Life has never been easy for Cinnamon Hayes and she has worked hard for everything she has in life - from her job, to her perfect husband. But all of that gets disrupted when a white teenage girl she has befriended leaves her a huge surprise: her baby. As Cinnamon takes the baby in and searches for Daisy, it begins to impact her entire life. Between the judgment she faces as a Black woman taking in a white baby and the lasting effects of her own childhood trauma, Cinnamon is dealing with a lot, but all she wants is to do what is best for the baby.

It took me a bit to get into this one, but once I did I was invested. The messages behind this book about motherhood, friendship and facing your trauma were done so well. There were many moments where I had to suspend reality, but if you can get past that this is a good book.

Thanks to Atria Books for the gifted copy.

I enjoyed the debut novel from this author duo, so that is part of what drew me in to this one. The other part was the premise. While there are many stories about white parents adopting black children, I don’t believe I’ve ever come across one where a Black woman wants to adopt a white baby. I loved the premise of this book, and the authors really follow through with a powerful, thought-provoking, and page turning story about motherhood, the foster care system, and racism.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Family comes in so many different shapes and sizes. There have been many books and shows about white people adopting children from different races and cultures. I found this book to be an interesting take with a black woman who wants to keep the abandoned white baby whose mother was a friend of hers. I was surprised to learn that white children actually make up the majority of foster care placements, for all the press to the contrary. From reading the blurb, I expected the birth mother to be more involved in the process, but she really didn’t show up until near the end of the book, though we did get some chapters with her POV in parallel to what was happening with her. I also felt the epilogue was a bit rushed to take us through an 18yr overview in a flash. Overall, I really enjoyed this book!
*Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advance copy for review.

You Were Always Mine tells the story of Cinnamon, a Black woman who was raised in the foster system, and Daisy, a young White girl who abandons her newborn for Cinnamon to take care of. The book explores several issues such as childhood trauma, abuse, foster care, racism, marital discord, friendship, and motherhood. The authors, Christine Pride and Jo Piazza, do such a good job on introducing situations involving racism and implicit bias that really make the reader think. This is an excellent book! Thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for the ARC of this five star-book.

The author duo has done it again!Another powerful story, this one centering around Daisy and Cinnamon. Both had had their fair share of life's hardships. Daisy, a 19 year old unexpectedly pregnant, fears her dreams are now at stake. Cinnamon, a Black woman, is not a mother. When she finds an abandoned white baby in a park and, for reasons the reader will both understand and question, brings this baby home and changes the course of her life forever. Daisy and Cinnamon, two women with as many similarities as they have differences, must come together for the sake of the baby that they both love and want the best for.

And that is what this book is about. What IS best for this child? Who gets to be a mother? Is motherhood a right? A privilege? A sacrifice? This is also about who we tell our whole truths to and why, forgivness, and race at the root of it all. It's so common to see a white family raising a Black baby, but for the reverse, society thinks surely that's the "help", not the mother. Pride and Piazza tackle a lot in a story that reads like a page turner but also contains depth.

A moving and heartfelt story about the love two women have for a baby and the courage it takes to fight for the ones you love. One white college student abandons her baby and a Black woman finds it, working hard to prove she is able to keep and foster the baby. Full of drama, this book does a great job addressing issues of class and race. Perfect for fans of authors like Celeste Ng or Jodi Picoult. Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

I didn't love this one. I thought the story was interesting--a Black woman named Cinnamon finds a white baby in the park, figures out it belongs to a young woman she would meet in the park to chat with, and decides to keep the baby. But the writing didn't hook me right away. I think it will be read by many people, I know the authors have a good writing reputation, but I haven't read them yet. However, it is heartwarming and I did feel for Cinnamon. She had a rough life and I wanted the best for her!

"You Were Always Mine" by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza weaves a complex and thought-provoking tale of motherhood, societal biases, and the influence of race on our perceptions. The authors place us in the life of Cinnamon, a resilient black woman who has managed to carve out a peaceful existence for herself despite a tumultuous past. However, her life is thrown into disarray when she finds an abandoned baby in a park, a child left behind by a young white woman named Daisy, whom she had befriended.

