Author Lisa Wingate's Before We Were Yours tells two stories that weave into a multigenerational mystery. First, is the contemporary story of the Staffords, an old South Carolina political family trying to spin family issues -- an ailing senator, a matriarch with dementia in a posh nursing home, and a delayed wedding -- outside the view of media hungry for scandal.

When Avery Stafford, the senator's unmarried daughter and an attorney with her own political aspirations, has a chance encounter during a campaign visit to a nursing home, she starts on a path that will lead her to family secrets that make her question her own direction and her engagement.

In alternating chapters, the book flashes back to the 1930s story of Rill Foss, the oldest daughter in a family of "river rats" who lived on a barge along the Mississippi. After tragedy strikes, the local police kidnap Rill and her siblings and turn them over to the Tennessee Children's Home Society, a cruel and corrupt orphanage that stole children from their parents, abused them, and often sold them to new families.

Rill's story unfolds as Avery pieces together clues about her family history, leading to a possible connection between her ailing grandmother and the woman she meets in the nursing home. The two stories move forward in tandem, spinning out clues and a sad history that befell many children at the Home Society, an historical, real-life Memphis institution.

Wingate does an excellent job of building a tight, fast-moving story that moves gracefully and logically across time. As a reader, I never wanted to leave either world she had created -- 1930s or contemporary -- but I immediately became engrossed in every chapter.

Wingate also deserves special praise for telling the true story of the Tennessee Children's Home Society, a scandal lost in time. The Home Society operated from the Twenties through 1950, breaking up families and brutalizing children, but, as Wingate points out, also rescuing many children from horrible circumstances and connecting them with loving families. The children in this book represent both sides of that coin, enduring horrific conditions, but ultimately building productive lives.

This is a great story and a compelling, sometimes heartbreaking, tale. Whether a reader is looking for the inside story of a political dynasty, an account of the child welfare system of the 1930s, or just a great page-turner, this is a must-read.

Wow I loved this book! Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate had me reading fast but not wanting the story to end. Fans of The Orphan Train and those who enjoy books that weave present day with history will fall in love with this story.

I had no idea about the Tennessee Children’s Home and the horrors that went on there so it was interesting to learn a little bit about this place through the author’s writing. The story was compelling and rich in details, a pleasure to read!

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shanty boat. 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 that the truth is much darker. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together—in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aitken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, 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 redemption.

Before We Were Yours

A Novel
by Lisa Wingate

Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine

Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction , Women's Fiction

Pub Date 06 Jun 2017

I am reviewing We Were Yours through Ballantine Books and Netgalley:

In Memphis 1939 twelve year old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life on their family's shanty boat.

President Day Aiken, South Carolina, Avery Stratford was born into wealth and privilege.

This novel is based on a real life Scandall where Georgia Tann the director of a Memphis adoption agency kidnapped children and sold them to wealthy families.

When Avery Stratford a successful federal prosecutor goes home to help her ailing Father, secrets are brought to life. Secrets that revolve around Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children's home.

I give Before We Were Yours five out of five stars.

Happy Reading!

Where have I been? This was my first book by Lisa Wingate and it most definitely will not be my last! With a fascinating plot based on The Tennessee Children's Home Society and Georgia Tann, this book was hard to put down. Alternating between now and then, the story moved quickly, although I have to say that the then was much more compelling. With it's well thought out characters and it's historic accuracy, this was a very good read!

A riveting story based on fact. I never heard of the Tennessee Children's Society. A sad chapter depicting the mistreatment of the most helpless members of society: children and the poor. I can't say enough about how this book drew me in and never let go. Kudos to the author for bringing this to light.

