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The book alternates chapters between Rill in 1939 and Avery in the present day. Rill lives on a boat with her parents, three sisters and a brother. One day all the children are taken away to the Tennessee Children's Home where they are abused and separated by adoptions. Avery is trying to figure out how her Grandma Judy connects to May Weathers who she met during a nursing home visit. She is also being groomed to possibly take her father's senate seat since he is undergoing chemotherapy.
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Rill's ...more
interesting story based on fact. It is amazing what people can get away with if they present themselves well and are believable. Again this story is told from the past (1939) and the present. I really enjoyed the present story - the mystery of Avery's lineage and her search for the truth. But the stories of the orphanage were just sad and depressing - not the best read for this time of year. I thought the author's tales of abuse and neglect did not then match the idea that these children were bo
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I'll be in the minority on this one for not giving it 4 or 5 stars. The sections of the book in the past were heartbreaking and I would certainly like to read more about these atrocities and discover what has become of so many of the children. My problem was the intrusion of the story set in the present tense. I felt the author was attempting to weave both a mystery and a love story into a fraction of the book and it just didn't work.
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Moving between Memphis in 1939 and today, we see the effects of separating children from their siblings and their families. What those children went through at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society was heart-rending. Some of those chapters were extremely difficult to read. It's hard to imagine how something so terrible was an open secret in Tennessee.
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Nov 10, 2017
Jenifer
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Dec 05, 2017
SandyC
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Anna
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Kirsten Barber
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Kat
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Joy
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Kara
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Mar 15, 2018
Jules
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Jun 2018
Dec 17, 2018
Denise
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Dec 20, 2019
Natasha
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May 03, 2020
Jean-Marie
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Oct 15, 2020
Charlene Oleah
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