This is a story of loss, betrayal and unimaginable heartbreak. For those looking for a mystery, this is not for you. This is a story, and an amazing but sad one at that. The emotion pouring through the pages was so strong, the author bringing this book to life with her superb writing style. This is one of those books that I felt myself in, watching everything unfold and knowing it has the potential to make a great movie. This was descriptive and informing, not holding back the realities of the past. This author is one to watch out for. Four and a half stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC.

Once again, author Meagan Church shines a light on a dark era in our history. The Baby Scoop Era refers to the period from 1945 to 1973 when an estimated 4 million unwed, pregnant women were sent to maternity homes. These women were hidden away from society, their friends and family and felt tremendous shame. They were often coerced or forced to give their babies away for adoption. By the 1960’s there were over 200 hundred of these homes across 44 states (statistics from author’s note). The numbers are astonishing and the impact on families and the women is likely still felt today. This is a powerful, emotional and devastating novel. It is frustrating to see all Lorraine’s dreams crushed because of one impulsive night. Clint, the disappearing boyfriend, is a terrible character but unfortunately probably rings true with teenage boys of that era. The positives of the story are buried within the story. Lorraine’s strength, determination and resilience is impressive for a young woman. Lorraine’s friendship and mentorship with the librarian is heartwarming. Their relationship gives Lorraine hope that she too can live a life different than her mother’s. The friendship between Alan and Lorraine is beautiful. Everyone needs a friend like Alan. He was funny, encouraging, positive and most of all accepting of Lorraine and loved her through it all. Her parents and relationship with her them are so difficult to read but reflects the time and attitudes of the time. All the characters are well developed, and Lorraine is a beautiful and strong young heroine.

The author found a dark cranny in our history and explores the devastating impact The Baby Scoop Era had on young women and families. It would have been nice to get an update on Clint and perhaps a look at Lorraine further out in time. The reader is left hoping Lorraine and Alan were both able to follow their dreams or that Lorraine was at least able to find a new dream and find some happiness. The author sums up this era perfectly in her author’s note. “As a society, we have too often erred on the side of conditional love and acceptance. May we do better now, and into the future. May we know and display grace, mercy, and love free of conditions.” Yes, we can do better.

THE GIRLS WE SENT AWAY
Meagan Church
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I loved the debut by Meagan Church and was thrilled to see that she had another book coming out!! This sophomore novel had my eyes riveted to the pages!! I devoured it!!!

1960s North Carolina. Lorraine is an only child and is the top of her high school class. She dreams of going to college and being an astronaut and going to the moon.

She is going into her senior of high school and her boyfriend Clint has gone off to college. Lorraine realizes she is pregnant and is trying to figure out his to do all of this on her own when her mom discovers her secret. Lorraine is sent off to a home for unwed teenage girls. This place is not a nice place at all!!! Lorraine does make some friends and enjoys her time at the library and is befriended by a librarian. What will happen to the baby?? What will happen to Lorraine??

This book is heartbreaking but also so well written and it captures your heart!! Highly recommend this book!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. So the summary and title of this book really made me excited to read it. I expected from the summary that there would be a bit of mystery with it and there wasn’t at all.
The book was ok but there was just nothing in it that I had expected to find. I kept reading expecting something to happen but nothing did. This one just wasn’t really for me.

1964 North Carolina

This definitely isn't a "feel good" type of novel. It does, however, paint a picture of life in the 1960s for a pregnant teen. My heart broke for Lorraine as her dreams of being the first female valedictorian at her high school and then attending college came crashing down. Lorraine has nothing against marriage and finds her boyfriend Clint ok, but what she really wants is to be an astronaut.

The most painful part of the novel was that Lorraine had so few allies. Her own parents didn't seem to care about how she felt and what she wanted. They simply wanted to hide her and move past the "problem" quickly.

While I didn't enjoy this sophomore novel as much as the author's debut, it's one I'd recommend for fans of General Market Women's Fiction.

Love the cover!

This book takes a heartbreaking time in history and lets you feel the shame women felt at being unwed and pregnant. I couldn’t put the book down . I felt so much empathy for the characters and wanted to climb into the pages to save them all. Absolutely could not put the book down !