No work of fiction has touched my heart as deeply as Before We Were Yours, not even The Memory Keeper’s Daughter or The Secret Life of Bees. I would definitely put this book in the league with those titles and To Kill A Mockingbird. That is high praise indeed in my book.
About halfway through Before We Were Yours, I felt compelled to do a little online research of The Tennessee Children’s Home Society and Georgia Tann. How I had not heard of Tann and the Memphis branch of this society that operated from the 1920s through the 1950s, I cannot imagine. Tann arranged thousands of questionable adoptions. She and her network of informants tricked uneducated parents, poor parents, and single parents into surrendering their children, others were simply stolen off porches, on their way to school, and other places children might be found without adult supervision. In addition to the thousands that were adopted out, often to the crème of society, hundreds did not survive the life they were forced to live within the wall of homes run by Tann and the society. Most biological parents never knew what had happened to their children.
While the sons and daughters of Queenie and Briny Foss were fictional characters. Their experience with the Tennessee Children’s Home Society mirrored those of real life victims. Wingate tells their story in such a way that the reader is fully engrossed and completely overwhelmed with the raw emotion evoked by the tale. I found myself praying for those real-life children and families who were victimized in this decades-long tragedy. While this book is no fluffy beach read, I would suggest that if you don’t read any other book this summer, read this one.
I thank Ballantine Books a division of Random House and NetGalley for making this book available in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for providing this review.

This was a well written absorbing novel about s kart of American history that I've never read about. Loved the story and characters.

Thank you, Netgalley for the advanced copy of Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.
The alternating perspectives with different characters and settings is a plot structure that I really enjoy.
These two storylines start out as if they have nothing in common; in fact, I thought early in the book that I'd opened the wrong book on my Kindle because they seem so different. Despite the differences, the stories come together seamlessly. I kept trying to guess the connections all along.
The fact that this novel is based on true events from the first half of the 1900s is absolutely heartbreaking.

I love historical fiction, where the plot is based on real events. This book was one of those, based on what happened at the Tennessee Children's Home Society from the 1920's to 1950 under the direction of Georgia Tann, who kidnapped and sold poor children for adoption to rich families . During the adoption process, these children were placed in homes, where they were often abused and mistreated. Rill Foss and her 4 siblings were such children kidnapped from their riverboat home while their father took the mother to a hospital for a complicated twin birth.
The story takes place in 1939 Memphis when the Foss children were kidnapped and in present day in South Carolina where Avery Stafford, a senator 's daughter has a chance encounter with a woman at a nursing home that leads her to investigate her family's background and secrets kept for long. The early story is narrated by 12 year old Rill, renamed May during the adoption process. Rill desperately tries to keep her siblings together, but unfortunately she doesn't succeed, as two are adopted before her and one disappears. Eventually May and one of her sisters are adopted by a loving family. Rill/May as a 12 year old was certainly a protagonist to love and feel for. I had a little trouble believing that a 12 year old under the harsh circumstances she had to endure, was capable to all that the book described, especially her escape from her adoptive home and the harrowing escape from a burning boat.
Fast forward to present day, where Avery meets May, now a confused senior of 90 years old at a nursing home. She finds a connection between May and her grandmother Judy who is also at a nursing home due to increasing dementia. Avery's story is her finding out what the connection is between the two seniors. She is aided in her investigation by handsome Trent, whose grandfather, now deceased was adopted and spent many years helping other adoptees to find their birth families. I found the romance part of the story too predictable and the results of their investigations a little confusing. Grandma Judy's reunion with May and the sudden lift of her dementia was also somewhat unrealistic. I think this book would make a great book club selection, as I had some questions remaining at the end and would have liked a little more detail on the connection in the prologue to the rest of the story and the circumstances of the twin's birth. These subjects would make a great book club discussion.
Overall, a great well written story, a real page turner, deserving 4 stars.
This was the first book I read by the author Lisa Wingate. Thanks NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group and the author for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I don't read a lot of non fiction so I really appreciate when a novel can enlighten me on things that happened that I wouldn't have otherwise known about . As in [book:Orphan Train|15818107] when I first learned about their existence or in [book:What She Left Behind|17802747], which highlights the atrocities of a mental institution and in particular the treatment of women, this story inspired by real events relays the sad story of a family torn apart by the greed and horrible acts against children their families. The author explains in her note that the characters are fictional but the place and the circumstances and the woman who perpetrated these acts are real. In a recent interview Winggate described the seed for this story.

