I loved Before We Were Yours. This book, however, was a chore to read. I liked the story, but slogging through the excessive details and descriptions drove me crazy. I kept getting lost in what was going on because my mind kept drifting. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. Sorry I didn't finish it quicker.

Excellent book, and very timely.
The book of lost friends is a collection of personal ads placed by former enslaved individuals looking for lost relatives. Enslaved individuals lives were heartbreaking enough without the added heartache of being separated from their families when their owners decided to sell only a part of the family unit.

This book brings to our attention not only the horrible realities and violence of slavery but also the emotional tolls that people suffered and continued to suffer long after emancipation.

The author was able to bring history alive and I heartily recommend this book. I think it would be an excellent addition to any high school curriculum.

To set the tone, every chapter begins with an actual listing from the post Civil War “Lost Friends“ column, which were actual items from formerly enslaved people who were now searching for their loved ones. The listings were read in most if not all of the African American churches after the civil war. Dual timelines are the framework of the plot, with one taking place post Civil War in Louisiana and Texas and following three unlikely travelers, Hannie, a slave on the plantation owned by Missy's family, and Juneau Jane, Missy's illegitimate Creole sister. They have undertaken a harrowing journey to secure their inheritance and freedom. Fast forward to 1987 Augustine Louisiana, where Benedetta “Benny” Silva has moved from across the country to begin her first teaching job. Like all teachers, she has high hopes inspiring her underprivileged students with a love of reading. The search for reading material to intrigue and engross her students leads to projects to discover the roles their ancestors played in the history of Augustine. The intersection of past and present history leads the characters to a recognition of family secrets and guilt. This was a another great book from Wingate, and I have already recommended to friends and family. Off topic but...Benny's experience as a first year high school teacher conjured up memories of the 1960's "Up the Down Staircase."

Excellent book
Listened to this one on audio, and the cast of narrators is superb. The voices are all well cast for the different roles, and having different people read each of the "Lost Friends" ads makes it all the more engaging.
The storyline is divided between past and present, and I found myself drawn much more to the past until the two finally begin to merge together. The action is constant and I felt true connections to all of the characters and was rooting for them to succeed despite daunting circumstances.
Fantastic premise for a book, this is a part of history I knew nothing about and am now fascinated to learn more about the families reunited through the Lost Friends columns.

This particular story is set in Louisiana and alternates between 1875 and 1987 vignettes which eventually converge in a consequential, affirming way. While I didn’t initially consider this a book for genealogists, by the time I neared the book’s end it became apparent it in fact was one of those kinds of books to whet our appetites for digging into family history, albeit with a twist. Highly recommended reading!

I read Before We Were Yours wIth my Bookclub so was excited for this one. It was a bit of a slow start as with the previous book is historical fiction. This one seemed to pack quite a few facts in the beginning. It is written in a dual timeline of 1875 and 1987.
It was heartbreaking reading about the loss and suffering endured , including separation of family. What I love about Wingate's stories and what kept me reading is there is just as much hope as heartbreak..

Lisa Wingate has followed her bestseller, Before We Were Yours with The Book of Lost Friends.

Lost Friends is written in two converging story lines;  staged first in a poverty riddled Louisiana school room in 1987 and alternates with an intensely emotional story set around a decaying  Louisiana plantation during the Reconstruction period in 1875. It is not a happy story, the Civil War is over and the southern states are in turmoil. But it is an easy read and makes you think about the plight of women and people of color during this lawless period of time in our history.

Louisiana, 1987
"Bennie" Silva, a new college graduate, has accepted a teaching position at a poor rural Louisiana school in exchange for clearing her student debt. She finds the kids mired in poverty and without purpose beyond survival. Most see no purpose to learn about a world that has no interest in them and a different future they can't even image much less strive to reach.

Bennie discovers a book filled with crumbling newspaper articles written by emancipated slaves and published in the Southwestern Christian Advocate. Each article a desperate plea for help in locating family members ripped apart by the auction block. This discovery becomes the catalyst to encourage Bennie's students to learn of their own legacy and take pride in the part they play in passing that legacy on to the next generation.

Louisiana, 1875
Hannie Gossett was born a slave. In the years leading up to the Civil War, her Master, hoping to avoid the prospect of losing control of his "slave property" through emancipation,  sent all of Hannie's extended family west to Texas where he hoped to establish a new plantation. The man overseeing the movement of the slaves sold them off one by one between Louisiana and Texas and absconded with the money. Hannie, at six years old, was the only slave from her family recovered and returned to Louisiana by the Master. She remembers that terrible time and dutifully wears her three blue beads Mama gave each family member so they might recognize each other in a chance meeting in the future.

