From the cover to the last page, Kristina McMorris has created a heart wrenching, guilt ridden yet captivating story that stays with you long after the last chapter.

4.2 - engrossing historical fiction; interesting that a newspaper photograph would prompt this idea in an author's mind, but a well-written tale

Open this book and find yourself immersed into journalism during the Great Depression. The story begins with a photo of two boys next to a sign. McMorris tells the story by showing us Ellis Reed's experiences as well as Lily Palmer's. At the center of the story we see how one small decision, one tiny white lie, one turning of the head can lead to regrets that can resound through generations. The reader cannot avoid turning the mirror on their own life and realize that it is so much easier to make decisions for others when you do not bear their burdens. A quote by Eleanor Roosevelt comes to mind: "To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart."

An excellent selection for book groups, discussion questions already included. Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book.

I enjoyed the backstory of this book, a photograph seen by the author with a mother's face hidden and her children sitting on the porch next to a sign offering them up for sale. Inspirational stuff for a writer to imagine what would become of these kids.
The book was good, but the writing lacked some emotional depth to take it to the next caliber.

The female and male reporters to me were very interesting characters, and I would love to see them spun off into future stories a la Nick and Nora Charles. I could see them using their pens to right many wrongs in future adventures.

This is a story of misconception, compassion, and determination.

As the story says, “The sign says it all – 2 children for sale”. This is what drew me to this historical fiction book. The idea of selling your children is extremely hard to grasp. What kind of dire situation must a family be in to do such a thing?

This story is told in alternating perspectives by Ellis Reed and Lily Palmer. Ellis is a photographer for the Philadelphia Examiner. He likes his job, but what he really aspires to do is become a reporter. Lily Palmer is the secretary for the editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia Examiner. Like Ellis she also aspires to be a reporter in this male-dominated industry.

Ellis and Lily make a huge mistake and this kicks off their journey to right a wrong. I became immersed in their journey to find the missing children. They hit many stumbling blocks along the way, but that only makes them more determined. They feel incredibly guilty and I found it admirable that they put their own lives on hold in order to find the 2 children for sale in the picture.

This story is part mystery, the question being where are the children in the photograph. It also sheds light on how women are viewed in the 1930’s – women’s careers, motherhood, and so on. I always find it fascinating to see how far we have come and am very grateful how times have changed.

I found it quite fascinating that this story was inspired by an actual photograph that the author saw of children for sale. The truth behind the real photograph is a bit of a mystery, but it was the stepping-off point for this story.

While the picture on the cover doesn’t really match the storyline, the story was both heartbreaking and inspiring. The main characters work at newspapers in the early 1930’s in a time when people were desperate for money and a way to care for their children. After coming across two boys on a porch with a “Children for Sale” sign in front of them, Ellis Reed decides to write an article exposing this desperation. What transpires through the book are examples of family and love, but also what can happen when you make bad choices out of desperation and the inspiration from doing what it takes to correct them.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of Sold on a Monday. Ellis, a newspaper reporter, takes random photos during his down time when doing stories. After developing these photos, one comes to the attention of his editor and he is told to write the story to go along with it. When the photo and negative are destroyed, he must recreate the photo, using other subjects, which starts a downhill spiral that he and his coworker, Lilly, work to correct and try to make things right.

While the first half of the book moved a little slower, it brought together all of the characters in a complex way of intertwining their roles. The book does open up thoughts about how this type of event did happen, and how the events impacted all involved.

Sold on a Monday is an easy read that depends on action to tell its story without much depth and thought on the circumstances of the time.
Ellis strikes it big with a photo he took of two boys and a sign that says children for sale. He uses this photo to write a piece on the state of the county during the Great Depression. When that photo is ruined, Ellis must set up another picture with different children or his story won't be run. Working at the same newspaper is Lily who has her own secrets and feels called to these children. What seems like a harmless news article causing a cascade of life-changing decisions when the children pictured are actually sold.
There isn't much depth to the ideas. There is never any part of the article in the book so no real discussion on selling is made other than a matter of fact statement and judgments. Lily and Ellis briefly discuss Ellis' getting promoted due to the photo and state that he is guilt written but there isn't real psychological depth and introspection.
The book is fiction based off a photo that the writer saw that included four children and the mother with her face hidden. After researching the story, the author includes many of those aspects of the story. This is where the heart is because you see what actually happens to these kids and what life was like during the Depression. It's when the author makes up events for flair that I had trouble believing what was going on and relating it to the real world.
Sold on Monday is an engaging story but doesn't deliver the thought-provoking ideas that it has set up.

Our story starts with Ellis, a reporter for the Philadelphia Examiner, accidentally stumbling across a horrendous site. Two young boys are sitting on a porch holding a sign, "2 Children For Sale". The consequences of taking this photo shape the rest of his life, and those of everyone around him.
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Ellis is not the most likable character. After years of being an okay reporter, he wants bigger pieces, front page bylines, and will do whatever he can to get them. He's arrogant and determined.

He's such a well written character though. Ellis is one of those people that you don't necessarily like, but you understand exactly why they are the way they are. And underneath the crap he does the right thing when it comes down to it.

