Book Synopsis:
Memphis, Tennessee, 1939
Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge, until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents – but they quickly realize the dark truth…
Aiken, South Carolina, present day
Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.
Before we were yours is out now in ebook for the bargain price of 99p. It will be published in paperback tomorrow, 12 July. You can purchase a copy of both here.
My Review:
This was a remarkable, fascinating though heartbreaking piece of historical history describing a period of history and a practice I knew nothing about. The author clearly has done her research and manages to fuse facts with fiction beautifully to tell the story of a truly dark period in America’s history.
The story follows two timelines, one in present day Memphis Tennessee follows a high ranking Congress official and his family, the other follows a family of five siblings who get taken from their home by Georgia Tann and placed into the Tennessee Children’s society. The two stories go back and forth really well and I found that, unusually for me, I enjoyed both threads of the story. There are plenty of hidden secrets to discover in both and the story kept my interest throughout the book as I was eager to discover what happens at the end.
I personally founding the children’s experiences in the children’s home and the abuse they suffered quite harrowing at times. I think it was worse for me when I realised how young all the children were and that some, although poor, had come from loving families. It’s difficult to comprehend how anyone thought it was ok to take children from their families and redistribute them the way they were. It must have caused a great deal of upset and anguish to both the children and their families.
This was a story that was easy to get absorbed in as I quickly fell in love with the child characters. I wanted to simultaneously keep reading to find out what happens to them and stop reading as some of the narrative was truly heartbreaking.
This is the first book by this author that I have read and I look forward to reading more from her in the future. If you like historical fiction based on real facts that is beautiful told and quite emotional you’ll love this book. It’s definitely one that will stay with me.
Huge thanks to Quercus for my copy of this book via Netgalley and to Milly Reid for inviting me onto the blog tour.
About The Author:
Lisa Wingate is a former journalist, inspirational speaker, and New York Times Bestselling Author of thirty novels. Her work has won or been nominated for many awards, including the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, The Carol Award, and the Christy Award. Her blockbuster hit, Before We Were Yours remained on the New York Times Bestseller List for over ten months, was Publishers Weekly’s #3 longest running bestseller of 2017, and was voted by readers as the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award winner for historical fiction. Before We Were Yours has been a book club favorite worldwide and to date has sold over one million copies.
Over The Rainbow Blog 
I loved this book. I agree, it was very emotional, tough to read at points, but something I wanted to know about. It was so well written, I will be checking out her other books.
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