I was not emotionally prepared for what I was about to read in this book. My heart was torn apart, and put back together so many times reading this one. Beautifully written, Greenwood takes you back to 1969 when Virginia gives birth to a daughter, Lucy, who has Down syndrome. Virginia’s husband and powerful in-laws decided it was best to send their daughter to an institution because they wouldn’t know how to care for her.

Fast forward two years later, a reporter uncovers some dark secrets at the institution and publishes his findings in the newspaper. Virginia sets out on a mission to fight for her daughter. What she doesn’t expect is her husband’s reaction. Virginia goes to great links to protect the daughter she never got to know and love.

Greenwood definitely hit the mark with this one and truly knows how to emit every emotion imaginable from readers. I felt like I truly knew the characters and my heart ached for Virginia and what she was going through. Not to mention, Lucy, her daughter. Based on true events, this story will make you see the world with a different view.

You may want to prepare yourself for this compelling novel before you read it. But you definitely won’t regret it. This is one emotional rollercoaster you want to take a ride on. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A tearjerker. This book brings to light the tragic way people with disabilities were treated back in the 60's. As a mother of several children with Autism, it makes me sick to think that just a few decades ago, my boys would be signed over to the state to live in an institution where they would be neglected and abused for their entire lives, and those lives were usually short. This book follows a wonderful mother who saw the joy in having a child and not just the hardships of downs syndrome. She fought for her daughter, against her husband and her family. I could only imagine how hard that would be and I’m glad that society is learning to accept children with differences these days. Loved this book and its story.

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for the free copy in exchange for my honest review

When I picked up RUST & STARDUST by T. Greenwood I fell in love with the writing and the story we got to experience. So when I saw KEEPING LUCY was coming out, I immediately knew I had to get a copy. I was not disappointed. A moving story about the lengths a mother will go to to protect her child – even from her husband and in-laws.

It’s 1969, and we open with Ginny going into labor two weeks early and during a Blood Moon. Which everyone around her warned her would happen. We experience her confusion and panic when the doctor explains to her in her groggy state that her daughter was born with defects, what they called mongoloid. She isn’t allowed to see her daughter for days and they continue to force her to rest. Her husband, Ab, finally is at her bedside and explains that he and his parents have sent their newborn daughter, Lucy, to an institution that cares for children “like her”.

Fast-forward two years, and her world turns upside down when an article is written about the institution she was sent to and they inhumane conditions the children live in. Determined to save her daughter, and finally meet her, Ginny, her best friend Marsha, and her six year old son, Peyton, all make the journey to get Lucy. After seeing what poor health Lucy is in and the obvious neglect she has been subjected to, Ginny makes the decision to keep Lucy and check her out for good. Things get complicated when we learn that her husband signed Lucy over to the state – Ginny is no longer seen as her mother or guardian and can be arrested for kidnapping if she doesn’t return Lucy. Here starts the desperate journey to keep Lucy safe.

Greenwood takes us across the country as Ginny tries to stay a step ahead of her husband. There was that slight feeling of cat-and-mouse, but this would definitely fall under the fiction category. You just feel for Ginny and her undying need and desire to keep her only daughter. As I was reading, I completely forgot the time period and was shocked how people treated children with mental/physical disabilities. I loved seeing Ginny grow in her independence from page one until the end. Having never gone against what her husband wanted, this was a story of growth and finding her strength. I’ll continue to pick up whatever Greenwood releases, and I would highly recommend this one for your summer TBR!

5 ★ I loved this heart touching, emotional and inspiring journey of Ginny’s unbreakable love for her child. Her resilience fighting against everything she’s been told to accept was timeless!!