" A rerun of the Investigation Discovery: Dangerous Women cycled through at about two in the morning. I looked up and saw images of an old mansion. The front room was filled with bassinettes and babies. I tuned in and immediately became fascinated by the bizarre, tragic, and startling history of Georgia Tann and her Memphis branch of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. I couldn’t help but dig into the story. That was the spark that ignited Before We Were Yours." 5/29/17 in an interview on The Untold Story Guru.

The reality of what happened to numerous children from 1920 - 1960 is depicted through the story of five siblings taken illegally and subjected to the adoption for money system spearheaded by Tann. I said that the story is sad, but that's an understatement. It really is heartbreaking and though the characters are fictional, I couldn't help but think about the real children who were affected. There are past and present storylines that do come together and make for a captivating read. The Goodreads description provides more plot details, which I will leave out here and just say that I definitely recommend it. I can't quite give it 5 stars as I felt that the romantic thread in the current story diluted the story a bit for me . It didn't add to the importance in my opinion. Having said that, this is a worthy read, eye opening and heart wrenching with a thoughtful and satisfying ending.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House Publishing Group- Balllantine through NetGalley.

As a prolific reader, I am always reading books, some definitely better than others. Rarely does a novel stay in my thoughts to the extent that Lisa Wingate’s new novel has. Before We Were Yours tells the unthinkable story of children that were basically stolen from their families to be adopted by wealthy families in a money making scheme. What is even more unbelievable is that this happened for decades. Lisa Wingate has been a favorite author of mine as a writer of fantastic Christian fiction. This novel is written at a completely different level—it is exceptionally characterized and will keep you from doing anything else until you finish. Written in two voices, both present time and in the past, this story is mostly told through the eyes of Avery Stafford, a young girl in a prominent political family in Tennessee. As her father’s health declines and she is being groomed to take over the family political dynasty, she begins to uncover some buried family secrets. I highly recommend this book and think it should be read widely because it is important that these children’s stories are told. It is a story that will stay with you. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

***Please Note: As soon as Amazon, B&N allow, I will post reviews on there. They don't allow reviews to be posted prior to the release. I post reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, I am on Twitter, FB, Instagram and Pinterest. I post reviews there as well. I don't know how to get the correct links to come up, which is why those were not added below. You have to be on my social media to see those reviews, but it will be the same as below with a picture of the book.***

This story was right up my alley. Adoption - especially adoption via Foster Care - is near and dear to my heart. Lisa dove deep with this one. While a fictional story, it is based on real events. I went through all of the emotions reading about these children. I was angry for them and both their birth and adoptive parents. Granted, those with neglectful parents needed to be placed in loving homes, but those who were just ripped from their homes and sold to the highest bidders - that's awful. This book will make you angry, sad and then hopeful. Yes, it does come full circle. If you want a story that has depth and meaning, this one is a good one.
Rill's voice and this story are haunting. It stays with you and makes you think. Lisa Wingate absolutely knocked it out of the park with this one. The fact that it is based on a portion of our nation's history and the way she wove the story are dynamic. It was not a read before bed type of book for me, but it was one I could not put down. This should be made into a movie because it's just that good!

I was given an advanced reader copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion, which I have posted above.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Powerful! I knew right from the beginning I was about to embark on a great journey. I had no idea how emotional and moving this would be. Avery discovers her Grandmother has some major secrets that could impact her very prominent family. I enjoyed how this story unfolded and I fell in love with May and Judy. Even through their dementia, they knew each other. This is a must read. Have your tissues ready!

This was a heart-wrenching story. I love how Rill's story (told in the past) and Abery's story (set in the present) mesh to tell their intermingled tale. That is is based on true circumstances makes the book even better.

Lisa Wingate is an established author, but she is new to me. I received this DRC free and early, thanks to Net Galley and Random House Ballantine; it is available to the public Tuesday, June 6, 2017. And although I would love to tell you to run out and buy it right now, in all honesty I have never felt quite so ambivalent about a novel, at least not in recent years. There’s so much that’s good here, but there’s also some terrible material—albeit brief—that any sensible editor would have to question, and that every reviewer that’s paying attention has to notice.

