This was really good! I feel that the author really pulled me into Lorraine's story, and I was very invested in what happened to her. The author also did a great job of representing the Baby Scoop Era from all sides and perspectives. Really well done. My only critique would be that the end felt a little incomplete. I wanted a little more about the main character.

Thank you @bookmarked @netgalley and @recordedbooks for the complimentary ARC & ALC.

Many times people have asked a QOTD along the lines of who was a character you really related to, and I’ve never had an answer… until now. I saw so much of myself in Lorraine, high school senior straight A student, college bound and suddenly being forced to leave school. There is where our stories diverge. I had the support of my family, and Lorraine was sent to a maternity home to hide her pregnancy.

I was completely engrossed in this book from start to finish. My heart broke for Lorraine and for all girls that were sent to those homes! Decisions were made for, and about them, without once ever talking to them. I cannot begin to fathom how you recover from such trauma.

I mostly listened to this book, the narrator Susan Bennet was the perfect voice for Lorraine, but I’m so glad that I also had a physical copy because the audio did not include the author’s note. I knew about these maternity homes before but I had no idea as to the scale of it. I also didn’t know about The Baby Scoop Era which lasted from 1945-1973! An estimated four million women were sent to these homes. Four million! Knowing there were so many other stories like Lorraine and the other girls at the home just made this story hit home even more.

Meagan Church's "The Girls We Sent Away" is a poignant exploration, skillfully crafted and meticulously researched. It delves into the lives of young girls whose fates were shaped by the suffocating confines of societal norms and expectations. Often left to navigate their pregnancies and childbirth alone, these girls grapple with naivety and the absence of crucial maternal guidance, shrouded in a society where certain topics remain taboo.

The narrative poignantly reflects the injustice endured by women, whose actions are branded scandalous while men escape consequence. Lorraine's story particularly resonates, as she bears the weight of her circumstances with admirable resilience. As a mother myself, I found it challenging to comprehend the decisions and priorities of Lorraine's parents, who seemingly placed the opinions of their social circle above their daughter's well-being.

Though set in a different era, the underlying message remains timeless: a parent's duty is to prioritize their child above societal expectations. Despite the heartache and injustice depicted, Church's storytelling captivates, urging readers to reflect on themes of empathy, resilience, and the enduring power of familial bonds. "The Girls We Sent Away" is a compelling read that I wholeheartedly recommend.

Wow, what a heartbreaking story. It was incredibly well written and researched. The characters were real and the story was moving. I switched between the audio and e version of this, and they were both wonderful. The history of pregnant girls during a time when this was not accepted created emotional turmoil for not only the pregnant girl but her family and friends. At times a very difficult, although well written book - the tears were flowing and I was on an emotional roller coaster throughout. An important story and piece of history - one that we should not forget.
Thank you Netgalleyfor my advanced reader copies.

Growing up in the 60's I never knew of the "baby scoop area" too young to realize what was going on around me and hearing "whispers" about those girls who got themselves in trouble as most would refer to them as. . I found this book informative, heartbreaking and also heartwarming all at the same time... to give an amazing voice to Lorraine and a platform to understand what had gone on during those times. .. is truly amazing.. Thank you Meagan for bring this all to light. I loved your author notes and what "sparked" you to write Lorraine's story. And I have highlighted an amazing passage that will stay with me for a long time " Sometimes surviving means finding the strength to pick up the remnants of shattered dreams and piece together a mosaic of new ones, a continual work in progress, a constant decision to put one foot in front of the other, to fight against gravity, and keep moving forward. Again Meagan thank you for such powerful words and such an incredible book!

Wow, Church has established herself as an author that is determined to shine light on the murky, ugly underbelly of pregnancy in the 1960s.Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebooks for my early copies of THE GIRLS WE SENT AWAY, which is out now!

This sophomoric novel follows Lorraine, a girl that is set to be valedictorian of her graduating class and has big dreams of NASA and space. Unfortunately, in class 1960s style, she is socked away into a girls’ home while she carries her unwed pregnancy to term. I applauded and cheered as Lorraine continued to learn and grow as a smart young woman, I cried tears for those around her and their immeasurable loss, and I just wanted to jump into this book and give her a big hug and tell her it will be okay.

Church has gone and written a novel that is as good, if not better, than her first novel! Well done!!

Love it, highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys historical fiction, strong FMCs, NASA and the space race, plus the 1960s as a setting.

This one was good, but I honestly wanted to like it more. I felt a bit lost and unable to connect with the characters. This plotline makes me sad too. I cannot believe this is how was treated (yikes still treat?) women. The writing is engaging and nicely done. I just personally couldn’t connect. I do recommend this though as it’s an extremely important topic to bring awareness to.

I received a copy from NetGalley for review.

I ate this book up once I got into it. It made me super uncomfortable though since books with pregnancy I tend to stay away from. I think it's a heart wrenching read that pulls on your heart strings. Lorraine deserved so much better in the end and if this took place now she'd be so right in going no contact with her shitty parents.