Ginny gives birth to a little girl (Lucy) that has Down’s Syndrome. She’s told by the doctor her “Mongoloid” has severe mental retardation, will be feeble-minded no more intelligent than a dog, will probably have heart defects, and only live a couple years..(while given pain meds putting her back to sleep.) Within the day the baby is whisked away to Willowridge School, a children’s institution by Ginny’s husband and father-in-law. All Ginny wants is her daughter back. She strongly disagrees with not taking and keeping Lucy at home with them. Every time she’s mentioned visiting Lucy to her husband he has excuses. Ginny is broken-hearted, down to her core over losing her daughter.

2 years later..
One call from Ginny’s friend changes everything.
A newspaper is running daily stories with ghastly details about what’s happening inside Willowridge. There’s now a class-action lawsuit being filed against Willowridge by parents with children that resided there.
Ginny can no longer sit by and pretend Lucy doesn’t exist like her husband and father-in-law want her to. She takes matters into her own hands.

Keeping Lucy is a powerful and unforgettable novel about love, family, challenges, coping, strength and the well-being of a child. Some parts were especially heartbreaking bringing me to tears. Ginny and her family’s story touched my heart, filling me with so much emotion that I’m still thinking about it. I highly recommend. ❥

Thank you to the author and St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley for sending me a copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.

T. Greenwood's story about a 1970s mother who discovers the worst about a place meant to protect and care for her youngest child is a beautiful story of love and determination. Moreover, Ms. Greenwood's writing is so delicate and musical that I didn't want the story to end, no matter how badly I wanted to find out what happens to little Lucy and her beleaguered mother. Mostly, I could not stop thinking about whether anything is different in 2019 now that we are more aware of neglectful institutions for the disabled, now that we know more about what it takes to raise a child with a disability, and now that there are significant changes to labor and delivery as well as post-partum care. I fear that not much is different forty years later.

Ms. Greenwood takes such care with her historical details that the story is a delight to read as it provides the opportunity to marvel that any of us born in the 1970s survived our childhood. As Ginny makes her way south, there are no seatbelts and no car seats. Everyone smokes like a chimney wherever they want, including in the car with the kids. Ginny signs her daughter out of the institution using nothing more than a letter as a form of identification. Cash rules the day, but when Ginny does use her credit card, she can do so without showing any identification to verify her signature. It's insane, and yet, you can't get upset or question her parenting or the historical details because they did happen. It was simply how things were done back then, for right or wrong.

One other historical element upon which Ms. Greenwood spends a lot of time is Ginny's marriage and her standing in that marriage. Especially as the story rushes to its close, Ginny reflects on her unhappiness and her feelings of suffocation and regret. She recognizes the lack of equality in her marriage, one where she does all the cooking and cleaning while her beloved husband sits and reads the newspaper after dinner. She marvels at the family dynamics of those she meets along her journey, how loving and fair they seem, how thoughtful everyone is when it comes to taking care of one another. Here too is another area which makes me fear we have not come as far as we think we have when it comes to the wives in marriages. Just the other day, I read an article that talked about men, women, and free time. Every day you see a self-help headline about trying to get your husband to help around the house. This is not to mention the silence of those wives and mothers who feel just as trapped and stifled as Ginny did as they put their lives on hold to raise children. Keeping Lucy might occur more than forty years in the past, but she raises awareness of the same gender inequality that continues to exist in relationships.

In spite of everything Ginny feels and experiences, you cannot help finishing Keeping Lucy without a note of hope. Hell, if we can survive the complete lack of automobile safety in the seventies, there is hope for all of us! All kidding aside, Ms. Greenwood provides hope that even one person can make a difference. Her story is a gentle reminder that love can win out over greed and apathy, and that no one has the right to make any decisions affecting your life except you. Hers is not a flashy story, and there is not a lot that happens among its pages. However, it is a peaceful story that helps you find the good in this seemingly hellish world in which we now find ourselves. Keeping Lucy is food for the soul at a time when we so desperately need it.

Ginny's baby girl, Lucy, is taken away from her at birth to be put into a special school, Willowridge, for the feeble-minded. Ginny aches and longs for her daughter but she has faith in her husband and father-in-love until Willowridge is mentioned in the news. Willowridge has been neglecting their children so Ginny takes it upon herself to get daughter back.