We have two protagonists, both female. Our first is Rill Foss, the member of a large, poor family that lives on a riverboat. She and her siblings are scooped up by the authorities when they are left without an adult present while their mother is rushed to the hospital after complications in childbirth. After a harrowing sojourn at the Tennessee Children’s Home, she and a sister are adopted into a well-to-do, politically connected family, and she becomes May Weathers; yet Rill is still determined to return home to the Arcadia, the boat on which she was raised, where she knows her true parents will be waiting.

Our second protagonist is Avery Stafford, the beloved daughter of a senator that is grooming her to succeed him. All of her life, Avery has known she must consider every decision she makes with the assumption that the public will learn of it. But when she learns of a mystery that might affect the final years of her beloved Grandma Judy, who is in the early stages of dementia and living in assisted care, she follows the threads—carefully, discreetly—in order to learn more about her grandmother and in the process, about herself.

“Am I my father’s daughter, or am I just me?”

The prose is woven in a way that is fresh and delightful in most regards, and I admire the organization of the story as a whole, which is masterfully done. Ultimately, we see where May’s story and Avery’s meet, and although we are given a glimpse of how some aspects of the story will resolve, others are a wonderful surprise. The dialogue between Avery and Trent, a man that assists her in her inquiries, absolutely crackles. The characterization of Trent’s three-year-old son, Jonah, gets my vote as the most adorable tot to ever grace fiction.

There are two areas that hold this story back from a five-star rave here. The first and smaller concern is the depiction of the orphanage to which Rill and her siblings are taken. Wingate tells us in her end notes—which I read first, and you should, too—that the Tennessee Children’s Home Society was real, and that poor children were in fact routinely kidnapped and adopted, for high fees, to affluent families almost as if they were livestock; “Christmas babies” were publicly advertised, especially blond ones. The point is well taken, and Riggs is a well-drawn villain. However, the passages set in this place are so horrible and so harsh that in some ways, it’s almost a caricature. I found myself skimming passages here because I just couldn’t stand it. If I had my way, there would either be a wee bit more ambiguity here, or the section would be shorter. Sometimes less is more.

The other, larger concern here is the cultural deafness in the terms used. Even if racist terms were common among Caucasians of the time in question, finding them gratuitously tossed into this novel, not because they are key to the plot but merely as set dressing, is like finding a rattlesnake in my lunchbox. Why would anyone do this? I refer to the slur on a Chinese man that appears briefly and is not important to the plot; the mammy-like dialect written in for the African-American servant, which appears numerous times; the reference to American Indians of the north as ‘Eskimos’, the offhand references to slave cabins and ‘Confederate’ roses, and most particularly the place in which one of the children threatens a Black woman they think may steal from them by telling her:

“They’ll hang you up in a tree, they will.”

My god. A threat of lynching, just tossed in for flavor!

By the end of the galley, I was in love with the story and its main characters, and I initially rated this book four stars, but in going back over my notes, I realized that as long as the lynching reference remains in the text, I can’t go there, and I can’t do that. And I wonder—why in the world is it used at all? All it does is demonstrate how tough the children are, that they can chase away an adult that might mean them harm. Wingate could have done this dozens of other ways, and yet she chose this one.

So there you have it; it’s a brilliantly crafted story with significant social miscues that threaten to derail all that is done well here. Take your pick; read it or don’t. My own advice is that if you want to go there, get it free or at a discount. I cannot see rewarding a work that contains overt racism that is tossed in to no good purpose, and it’s a crying shame, because otherwise it’s a compelling tale by a master word-smith.

I don’t know how to express how much this book affected me. It was horrifying yet oddly inspirational.
Families can happen in a million different ways. After a few generations pass, secrets slip to the wayside and get buried in time. This is the story of the present generation learning some painful secrets and living with the truth. Knowledge changes everyone.
Disturbingly, this book was based on real events. Somewhere out there, people living with similar secrets that are revealed in this book. They may even be in your own family. Just think to yourself, how many of your own family secrets will you never know about? How many family secrets are you creating right now that will be hidden from your grandchildren? What will happen if you are old, senile, and the past starts slipping out?