"Strength isn't in the loud and obvious. Strength is often camouflaged in the quiet, reserved places where most people wouldn't think to look. It's grown in the moments when we give up things along the way."

"Sometimes surviving means finding the strength to pick up the remnants of shattered dreams and piece together a mosaic of new ones, a continual work in progress, a constant decision to put one foot in front of the other, to fight against gravity, and keep moving forward."

Oh damn here I am crying !!!! Sobbing to be more exact.

The Baby Scoop Era refers to the period of time from 1945 to 1973 when an estimated four million unwed pregnant women were sent to maternity homes, which could result in coerced or even forced surrender of their children.

I can't find the words to describe how I feel after reading this book. As a mom, I'm broken in so many pieces. As a reader, I can just clap standing up and say this book goes directly to my five stars reads this month and probably the year. What an incredible story and to think there were many girls out there in the US living this! It breaks my heart.

This kind of stories are reminders of why we riot and why we fight. What a hard thing it is to be a woman no? We need to keep raising our voice and I'm so happy there's writers who won't stop telling the truth and the stories of all this girls. We shouldn't simply forget!!!!

Go read this one!

The Girls We Sent Away, an emotionally moving saga set in North Carolina during the 1960’s, follows the life of high school senior Lorraine Delford, a bright young woman on track to become the first female valedictorian at her school. She has big plans for college and then perhaps to become the first woman in space. But one night, following a kiss and a promise, Lorraine has one regrettable lapse of judgement, and it changes everything for her. Her parents send her to a home for wayward girls, a place to fix it, to give birth, and then to put this all behind her. With her dreams in shattered pieces, Lorraine finds that she is still the fierce woman that she has always been. With determination, she scoops up the scattered remnants and pieces them into a new design. And then she keeps moving. Lorraine shines as the heroine of her own story.

Meagan Church’s tale is a work of fiction, but Lorraine Delford’s story is the truthful account of many young women. I grew up during this time, the Baby Scoop Era, and I knew them, my friends, young girls like Lorraine, who fell hard for the charms of a steady guy who professed his love for her. And in one moment of weakness and indiscretion, the women’s lives were changed forever, while the men went on to accept scholarships, play collegiate sports, and earn a degree.

Meagan Church’s writing is some of the truest prose that I have ever read. She evokes emotions that are authentic for each of her characters. How well she describes these young mothers-to-be, some scared, hopeless, and vulnerable while others are strong and determined. This is a tender and heart-wrenching story, with every element that touches us so deeply, of motherhood, of family expectations, of lost dreams, and of unspeakable sorrow. And yet, this is not a depressing book but one that is full of hope and promise. We are left with the reminder of the women who went before us, grateful for the hard roads they walked and the shame they endured so that we might have the freedom to make our own choices. This is a story that needed to be told, and I applaud Meagon Church for doing it so well.

Beautifully written and so timely: if you say you are Pro-Life then what do you intend to do for the mother as well as the child? Previously, women were whisked away to have these children secretly and then ushered back to society and told to act as if nothing happened. But if you hide things from the light they eventually have a way of coming out in due time anyway. I loved this story as I was actively writing a thesis on Postpartum Depression and Anxiety while reading this book and it allowed me to yet explore one more theme (of many) that may allude to later onset of such things. Meagan Church writes beautiful, timely, and unique novels that dare to go to places previously left unexplored and I look forward to reading more by this author!

Thank you Net Galley & Source books for the eARC of this book. This story was heartbreaking & thought provoking while also maddening. The societal pressure on women as men just skate right on by left me wanting to scream. But I just felt that the writing gave no connection to the main character whatsoever. While the story was heartbreaking, I felt it for all women, not specifically Lorraine. It felt like there was a disconnect in the story and I wanted so badly to feel and empathize and root for her but there was just something missing for me that made the story feel bland or flat.

Lorraine Delford has it all: an upstanding family in North Carolina, she is expected to be the first female valedictorian of her senior class, she has a nice boyfriend, friends and wants to be an astronaut. However, all of that changes after one night with her boyfriend before he heads off to college leaves her pregnant. Having a baby out of wedlock is a shameful thing in 1960’s North Carolina and her parents will do anything to hide this from their neighbor and save the family’s reputation.

Lorraine is sent to a maternity home for wayward girls. The home has strict rules and only first names can be used and no personal history can be shared. The girls are pressured into signing away their parental rights and given etiquette lessons so that they can leave and go back to their old lives, marry, run a household and forget this ever happened.

This book was well written and pulled me right in to the story and the time period. Lorraine is a naive, likeable teenager who made a mistake, paid a high price by being isolated from her family, shamed and she lost everything she had worked for academically. Pregnant teens could not return to school.

The Girls We Sent Away was published on March 5, 2024. Thanks to NeGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advanced reading copy.

