Becca, Sandy and Faith’s friendship was formed when they met at the maternity home. The story gives the background on these three young ladies and follows them through the years. Each of their their children were given for adoption. The story is filled with sadness and hope. I found the epilogue interesting where the author talks about being adopted. I throughly enjoyed this book.

Thank you #NetGalley, #AdmissionPressInc, #JuliaBrewerDaily and #NoNamestobeGiven for my honest review.

I purchased this book for sale in my online store. This author is very popular and the book was great! Thanks for the early copy!

3 - 3.5 stars. I can't decide yet but this book was okay. It was an easy read about 3 women being blackmailed about their past and the rest you just have to read it ;). They substitute parts and educate us regarding their lives, yet I believed I more profound comprehension of each would have been something more. Additionally, the achievement level that each ranges and doesn't waver appeared to be ridiculous to me. These were extremely youthful, mishandled ladies without family support or the birth father in their lives. There recently was something else to figure out in their biographies.

3.5*
This was a story about three birth mothers, Faith, Becca, and Sandy who must stay at the New Orleans Maternity Home under harsh conditions and each is basically forced to give her child up for adoption. The mother is not even awake to see her baby and does not even know the sex of the child she is giving up. This creates a strong bond with these 3 young women, as each gives birth on 8/28/66. They vow to stay in touch each year on this anniversary and are bonded forever. This part of the book I enjoyed. It would be quite a traumatic event to go through and to have the support of another woman who understands would be profound.

I do wish the book focused more on the development and feelings of Faith, Sandy, and Becca. They alternate chapters and tell us about their lives, but I felt I deeper understanding of each would have been better. Also, the success level that each reaches and doesn’t falter seemed unrealistic to me. These were very young, abused women without family support or the birth father in their lives. There just was more to flesh out of their life stories.

The last part where a mysterious blackmailer comes in, I wish was completely skipped. It was unnecessary and overdone. The heart of this book is these 3 mothers, their lives, their bond, and the lives after giving a baby away for adoption. That needed to be a bit better focused on. Still, the message was strong about the effect this caused girls and women during this time period where they were stigmatized and often shunned by their own family and communities.

Thank you NetGalley, Julia Brewer Daily, and Admission Press for a copy of this book. I really appreciate it.

Very good book. Engrossing. Will look for more from this author. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

This easy read moves from the 1960's to current time following the story of Becca, Faith, and Sandy. I appreciated the glimpse at earlier times and it was a quick read.. The writing style was pretty simplistic and I wanted more feeling for the characters rather than just reading to see what happened next. Plot motivated readers will likely enjoy this one.

Excellent story! Totally engrossing!. Looking forward to reading more by this author! Could not put this down!

I really enjoyed the concept of this book, following different women and their intertwining lives. It was realistic and shows the lives of women in the 60s. I did however find it very difficult to get through. I found the pace to be too slow for me and not enough substance for the story to remain interesting throughout.

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

A touching story of three different women in the 1960s, who all fall pregnant, and due to the pressure, all end up in a home for pregnant women and are expected to give up their babies. The three women all end up as roommates and all give birth on the same day, a day they promise never to forget, and a day that haunts them as they move on with their lives.

The story moves from the 1960s, prior to their meeting and long after. We get glimpses of the lives of their children, and who they became, due to the actions of these women, as well as those around these women.

A touching story for a forged friendship, where endings are not quite what you expect.

Definitely has debut novel written all over it, but still wildly readable. I really loved it and am looking forward to more books from this writer.

I am calling it a day with this one. Also rating it a one although the writing is amateurly passable.

3 hard luck paper dolls in 1960s America become pregnant. They end up in a home for pregnant single women in Louisiana.

I stopped at 19 percent.....like reading a 1960s housekeeping magazine without the gelatin meatloaves.

I trust this is well intentioned but I am bored out of my gourd.

Thanks to Netgalley, Admissions press and the author for an ecopy. This was released August 2021.

