My uncle has Down syndrome so that has always been a sensitive topic for me. This was not an easy read but an important one. I definitely recommend this book.

As a former education teacher, I found this book to be a heartbreaking at times. It's an emotional read that may surprise or shock some readers in its accounts of how people like Lucy were treated. Characters were well developed, the pace stayed steady throughout., and the emotions were realistic.

The book was based on an actual place, which is just horrific to learn. Sadly, some things detailed in the book still occur throughout the world today. I thought the author accurately portrayed the mid- to late-70s. The story is a quick read, told in alternating years to give the reader the "then and now" story.

This book was absolutely lovely. I am a sucker for any book surrounding motherhood, and this one was no different. The narrative was light enough to stay sweet and endearing, but it was also so smart, and had such depth to its storyline. The characters were so honest and raw, dysfunctional but yet likable - one of my favorite traits for a character driven novel. The ending was a bit convenient, which knocked a star down for me, but overall I found this to be an absolutely delightful story!

This is such a sad, horrifying, and sweet tale spun around a little girl born with Down syndrome. This story spans the ‘60s and ‘70s when unsavory terms were used for children born with this chromosome issue.

The way it’s written is lovely, but what the characters experienced was not. I couldn’t help but needed to take breaks reading this one simply because it hurt my heart to go on at times.

This book is an important read, and one that will stay with me for a long time.

Loved it! One of the best books I've read this year. Says a lot for how things were for a wife in that time period (1968-1970). You had to have your husband's permission to even open a bank account. The main character, Ginny, really grew in confidence by the end of the story. It also shows how far we've come from calling Down Syndrome kids Mongoloids and putting them in institutions. E
Looking forward to reading more by this author.

This book was freaking amazing. I'm a huge T. Greenwood fan since Rust & Stardust, which by the way, you should definitely read if you haven't yet!

Lucy was sent to a home for children with disabilities as soon as she was born with DS and a heart condition in 1969. Ginny was pressured into practically giving her away by her husband and his overbearing, well-to-do father.
This book follows Ginny, and her friend, Marsha, on an adventure after reading newspaper articles about the horrible conditions of the school/home that Lucy was sent to. Ginny checks Lucy out for her first ever visit, and things spiral out of control from there.

This was a great read, although truly heartbreaking, just like T. Greenwood's last novel. The writing is amazing, with just enough detail, without dragging the story out. This book is definitely 5/5 for me! It comes out August 6, so preorder this so you don't miss out!

Thank you #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for an early review copy of #KeepingLucy by T. Greenwood!

It's 1969, and Ginny gives birth to a beautiful little girl with down syndrome. Her husband Ab and his father think it is best to put her in an institution. Ginny wants to keep her daughter but her husband thinks it is best for Lucy in the institution. 2 years later, Marsha Ginny's best friend tells Ginny that the institution is being sued by other parents for lack of care for the children. Ginny goes to pick up Lucy, her first time seeing her daughter after giving birth. Ginny is horrified by what she sees there. She takes Lucy and is determined to keep her. This is a story of a mother's love for her children. Ginny loves her son Peyton and Lucy more than anything and will do whatever she can to keep them happy and safe. I loved the characters in this book. Ginny's love, Peyton's sweetness, Lucy's amazingly precious. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

This sounded like a good story. It was not. I did not finish the book. The writing is poor and the only engaging character is Lucy. I will not post a review elsewhere.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley.

In 1969, Ginny Richardson gives birth to a beautiful baby girl named Lucy is almost instantly whisked away. For Lucy has Down's Syndrome, and her father immediately sends her to Willowridge, a school for the "feeble-minded." Two years later, Ginny discovers Lucy is being abused and neglected, and she must fight to keep Lucy against all costs. Similar in scope to The Memory Keeper's Daughter, though not as well-written, the story served as an awful reminder of how poorly special needs children were treated. A solid 3 star read for me.