Meagan Church is an author to keep your eye on for some great reads. Her writing shows the research and depth of emotion that she puts into each character. I had not realized at the time I was reading, that she was also the author of The Last Carolina Girl, another novel that I highly recommend. I look forward to seeing more by Ms. Church and think many others will appreciate her work.

Wow! I loved this book! 4.3 stars from me! This was my first Meagan Church book but certainly not my last.
It is the 1960's and Lorraine Delford is thriving! About to enter her senior year of high school and shoot for the stars, quite literally, she is a rising student. With dreams of prom, becoming Valedictorian and going to college, she has all the things going for her.
She is the only female lifeguard at the swim club, has a cute college boyfriend who loves her and has two supportive parents....
Until she doesn't. Until she casually has sex with her loving boyfriend who promises her all the things, including marriage down the road. Until she becomes pregnant and her supportive parents send her away to have the baby because they aren't so supportive but completely ashamed. Until that so called loving boyfriend wants nothing to do with his now pregnant girlfriend and wants to "fix" the problem instead.
Lorraine is amazing from beginning to end. Her character is strong and powerful and while a bit naive at times, she is confident, aware and shows such courage throughout.
I felt every movement in this book. My heart sank at the thought of her lousy boyfriend betraying her and her parents turning their backs. To live in a time where it was such taboo to be pregnant and not married sickens me. To think that it's not okay for a woman to raise a baby alone is baffling and honestly, as a mom of two, shows nothing but strength in my eyes!
Meagan Church's writing was so good. I read this in one sitting because I needed to know more. I wanted more. (I still do) I want to know Mirabelle's story and what happened. (DID SHE HAVE A GIRL?!) I loved the friendships formed and it felt real. Given they weren't able to give anything personal while sent away to this home to have their babies...I could feel the closeness even from a distance. These girls were roommates, but had to keep anything of the private lives, well private. Only sharing first names, and not letting them in much. But also, they were all each other had during the last few months of pregnancy.
This book was filled with compassion, great writing, interesting plot and a lot of after thought. Would make an awesome bookclub book!
Job well done!
Thank you to Netgally and Sourcebooks Landmark for this early release in exchange for my very honest opinion!

The Girls We Sent Away by Meagan Church

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

“She was starting to realize that if she was going to survive, she was going to have to save herself.”

I received this ebook via NetGalley in exchange for a review, it is due for publication March 5th 2024.
I decided to apply for this book as it hit close to home, I know of multiple instances similar to Lorraine’s story within my own family tree. My heart hurts for the historical accuracy in this work of fiction, but it’s also warmed with the hope that some reader may reach for this book and feel a companionship towards Lorraine’s story and feel understood.
Everything I want to say regarding this book feels like it will delve too much into spoiler territory, but one thing I will say is that I think everyone should read this book.



[SPOILERS]

I love that Alan and Lorraine’s friendship/relationship escalated. I wish Lorraine could have moved away and befriended Mirabelle and Denise after the births. I also wish we got to see her be a mother. Or even have an epilogue where one day Grace is at her door when Lorraines older telling her that shes her daughter. While this is all wishful thinking I also quite liked the ending and felt it was very realistic rather than a happier one.

I quite liked the setting of the book with Lorraine being brainy and working towards an academic life, yet at the same time being scolded for having a loose strap on her swim suit... This start of the story eased the reader further into the complicated layers of what was to become of this young woman who – until then – spoke her own mind and knew how to take care of herself.

And what a story The Girls We Sent Away turned out to be, with surprising plot twists making it all the more painful yet convincing, gave it a feeling of real life.

'When we take off the proverbial rose-colored glasses and look closely at our history, sometimes what we find shakes us. And it should.'

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.