The plot was good but not great. I found the road trip took for too long and didn't really reveal anything. I guess you could say Ginny grew as a character but it shouldn't take so long.

The setting was amazing, especially Willowridge. Since it was based on a real place it felt very realistic. The hopelessness, angry and despair permeated Willowridge. I'm glad Greenwood included the observation that no one cared about went behind the doors as long as they didn't have to deal with it, the made the school feel realistic. The novel did feel more like it was based in the '50's then the '70's.

The characters are what made the novel excellent. I loved reading about Ginny's transformation from a timid doormat to a strong-willed mother. I thought some of her decisions were unbelievably stupid but I'm willing to forgive her for those. I liked Marsha until her pregnancy reveal. She could have stayed the feminist sister, the pregnancy wasn't necessary and felt like it was just added to make her more sympathetic.

Overall I really enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to everyone.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

Lucy, a Down Syndrome child is taken away from her mother, Ginny by the medical staff at birth and sent to Willowridge institution which is awarded full custody of the child. Lucy is reunited with her mother 2 years later when news of a Willowridge investigation for deplorable conditions comes to light. After she signs her daughter out for a weekend, their road trip adventure begins.

Along for the ride are Ginny’s 6-year old son and her best friend Marsha, the driver, since Ginny has no driver’s license. Lucy had my heart from the start. She’d been grossly uncared for and the signs of abuse gave me the chills. A sad reminder that this forced institutionalization was very real and as recent as the late 60’s. As for Ginny, I couldn’t wrap my head around how a mother could abandon her baby daughter for two years and only now feeling guilty for abandon ing her? And what about her husband Ab and his parents, plus Ginny’s own mother who lived close by the facility. Nobody thought to check in with this baby?!

There are sweet moments, tense moments and moments where I raged. I read the book in two days as I was eager to find out how this precious girl’s situation would be resolved.

*Will post online and post link upon publication

Keeping Lucy by T. Greenwood is a touching and often very heartbreaking story about a mother's plight to save her young daughter, as well as make up for her own past mistakes. 

In 1969, Ginny and Ab are happily married, parents to 4 year old Peyton, and expecting their second child. After Ginny has her baby, she's briefly allowed to hold her daughter who she names Lucy before the baby is quickly taken away, the Dr telling her she's “mongoloid” but never does Ginny expect to wake up from the tranquilizers and find her baby completely gone! Ab, an attorney at his father's high powered law firm, has followed his father's orders and had Lucy placed in a state-run school for the "feebleminded" called Willowridge and signed away Ginny's parental rights without her knowledge or consent. The Dr has said Lucy has a heart defect and won't survive long and back then, those born with Down Syndrome were completely misunderstood and institutionalization was commonplace.

Ginny soon discovers that Willowridge is not the kind of place she thought when her best friend Marsha brings her newspaper expos that shine a light on the horrific conditions and mistreatment going on at the facility. She immediately decides to go see her daughter for herself (for the first time) to see if the expo is right and what she finds sickens and horrifies her. Instead of just taking Lucy for what was supposed to be a long weekend, she ends up "kidnapping" her and soon Marsha, Ginny, and the kids are on the run.

This book was so disturbing in places that I couldn't help but cry. My heart broke for Lucy and what she had to have endured the first two years of her life, and I was so happy to see Ginny stop being passive and doing everything her husband and his father said to do. I know it was 1971 but still, as a mother of three, there would have been nothing to keep me from seeing my child during the two years she was away from me, so I felt like Ginny was a very weak character at the beginning who you see over the course of the novel develop into a character with much strength. Greenwood really characterizes in Ginny how a mother will go to any lengths for her children.

A highly emotional, character-driven read that I greatly enjoyed as my second book by Greenwood. 

**Thank you NetGalley and St.Martin's Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.**

Keeping Lucy

A heartwarming story of a mother’s love and redemption.

