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.
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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.

The title sucked me in right away, and to be honest I thought this was going to be more of a mystery or at least suspenseful in nature. It was none of those things. In fact it was just a tragic heartbreaking story of what happened to young girls during the Baby Scoop Era (starting after the end of World War II and ending in the early 1970s, lots of unwed pregnancies and a high rate of adoption, many homes were set up where girls could be sent off to birth their babies often forced to give them up for adoption so they could return to their life without the "shame")
When I shifted my perspective a focused more on the reality of the situation our main character Lorraine was facing I better understood the book, than when I had my mystery/suspense noggin on.

Lorraine the "good girl" was on the road to becoming valedvictorian (obviously I was not the validvictorian in my class as I cannot spell it despite my numerous retype attempts) and then off to college to study the stars and moon. She is even dating the boy her parents want her to, naivee and innocent she makes a bad decision with the right guy which turns out to be the choice that alters her life forever. Her parents are mortified by her situation and ship her off to one of these homes for young women.

The story unfolds piece by piece of Lorraine documenting her time there. Church not only describes the physical burden the pregnancy brought, but also the intense psychological and emotional games the house mother played with the girls. The girls were vulnerable, isolated from their families and had very little pleasures in life.
I found myself wanting to run to wherever this home was, fling open the door and surround her with loving caring people. Her whole life Lorraine had been treated with such a cold shoulder she did not know love or kindness.
There were moments of hope for Lorraine, but in the end seeing how her experience at the home changed her and her concept of love was stunning.

Now, all that being said, when I finished the book I ached for Lorraine, which is exactly what Church I believe was trying to convey in this novel. The truth behind the Baby Scoop surely is unimaginable. earlier this. year I read The House of Eve by Sadequa Johnson (Do your self a favor and read that ASAP) which also addresses unwed women being sent to homes so their babies could be given for adoption , I enjoyed Johnsons take on the matter more because I liked the characters and plot . This book was a bit long winded and at moments had strong feminist opinions that I do not agree with. This book does not wrap up nice and pretty, there is still some meat left to chew for sure. I do not like how authors, this one included, make Christians out to be. Always stiff, ruthless, hypocrits.

I am giving this book an overall good rating just because I am surprised at how deep to the core Church was able to get me to feel. I am not an emotional person, but whoa, it was a heavy weight. I enjoyed the plot quite a bit and hope to read more novels by this author in the future. I read her debut author and enjoyed Carolina Girl, she is clearly a great writer.

Thank you Megan Church and Netgalley for this advanced copy read of The Girls We Sent Away. I was not influenced or paid for my honest opinion of this book. I look forward to this book being published in 2024.

This is the second time Meagan Church has broken my heart. If anything, this book hurt me more than her first novel. Lorraine is the perfect girl-next-door in every way. She has big dreams for her future and a boyfriend who, if he isn't the love of her life, is at least stable and loving. When she winds up pregnant, however, her perfect life comes crashing down. This book turns a spotlight on maternity homes during the 60s. This was something I'd heard of, but never knew much about. Church writes a set of very flawed but sympathetic characters, and details some of the most tragic and heartbreaking circumstances young girls ever had to endure. I finished this book in only a few days, completely engrossed by the story and the superb writing. I highly recommend this beautiful book to lovers of historical fiction, especially focused on women's history.

I absolutely loved this book even though the subject matter was difficult to digest at times. The story is about a high school senior and a pregnancy that her parents wish to cover up. A similar thing happened to my mother before I was born so this book was relatable to what she's discussed with me. The way Church wrote the characters and drew similarities from circumstances occurring at the same time was inventive. I appreciated how the emotions flowed from one chapter to the next. I couldn't put the book down. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars.

I found this book so good that I had a hard time putting it down. This was a story of a young girl who seemingly had it all until one night changed her life forever. You will have to keep reminding yourself that it takes place in 1964 or you will get frustrated with the main character Lorraine. I would have rated it five stars if we could have seen the outcome of Lorraine's life in the future. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Girls We Sent Away is poignant, riveting and deeply moving. I was totally enraptured. At the heart of the plot is the 'Baby Scoop Era", a dark part of history not often spoken of, and most would prefer left buried. Meagan Church's story telling solicits empathy for her characters while making you question how things were dealt with in the past compared to how we currently handle unwed mothers. It was easy to love Lorraine and feel rage at how she was treated by all; even her parents, especially after finding out she had actually followed in their footsteps. Considering the trials women have suffered, and even thrived despite how we have been treated is a true testament to our triumph.