Keeping Lucy is a story of love, loss, and family. It is heart breaking and heartwarming. You will not be able to put it down. Ginny and Ab are expecting their second child. The baby is born right after her baby shower, and the next time Ginny wakes up, her baby girl, Lucy, has been taken away to a school for children with special needs. Lucy has down syndrome, and in 1969, her husband was told that she would not be able to be cared for at home. For two years, Lucy lives at Willowridge, the school that her father in law sent her to. Until Ginny's friend Marsha calls her one day to tell her about an expose that was printed about the school and when Ginny hears about it, she has to go there and see for herself what is going on. From there, she begins a wild ride with Marsha, that she never expected to be on.... but one that opens her eyes and her heart to things that she had stopped really seeing for sometime.

I had no idea what to expect when I started T. Greenwood's latest book. However, as I have come to expect, this book was beautifully written, displaying all of the challenges and rewards the characters face and the ways that trauma mold and shape a person, and keep a person stuck until someone is able to intervene. The book displays the ways that people interact with someone who is different from themselves, and the beautiful kind souls who see simply a person and not a difference. The book shows the kindness of some strangers and the dangers of others. There is honestly so much in this novel, that I am not sure that I can write them all down here.... what I can tell you is that this book was absolutely a home run.

I absolutely loved T. Greenwood's last book Rust and Stardust! I was ecstatic to get my hands on her new novel.

Unfortunately, this novel didn't live up to my expectations as well as her last novel. There was A LOT going on in this novel and it was just a tad bit unrealistic for me at times.

I feel like the pacing was a tad bit off for me. It felt like so many ideas were just kind of thrown about in this book. Again.. too much going on for me.

I found myself having issues connecting with the characters and it was just predictable situations here :(. Ugh this is hard for me because I love T. Greenwood's writing but this totally missed the mark for me.

Based on the title, Lucy... I was expecting to hear the story about Lucy. Instead were giving the story surrounded by her parents? To me this felt like a wild adventure more so than a mother's determination to do whatever she needed for her daughter.

Overall, this book just wasn't for me and missed the mark.

2.5 stars rounded up for me

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: 8/6/19
Published to Goodreads: 4/21/19

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital copy of this novel for review. A sweet story about Down's Syndrome set in the 1970s that also explores women's rights, motherhood, and what it means to come into your own. I enjoyed this read.

'She’ll be feeble-minded, no more intelligent than a dog. The hardship she will bring to your family- women never realize the impact that raising an imbecile has on a marriage. On the other children. You must think of your son.'

October 1969, Ginny Richardson gives birth to a baby girl born with Down Syndrome. While still in a haze from the drugs administered, the doctor, her husband and his family make the decision to send Lucy away to Willowridge, a school that can serve the ‘many many challenges’ she will face. Some of which, they convince her, are heart defects, vision and hearing difficulties just to name a few. She will never be a normal child, she will never be able to interact, no better than a dog, there is no point in being involved in the child’s life. It’s too late to protest, it’s all been arranged, the child is already gone.

Life goes on, Ginny raises her first-born son Peyton while Ab’s time is eaten up by working for his father’s firm, the path set for him to become district attorney. No one runs her family quite like her overbearing father-in-law, the force behind her husband Ab’s rise. All of that is about to be threatened when her friend Marsha calls to inform her that Willowridge, the very “school” institution her baby Lucy was placed in, is being sued after a local reporter in Amherst went undercover, exposing the horrors within. Ginny’s first thought it “Ab can fix this”, he has the legal knowledge, the power of his family… surely he will know what to do, he won’t risk their own child being abused, living in the squalid conditions the exposé revealed, will he? Maybe her own marriage should be examined, maybe she doesn’t really know her husband at all.

With the support from her friend Marsha, she will journey to the school and see for herself just what is going on, visit her child for the first time in two years since she was taken away, her father-in-law be damned! Imagine the shock when Lucy isn’t quite the ‘feeble minded child’ they swore she would be. Naturally readers will be horrified at the very idea of a mother giving up, and without a lick of fight, her own newborn baby girl. Times were different, I remember my mother telling me how poorly she was treated as a young mother in 1971 when she birthed my sister, how condescending doctors could be, and that’s with a healthy delivery. It was a lot less inviting and open as it is today, women were often put in a ‘twilight sleep’, and it was a sterile, surgical setting then, a far cry from birthing rooms now where family can support you. Doctors were far more authoritative, patients were in the dark often and it is no surprise women would cave to their ‘superior knowledge’. It’s hard coming from a time where we are swamped with knowledge and advocates, fierce about the rights of those with special needs to fathom how a mother can be talked out of keeping her child, but it happened. Ginny bends to her husband and his father, highly educated men themselves are sold on the idea that all hope is lost and it’s impossible to keep such a child alive… in fact, they are sure baby Lucy is lucky if she lives only a few years. If she does survive, surely it will only be because of the full care she will receive at Willowridge, care and time Ginny and Ab could no way manage to give their needy child. Ginny has no reason to not believe them.