SUMMARY
Ginny Richardson‘s was devastated when her newborn infant girl that she named Lucy, was ripped away from her just minutes after her birth. It was October 1969 and Lucy had been born with Down’s Syndrome. The doctor, Lucy’s husband, Ab and Lucy’s powerful father-in-law thought it was for the best that Lucy be taken away to Willowridge immediately, a special school for the “feeble minded.” Ab tried to convince Ginny they should just move on, they had a son to think about and besides they could have other children. L

Two years later, Ginny’s best friend Marsha shows her a series of articles exposing Willowridge as a hell-on-earth. The walls were smeared with human waste, the kitchen was full of cockroaches and the food was inedible. Photos showed the children were left unattended and huddled in corners, sewage spills and elevators were filled with dirty laundry. After seeing the photo’s Ginny knows she can’t leave her daughter there one more day. With Ginny’s six-year-old son Peyton, Ginny and Marsha drive to the school to see Lucy for themselves. What they find sets them on a heart-racing journey across state lines turning Ginny into a fugitive. For the first time, Ginny must test her own strength and face the world head on as she fights a domineering father-in-law for the right to keep Lucy.

REVIEW
KEEPING LUCY is a moving book about family, loss, betrayal, and a mother’s love, and redemption. My favorite part was when Ginny walked out of Willowridge with her daughter in her arms, and later when Lucy spoke her first word—“moon.” This is an ironic coincidence given that the moon, or more precisely the “blood moon” was according to superstition, responsible for Lucy’s curse. Yet here is little Lucy proving to all she is not cursed.

While reading about a child with Down Syndrome might be a difficult subject for some, the theme of the story is really about a mother’s love for her child and her willingness to go to battle to keep her child. It’s a heart-warming story that every mother should read. We are captivated by Ginny’s realization that it’s never to late to do the right thing.

Author, Tammy Greenwood skillfully transports us to 1969 in Dover, Massachusetts and from there it’s a wild and crazy road trip two years later from Willowridge, to Atlantic City, to the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains to a mermaid show in Florida. Ginny and Marsha are brave for going on the run, and while they don’t alway make the best decisions on the road they are doing their best. The road trip reminds me a little of the Thelma and Louise movie. Little Lucy is the star of the book, she steals your heart with every word she speaks. Keeping Lucy is a gem of a book.

Tammy Greenwood is the author of over twelve novels, most recently RUST and STARDUST (2018) and THE GOLDEN HOUR (2017). I have read and reviewed both these books and am quite impressed by Greenwood’s writing and ability to tell a story. She has quickly become one of my favorite authors.

Thanks to Netgalley, Tammy Greenwood and St. Martin’s Press for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


Publisher St. Martin’s Press
Published August 6, 2019
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

It's 1969 and Ginny Richardson's daughter, Lucy, is born with Down Syndrome. This is a time where institutionalizing children with Down Syndrome was common and the genetic disorder was stigmatized and widely misunderstood. Lucy is taken from her mother at birth and left at Willowridge School where unbeknownst to her mother she and all the other children are living in horrific conditions, being mistreated and ill cared for. When the horrors of Willowridge are exposed two years later, Ginny finally goes to see her daughter and knows she can't leave her there another minute. Soon Ginny finds herself on the run with her son, best friend and Lucy in tow.

While I was instantly enamored with Lucy and wanted the best for her, I never completely identified with Ginny. How could she let 2 years go by without ever seeing her daughter? I simply could not fathom ever accepting something like as a mom myself.

I expected more to be shared about Willowridge and would have really liked to see that explored fully. It could have been such an emotional yet amazing story if explored from that angle. Google articles and photos of Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, NY where Greenwood got her inspiration for this story. They will break your heart and haunt your dreams! Sadly, this story left me wanting more.