Every chance there is, Mama says . . .[remember] who's been carried away from us, and what's the names of the buyers that took them from the auction block and where're they gone to. 'Hardy at Big Creek, to a man name LeBas from Woodville, Het at Jatt carried off by a man name Palmer from Big Woods....'

It's now 1875. The war is over. Master Gossett is now called Mister Gossett. Missus Gossett remains a feared  cruel tyrant. The Gossett's son, a chip off his mother's slimy block, is in serious legal trouble out west and his father has left Louisiana for Texas to rescue him. Their daughter, Lavinia, now a young teenager, is a spoiled hate-filled brat, and much to everyone's relief, has been shipped off to a boarding school. And Mister Gossett has a not-so-secret on-going relationship with a Creole woman that has produced his much loved mixed-race daughter, Juneau Jane. Talk about an dysfunctional family!

It's 1875. The slaves have been "liberated" and have become sharecroppers with signed land contracts set to mature in the near future. Hannie is now eighteen-years-old and concerned for her future; distrustful of the Gossetts' honoring the land contracts.

Mister Gossett, as stated, was en-route to Texas to rescue his son and has not been heard from for over four months. Ol' Tati, caretaker to all the "stray children", sends Hannie in the dark of night, disguised as a yard-boy to the big house to find their land contracts before the Missus can destroy them in the Mister's absence.

Hannie is shocked by what she discovers when she arrives at the big house. Lavinia is home from boarding school and working with her mortal enemy, Juneau Jane, to find their father's will and business papers! Failing to find them, Lavinia furiously orders a carriage driver to take her and Juneau Jane to see her father's business partner. Hannie spotting a chance to find out what these two are planning, taking a chance she won't be recognized in her disguise, drives the two half-sisters for what she believes will be a short drive to the partner's office.

That's it! All you are going to get from me. I'll leave you with a clue to the book's title.  Hannie, Juneau Jane and Lavinia travel on  a long dangerous and complicated journey. They seek refuge one night in an old building. They find the walls wallpapered with newspapers articles from the Southwestern Christian Advocate newspaper. Hannie is shocked to learn the articles were written by former slaves looking for lost kin.

NOTE:
The Southwestern Christian Advocate newspaper actually published a Lost Friends column beginning in 1877 and continued for over twenty years. The author based Hannie, Lavinia, and Juneau Jane on an article written by a former slave named Caroline Flowers.

I just couldn't get into this book! I love Lisa Wingate's other books, so not sure why I had trouble with this one. Maybe if I read it at another time I would like it more.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC e-book. I have not been compensated for my opinion and this is an honest review.

Completely intrigued to learn of the 'lost friends' newspaper column!! Lisa Wingate has opened my eyes to yet another aspect of history that I knew nothing about. I didn't like reading historical books until I discovered Ken Follett, and now Lisa Wingate has become my go-to!!!

The Book of Lost Friends is a dual timeline story (I love these!) about Hannie, a former slave In 1875 who gets caught up in an “adventure” we’ll call it with the 2 daughters of the plantation owner, and Benny, the fresh out of school English teacher who arrives in Louisiana in 1987 in the town that has sprung up around the former plantation that the girls came from.

Overall I enjoyed the book, and I gave it four stars. Ms. Wingate’s writing kept me wanting more, but the story was a bit contrived in parts. I enjoyed Hannie’s story more than Benny’s, but I felt like both storylines went off the rails. Hannie left with Missy and Juneau Jane in order to secure the location of the sharecropper contracts, while the daughters went to secure their inheritance. Along the way, they become familiar with the Lost Friends column and begin their own version trying to help find people.

The Book of Lost Friends is based off of a newspaper column “Lost Friends” that ran in a Southern Methodist newspaper starting in the 1870’s into the 1900’s. People would write letters asking for information about their family members from whom they’d been separated from before the war, either sold or runaway. Preachers were asked to read the columns at services to help spread the word. This became the crux of Hannie’s story because she watched as her entire family was sold away one at a time after they were stolen and taken into Texas, until she was the last one left. She wanted to find her people.

