The story follows school teacher Benny in a contemporary setting and it follows former slave Hennie in the post-Civil War south. Benny, an English teacher, has rented a home which turns out to be on the grounds of the plantation where Hennie once lived. Through guidance from her disinterested students, Benny comes upon a class project that engages her students and ties together the history of the town.

The reader follows the path of Hennie through a few months, to learn the backdrop of the history and to meet the characters that Benny's class memorializes. On Hennie's journey, she and her travelling companions compile names and locations to add to the Lost Friends data that displaced persons make post-War to try and find one another. Hennie, through the unexpected journey, is also on a quest to find her mother and several, scattered siblings. Many churches participate in the effort to reunite families.

I loved this book!! Great story!! Loved that it was from different years!! I loved that their was letters at the beginning at each chapter trying to find their family!! Second book I have read by this author will read more of her books!!

This was an emotional novel! This book ties the past from 1875 to the present time in Augustine, Louisiana, alternating between the two time periods. There is Benny who is a teacher in the present time. And there is Hannie, along with Missy Lavinia and Juneau Jane back in the past. Benny is struggling with motivating her students and dealing with the attitude of the town. And the other three young women are experiencing their own tragedies of what happened to them during the terrible time period of the Civil War. The story is told as heart wrenching at times and humorous at other parts of the book.

If American slavery and freedom mean anything to you, this book is for you. The characters in the Book of Lost Friends hope to discover who they are through finding their lost family history and create a vivid truth that is hard to comprehend about our country's past and present. Lisa Wingate includes two storylines that connect both and spotlights that change is still necessary. I highly recommend this book. I could not stop reading until the end.

I received a copy from Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group. I was not compensated for this review. All thoughts are my own. #TheBookofLostFriends #NetGalley

4.5 stars rounded up. The Book of Lost Friends is a historical fiction written in two different time periods. First, we have the story told by Hannie in 1875, post Civil War. Hannie is a former slave that was ripped from her family. She sets off on a journey with the daughters of a plantation owner to find their father who hold the papers in which will give Hannie and other now share croppers their hard earned land. On the journey, Hannie forms unlikely alliances while she searches for her own family.

The other protagonist is Bennie, a teacher in the south. The year is 1987. She struggles to get her students interested in reading and learning about their past. With the help of some life-long town residents, she finds a way to get her students interested in their history and the history of the town.

It’s a slow start but becomes an intriguing story of family and identity.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I enjoyed this book very much. I learned about a part of history that I never knew before. Parts of the story were very sad but I am glad I had the opportunity to get this from NegGalley as an ARC.

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate. I have adored Lisa Wingate's other work. This is a very moving story merging two timelines. I adored how they were connected, the characters from each setting, and the lost friends we met along the way. Thank you so much for my copy.

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate is an exciting adventure through some of our most important history. It is written in a way that keeps the reader interested and anxious to devour more of the story.

I really enjoyed Before They Were Yours so I was very excited to read The Book of Lost Friends. I think that I might have gone into it with a bit of overhype because I did not enjoy this one as much. I had trouble connecting to the characters. I did not dislike them exactly but I did not find myself really caring much about what happened to them. I think that I think that others will enjoy this one more because they will not have overhyped it to themselves!

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I read Before We Were Yours last summer and knew I needed to pick up anything that Lisa Wingate touched! This novel was a tear jerker but worth it. The characters were incredible and the story that Wingate told was so intricate and well written that I felt like I needed to sit and reread every chapter to really soak it all in. I loved this novel and would definitely recommend it! Thank you netgalley for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This was my second book by Lisa Wingate, and I just love her style of writing. It's so descriptive and visceral, with wonderful character development.

The Book of Lost Friends weaves a gorgeous story about actual 'Lost Friends' advertisements that appeared in newspapers after the Civil War. I enjoyed how the story alternated between perspectives and time periods (a more present 1987 and back to 1875). It was an informative and engrossing look at this bit of history I didn't previously know about.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked the book! It is a story of 3 women searching for their families and based on historical events. The author also incorporated ads of people posting in the newspaper looking to find their friends or family.