The truth is, such a child shames her father-in-law, doesn’t fit in with his perfect family. The beauty of the novel is the moments Ginny begins to fall in love with her little girl and finds the courage to fight for her even with every resource out of her reach, the law and family against her. Her husband infuriated me through much of the novel, but how do people become victims? They are often raised under the thumbs of tyrannical parents, cowered, lacking confidence, certainly it seems that Ab, despite his success is still trying to attain his father’s respect. Ab isn’t the only one in the family who has submitted to his father’s rule.

When Ginny learns the secret of who the people defending Willowridge against the parents who have filed a class action suit are, her fury grows. How can she fight when the law isn’t on her side, when she doesn’t have money. Despite this swell of love for her child, so too does she love her husband, her six-year-old son Peyton and her good life, but sometimes you have to make a choice, especially when your child has no voice of their own! People are either with you, or they are against you. Sometimes, you have to find the strength to go against those who know best.

These are imperfect characters, and shamed by their choices. The truth is, the only characters my love went to was Lucy and Peyton. I would love to see a lot more interaction between them, he went from being an only child to suddenly being big brother to a special little girl who will need him for the rest of her life. It’s a unique relationship. I think I would have liked to see more fight against husband and wife, I wanted to see Ginny in all her avenging glory, especially towards her father-in-law, but maybe that’s just my thirst for drama and justice. Ginny was too much the type of woman who just floated along and let others decide everything and I can’t think of a horror worse than that. I just couldn’t understand how in two years, as a mother, she didn’t go visit her child. I understand she was bullied into giving her up, but in all that time after the birth she wouldn’t be raging against being denied the chance to see her? Feeble minded or not, hell couldn’t keep me away from my child. It would eat away at my mind, soul every day of my life. It’s hard to relate to such a weak character, but at least she finally finds some backbone.

Strange, our throw away society, that takes anyone who is different and tries to forget they exist at all. Times are changing, in many parts of the world, but the true horror is that abuses happen all the time, not just to children with special needs, but to the elderly and ill more often than we want to admit. This novel will be a great choice for serious discussion.

Publication Date: August 6, 2019

St. Martin’s Press

I did not finish this book. I read partway through and found I just wasn't enjoying it. I did not really like the characters or have much interest in what happened next. I will not provide a rating on any other sites as I did not finish it.

A beautiful story taking place in 1971 with flashbacks to the ‘60’s. Issues of class, women’s rights, and disabled children are described. There’s love and loss and friendship. Abortion, homosexuality, and abuse are also woven in. I enjoyed the characters and the scenes. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Wonderful/Amazing storytelling. I really enjoyed "Rust & Stardust"....and was hoping I would like this book as much. The author did a fantastic job pulling me in right from the beginning and keeping me wanting to stay up and read way past my bed time.

I really enjoyed this author's last book and was super excited to get to read this one too. I would give this 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.

Another emotionally driven book with really solid characters. Sometimes the pacing felt slow or off at times and other times it was working well and I couldn't put it down. The ending also felt a tad rushed.

I did think the characters were really, really good, and I enjoyed reading about Ginny and Marsha. Overall, a very good book, I'd definitely recommend.

T Greenwood has written an emotional story about a mother who must choose between her seemingly normal life and protecting the child that cannot protect herself. The book starts off with a story of choices made for her that she cannot fight and explodes from there. A race against time and her in laws, who only want "what's best for her" she must keep running to save her daughter. A really great story that will keep you reading and rooting for Lucy from start to finish.

I knew that children born with Down Syndrome and other conditions were labeled "feeble-minded" and often institutionalized at birth, but I'd never read much about it. This book was a very quick, very compelling read. It will stay with me a long time.

Whoa! I loved this face paced book and i loved it even more because it was inspired by a real life story! Definitely recommend.