Did not finish - this was like every single book written about a child born with Downs Syndrome [and not nearly as well as some] and after skipping to the end, I am so glad I didn't waste my time with this book. Such a shame - it could have been so much more.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Amazing story! Ginny gives birth to little Lucy but the doctor tells her not to keep the baby because she will likely die from a heart condition. Now it’s the 1960’s so sadly this was common. Eventually, she tries to get Lucy back after learning the place she lives is treating the children horribly. Touching story.

Keeping Lucy by T. Greenwood is a precious and engaging book that will tug at your heartstrings! When Ginny gives birth to a baby with Downs Syndrome in 1969, her baby is whisked away from her soon after childbirth, because it would be 'best for the baby to be in a hospital where her special needs will be met.' Ginny tried to stand up and insist that her baby would best be cared for at home, but affluent and powerful family members intervened and Ginny relented.

Years pass and when Ginny learns that her baby's medical facility might be less than ideal, she gathers up the courage and unleashes her maternal instinct (previously suppressed) to investigate and to see what she could do to protect her child. What happens next takes us on a wild and compelling ride, as Ginny tries to navigate a now uncertain future for herself and for her children.

I have been in a bit of reading slump and have not been thoroughly engaged by so many books I have read, the this book has ended the cycle! Keeping Lucy was engaging, its characters were well written, the time and setting of the book was described thoughtfully without cliché, and I really enjoyed this book!

Keeping Lucy will be released on August 6!

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

In 1969 Ginny Richardson, wife of Abbott, mother to 4 year old Peyson gives birth to a baby girl, Lucy, who is born with Down's Syndrome. Without her consent, her husband under pressure from his powerful father Abbott Sr. sign the baby over to the care of Willowridge in Western Massachusetts, know as "a place for the feeble-minded".

When Ginny finds out she is devastated and every time she talks about visiting her baby she's stalled and pressured to move on with her life. Two years later her best friend Marsha shows her articles about Willowridge being a filthy and neglectful place for the children residing there. Ginny and her friend decide to visit Willowridge and find out for themselves. When they do they are horrified by what they witness. Lucy, now 2, has in fact been neglected so she decides to check her little girl out for the weekend and figure out her next move in getting her daughter back. Her husband does no know what she's doing and the women, along with Ginny's six year old son travel cross country to figure out what to do.

Keeping Lucy was a very good read but a sad read. Ginny is a courageous mother whose unflinching love for her children makes her unstoppable. Her supportive friend has her back and, I thought that their journey had a Thelma and Louise feel to it. This story is based in part on true events and it felt very real as well given the 1969-1971 time period. The characters were well explored and I liked that the story also gave insight to an earlier time in Ginny and Abbott's relationship as well. Great characters however, the father-in-law Abbott Sr. was hard to take. I was a bit disappointed that the horrors of the school were not more deeply explored, but, perhaps that would have turned off some readers.

Note: This book was of particular interest to me as I grew up in Western MA and there was a place like Willowridge. It was called Belchertown State School for the Feeble Minded that did in fact exist for some 70 years. It finally closed its doors for good in 1991. I recall that my aunt's friend had a daughter, my age, with Down's Syndrome, who spent her life there - so sad.

T. Greenwood is known for writing poignant novels guaranteed to tug at your heartstrings, and that's exactly how I would describe her latest book, Keeping Lucy. It's a tough read, but so incredibly worth your time if you can stick with it.

When Ginny Richardson gave birth to her second child in 1969, she expected everything to proceed like clockwork, so she and her husband Ab are stunned to learn that their newborn daughter has Down Syndrome. Ab, a high-powered lawyer who is firmly under the thumb of his domineering father, can't bear the thought of raising a disabled child, and so he whisks her away to Willowridge, a so-called special school for those with cognitive disabilities. Ginny is in shock, and her daughter is taken away from her before she fully recovers from the birth, and by the time she's feeling able to process things, the baby is gone. Ginny longs to visit her, to form some kind of connection with the little girl she named Lucy, but Ab and his parents are not in favor of this idea. They tell Ginny to forget about Lucy and go on with her life.

