Before We Were Yours: A Novel Paperback – November 29, 2022

This is one that is best read slowly, despite the urge to fly through it. The pages are so well written that the words and the story deserve time to marinate. A deeply colorful and touching tale. One of my favorite reads of the year.

This is an absolutely fantastic book and almost unimaginable story. This book is completely out of my reading lane, however, I loved it and could not wait to get back to it. I had heard and read of many stories about adoption and illegal adoption services but this heartwarming, heart wrenching account of the Foss Family and their relatives (known & unknown) is an unbelievable eye opener! The compassion and consideration that Lisa Wingate demonstrates and explains is life changing to both the characters and the readers. The secret involvement of so many high profile players is almost mind-blowing! This story was so informative, so raw, so unbelievably moving that it is hard to imagine it ever happening!I would highly recommend this book to all mature readers no matter what your preferred genre!

Before We Were Yours is a deeply moving and haunting historical novel that brings to light a heartbreaking chapter in of the real-life scandal of a Children’s Home, which trafficked children under the guise of adoption during the early 20th century. The author weaves together two timelines: the past and the present. This is a compelling and unforgettable novel that lingers long after the final page.

What a treasure this book is. It’s heartbreaking, has a mystery of some sorts and a mini love story. Most importantly though is the love of family, in all generations, and how that love can strengthen you and keep you safe.The story is told in chapters, reflecting back to the past then flipping to the present day. It’s told exceptionally well that each past era chapter explains enough to keep the reader invested to know the outcomes. The present day chapters are finding the mystery and putting the pieces together on who was in the photo and how they were connected.The fact that this novel is based on true events makes it even more compelling because I felt even greater for these kids and what they went through. It also made me root for them trying to survive and get their next meal. When a book can evoke so many emotions and feeling towards characters, you know it’s a brilliant one and well worth the read.

This book is so amazing! I can see the "Arcadia" on the river and imagine the life they livedtogether as a family. The love they shared out weighed the hardships they endured.This was such a compelling story, so heartbreaking and warm feelings also. The "adoption home" was beyond comprehension, to treat children as such. I cried numerous reading the occurrences.I enjoyed the characters in the book tremendously. Rill (May) was beyond her years in age and maturity. I love how everything tied together! Many things happened that truly surprised me.I can't recommend this book enough! I will definitely be looking for more books by Lisa Wingate!

Although this book based on truth is heartbreaking in many ways, I enjoyed reading it very much. The author weaves some light into the story.

A story of the past where children were stolen and sold, where families were ripped apart, and where poverty and wealth determined the fates of the innocent.Flash forward to present day politics and a political family with unknown secrets. The book went back and forth between a horrific past and present day discoveries. The storied past was tragic, even evil, yet the present day was about discovering the truth of the past. The present was also romantic and redemptive which made the book a really good read.