Thank you NetGalley, Julia Brewer Daily and Admission Press for No Names to be Given. This is my personal review.
This was a book that had me filled with so many different emotions as I was reading.
It’s the mid 60’s and a story about unwed mothers. Reading about what these mothers went thru and how it changed them forever. The events 25 years have passed, and secrets are threatened to be revealed that will expose their secrets that could destroy the lives they have each built.
The way the book was written brought me right into their lives.

LOVED this story! I couldn’t imagine living in a time mid 60’s and being forced by society to gift strangers my babies. Julia Brewer Daily has crafted an amazing story about three woman who have been pressured into heartbreak and blackmail. I can’t wait to read more by this author as this is her debut novel and it was so captivating. I am now a fan!

I read this in a day, devouring the chapters, which was easy to do as this was a fast paced book which moved across a multi-decade time period - from the 1960's to the early 2000's. Whilst I read it super quickly I wasn't sure if I liked it or if it came across as too cliched for me, but once I took a moment to think and reflect I realised that this was a great book and that those weren't cliches but important nuggets in the story.

Firstly, I do think that this book should come with a trigger warning as there are some topics covered that may not be suitable for some to read, even if there aren't described in a detailed way unlike in some other books - specifically the topics of sexual assault and suicide.

Having thought about it a little, I realised that Bewer Daily is showing us that, regardless of your walk of life, any woman could have found themselves in one of these homes for a multitude of reasons. Maybe they made the personal decision to go, maybe they were forced, but in the end they would all be changed irrevocably after they left.

What I felt Brewer Daily was also able to do was show the different families, lives and situations the adopted children could have, how the information of their adoption impacted their lives and the contrasts between the children that were at the centre of this story.

To me, it also showed that you did not need to be entirely defined by being a mother who gave her child up for adoption or by being the child that was adopted, but that this fact of your life does have some bearing on who you are and your life moving forward, either positively or negatively.

At times sad, this story was also hopeful and showed the bonds we can make during difficult and transformative moments in our lives.

It also made me consider the age old question of nature over nurture too.

Fun fact; I read this book on August 22nd not realising the important significance of the date to this book so that was kind of fun!

A great debut novel.

An interesting debut novel that fulfils its purpose mostly well.

Story:
The story spans multiple decades, beginning in 1966 and ending in 2000.
1966, New Orleans. Sandra, Rebecca, and Faith. Three young girls who have nothing in common with each other except for one thing: they are pregnant and they can’t keep their babies. They meet each other in a very unlikely place: a maternity home for unwed mothers. After giving birth, they are expected to give up their babies (without ever seeing them or knowing their gender, forget holding them) and continue with their earlier lives. Twenty five years later, this decision comes back to haunt them as they are faced with blackmail and public humiliation, which two of them cannot afford because of their status in society. How will they deal with this unexpected attack?

The three main characters are quite distinct from each other and this keeps the story interesting as you find something appealing within each of their stories. Other than these characters and a couple more names, the rest of the characters aren’t much well-developed. Knowing the whats is good, but knowing the hows and the whys makes a big difference in the reading experience. For such a touching story, I didn’t feel any emotion at all. And that shows that there was something missing in the way the situations were presented before us.

As happens sometimes with a debut work, the writing has hits and misses. There are some inconsistencies in the story, a few of the plot points are left unexplained, and some of the time jumps happen without any warning. But the content is such that your attention will be more focussed on the plot than the delivery. The first half of the book flew by very quickly. With short chapters from multiple characters’ perspectives, you get an inside view of the mentality of 1960s America in terms of racial discrimination, class hierarchies, and social and familial pressures on premarital pregnancies. The story becomes a bit farfetched in the second half, especially after the 65% mark. Too many coincidences and many incomplete story arcs will leave you dissatisfied. But the ending is decent, and that saves the book somewhat.

One thing I appreciate is that the author herself was an adopted child from one of these maternity homes. She has used her personal knowledge to create a very realistic picture in the historical part of the book. The author’s note at the end is quite touching to read.

If you are looking for a quick and emotional read that spans the historical and contemporary timelines, this book is worth a try. It may not have repeat value but it is certainly a good one-time read. For a debut work, it is pretty good.