Our secondary narrator is Lily and I love her. A big problem with me with historical fiction is this idea to make the heroines super feminists. Theres so many of them! And as much as I love an out of time heroine, I really enjoyed Lily being okay with the social norms.

Lily in many ways is a typical woman of the prohibition. She's a secretary, lives in woman housing, dresses modestly and behaves herself in public. But she also has a few secrets, ONE big one, and has dreams. She toes the line of proprietary by wanting to be a real reporter instead of a secretary, and is determined to make her dreams come true.

The relationship between Ellis and Lily is wonderful. Starting from strangers/coworkers their relationship slowly grows into more. I loved the honesty in their relationship. There's so much back and forth that it truly felt REAL.

And let's not even get started on the kids. Ruby and Calvin's story is so incredibly heart breaking, two children who were never meant to be sold. The situations these two were forced into had me in tears. I wanted to crawl into the book and wrap the children in my arms and tell them everything would be okay.
Ruby is such a wonderful character. A rough natured "tomboy" she appears like a strong kid, but she's so wonderfully pure and just wants what's best for her family. Shes the type of girl I can imagine at the frontlines during the Woman's Rights movements, standing up for all she believes in.

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This story is one that will truly tug at your heart. Set in 1931 it deals with the hardships so many had to face. Life was hard, money was scarce, and people were doing whatever they could to make ends meet. I recommended this book to anyone who loves historical fiction, its just so incredible.

Thank you to Sourcebooks for the free review copy of this novel via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. 

This historical fiction novel deals with the struggle of wanting to get ahead in the journalism world. When Ellis sees two children with a for sale sign, he knows he must document this. This picture starts of journey of a struggle for him having to decide whether he went to far, and if so, what must he do to right the wrongs he committed. 

Lily decides to help Ellis by giving his picture to the chief, but she doesn't know about the cataclysmic events that will be put into place by this decision. As she struggles with her decision, she must also consider what her goals in life are and how they fit in with the decision she made. 

This novel explores guilt heavily and shows how it can weigh down a person. It also urges the reader to consider what they would to do right a wrong. Should they do all they an, or are the events no longer in their hands? Ellis and Lily have different circumstances that dictate their decisions, but they both decide together what is best when it comes to dealing with the problem they created. 

I do want to say while I was intrigued, there were places that this novel felt extremely slow, and I wondered if the pace was going to kick up to match the urgency felt by the characters to make the right decision.

This is the first book I've read from Kristina McMorris and probably won't be the last. I like her style of writing. I loved the era of the book being 1930's. I loved the story and the information she provided. Children are dear to my heart so when I saw this one on NetGalley I had to read it.
I appreciate NetGalley, the author and the Publishers for allowing me to read an Advanced Copy. All opinions are my own and do not reflect that of NetGalley.

I loved this cover, but it doesn't reflect the photo that the main character Ellis describes taking in the book. Its close though, the idea of children being sold was the reason I wanted to read this book - it's a really interesting premise. The beginning of the book dragged for a bit, and then settled into the story. While I enjoyed it, I wasn't desperate to finish it and figured out the ending (though how they'd get there was a bit more uncertain). The writing was good, I liked the characters, and I liked reading about this time period. The story of Ellis trying to make it as a reporter, women in the newsroom, and the effects of the Great Depression on children were particularly interesting. I recommend it, it's a good fairly quick read.

Sold on a Monday

A Novel

by Kristina McMorris

SOURCEBOOKS

Landmark

General Fiction (Adult) , Historical Fiction

Pub Date 28 Aug 2018

I am reviewing a copy of Sold on a Monday through Sourcebooks/Landmark and Netgalley.

It started with a picture! A picture that spoke of how bad things were when the photo showed children for sale.

It was 1931 and The Great Depression had held on with a tight grip! The pictures Ellis captured told a story, a story of how dire things were! Lily Palmer a newspaper Secretary helps Ellis tell the story by adding the text to an article that accompanies the photo.

This powerful story takes us back to a painful time in history a time when parents were forced to make tough decisions!

I give Sold On A Monday five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

This book is loosely based on a true story. Ellis is a reporter who is given a break based upon a photo he took of two children with a sign stating the children were for sale. He writes the story but his original photograph is ruined. Ellis goes back to take another picture but the family has moved. He recreates the photo using neighbor children. The new photograph sends the second family into a crisis. The story is a compelling read - even more so when you realize families actually had to sell their children out of desperation.

When a journalist takes a picture and it gets lost, he finds a way to recreate that picture. What he doesn’t realize at the time, is what that photograph will cost him. The nights of lost sleep and worrying are too much for him and he decides that he needs some answers. Ellis and Lily are characters that I connected with and the cover of the book was what compelled me to read, Sold on a Monday in the first place.

