From the Bookshelf of Christian Fiction Devourers…

Before We Were Yours

Lisa Wingate

Start date: January 1, 2018

Finish date: January 31, 2018

Discussion: Book of the Month Reading

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What Members Thought

Jan 22, 2018 Kate rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Umm . . . WOW!
This book was a breathtaking journey into the heartache surrounding the Tennessee Children's Home Society's immoral (if not illegal) adoption trade of the 1930s to 1950. My heart broke along with Rill's as she tried to keep her family together, and get back to their parents.
I also really enjoyed Avery's journey . . . trying to find the truth of how elderly May Crandall knew her grandmother Judy, and how Avery learned to listen for the music of her own song, rather than the song her ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Jan 23, 2018 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Completely captivating

Spellbinding page turner, lyrical prose, almost unbelievably linked to true history. This story will grab your heart, raise your temperature and make you want to hold your loved ones ever so close.

3 likes · Like · see review

May 27, 2017 Andi Tubbs rated it it was amazing

Shelves: christian-fiction-2017, empty-shelf-2017

I have been a fan of Ms. Wingate's writing since I picked up one of her first books, and I look forward to the next one. When I saw the cover of her new book show up on Facebook I was immediately pulled to it and I jumped over to NetGalley to request a copy, and I was pleasantly surprised when I was approved. As I began the book I was immediately pulled into the story of the Foss children, and when I found out this story was loosely based on real life historical facts I became enthralled with it ...more

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May 09, 2017 Susan Faloon rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical, women, historical-fiction-based-on-true-ev, young-adult, kindle, family, general-fiction

This is one of THE books to read (and watch) for during the summer of 2017. I predict it will be an award winner. This is a powerful fictional story based on the factual events at Tennessee Children's Home Society and "the Mother of Adoption" Georgia Tann. Tann, a woman with backing in high places ran a ring of employees and foster homes who helped her find and procure children for nearly three decades. Exorbitant fees were charged to place these 'blank slates' for adoption to well-to-do and som This is one of THE books to read (and watch) for during the summer of 2017. I predict it will be an award winner. This is a powerful fictional story based on the factual events at Tennessee Children's Home Society and "the Mother of Adoption" Georgia Tann. Tann, a woman with backing in high places ran a ring of employees and foster homes who helped her find and procure children for nearly three decades. Exorbitant fees were charged to place these 'blank slates' for adoption to well-to-do and sometimes very famous clients. Nothing stopped her, not even birth parents.

This story isn't focused on this terrible woman, it is about Rill Foss and her four younger siblings who were taken and placed under the 'care' of the TCHS. This is a story that I will not forget. It touched me in one way as I remember my own paternal grandfather and his siblings who were
given' out to family and neighbors after his mother died when they were infants and very young children. It breaks my heart even more as the author did a tremendous job of expressing Rill's feelings of loss and fear when separated from her parents. My grandfather, a very small boy, had to have experienced this too.

The story is told by two main characters, Rill/May who is at first living in the 1930's and Avery Stafford, a lawyer being groomed to fill her father's senate seat during current times. Wingate smoothly moves back and forth between the two seemingly separate lives and blends the stories beautifully as she builds on the mystery that is the Foss children. The story has moments of delight and many of heartbreak that stirs great emotion in me, the reader, the observer of abuse, terrorizing and the terrible theft of what could have been, what seemed to have been meant to be. It gets me thinking too, even now that the last page has been read, how many childrens' lives are marked or marred by adults around them. What would have been the right thing if these innocents had been able to get someone to listen to truth. It is also Avery's story as she lives her life doing what her parents expect - until she stumbles on the fact that her grandmother who lives with Alzheimer's has a secret. Ah, what a story!

I can say, this is a great read that makes one think. It has heartbreak and a hovering sadness when I think of how many children have gone through like situations. (Sometimes locked adoption records weren't really for the protection of a child, more-so the broker who got them to the final stages of having new parents, 'new' lives.) I recommend this to anyone who likes to read a story with mystery that hits the heart, delves into history and injustice, focuses on sisterhood and moving forward no matter how hard it may be. This would be an excellent book for discussion groups. A preteen could read this and give a parent a good chance to have a frank discussion about families, adoption, history and the real world where some children don't have the best of care.

The author has done a tasteful job of telling it like it was so to speak, filling the reader in on abuse and neglect without any graphic descriptions or language. The entire story feels real and hits hard.

Thanks to the author Lisa Wingate, the publisher and NetGalley for this unforgettable story. ...more

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Jan 28, 2020 Karyn Tripp rated it really liked it

This book took a little bit for me to get into, but once I did, I could hardly put it down. The story was heartbreaking & hard to fathom. It is based on true events of children stolen and sold as orphans.

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 04, 2020 Kathy rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook

I loved this story of the family from Kingdom Arcadia. I will not soon forget Rill and her sisters. What a tragic state of affairs in the organization of the Tennessee Children's Society run by Georgia Tan. How many children died there? How many were actually stolen from their birth families, with the idea that stealing and putting them in a richer family was actually a good thing. Much better than their fate with their poor, but loving birth parents. The writing is so poignant and memorable. Wh ...more

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Jun 22, 2018 Sabrina rated it it was amazing

I got this book from the library and knowing I would be going out of town and seeing it had no renewals on it had to read it in 2 days. Well, I started it yesterday and couldn't put it down. I became enraptured with the story and the characters in the story. I heart hurt for the children and the parents of the novel. It breaks my heart that it is based on true situations and that things like this really happened it seems not so long ago. Tragic yet captivating.. I had no problem reading in in on ...more

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Apr 06, 2020 Valerie HappiestWhileReading rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020-print-books

I first read this amazing dual timeline novel in 2017. I remembered how it made me feel but was surprised by how many plot details I had forgotten. I re-read this powerful novel in February 2020 for book club. Our group had a great discussion of the novel’s themes; family connections, family secrets, political corruption, elder care, and adoption. Once again, I find myself grateful to Lisa Wingate for raising awareness of this heartbreaking series of events in US history (Georgia Tann and the TN ...more

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Jun 22, 2019 Jessica Strack rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019

This book is the best book I've read so far in 2019! It is a heartbreaking yet wonderful read. I highly recommend this book! I was in shock to discover that this book was based on a true place and around some of the real life events that happen in such a place. ...more

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