3.5 stars from me, rounding up.

Thank you, NetGalley and Admission Press, for the ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. The story was interesting and the characters engaging. Three unwed pregnant women in 1960s met in a maternity home in New Orleans and became friends even though they came from different backgrounds. They kept in touch even though they went back to their regular lives. Each chapter was told by a different character which can sometimes be confusing or disjointed but this was not.

In the last part of the story, there were a few too many coincidences to be believed but it didn’t ruin the story for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Admission Press for the opportunity to read this book.

An absolutely wonderful, heartbreaking story of what happened not all that long ago to women who were pregnant and unmarried. Your heart will break for the characters and for all of the unknown women who lived this.

No Names to be Given is a fictional narration of the stories of three women who meet in the most critical stage of their lives and get bound together by secrecy and everlasting friendship.

The story starts in 1965, times where pregnancy out of wedlock was taboo (still is in some places) and shameful. We take a roller coaster ride that spans over decades describing the pain of mothers who have been forced to give away their babies, by society, family and also by themselves.

I knew I had to read this book when the blurb stated - "Today's young women won't understand how our families made us feel shame so intensely we surrendered our first-born children to strangers. - Faith Reynolds. "

The book talks about child abuse, racial discrimination, adoption, fear and a sense of hopelessness that forces three women to change the course of their lives and the lives of their babies.

I would recommend it to readers who would like to know the challenges faced by unwed mothers and the consequences faced by them and their children in times where these situations were not only unforgivable but in some cases also punishable.

No Names to Be Given is a debut novel by the author, Julia Brewer Daily. Although fictional, the story is inspired by the author's own story who was adopted from a maternity home hospital in New Orleans. It also mirrors other adoption stories around 1960's.

I loved the author's writing style, the way the stories were laid out and presented in different parts.

It was easy to connect with the characters and albeit spanning over a long period of time, I was hooked till the very end.

No Names to Be Given is a page turner that'll keep you every bit in gut-wrenching agony right along with the three young unwed mothers. Against their will, according to their respective circumstances, they gave up their babies for adoption into anonymity. They would not even know if their baby was a boy or girl, nor were they allowed to even have a glimpse at their baby.

Follow these womens' journeys as they converge in the Maternity Home for Unwed Mothers and forged an unbreakable bond of trust, support, friendship and "family" throughout their months of pregnancy. They keep trust for the rest of their lives, where safe-guarding their secrets with utmost tenacity was paramount.

The story is set in the 1960's where the abject shame of an unwed mother (pregnant for whatever reason), would bring a highly respected family's reputation plummeting to ruin, or to the ruin of ones' own career. This reputation had to be kept at all costs even to the deep hurt, dismay and rejection of a loved one.

As the narrative progresses, the babies, now grown, surface and create another stir. Would those secrets be revealed and cause havoc?

Another element threaded throughout, was the black-white integration issues of the 1960's, and has great bearing upon the developments of the story. Despite being a work of fiction, Julia Daily has portrayed a very true-to-life storyline. She crafts her story with great credibility as she herself was adopted. Feelings associated with adoption run the gambit reality check of authenticity.

Included in this work of 307 pages are a list of celebrities who are/were known to have been adopted; a Book Club Question Study on adoption issues; and some family pictures.

This is a well worthwhile, thought-provoking read!

~Eunice C., - Reviewer/Blogger~
July 2021

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the review copy sent by the publisher.

<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/2f3597fd3b60c0b12061511c4a42f470cf85ac95" width="80" height="80" alt="10 Book Reviews" title="10 Book Reviews"/>

I enjoyed this story quite a bit. It’s the tale of three very young women brought together by one commonality. They’re all very young, unwed pregnant women. Not such a big deal in today’s world, but it was quite scandalous in the 1960s. Each has their own story to tell, their own reasons for making the difficult decision to give up their child. And so they find themselves sharing a house for unwed mothers, waiting out their pregnancies, dreading the time when they must leave the house and thus leave their children behind. Years later, their decisions haunt them in different ways and with different consequences.