No one should miss this novel. I along with many others had NO idea about the nightmare.I loved the 'then and now' pattern of the book - I was kept breathless as to how it would tie in. I normally do my reading last thing in the day, tucked comfortably in bed, hoping I don't read late enough that I sleep too late in the morning. But that went out the window with this one - plus I found myself picking my Kindle up throughout the entire day, thus putting off a LOT of things I SHOULD have been doing.I loved how Wingate writes. I am a huge highlighter of fine novels, this was no exception. There are too many to include in this review but here are some passages by some of the characters to whet the appetite:"Static makes his thick gray hair stick straight out. I want to smooth it down for him, but I don't. It would be a breach of protocol.""I'm not prepared to cross the line from daughter to caretaker.""We're just like other families. Every available avenue is paved with guilt, lined with pain, and pockmarked with shame.""On occasion, it is as if the latches in my mind have gone rusty and worn. The doors fall open and closed at will. A peek inside here. An empty space there. A dark place I'm afraid to peer into. I never know what I will find. There's no predicting when a barrier will swing wide, or why. 'Triggers'. That's what the psychologists call them on TV shows. Triggers...as if the strike ignites gunpowder and sends a projectile spinning down a rifle barrel. It's an appropriate metaphor. Her face triggers something. A door opens far into the past. I stumble through it unwittingly at first, wondering what might be locked inside this room.""My mind skitters featherlight across treetops and along valley floors. I travel all the way to a low-slung Mississippi riverbank.""She's stubborn as a cypress stump and twice as thick sometimes.""The skin on her cheek stretches so tight, it's crossed with lacy veins like a dragonfly's wings.""They were so young when they had me, I don't think they even thought to teach me the words Mama and Daddy. It's always been like we were friends the same age. But every once in a while, I need them to be a daddy or a mama.""Nothing takes you from thirty years old to thirteen faster than your mother's voice rebounding up the stairs like a tennis ball after a forehand slice.""These past few months have rubbed us raw from the inside out, left each of us silently bleeding beneath our skins.""His eyes are dark as midnight on water. They reflect everything he looks at - a heron bird fishing nearby, branches drooping from a half-broke tree, the morning sky with its foam-white clouds...me.""He reaches out and tweaks Lark's nose, and her lashes flutter like butterfly wings.""He smells of river water and sky. Morning fog in the summer and frost and woodsmoke in the winter.""Spanish moss drips from the trees, as delicately spun as the lace on a bridal veil.""I reach for that sense of comfort, but this visit is pungent with opposing tastes. Bitter and sweet. Familiar and strange. The tastes of life.""The other side of his mouth curves upward into a smile, and a strange sensation travels all the way to my toes. It's like lightning crackling far off over the water - something unpredictable and dangerous.""Riggs just smiles and watches us, his eyes white around the edges and winter-bear crazy. You see a bear moving in the winter, you better look out. He's hungry and he aims to find something to fill that hunger. He won't care much what it is.""I grab my hair and pull until it hurts. I want to pull all of it out. Every single piece. I want a pain I understand instead of the one I don't. I want a pain that has a beginning and an end, not one that goes on forever and cuts all the way to the bone.""The day, and this place, and everything that's happened here goes through my mind. I see it like a motion-picture show, the kind we watch for five cents when the carnivals come through the river towns and shine their projectors on the side of a building or a barn. But the show in my mind is wavy, and blurry, and running too fast.""The day is so sweet, it's like the drops of syrup from a honeysuckle vine. I stick out my tongue and taste and taste.""Overhead, katydids and crickets give the sky a heartbeat, and a million stars shine like far-off campfires. The half-moon hangs heavy, rocking on its back. It's twin rides the ripples in the rain barrel as I pass.""But I can see May withdrawing into herself, the story vanishing like chalk art on a rainy day.""She doesn't understand that all our lives we've been up at first light. There's no other way to live on a shantyboat. When the river comes awake, you do too. The birds speak, the boats whistle, the waves wash up one after another if you're tied anyplace near a main channel. The lines have to be watched, and the fish are biting, and the stove needs kindling. There's things to do.""I drift off to sleep and dream that Fern and me are down on M. Sevier's fishing dock. We're sitting on one of those big suitcases they store in the pantry room, near Zuma's mops and brooms, and we've got it packed full of toys to share with Camellia, Lark and Gabion. We're waiting for Briny and Queenie to pick us up." (And there you have the book cover....)"You don't live all your life on the river without knowing how the moon travels. The river and its critters choose their moods according to the moon.""The portrait artist added the vibrant colors. There is no hue for painting laughter, yet the captured moment radiates joy.""He pulls me in and hugs us both hard. He smells of ashes, and fish, and coal oil, and the big river. Familiar things."""They taught me to find the music. Life is not unlike cinema. Each scene has its own music, and the music is created for the scene, woven to it in ways we do not understand. No matter how much we may love the melody of a bygone day or imagine the song of a future one, we must dance within the music of today, or we will always be out of step, stumbling around in something that doesn't suit the moment. I let go of the river's song and found the music of that big house.""A woman's past need not predict her future. She can dance to new music if she chooses. Her OWN music. To hear the tune, she must only stop talking. To herself, I mean. We're always trying to persuade ourselves of things."The descriptions of the river, the boat, the sounds, the feelings - you feel as though you have been there even if you never have. I could literally 'taste' places and things thanks to the author's exquisite writing.I cannot decide if the "Note From The Author" should be before the story, or after (where it is) - I guess it really doesn't matter - as long as you read it carefully. The information will blow you away.