Switching POVs between chapters, and sometimes within paragraphs was a little off putting for me and made it harder to follow. It would have been nice if this was done with clear delineations. However, the story was so rich it didn't deter me from continuing till the end.

I'll happily add Meagan Church to my list of 'best authors to follow/read'. Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebook Landmark for this ARC. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

I read this novel in a day!
Oh how times have changed!
In the sixties, young girls finding themselves with child, were hidden and sent to deliver their infants in a cold, hard hospital after spending time in a facility for unwed mothers to be.
When Lorraine, a senior in high school, learns she is pregnant, she can only wonder if her dreams will ever come true. Can she graduate school and go to college?
She enters a home for unwed mothers to deliver her baby and "Move forward with her life".
This is facilitated by her parents who are so disappointed in their only child. There were so many plans and goals for their daughter.
Will Lorraine take the advice of her Mom, Dad and people at this home to deliver the child and then be done with this "problem"?
I remember (without dating myself) these days back then and what a horror it was to find a friend or family member "in this way". This story is depicted so very well and well done!
Thank you to @Netgalley and to @Sourcebook Landmark for this ARC and allowing me to read and provide my own review.

It’s 1964 and Lorraine Delford is pregnant. She’s not supposed to be. She’s supposed to be the first female Valedictorian of her high school class. She’s supposed to be preparing to go to college to study science. She’s hoping to fulfill her dreams of becoming an astronaut. But she’s pregnant and, in 1964, there’s only one solution. Hiding in the back seat of their car, Lorraine is driven to a home for unwed mothers by her ashamed father. This will be her home until she gives birth. “Home” implies warmth and caring but Lorraine finds none here. There are chores, lessons in table setting and loneliness. After three months, Lorraine gives birth to a daughter who she loves. The baby is taken from her and put up for adoption and Lorraine returns to her parents’ house to resume her life.

The Girls We Sent Away makes you wish for another ending but there were no choices for Lorraine in 1964. Today she would have been allowed to graduate with her class. College and single motherhood would be options. We no longer live in the Baby Scoop Era when young women were forced to give up their babies. All of this is too late for Lorraine Delford, a vivid character who will haunt you long after you read the final page of this remarkable novel. S stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and Meagan Church for this ARC.

The Girls We Sent Away is a quick read and a good example of historical fiction. In 1964, 17 year old Lorraine’s life is unfolding just the way she planned it. She is the first female lifeguard at the municipal pool, she is on track to be named valedictorian her upcoming senior year and she has a sweet, if somewhat boring steady boyfriend. Clint, the boyfriend, is leaving for college and he plans a special date for Lorraine. The date ends in her losing virginity. Clint leaves for college and she starts her senior year and finds herself pregnant.
Themes of incest, date rape, abandonment and redemption.

3.5 stars
We are back in the 1960s. Lorraine is a really smart girl; she is about to be the valedictorian. But then Clint, her boyfriend, gets her pregnant. This is absolutely not done, and next to the fact that Lorraine now has to give up her school career, Clint also decides that he did not sign up for this and leaves Lorraine behind. Her parents do not agree with this, as it would ruin their social status, and thus, Lorraine is sent away to a maternity home for wayward girls.

The fact that this storyline has actually happened in real life has me shaken. I cannot even imagine my parents doing something like this to me. While reading, I felt so bad for all the girls. She got betrayed by so many people; how can she even form any new relationships after this ever again? I do think it is really important that stories like these get told. Entire generations had to suffer, and in comparison, we have an extremely good life now as women (still not perfect, though). The writing was done very well, I was intrigued to keep reading the entire time. I constantly felt that urge to figure out what was happening next. I still really want to know how everything ended. I need Lorraine to be the happiest woman she can be.