Before We Were Yours

This was a gripping mystery and exposé, even if the reader can intuit the outcomes early. The characters are well developed and their narrative real and emotive. All in all, an excellent book I would recommend.

It's hard not to read this, as a Canadian, with the overriding stories of residential schools in the background. A difference that stood out starkly to me was the clear recognition of children as having value as assets to the agencies, which achieved by a quick placement. That inherent (financial) value limits the tolerance of abuse, though obviously does not extinguish it. What happened in the residential schools was nothing alike, in that the children as received were seen to be of no value, and only potential for what they might need forced to become. Anything that "killed the Indian" was tolerated.

Still, this book is a reminder that theft of children is not unique, and has always been perpetrated against the marginalized by the wealthy and powerful.

The app won't let me give it 3.5 stars. Well written and paced, and a touching story. Great settings and atmosphere.

This was a book club book people raved about. Interesting premise based in reality - apparently there was an adoption racket back in the day where children were taken from poor women and sold to rich women who thought it was on the up-and-up. This book was overly ambitious. Instead of picking one child and following her story in a convincing way, the author chose a rag-tag group of children and filled the chapters told from their perspective with Little Rascals-style shenanigans. It was like two different authors collaborated on a book and didn't try to blend their styles effectively. Would not recommend.

What a pleasant surprise! I went into this book knowing nothing but it was recommended to me by friends. And they were right. Of course.

It hits all the right boxes for me. Historical fiction, check. Family drama, check. A dash of romance, check. We meet a family living on the river near Memphis during the Great Depression. The unthinkable happens, and then happens again, and the family is torn apart. We alternate between past and present, and you get to see the mystery of what happened unfold slowly, yet mostly satisfyingly. Not all questions are answered, and since this is based on true happenings in Memphis in the 1930s-1950s, not everything should be tied up with a bow at the end.

Highly recommend. 4 stars.

Parts of this book I really liked and others I didn't so much. I knew where the romance with Avery was going to go, so that didn't really surprise me.
I also didn't like knowing that such things with children really happened. That was a bit to stomach.
All that being said, I sort of liked how Avery put her family mystery together.