Every now and then along comes a book that is truly a curlup-and-give-into-it type of book, the kind of book that made you fall in love with reading in the first place. Kristina McMorris has done a fine job of setting the scene, bringing the early days of the Great Depression into focus, with true to life scenes in the housing situations of her characters, and most particular, the smokily hazed newsrooms when the importance of printed newspapers was king and the publication of an evocative photograph can have far reaching effects. McMorris reveals she received her inspiration from a photograph in an Indiana paper from 1948, in which a mother shields her face as she stands behind her brood of 4 truly adorable kids, and a sign that they are for sale. This book is much more effective than one entitled Mary Coin which attempted a fictional account based on the iconic Dorothea Lang portrait of a migrant mother.

The start was hard for me. One unethical action by a reporter named Ellis sets in motion the selling of two children. I was so angry at the reporter that I had to force myself to continue reading. Part of my anger, I think, was that I was not fully in his shoes to understand the desperation he felt before taking this short-cut. For instance, there is one scene in which Ellis is clearly in distress about his decision, yet we view this scene through the viewpoint of fellow reporter Lillian rather than through Ellis’s eyes. This choice by the author removes the reader from his anxiety. And there is anxiety aplenty the author could have drawn on since the novel takes place during the Depression. For a historical novel, there was a certain lack of historical scene setting in the opening. I would have loved to feel myself transported into the countryside and 1930’s tenant farm life as city-boy reporter Ellis wanders in search of that story that will keep him employed for another week.

Fortunately, at about one third of the way through the book (if I had not obligated myself to review this book, I would probably have given up before this point), the characters really come to life and become sympathetic. The author hits her stride and tells a compelling story complete with characterization, conflict, and setting. It also becomes clear that Ellis’s actions that day are just one aspect of the downward trajectory that is these children’s lives. Negligence and even evil come up against the forces of good that Ellis and his friend, intrepid reporter Lillian, embody. Some exciting cloak and dagger stuff ensues, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and which kept me up long past my bedtime to the heart-stopping finish.

Despite an unconvincing start, Sold on a Monday is a book I definitely recommend for those who enjoy reading Depression-era novels of family life and adoption. I especially recommend this book for readers of Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate; both of these books were inspired by true events.

I received an advance copy of Sold on a Monday from Netgalley.

A picture is worth a thousand words!!! There is no better example of this catch phrase than “Sold on a Monday” by Kristina McMorris.
Kristina McMorris wrote a fictional story inspired by an actual newspaper photograph that stunned the nation and it left me speechless after finishing this book…. it took a little while for me to take it all in and process all the emotions this book stirred.

I saw this book in Netgalley and was instantly intrigued by the title and the description. I had to read it right away…. and it did not disappoint! Though there were a few times, I felt the pace slowed a little too much…. it quickly picked back up each time and I couldn’t put it down during the last half. It touched on so many different aspects of hard times in the depression era and many other issues of that time….. organized crime, women’s rights, child labor, orphanages & adoption, etc. Ms. McMorris brought the characters and the time period to life. I could see them clearly in my mind and feel the emotions running throughout this book.

" “2 CHILDREN FOR SALE -- The sign is a last resort. It sits on a farmhouse porch in 1931, but could be found anywhere in an era of breadlines, bank runs and broken dreams. It could have been written by any mother facing impossible choices.
For struggling reporter Ellis Reed, the gut-wrenching scene evokes memories of his family’s dark past. He snaps a photograph of the children, not meant for publication. But when it leads to his big break, the consequences are more devastating than he ever imagined.
At the paper, Lillian Palmer is haunted by her role in all that happened. She is far too familiar with the heartbreak of children deemed unwanted. As the bonds of motherhood are tested, she and Ellis must decide how much they are willing to risk to mend a fractured family.”" --

The sequence of events and the resulting consequences of each action were intriguing and kept me turning the pages to the end. Family and the importance of family bonds are interwoven throughout this heartwarming yet heartbreaking story. Fortunately for these fictional characters… all ends well….. after many twists and turns.

This was my first book by Kristina McMorris and I look forward to reading more of her writing. Thank you Netgalley for a preview copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Overall very enjoyable read - I think it might've been better suited as a film over a book but I enjoyed it none the less. I expected a bit more literary-ness for this one but it turned out to be more of a page turner. The story and characters were well developed but it took a while for this one to get off the ground and really get moving.

A photograph of 4 children for sale, from a 1948 newspaper is what sparked the story the author has told us. Times were hard and after the Great Depression and the War there were more and more single mothers trying to raise children but unable to keep them fed or clothed. 

Ellis Reed knows hard times and family tragedy. He wants to be a reporter. He wants to make a difference. On the way to a lead on a story he sees two little boys sitting on their porch with a sign saying 2 Children For Sale. He is struck by this and can't get it out of his mind. He develops the picture fully intending to write an entire piece about this but something happens and when he returns to get another photograph, he is told the family got a job and moved.

Across the street the Dillard family is in the same situation. And little Ruby and her brother Calvin let him take their photograph instead.

Lilly Palmer is working at the same newspaper. Lilly has a secret. Where is she going every week-end? She is the one who showed their Chief the picture of the boys and he wanted a story. But substituting another photograph will have consequences that ripple far out and cause their very lives to be in danger.

This is a strong story. Based on real life events, this is a story of loss, desperation,love and family bonds. It was beautifully written and I am better for having read it.

Netgalley/August 28th 2018 by Sourcebooks Landmark