Another great read by Lisa Wingate! She weaves a wonderful story about actual 'Lost Friends' advertisements that appeared in newspapers after the Civil War. This story takes place in post Civil War Louisiana and Texas. The other timeline in this story takes place in an underprivileged area in Louisiana. An inexperienced teacher, Benny tries to engage her students in a project about The Lost Friends newspaper columns. The two timelines come together nicely.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys historical fiction as Miss Wingate does an excellent job capturing your heart with her characters while telling about history.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars, rounded up.

I don't know exactly what didn't work for me with this one. I never got into the story. I liked the characters enough, but I just never was invested. At no point did I want to stop what I was doing and pick up the book. I just kept reading because I was hoping to recapture the magic of Before We Were Yours. It never got there.

Maybe I just didn't read this at the right time. Life is tough right now and this book is heavy. The topic of slavery is dealt with well and I did enjoy Benny's story, but there were a lot of characters, a lot to keep track of and a lot of details that were left out, while others should have been included (more backstory on Benny for example).

I know I'm in the minority, and others will love this, but it definitely didn't capture me as much as Before We Were Yours.

I received this e-ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I tried hard to like this book, giving it a second attempt after I abandoned it during the first read. All in all, it just felt like a chore to get to the end. I was engaged in Benny’s story, but Hannie’s seemed to take so much longer that I struggled to stay interested.

The Book of Lost Friends was a beautiful story. I loved the characters. After her last book, Lisa had a lot to live up to. And she did it, boy did she do it!

Benny Silva was worried about her new teaching job; being a first-year teacher in an economically challenged area was a frightening prospect. Getting through to the students was key, but what was the best way to connect? Benny has help from Granny T, who makes “pooparoos” for the hungry kids to snack on, and her own curiosity about the history of the plantation next door creates the perfect opportunity to spark the students’ imaginations.

In 1875, Hannie is still living and working on the plantation where she was born, although her mother and siblings, and Hannie herself, had been stolen and sold between Louisiana and Texas before the law caught up with them. Hannie was the only one found and returned, and she dreamed constantly of locating her family and bringing everyone home. The master’s mean young daughter, Missy Lavinia, was horribly jealous of her half-sister, Juneau Jane, and tries to get rid of her, only to find herself in trouble as well. Hannie, disguised as a boy and performing the task of Missy’s driver, manages to save the girls from certain death as they travel to Texas disguised as boys to locate the master and learn once and for all what property was whose.

The Book of Lost Friends sparked my imagination as well. The determination and courage that Hannie and Juneau Jane demonstrated in their harrowing journey to Texas, dragging along a catatonic Missy Lavinia, was amazing. The ads were poignant and yet hopeful, with all these people wanting and needing a reunion with their loved ones. I couldn’t help but think about the difference between that time and ours, when people broadcast every iota of their lives on Instagram or Facebook, and the newspaper that printed only what was important. Once again, Lisa Wingate has created a novel that resonates across time and place.

My Thoughts
At First
Like with the previous titles that went by ‘The x of Lost x,’ the title grabbed my attention. Who were these lost friends? What information did this book contain? And then the blurb ensured I was going to read this one. An historical fiction set in dual POV between two timelines (one for each POV).

What I Loved
Everything! That is the truth. I cannot really find much to not like about the book. Even if I point out something, I will have to look hard for those issues and they will be minute grievances. For example, I would have liked to read a little more about some very specific events or people in the book. But even without those details I wish for, this book is definitely one to read.

CHARACTERS
Each character is well thought out and fleshed out (even that nameless stranger in one chapter who makes a brief appearance). While the main protagonists, Benny and Hannie, were both women I would like to befriend, I think I was awed by Hannie a tad more. But every character, be it those who helped Hannie and Benny on their journeys, or those who hindered them, is unique and memorable in this story.