Review: OH. MY. GOSH. What a heartbreaking but awesome book! I found myself continuing to read way past the times I give myself to read on my tablet because I wanted to know what happened next! Church did such a great job at bringing this story to life. I really felt like I was Lorraine while reading. I felt all her emotions throughout the entire book. I was transported into the story and just really felt what the characters were feeling. There were multiple POVs but they weren’t laid out in different chapters but were sprinkled in throughout each chapter. But Church did such a great job at transitioning that it didn’t take away from the story at all. I don’t typically like those types of books, but this one was so different that I loved it! I would definitely recommend getting this gem when it comes out. Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebooks for my advanced copy!!

Lorraine is growing up in Nortb Carolina in the 1960’s and Lorraine is a good girl. She gets good grades, is a life guard, lives with her nice parents in a house with a white picket fence. She has the perfect boyfriend and dreams of going to collage one day. But when she becomes pregnant she quickly learns she isn’t so different from those “other girls” when she is sent away to quietly have and give up her baby.
Heartbreaking. I have learned a bit about maternity homes over the years, more specifically in Canada but I didn’t know the 1960’s were referred to as the Baby Scoop Era. Very cleverly crafted, and written with an extreme amount of kindness and empathy to the girls who were sent away.
Thank you to @mchurchwriter @netgalley and @bookmarked for letting me review this book. Look for it March 5 2024.
#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #canadianbookstagram #thegirlswesentaway #womansstories #storiesthatmatter #readmore #readmorebooks #readersofinstagram #booksbooksbooks #booklover #bookreview #bookrecommendations

thanks netgalley for the arc!
this is a solid book. the characters felt real and their stories reflect the baby scoop during the 60s - it just really wasn't for me.
while the story was important and, I'm sure, accurate to what some of these girls went through, i found it really hard to get through. the writing lacked a bit of description and immersion for my liking, but the plot was strong.
i felt a lot of sympathy for the main character, lorraine, and the girls she met throughout the book. while the resolution to the book didn't end up with lorraine getting to keep her baby, she had something of a happy and hopeful ending which was gratifying!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and Netgalley for an ARC of The Girls We Sent Away by Meagan Church.

Meet Lorraine, on track to become valedictorian and with big dreams for her future, she has to learn that not all people have her best interests at heart when she becomes pregnant during the Baby Scoop Era.

Church's narrative is a bit too direct in its storytelling for my taste. The narrative is strewn with cliches and metaphors, and most chapters end with ominous bits of foreshadowing alluding to the same thing. It becomes too much as the message, morals and themes of the novel are spelled out for the reader over and over.

Church creates some compelling characters, but it seems some of the girls are only there to serve as cautionary tales, and not to be characters in their own right.

We mostly follow Lorraine's perspective, and while seeing other characters' perspectives at the beginning of some chapters added to the story, at other times it would switch for one paragraph and it seemed out of place and when convinient to fill in blanks that the reader could have filled in themselves.

While I think the novel has its shortcomings, there are also things that Church does really well. It's clear Lorraine doesn't see her situation as the same as the other girls in the story, but eventually she is forced to deal with the same dilemmas and worries as the rest of them.

Church also expertly depicts the inherent misogyny of the period, by having all the blame and responsibility for the pregnancy is placed on Lorraine, while the father gets to wash his hands of the situation and move on without having to worry about the practical and emotional consequences.

The ending had me worrying, ready to scream at the book, holding on and hoping for Lorraine. Church seems to have only scratched the surface of the subject, but she tells an important story. One that needs to be told again and again until no woman feels the inherited, unnecessary, ruinous shame of the women who came before her.

A girl who dreams of space travel finds herself pregnant as a high school senior… not only is her world turned upside down, but young Lorraine Delford quickly loses all autonomy when her parents send her to a home for pregnant teens, and unbeknownst to her, all decisions have already been made when it comes to her baby.

This book takes place in the 1960s and apparently, that was a “normal” occurrence, sending teenage mothers off to boarding homes to give birth in secret, saving their families from embarrassment, and giving babies up for adoption, in many cases, against the will of the mother.

This book had me actually sobbing, finding myself going to my children and hugging them tightly. My heart broke for Lorraine and the other girls in this story. I adore Lorraine, loving her tenacity, her drive and her passion. She was a wonderful young woman and I know she will stick with me for a long, long time.

