Review: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Published: June 2017

Tennessee 1930s. Georgia Tann took children from poor families and sold them into adoption. There were a few children who were legitimately placed in her care, but the majority of the children that made it to the Tennessee Children's Home Society, were taken from families that loved them and many never saw their families again. This book is based on true events and tells Rill, Fern, and their siblings' story. Switching back from the 1930s to modern day, Avery Stafford is determined to find out more about Ms. Crandle who has gotten her attention while on a tour of a nursing home in South Carolina. What she discovers will be a shock.

I have read a book similar to this, a few years ago. The Pink Bonnet by Liz Tolsma so I was familiar with the story. It is such a heartbreaking story about love and loss and how cruel the world is. I can't imagine what I would do if someone just took my children from me because they thought they could provide a better life for them.

Rill and her siblings were growing up on a boat, 'The Arcadia', on the Mississippi River with their mother and father when people came and took them away. Rill never gave up hope that she would see her family again, but she didn't know how she would ever be able to pull it off. You wanted to jump in the story and hold these children and be the one beside Avery as she began to uncover secrets that had been hidden for many years. Secrets that may have stayed hidden.

I really enjoy novels that are based on true events. It makes the story so much more enjoyable. Although this is a tragic story, it is an important one to know.


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Audio Book Review: Free Cyntoia by Cyntoia Brown-Long

Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System by Cyntoia Brown-Long
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Published: October 2019



At the age of 12 Cyntoia Brown began a downward spiral that she couldn't get out of. Thinking she was finding love, she was trafficked until the age of 16 when she killed a man. She claimed self defense, but was charged as an adult for murder. Serving a life sentence Cyntoia is determined to turn her life around and get out of jail.

I had heard a lot about this book from many different people. I didn't really know her story though until the book came out.

Cyntoia was a troubled young lady. Her biological mother was into drugs and so she was adopted. Her adopted family loved her and did everything they could for her, but there was still something inside her that made her act out and do things she shouldn't have been doing. At a young age, she was pimped out by men who she thought loved her.

It took a long time for Cyntoia to love herself and stop being so destructive with her life. In the end, it was a long hard road, that she made it to the end of. Today she is still fighting for women's rights in sex trafficking.

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