UPDATE: $2.99 Kindle US 11/3/20My book won the GR 2017 award. Yay! Wow! This book was really sad and had a happy ending at least. I had no idea this was a place and it breaks my heart 😢This is written in the front of the book: For the hundreds who vanished and for the thousands who didn't. May your stories not be forgotten. For those who help today's orphans find forever homes. May you always know the valueof your work and your love.This book is about the Foss children. They are fictional in the...

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate is a 2017 Ballantine Books publication. This is an amazing, heart wrenching story centered around the true events involving the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. When Avery Stafford, the daughter of a prominent Senator stumbles upon the possibility her grandmother is harboring a dark family secret, she nearly becomes obsessed with her mission to uncover the truth. The story flashes back to 1939, when Rill Foss and her siblings are snatched from their poor Mi...

The events these two have weathered make me marvel. This is what's possible when love is real and strong, when people are devoted to one another, when they'll sacrifice anything to be together. This is what I want for myself, but I sometimes wonder if it's possible for our modern generation. We're so distracted, so... busy.Glancing down at my engagement ring, I think, Elliot and I have what it takes. We know each other so well. We've always been side by side...The birthday girl slowly pushes her...

No matter how many stories are told or books written, it seems there is a neverending supply of man's inhumanity to others still to be told. The culture, silence and greed necessary to let this type of evil perpetuate and grow. The Tennessee Children's society is the focus of this novel, harm against the helpless and most vulnerable among us and the poor who did not have the resources necessary to fight back. Hidden within plain sight, this place flourished in it's cruelty and money making by th...

But the love of sisters needs no words. It does not depend on memories, or mementos, or proof. It runs as deep as a heartbeat. It is as ever present as a pulse. I still maintain that The Heart's Invisible Furies and Pachinko were more deserving of the Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction, but I can definitely see why Before We Were Yours has had such an emotional impact on readers.Comparisons to Orphan Train make a lot of sense. The pacing and structure of both stories are similar, a

I absolutely loved this heartbreakingly beautiful piece of writing! I'd give this book 10 stars if I could! "Before We Were Yours" by Lisa Wingate grabbed me from the very beginning, tossed my emotions around like a salad, and never let go! I didn't want it to end. I listened to the audio version! Both narrators deserve huge props for their performances! I actually think this novel was enhanced by the superb narration! There are two storylines going on in this novel, one in 1939 and one is prese...

Rating 3.5OK, so I'm going to be the party pooper on this one.......I liked this one, but didn't love it. There were things I really liked about it and other things that drug it down a bit for me (hence, a 3.5 rating). So I'll try to list a few here.First, the story. I think just about everyone knows this story. I'm sure I'm the last to read and review. A historical fiction read that has headlines plucked from the real world. Two dual stories told in alternating times between Memphis, Tennessee

4.5 stars! What a heart-wrenching, powerful and emotional read!I’ll start by explaining that ever since I laid eyes on this cover a few months ago, I haven’t stopped thinking of this book. There is just something about this cover that calls to me and makes me want to reach into the picture to hug and comfort these two little girls. I have never had a book cover ‘speak’ to me as powerfully as this one does. With that being said, I was so happy that the actual story lived up to my hopes from the c...

Oh. My. Goodness. What a great read..... If you're ready for a story you can really sink your teeth into with characters that virtually come to life, here you go. "Adoption matron may have been most prolific serial killer." BEFORE WE WERE YOURS takes the reader on a heartbreaking, but mesmerizing journey depicting shocking truths about the real life Tennessee Children's Home Society that was active from the 1920's thru 1950.....an organization that basically schemed, lied, kidnapped and broker...

While this novel is based on historical events and real persons who existed in Tennessee in the first half of the 20th century, preying on poor families and their children, I found that I had great difficulty relating to it, primarily because of the contemporary story and the primary protagonist. My thoughts vary on this book. Some aspects are well done and the expose of the decades-long adoption ring in Memphis is both interesting and abhorrent. But the total presentation still bothers me, part...

'Before We Were Yours' is a highly emotional and moving fictional story, inspired by true events. Through the telling of this story, Lisa Wingate sheds light on the despicable real life actions of Georgia Tann, a woman that ran a black market child trafficking ring masked as a legitimate adoption agency for decades in Tennessee. She catered to the rich and famous, providing largely blond-haired and light-eyed children to those that could afford to pay her outrageous price. She made millions off

Sometimes a story must be told. Sometimes when the average rating for a book by 65, 652 people is 4.39...we are foolish to not read it. Sometime books rated high - are Goodreads Choice Winners - really ‘are’ heartbreaking- beautiful- emotional - important - historical - powerful - eye opening - educational - ( based on real life scandals) - wonderful and compelling.Sad with a happy ending! Like many have said —- I am glad I read it. The horrors were gut-wrenching - no other way to say it The few...

Before We Were Yours by Lisa WingateHeartache, agony, meanness, and cruelty.One of the hardest books I have ever read. The topic in the book is disturbing and It is especially compelling because it is based on something that actually happened. This is a book that will fill you with shame for what society did to its children. I want a pain that has a beginning and an end, not one that goes on forever and cuts all the way to the bone. Unthinkable.

I don't read a lot of non fiction so I really appreciate when a novel can enlighten me on things that happened that I wouldn't have otherwise known about . As in Orphan Train when I first learned about their existence or in What She Left Behind, which highlights the atrocities of a mental institution and in particular the treatment of women, this story inspired by real events relays the sad story of a family torn apart by the greed and horrible acts against children and their families. The autho...

4 Stars.A Disturbing, Heart-wrenching & Powerful Piece of Historical Fiction.Before We Were Yours is a story about families torn apart by Social Injustice. Told from two different points of view: Rill, now known as May, who experienced horrors most of us can’t even begin to imagine; and Avery, a former Federal Prosecutor and the Daughter of a Senator, who feels the need to live up to her families’ expectations at all times.Between the 1920’s-1950’s, The Tennessee Children’s Home Society was run...

5 Stars - a heart wrenching, emotional and haunting read! "But the love of sisters needs no words. It does not depend on memories, or mementos, or proof. It runs as deep as a heartbeat. It is as ever present as a pulse." This book - how can I put in to words how it made me feel? It basically tore my heart into a million pieces but also filled it at the same time. How is that even possible? The answer is actually quite simple - the Foss children. Their tale was one of unimaginable loss and

This is based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.The siblings were kidnapped and taken to the Tennessee Children's Home Society in Memphis, Tennessee. Miss Tann

An amazing,don't want to put down, hold the book in a big hug and wish this story never ended. Sigh* BUT....This grabbed me from the get go. Two stories told simultaneously during 2 different time periods. Avery's story, present day. She's an attorney who has met up with a woman in a nursing home who says she looks familiar. Curiosity starts to open this Pandora's box. Rill, a river rat, has been kidnapped along with her 4 siblings back in the 30's and sent to an orphanage to be sold to the high...

The background: This book is based on the real life events that happened at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, an adoption agency is Memphis, TN, operated by Georgia Tann. The agency was a front for a black market adoption scheme in the 1920s. Ms. Tann would take babies and children from poor families and sell them to the wealthy. Many of the children’s names were changed and records destroyed so the children could not later be traced or found. Many prominent people adopted children from the...

‘for the hundreds who vanished and for the thousands who didnt - may your stories not be forgotten.’ the story of the ross siblings may be a work of fiction, but there are a countless number of children whose experiences were not. i had never heard of the tennessee childrens home society orphanage before this book, but i am so saddened that something so oppressive could ever take place and that so many people not only turned a blind eye to it, but ‘benefited’ from it. this is exactly why i am