For the next two years, Ginny does her best to abide by Ab's wishes even though it goes against everything she believes about what it really means to be a mother. She concentrates on her son Payton and tries hard not to think about Lucy, the daughter she hasn't seen since her birth. But when Ginny’s best friend Marsha brings a series of newspaper articles to her attention, she knows she can't continue to obey her husband. She has to drive to Willowridge, the place the newspapers are referring to as a hell on earth.

Telling Ab that she and six-year-old Peyton are going to spend some time with Marsha, Ginny packs her bags and heads off on a road trip that will forever change the way she views the world around her. Arriving at Willowridge, Ginny is appalled by the horrible conditions Lucy and the other residents are forced to endure, and she removes her daughter from the institution that very day. She knows Ab and his parents will not agree to allow Lucy to live with them at home, so Ginny and Marsha decide to drive down to Florida in order to give Ginny time to come up with a plan for Lucy's future.

What follows is a fantastic road-trip story that centers around Ginny's determination to keep Lucy with her. She and Marsha don't always think things through as well as one might wish, but I found it all but impossible not to cheer them on as they struggle to do what's best for Lucy.

I was born in 1980, and as a person with a disability, I'm certainly no stranger to the close-mindedness exhibited by a large chunk of the human race. Even so, I found parts of this book incredibly difficult to read. People have no qualms about coming up to Ginny and referring to Lucy in very derogatory ways, and it's hard to think of a young child being treated so poorly.

I struggled to like Ab. He's extremely weak-willed and finds it impossible to stand up to his parents. He does whatever they tell him to, no matter how it affects the other people in his life, namely Ginny. We learn some things over the course of the story that go a long way toward making sense of his behavior, but he isn't a character I ever warmed up to completely. He makes some positive strides toward the novel's end, though some readers might consider them underwhelming.

Books that deal with disability in a realistic, down-to-earth way aren't all that common, so I was especially pleased with the way in which Ms. Greenwood chose to tackle it here. She does a great job remaining true to the attitudes of the time without trying to sensationalize things. Instead, she allows the thoughts and actions of her characters to speak for themselves, something I most definitely appreciated.

Keeping Lucy is a well-crafted story that manages to tackle difficult issues in a completely relatable way. I'm more than happy to recommend it to those looking for a disability-themed story, as well as to anyone who loves watching a heroine come into her own under less than ideal circumstances.

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Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and T. Greenwood for the opportunity to read and review her latest novel - a heartbreaker of a story. 5 stars!

It was a different time in the late 60s, so when Ginny gives birth to a Down syndrome girl, Lucy is whisked away by the doctors and Ginny is told that Lucy has no hope for a good future. Instead, her wealthy father-in-law finds a school for Lucy and she is placed there. Ginny tries to see Lucy but is told by her husband that it is not in Lucy's best interest. Two years later, Ginny's best friend, Marsha, sends Ginny a newspaper series that reports on the deplorable conditions taking place at Willowridge, the school Lucy was sent to. Ginny takes Peyton, her 6-year-old, and they set out with Marsha to see the conditions and Lucy for themselves. What she finds leads Ginny to take Lucy and refuse to send her back to Willowridge. Will Ginny finally be able to stand up to her husband and in-laws and take control of her family?

The prevailing thoughts about Downs and other disabilities at that time is the true heartbreak of this story. The basic "throw away" model that existed and the anguish that parents faced with no support. This was a great read - would be much to discuss in a book club setting.

It’s 1969 in Boston when Ginny Richardson gives birth to a baby girl, a baby born with Down Syndrome. Wed into a powerful Boston family, Ginny is coerced by her father in law to have little Lucy sent to a “school”. The best school he can find. Her husband Ab goes along with it and Lucy is institutionalized, leaving Ginny heartbroken. When the school is exposed in a scathing expose Ginny goes on a mission to rescue Lucy and in the process rescues herself. A heart wrenching and redeeming book of a mothers love and the connection between a mother and child. A touching story of the lengths Ginny will go to keep Lucy.