The narrative handles the topics of race and prejudice with frankness and honesty. As a reader, it was eye-opening to witness the struggles and judgments Cinnamon faced raising a white baby, with society instantly categorizing her as a nanny or, worse, a kidnapper. The authors do a commendable job shedding light on the complex foster system, childhood trauma, and the concept of privilege, delivering a challenging and engrossing narrative.

However, there were areas of the book that felt overworked. The frequent emphasis on the theme of racism, although central to the narrative, was sometimes repetitive and overt to the point of diminishing its impact. The authors' commendable endeavor to present a multi-dimensional picture occasionally led to an overabundance of subplots and lengthy chapters, which made the story somewhat challenging to follow. At times, the complexity distracted from the main narrative rather than enhancing it, leading to a sense of confusion.

"You Were Always Mine" is undeniably a significant contribution to contemporary fiction. It does not shy away from challenging discussions about race, privilege, and the meaning of motherhood. The strength of the characters and the gravity of the themes explored make it a book that is hard to put down. Despite the occasional lack of subtlety in the delivery and the convoluted subplots, it was an overall worthwhile read, mirroring society's unspoken biases. Therefore, I give it a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars for its bold narrative, relevant themes, and complex characters. Thanks to the authors, NetGalley and Atria books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise of the story and raises important questions about race and privilege and of course a huge issue of stereotypes and judgments we have as humans.

Cinnamon an African American woman who is a local counselor has lunch in a park and sees a caucasian baby with a note from the mother Daisy who is pleading for her to take in the child without question. I thought this was a little strange for Cinnamon to take in the baby with only have minimal contact with the mother Daisy.

Cinnamon takes in this child and tries to create a loving home for her. She eventually contacts the courts and involves the legal process of fostering and adopting. I have to be honest I've worked in foster care and adoption and know the legal process very well and this irritated me because everything was so completely wrong with the legal system. If you're going to use this in a book please do your research. The system is very dsyfunctional and the process can take YEARS.

I'm not sure where the author was trying to go with this one? I feel like a lot of it was hung up on a black woman taking in a white baby. Guess what ladies and gents this happens all the damn time and just because you're not the same race/background doesn't mean you can't provide a loving and safe family for this child.

I was pretty triggered in this book and it honestly wasn't for me since I'm a social worker and have so much experience working with different cultures, races, religions, ages, etc.

Overall, 2/5 stars.

Thanks to Atria for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Pub date: 6/13/23

Thank you to the authors Christine Pride and Jo Piazza, publishers Atria Books and Simon and Schuster, and as always NetGalley, for an advance digital copy of YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE.

The main female protagonist, Cinnamon, a married black woman without children, is very unhappy and totally awash. Her life began in trauma, a life which she now shares with a selfish husband and few if any friends or allies to help shoulder her burdens. She often finds herself drawn to call on her pastor "back home" whenever things get to be too much for her. She holds on to her affection for him for the simple fact he said to her as she grew up, and said often, "I love you." And now she's found a white baby, abandoned, whom she cares for and starts to call Bluebell. And though the entire civilized world seems to tell her that raising a white baby is improper, ludicrous, even immoral-- Cinnamon knows what she feels, her instinct to protect the child, and her knowledge of the secrets she carries, make the child her own.

This is a story about race in America as much as it is about a woman and a baby that each find family in the other. In many encounters and even passing encounters, Cinnamon is heavily racialized while carrying Bluebell with her. Everyone stares, wondering. "What's going on there exactly? Where's that baby's mother?" Even graver instances of racism and racialized behavior than this occur in this book, but the excessive unwanted attention Cinnamon receives everywhere she goes is such an important detail because it shows how common these are, how deeply entrenched in our society.

Here is my trigger warning for racism and racialization, child abandonment, foster system and adoption, mention of SA.

The first half of this book, I didn't find a pleasant read, as it establishes Cinnamon's state of mind, which isn't happy. But though I didn't enjoy it, the writing is excellent-- I could really feel her discomfort and ennui. She is a woman plagued by a historical lack of family. She needs validation, <i>craves</i> love. The writing brings us in very close to this anguish. In the second half, her world changes, and she changes with it. Tone, pace, everything changes in the second half of the book. Sort of like the mood shift one experiences when coming out of a depression.