This book is an excellent read. Lisa Wingate does an excellent job with her storytelling, writing prose, and chapter development. This is definitely a read that at first tears your heart apart, then keeps the reader turning page after page to see what happens next. I highly suggest keeping a box of tissues within reach as you devour this book. Although this is a classified as a literary genre, it is also a crossover with mystery and intrigue tied within.

I highly recommend this book to those who are interested in historical fiction, genealogy, are mystery readers, or love guessing throughout the entire story. This book will leave you very thoughtful. Although I tend to pick up the next book immediately after I finish one, I had to let this book settle me for a couple of days before I started another as it touched me so strongly.

This book tells the story of two women, separated by many decades but both affected by one same event in history. Avery Stafford is the daughter of a prominent politician, and she is being groom to take his place should the need arise due to his health. While at an event, Avery meats May Weathers, an elderly woman who just began her stay at a residential care facility. When Avery sees an old photograph of May’s with a woman who looks really similar to her grandmother, she can’t help but be curious. And when she asks her grandmother about it, her reaction is odd. Decades ago, when May Weathers was a young girl, something awful happened to her. At a dark time in Tennessee’s history, poor parents with young children had their families torn apart; their children kidnapped and sold off to the highest bidder like cattle. Organized by a woman who could only be described as truly evil, these “adoptions” were never overturned and these poor children were ripped from their families. Based on true events, this heart wrenching story is a fictionalized version of what most likely happened to many families in Tennessee’s history. And from Avery’s point of view the author depicts the ripple effect over the generations.

Overall I ended up really liking this book. Towards the middle it was starting to get hard to get through for me because the subject matter is just so overwhelmingly traumatic. Reading about how this young girl was ripped from a family, that while poor still loved her, to be placed in a home where she was abused and tormented and separated from her younger brothers and sisters was awful. I was starting to think that the book was going to be too emotionally traumatic for me. However I persevered and I am so glad that I did. While this was still an extremely difficult subject matter, I think it is definitely worth the read. Hearing about how May did everything she could do to protect her family, and the heartache and struggles that she went through in her young life was so inspiring. This is definitely a book that you should keep a box of Kleenex handy for because while May’s young life was overwhelmingly sad, her life didn’t end there. The author was able to turn the trauma into a hopeful and touching story that I just loved. And generations later as Avery finds out things she never knew about her family, the reader can see through both her struggles and May’s that there is still goodness in the world. Told between alternating chapters set in 1939 and the present day, this is a story that will truly reach in and twist you up inside, but you your heart real will feel full in the end. I would highly recommend reading this one.

As this story begins we see a poor family who live on the Mississippi river in a shantyboat, poor yes, but for the five children the life is ideal. Then the unthinkable happens and everything they have ever known is torn away, and where they are taken, I wouldn’t want my dog to live there.
We read this story though the eyes to two strong women, one a survivor May, Rill Foss, and the other being groomed to be a U.S. Senator, Avery Stafford, taking her Dad’s seat.
As I was reading, my heart kept telling me “no”, but when you finish this story, and I had to google ahead and find out, this is a fictional story about a true happening. The injustice of it all, and when you see no one was brought to justice for ruining so many lives, it will break your heart.
The author did such a marvelous job with this story and kept me page turning, and yes the secrets come out, at least in our family scenario. There are so many heart-breaking scenes here, but when you meet the survivors they are elderly, and this is their story.
Thank you Lisa Wingate for doing such a marvelous job with this book, I am sure it was a hard story to tell.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Ballantine Books, and was not required to give a positive review.

I love novels based on true facts and happenings. Before We Were Yours does not disappoint. I am sickened that an event like this happened at all! Someone entrusted to take care of and keep safe children who would do something this calculated, heartwrenching and cruel is almost beyond belief.
From page one I was caught up and right there in the books pages experiencing it myself and had to know what happened and how we went from that to the loving families were talking about was a journey like no other, filled with every emmotion and left me emotionally spent.