Ginny, wife of wealthy lawyer Ab, gives birth to a Down Syndrome baby girl and barely gets to touch her before the baby is whisked off to Willowridge, a special school for the “feeble-minded." Ginny has no say in the matter and is heavily medicated so she can't even give voice to the fact that she wants to keep and raise her baby. Ab's rich, big time lawyer dad manipulates the entire situation so that the problem of Lucy is swept under the rug and Ginny's mother in law takes it upon herself to tell Ginny and Ab's four year old son that his sister is "with the angels" now.

Ab allows Ginny to think that they will visit the baby after she's been at Willowridge for thirty days but that never happens and Ginny gradually accepts the fact that she'll never see her daughter, who she thinks has heart problems and will not live long. Still, Ginny thinks of her daughter every day and her life has a huge hole in it, with little Lucy missing and Ginny not being able to even mention her name to her husband, who feels they should just put Lucy in the past.

Ab works long, long hours while Ginny keeps house and tends to their son Peyton. When Lucy would be reaching her second birthday, Ginny's best friend Marsha shows her an ongoing expose of Willowridge, detailing the horrible conditions of the facility. Ginny and Marsha go to the school to check Lucy out for a long weekend and that's when they see for themselves that the expose is true and just touching the surface of the abuses that the children residents endure. Ginny lets Ab know what is happening at the school but finds out that his dad's law firm is representing the school in a lawsuit against it, due to the abuses. Ab sides with his dad and the law firm and demands that Lucy be taken back to the facility. This is when Ginny and Marsha take off on a road trip with Peyton and Lucy in tow, to avoid sending Lucy back to her squalid and abusive life at Willowridge.

Ginny has always been so passive and accepting of her lot in life, a rich life but a life that allowed her to have no say in what happened. So I admire her for taking charge and deciding that she will be raising Lucy from now on...this was a baby that was taken from her without her permission and now she is turning things around. Ginny is ill prepared for this battle since she has never driven, never had any money of her own, and about the only decision she was ever allowed to make her in marriage was what to buy at the grocery store.

Little Lucy was full of parasites, internally and externally and I was frustrated that Ginny didn't make this situation a priority, instead trying to get her son in the bathtub with Lucy and making him sleep with Lucy, so that he soon has head lice too. I know I was overly distracted by the parasite situation but I think that it signified that little Lucy needed some kind of medical attention immediately. It is only later that we find out the extent of Lucy's medical problems.

I enjoyed the book and was so sad about the conditions that Lucy and others were forced to endure. This story just addresses Lucy's fate and I like the resolution of the story although it required a complete about face of a couple of people to pull it off. Still, I wouldn't have wanted the story to end any other way and it was great seeing passive Ginny pull out all stops for her little girl.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

I appreciated the way that the author handled the topic of Down syndrome. This was a difficult diagnosis for a child to receive in the 60s and 70s, and even now, many people don’t see value in a child diagnosed with Down syndrome and often consider abortion. I loved watching Ginny’s relationship with her daughter develop over time.

In the period this book took place, I couldn’t believe her child was taken away from her without her consent. It angered me and broke my heart. Her mother wanted Lucy so desperately, but the doctors and society decided for her. My favorite part of the book was how far Ginny Richardson was willing to go to fight for her daughter.

That being said, I assumed this book would be more about the historical abuse at Willowbrook State School. Instead, it read more like a domestic thriller and focused more on the mother's story rather than Lucy's story.

You may want to pick this one up if you loved Lisa Wingate’s book Before We Were Yours.

oh my... get the tissues ready, you will need them as soon as you pick this book up. What an emotional journey and the compassion in this book was truly amazing. I loved every moment of it. Started this book with the hopes of just reading a few pages to get started before bed and found myself staying up past midnight wanting to finish it. This story just grabs you and your heart strings. I definitely recommend this one and really any book by T. Greenwood. Thank you St. Martins Press for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.