Set in the 1960s. This book was heart breaking. I was aware of what happened to unwed mothers but reading about it was an entirely different thing. I do wish we had more detail in parts of the story, but it was so well written! Gut wrenching but so good at the same time. It's a must read and Meagan Church will become a must read author for me!
Thank you netgalley for a copy of the book in exchange for my review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.

What a good book. In the 1960s young woman could, and would, have their babies taken away without their permission. Or, they'd be "sent away" to go through the pregnancy and delivery; then giving the baby away.
Reading this book, I couldn't help but think about how we could get back to this time. In this case, it was interesting because she had a future; but many times these girls do not. Lorraine the main character in this novel, had everything that she could possibly want - until she didn't. Dealing with an out of wedlock pregnancy at a time when such occurrences were simply not discussed, Lorraine was sent away to bear her child and then give it up for adoption. While this story took place during the Baby Scoop era This is the type of book I love to see in historical fiction. It brings the past to life in a way that makes one want to look deeper. I thank the author for that.
Thank you to Sourcebooks/Landmark and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

What a gripping read. I've heard of the Baby Scoop Era (that took place from the late 1940s to 1970s), a time in which many unmarried, pregnant women were pressured (or forced) to give up their babies for adoption, but this was the first novel I've read more deeply exploring that time. I found it really powerful and emotional.

Synopsis: Lorraine Delford is a young woman with a bright future - she's an aspiring high school valedictorian who dreams of becoming an astronaut. She seemingly has an idyllic family, home life, and young love in her boyfriend, Clint. Before leaving for college, Clint offers a promise ring to Lorraine in an epic romantic gesture, and Lorraine becomes pregnant. But at a time when Lorraine thinks Clint means his lifelong commitment, he abandons her, and even further, her parents send her to an unwed mother's home to conceal her daughter and avoid shame in public. Here, Lorraine struggles with the decision to give up her baby to continue on the path to a high school and college degree and a successful career or listen to the growing affection she feels for the human she's growing in her body - can she have it all?

Without offering spoilers, I'll say that the scene in the hospital in which Lorraine gets the opportunity to hold her baby because of the mistake of a nurse, and then another nurse barging in to grab her baby from her arms, is one of the more emotional I've read in my life - I was immediately placed in that hospital room and could feel the agony that Lorraine felt. I do not often feel that level of connection to characters and the story as I'm reading a novel.

The reason for the 4 stars - I wish we had more "meat" at the end of the book - felt rushed. There wasn't much closure, which wasn't necessarily expected as it's clear that the longing Lorraine felt for her child does not go away - but it would have been nice to hear more about how she and Alan went from friends to more or even an update into Clint - if there was ever a moment where he and Lorraine ran into each other, if he ever felt any guilt around his decisions, etc. It just peeved me that Clint and his awful behavior were just swept under the rug and never really addressed. We got to know sub-characters so well, a few of the young women in the unwed mothers' home, and it would have been great to hear what happened to them. I'm also aware that's part of what happens in those situations - you are housed with women in the last three months of their pregnancies, they are rushed to the hospital to give birth, and you don't know what happens to them. But a deeper epilogue would have been appreciated.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lorraine, the main character in this novel, had everything that she could possibly want - until she didn't. Dealing with an out of wedlock pregnancy at a time when such occurrences were simply not discussed, Lorraine was sent away to bear her child and then give it up for adoption. While this story took place during the Baby Scoop era of the 1960's, it sheds a light on the problems of unwanted pregnancy today. A lack of psychological support, as well as financial support took away Lorraine's ability to choose for herself. Certainly, as we debate abortion and women's rights in our society today, we need to consider these challenges. This was a well-written novel of historical fiction that highlights the complexity of these issues. Meagan Church did not prescribe a blanket solution to the problem of unwanted pregnancy, but she did help her readers to understand the emotions of those who experience this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
So the summary and title of this book really made me excited to read it.
I expected from the summary that there would be a bit of mystery with it and there wasn’t at all.
The book was ok but there was just nothing in it that I had expected to find. I kept reading expecting something to happen but nothing did.
This one just wasn’t really for me.