues...View the list