I loved Meagan Church’s first novel, The Last Carolina Girl, so when I saw The Girls We Sent Away- I had to read it. It was so good, I highly recommend it. I wish I could find more books like this. It is very well-written with a sympathetic main character that we, the readers, get invested in and want to see her thrive. And the period, 1960’s- I don’t see nearly enough books that take place during that time in history. Everything all together resulted in a historical fiction story that I read quickly.

Synopsis:

It’s the 1960s and Lorraine Delford has it all – an upstanding family, a perfect boyfriend, and a white picket fence home in North Carolina. Yet every time she looks through her father’s telescope, she dreams of the stars. It’s ambitious, but Lorraine has always been exceptional.

But when this darling girl-next-door gets pregnant, she’s forced to learn firsthand the realities that keep women grounded.

To hide their daughter’s secret shame, the Delfords send Lorraine to a maternity home for wayward girls. But this is no safe haven – it’s a house with dark secrets and suffocating rules. And as Lorraine begins to piece together a new vision for her life, she must decide if she can fight against the powers that aim to take her child or submit to the rules of a society she once admired.

This is out now!

This is the type of historical fiction I enjoy. Nothing about war in the plot at all. Instead, we have Lorraine, who is in love with her boyfriend Clint. They lose their virginity to each other before he goes off to college. Months after he leaves, Lorraine realizes she is a pregnant senior in high school. It is the 1960’s so this is not acceptable in any way, shape or form. Lorraine’s parents make the decision to send her to an Unwed Mother’s home where she spends her last trimester and gives birth before returning home.

This book infuriated me because the girls were given zero options. They were told what was going to happen and that was that. No one thought of the emotional state the girls would be in after they leave without their baby. Having to pretend to the rest of the world that it never happened. I cannot imagine. It is truly heartbreaking. The only sort of gripe I have with this one is that it is all told in third person, but it weaves through each character’s thoughts every so many paragraphs without warning. So sometimes I would think I am reading Lorraine’s pov but it would turn out to be the librarian’s (for example.)

This book hurt my heart and made me so angry. It's 1964, and Lorraine Delford is looking forward to her last year of high-school, to becoming her schools first female valedictorian, and then heading off to college. But, all that changes when she becomes pregnant and her boyfriend, who is already off at college, tells her she's on her own.

Lorraine is sent off to a home for unwed mothers. My heart ached for her as her parents sent her off without any loving or kind words. Meanwhile, the father of the baby is at college, planning a date with another girl, without a care in the world. The absolute unfairness of it all is so infuriating.

This book is fiction, but it's based on real events. For a period of time, it was common that young unwed mothers were sent away to homes to have their babies and, oftentimes, were forced into giving up those babies. Then, these young women were expected to go back to life as normal and just forget that their families had abandoned them in these homes, hiding them from the world. They were supposed to forget the shame they were made to feel, the babies they had to give up.

Overall, this was just a terrible period in history for young pregnant women. The scene where Lorraine went into labour and she laboured alone in the hospital with no one to provide her support and words of comfort brought me to tears, not even kindness from the nurses and doctors.

The Girls We Sent Away felt like a scathing rebuke of the way young unwed mothers were treated in our history. I highly recommend this book. I think it's important for us to understand our history so we don't repeat the bad parts. And this story was absolutely unputdownable!

What an emotional story about homes for unwed mothers. The author depicts these situations so well, and deals with the unfairness that these young women dealt with.

This book is a good example of one of the reasons I have learned to love historical fiction. The Girls We Sent Away transports us back to a time when so many things were hidden- including teenage out of wedlock pregnancy. Lorraine was a good girl in the 1960's who did everything right. Excellent student, valedictorian, over achiever in almost every way, until she got pregnant. Her family reacted the way so many did at the time and went to extreme measures to hide the whole thing.
Thanks to the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lorraine is a young girl in the neighborhood who is on track to be her school's valedictorian and attend college. Her parents have high expectations and follow social standards, so when she gets pregnant by her college boyfriend, her world falls apart. Her parents send her away to hide the shame of her pregnancy. Throughout this book, we get a glimpse as to why other girls were sent to this group home and the effects of teen pregnancy on their lives and mental health. This book was interesting in the beginning but lost steam towards the end. I wish we had heard more from the boyfriend and had some interaction after she returned from the group home. The ending was cute, but I wish there was more action leading up to her arrival or once she got home. Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC of this book in exchange for my opinion.

In book news, I recently read Girls We Sent Away. It was the story of Lorraine, a teenager in the south in the 1960s who was sent away to a home after becoming pregnant with her boyfriend’s baby. This story was gripping and so emotional. Looking at Lorraine who was the valedictorian of her class with aspirations of being an astronaut being treated as she has done something so wrong and having all of her dreams stripped away was heartbreaking. How the girls and women were treated was horrific, completely abandoned and let down by everyone in their lives was heavy but also kept me fixated. I loved the relationships among the girls at the home and glimpses of hope for them after the strength of being together. It was so important to see how women were treated to ensure and fight to make sure that we never end up there again.