From the Bookshelf of 2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge…

Before We Were Yours

Lisa Wingate

Start date: April 1, 2019

Finish date: April 30, 2019

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What Members Thought

Jun 26, 2017 Mandy rated it really liked it

I feel like authors who have the ability to make you feel emotions through their writing have a gift. The anxiety I felt while reading this book was palpable. Amazing story, characters you wanted to bring home and keep safe, and always a bonus to learn a little about events that make up the history of our country.

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Aug 10, 2020 Kelly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: to-read-in-2020

If you haven’t read this book yet....well what are you waiting for? It is sad though.

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Oct 20, 2019 Molly rated it really liked it

I really like this author’s style of switching between past and present throughout the book. I also liked the character development and the way you can feel both Rill’s trauma and her resilience as she tells her story of the horrors that she and her siblings experience during their time in the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. The ending of Avery’s storyline is predictable but I like her determination to find out about the past and tell her family’s truth while she still can. Overall, I would r ...more

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Oct 29, 2019 Bea rated it liked it

This was pretty good, a little slow starting for the story told in the present. I looked up all I could about this house of horrors and the lady who ran it. I still don't understand why the children didn't tell anyone, or maybe they did and no one believed them? This is one of those stories that is too terrible to be real, but I know a lot of this did happen. Terrible for the kids, but just as terrible for the parents who had missing children. What kind of people could do this and not die of a f ...more

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May 10, 2018 Rae Clevett added it

Really enjoyed this.

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Jun 04, 2018 Missy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, 2018-reads

Heartbreaking and so worth the read. 4.5 stars

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Nov 18, 2019 CmPete Tucker rated it really liked it

Dark, but engaging.

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Jun 23, 2020 Kassie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020

Forgettable. Great premise but the book didn’t carry any of the weight that it could have.

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Jul 08, 2020 Kate rated it liked it

Shelves: listened

Liked it, didn’t love it. The children’s story could have been so much better and further developed and I definitely wanted more. Didn’t care for Avery as a character....why did this need to be about her. It didn’t. Disappointing.

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