All said, YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE is an excellent story, intentionally written, that for this reader, combined into a compelling read.

Rating: 👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻.5 / 5 white foster babies
Recommend? Please read this book
Finished: June 7 2023
Format: Advance Digital, NetGalley
Read this if you like:
👩‍👦 Stories about adoption and foster families
🤱 Stories about intergenerational trauma
👩🏾‍❤️‍👨🏿 Family drama
👤 Mental health rep
🗣 Internal monologue

Wow, this completely delivered. I was intrigued by the premise and was completely sucked in by the writing and the characters and the way the story played out. I found it surprisingly emotional, enjoyed this even more than their first book (Thank you for the early copy @netgalley and @atriabooks!)
 *
This deals with race issues in the context of adoption and foster care--when Cinnamon, a 35-year-old Black woman, discovers her young white friend Daisy abandoned a baby for Cinnamon to raise. Cinnamon would want nothing more, but faces challenges immediately with the system, with her husband, as well as with coming to terms with her own past. 
*
There's so much about this to love. For me it was the characters most of all. They're all real and flawed and sympathetic. I especially liked to see how they grew over the course of the book, and how the relationships changed over time. 
*
This really gives you a lot to think about it, and hits some really heavy themes - the importance (or lack thereof) of blood family vs a foster family, what makes someone cut out to be a parent, the racism inherent in the foster system, as well as all types of abuse. It's not an easy read but it's powerful.

The main character of this book, Cinnamon, is a woman in her 30s who has carved out a stable life for herself after a difficult childhood bouncing between foster homes - a past she has kept secret from everyone, even her husband and best friend. But her world is shaken up when she finds a newborn baby by the bench where she eats lunch every day - with a note asking her to take care of the baby. And she’s black and the baby is white. Interspersed with her narrative are occasional letters to the baby written by the young mother who left her for Cinnamon to find.

This was such a great book, exploring pretty deep and sad stuff and yet written with a light touch. Some of Cinnamon’s choices seem crazy, and yet they make perfect sense for her character, and it’s such an emotional journey.

I loved Christine Pride and Jo Piazza’s first book together, We Are Not Like Them, which o read with my book club, and this one would also make a great book club book because there is a lot to unpack! Glad I’m going to be discussing it with a few friends who are also reading it. It makes total sense that the book has a cover blurb from Jodi Picoult, because both of their books remind me of Picoult at her best, exploring hot button topics while at the same time creating indelible characters. I hope they keep writing together!

This one was an emotional roller coaster. I went from anger at Cinnamon for not walking into that police station, to heartbreak about her back story, back to legitimate rage every time Jayson was mentioned, to full on tears over little Bluebell. The epilogue had me sobbing. This was a little outside the scope of what I typically read but I really enjoyed it.

You Were Always Mine is the second novel by the duo of Christine Pride and Jo Piazza. I loved their first novel, We Are Not Like Them and was excited to have the opportunity to read this.

This novel is the story of two women, one in her late teens and one in her late thirties, one white and one Black, who become friends by chance. When Daisy becomes pregnant, she conceals it from everyone, including her friend Cinnamon. Daisy leaves her newborn with Cinnamon, entrusting her in Cinnamon’s care. But Cinnamon has been keeping some secrets of her own - and not just from Daisy.

Very well-written, the reader gets a deep look at Cinnamon and her strength of character. The issue of race is a large part of the story and an important aspect of it. Not always comfortable, but certainly meaningful. The novel was heartfelt with a cast of interesting characters and a good story.

Thank you to NetGalley, the authors and Simon & Schuster for the digital ARC!

Cinnamon Haynes’s childhood wasn’t easy, but she’s mostly content with the little life she’s carved out for herself as an adult. Married, a stable career at the community college, and daily lunch hours she spends reading in a quiet park. On Fridays, she spends that time with Daisy, a 19-year-old young woman with a similarly troubled upbringing. Except one Friday when Daisy doesn’t show up and the park’s tranquility is broken by the unexpected cry of an infant. Cinnamon discovers an abandoned newborn baby with a note in her carrier, “Please Cinnamon….” Cinnamon’s choice to take the baby home upends her world and will change her life forever.