What bothered me about this part of the story was Missy. Why injure her so early in the story, and then why get her pregnant? The first one just makes it seem like they only needed her as a safety line, and the second wasn’t necessary at all. Doesn’t affect the story since she gets killed. Should have been edited out. Also, at the beginning, Hannie speaks in a vernacular, then looses it all of a sudden. Felt like the author got bored with typing it out. Use it all the way through or don’t. I also didn’t like that the sharecropper contracts and what became of them was never resolved....the entire reason for Hannie leaving and going with the girls. But, this story was exciting and I wish it would have gone on longer.

Now Benny. Not a bad story, but I had to get over the fact that she was the English teacher who decides to do the history and genealogy project with the kids. I thought her flashbacks to her Italian background and her terrible relationship with her Mom were going to inspire her to do some digging, you know, here she is forcing the town to dig up their skeletons, but instead, the last paragraph.....seriously? DUMB. Had absolutely nothing to do with the entire book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publishers for a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title.

This was a lovely read about a time in history that I knew very little about. I will be looking into more books by Lisa Wingate for sure!

Once again, Lisa Wingate delves into a little known part of history and wraps a story around it. The Book of Lost Friends is a story of loss, family, courage, and friendship. The author certainly did her research and I enjoyed reading the ads included at the beginning of each chapter, written by/for former slaves after the Civil War, searching for loved ones.

I had difficulty connecting with the characters - Hannie had too many coincidences on her journey, and took a lot of responsibility for her companions who didn't really add much to their journey. Parts of the story were oddly paced with a traumatic event followed quickly with a happy change of luck. I think that the use of Hannie's dialect added to the story's authenticity though.

Benny's story was less engaging to me, and it felt too contrived - I realize that this is historical fiction, but with the amount of detail in Hannie's journey, and the interaction of the 3 girls in her parts, I guess that I expected more of Benny to come through rather than a weak story about a first year teacher who engages her unmotivated, disinterested students and inspires them to become interested in their family histories (during the first 3 months of school year no less!) Then throwing in the romantic interest which seemed forced - just diluted the 1987 story. I didn't see the tie in of the 2 stories until about the last quarter of the book. But the ending seemed rushed although the twist/secret finally brought the connection between the 2 stories.

I want to thank NetGalley and Random House for sending me an advanced ecopy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed The Book of Lost Friends, a dual timeline, historical fiction novel by Lisa Wingate. This is the first book I have read by this author and I plan to read more. In The Book of Lost Friends, you follow the stories of Hannie in 1887 and Benny in 1987. Hannie is a former slave living in Louisiana and looking for her family from whom she was violently separated years before. Benny is starting her first year as a school teacher in Augustine, Louisiana and she's hiding from her family and from her past mistakes. Through Benny's students, the stories of the two women begin to weave together. You learn about life after the Civil War in Louisana and Texas and that you can put a family back together even a century later. I hope a sequel is planned for this book. Thanks NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Great choice for lovers of historical fiction that introduces readers to little known events in history.

This book was amazing. I was excited for this title because I enjoyed Before We Were Yours immensely. This one did not disappoint.

Ballantine Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of The Book of Lost Friends. I voluntarily chose to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

The Book of Lost Friends takes place in two time periods: the post Civil War South, as seen through the eyes of freed slave Hannie Gossett, and Benedetta Silva, a teacher in the 1980's who goes through great lengths to reach her students. The author takes too long to join the two parts of the book together, with the Hannie's journey overshadowing the rest of the novel. The book has the feeling of being two different novels, never quite becoming as cohesive as it could have been. As I am a fan of historical fiction, I have noticed lately that authors do not keep the reader fully in the past, choosing to anchor the book in the present with glimpses of long before events. Had this novel been only about Hannie and her journey, it would have had a greater impact.

As I often listen to novels in this genre because I feel that the history comes alive, I also listened to chapters of The Book of Lost Friends. The novel is well narrated, especially when it comes to Hannie Gossett. Her journey through the post Civil War South is so well written that Hannie comes to life. On the strength of that narration, I would recommend the audio version of The Book of Lost Friends to other readers.

Lisa Wingate continues to draw in readers with relatable characters. The author provides an interesting and relatable read.

Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to read/review this book due to other commitments. I will certainly update this review if/when I have the chance to read the book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

This is well-researched historical fiction that moves between the civil war and the 1980s. It is actually based on a real thing - lost friends letters - which the author includes in the book. I have enjoyed all of this author's books and I highly recommend this one. We read it for my book club and almost everyone loved it.

Lisa Wingate does it again with The Book of Lost Friends. This dual timeline narrative is capitvating and explores.issues of race on Louisiana during Reconstruction and in the 1980s.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.