THE DUALITIES
Each chapter ends in a cliff-hanger of sorts and since the chapters alternate between the timelines, we have to wait at least one full chapter before we can find out what next in that timeline. While the new chapter captures your interest right at the start and you are lost. So this book easily keeps you reading, and engaged.

I was awed at how effortlessly Lisa Wingate slips back and forth between the two POVs; each of which is spoken from two very different perspectives, and “awe-ingly” two distinct dialects.

While one timeline or POV often captures interests in such books, I found it a tough choice between these two as each one had its special something to ensure I enjoyed it. Lisa Wingate’s descriptions take us to both 1875 and 1987 Louisiana with equal ease, and we are right there with Hannie and Benny with every step they take.

THEMES
I truly loved all the themes that threaded the book into one beautiful story. Themes of family, friendship, making and strengthening new relationships, survival and strength, the power of community and kindness, and the wonders that sheer determination and persistence can bring about.

WHAT I LEARNED
By now I have realized that I truly love historical fiction; and not just those historical romances I devour periodically! And when a book teaches something I did not know at all, well, then it is like icing on the cake.

This book definitely fits everything I enjoy in a good historical fiction. It is truly well-researched and beautifully written. And while the fiction tugged at heartstrings, the facts totally opened me up to so much more. All those actual ‘Lost Friend‘ ads included throughout the book provided an effective, heartbreaking, and enlightening backdrop to the story and subtly highlighted the darkness that was slavery; and in a way shines light on what we need to do to make the world a better place.

And I also learned about the Carnegie Libraries, the women who helped found libraries and more for colored people, something more about the underground railroad, as well as additional historical facts.

Note: Check out The Historic New Orleans Collection website for more on the Lost Friends advertisements.

EVERYTHING ELSE
There is so much more I can say about this book. For instance, those connections drawn between those two timelines is fascinating and inspires me to go check out genealogies for myself.

And it is relevant, even with both those timelines in the past (1875 and 1987); especially in today’s Black Lives Matter environment to educate ourselves about our past and how we can use it to ensure things change.

QUOTES
Of course, those quotes I normally include; again, I had way too many but here are just a few (selected randomly)

-- “Laughter rings the rafters like church bells, constant, musical, the sound amplified by the rusty tin roof and showered down again”
-- “Sad thing when stories die out for lack of listenin’ ears.”
-- “Sometime, trouble can be like a cut of thread, all tangled up and wrong-twisted from the spinning. Can’t see the why of it or how to get it straight, but can’t hide from it either.”
-- “we work from see to can’t see every day ..”
-- “Be like holdin’ hope, in some way, wouldn’t it?”
-- “Few things are more life affirming than watching an idea that was fledgling and frail in its infancy, seemingly destined for birth and death in almost the same breath, stretch its lungs and curl its fingers around the threads of life, and hang on with a determination that can’t be understood, only felt.”
-- “I ponder how we can put a man on the moon, fly shuttles back and forth to outer space, send probes to Mars, and yet we can’t traverse the boundaries in the human heart, fix what’s wrong.”

And the Other Side
If I had to pick somethings I found could have been better, it would be the portrayal and progress of the relationship between Benny and Nathan, as well as a little more into Benny’s backstory (though things are revealed in the end).

In Summary
I loved how Lisa Wingate addresses hard issues gracefully, and smoothly blends fact and fiction to give us a book that is meant to be read and remembered. Heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, bringing tears and smiles as it teaches, informs, inspires, uplifts, and holds the readers’ interests from the very beginning to the end (and oh so cleverly too)!

This is a great book to read for discussions and as part of book clubs; check out the RandomHouse website for a wonderful book-club kit for this book.

Disclaimer: Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the digital review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Once again Lisa Wingate tells the story of a piece of history that I knew nothing about. While I loved what I learned while reading this it just didn't live up to my expectations. I am not sure exactly what it was I just had a really hard time getting into the story. It felt a little long and drug out at times and just made it really hard to connect with. It is a beautifully written book that really brings a piece of history not many people know about to life.