This book is so hard to rate. It’s beautifully written and presents a number of thought-provoking themes on motherhood, race, and the foster care system. What does it mean to be a mother, and who gets to decide what and who a mother is? What happens when a Black woman mothers a white baby? Is the foster care system’s goal family reunification always what’s best for a child?

I would have liked a little deeper exploration of these topics, but it seems like the authors skimmed the surface on too many themes rather than really digging in on a few key ones. I also struggled to accept some of the plot points, which seemed improbable at best and occasionally flat-out illegal. Ultimately, I found myself frustrated with Cinnamon and just couldn’t get on board with the basic premise of the story: Cinnamon finding the baby, choosing to keep her rather than going to the authorities, and detonating her personal relationships as a result.

Although this book wasn’t for me, it would be a perfect choice for a book club discussion. Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

I DNFed this at about 29% and just went to the end to see the very predictable conclusion. I just found it really hard to care too much about these characters, and the writing style was so plain. I thought their first book was ok, but this kind of writing just does nothing for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance reader's copy of this novel.

After a tough life in foster care, Cinnamon now has a good job at a junior college. Her husband Jason has used all their savings to build a restaurant. She meets Daisy on a park bench and their Friday conversations bloom into a friendship. One Friday Daisy doesn’t show and Cinnamon finds a baby with a note behind their lunchtime bench. Daisy wants Cinnamon to care for her daughter. What should Cinnamon do? Her husband doesn’t want the baby and Cinnamon always thought she was unable to have children. Another detail, Cinnamon is black and Daisy and her daughter are white. The authors do a great job of providing the backstory for both women. Many details about the legal aspects of abandonment and the foster system are al explored. This was 4.5 stars for me. I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC. I highly recommend it.

This felt a bit like a Jodi Picoult book in that I kept waiting for something really ethically questionable to happen and it just never did. This felt slow and a bit boring at times; I liked the story but it felt longer than it needed to be.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Christine Pride and Jo Piazza's book "We Are Not Like Them" and its focus on Racial Dynamics. You Were Always Mine was another great look at a Black woman's experience with systems that are set up for white people, though in this case the lens was the foster care system. Cinnamon Haynes finds herself parenting a baby, after she herself grew up in foster care and hadn't planned on being a parent. This is only the first of many juxtaposing positions she finds herself in: a Black woman caring for a white baby, a married woman whose husband is not interested in joining her in fostering said baby, and a teen mother who wants Cinnamon to raise her baby, but whose racist grandparents want to raise the baby themselves.

As Cinnamon bonds with the baby and learns how to be a mother, she also learns to come to terms with her own past. The only complaints I had were that problems were resolved too quickly at the end, in an effort to finish the story. I felt that some of the lifelong turmoil was solved a bit too neatly. I would have expected some situations to have remained unresolved re: the grandparents' relationship, and Cinnamon's relationship with her aunt. This gave me some food for thought, though it wasn't as deeply felt for me as it was in the authors' previous novel. Still, this was a very good read!

Cinnamon Hayes is a black woman who works at a community college and loves her afternoon routine of eating lunch at a nearby park. She meets and befriends a girl named Daisy. One day, while waiting for her unusual friend, Cinnamon finds a white newborn baby at the park with a note from Daisy asking her to care for the baby.

The story follows Cinnamon and how everyone in her life reacts to her taking in this baby. Cinnamon grows to love the baby and does everything in her power to make sure the baby is well taken care of. Cinnamon has to make hard decisions and is forced to think of what she really wants in life.

This book covers many topics regarding racism, the foster care system, childhood trauma, abuse, privilege, and motherhood. The authors did a fantastic job of covering these difficult topics and bringing to light many important issues. I think this would be a great book club read because it opens up the discussion for many different topics.

I did like this book but I did feel like it was a little drawn out and it had many different side plots. The chapters were very long and had so many other plots, it was hard to follow at times.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria books for the ARC in exchange for a honest review.