Born into a world of wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all. A loving daughter to her father, a U.S. Senator, with her own ambitious career as a lawyer and a handsome fianc� waiting for her in Baltimore, she has lived a charmed life. But when Avery returns to Aiken to help her father weather a health crisis and a political attack, a chance encounter with May Bonher, an elderly woman she’s never met before, leaves Avery deeply shaken. Avery’s decision to learn more about May’s life will take her on a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, illuminating the heart of Avery’s story.
Based on the true story of a system of orphanages that was ultimately deemed responsible for the kidnapping and selling of thousands of children in illegal adoptions, in this story Wingate has created a riveting, heart-wrenching read.
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Summary
From: Rebecca Maney
Book Title: Before We Were Yours
Book Author: Lisa Wingate
What do you like about this book:
"You'll sleep here until we find out whether or not you're staying for good. . . . . "
"What's that mean . . for good?" Rill Foss's rhythmic world aboard her family's shanty boat was traumatically upended one dark stormy night on the river; she and her four siblings left aboard as their father frantically transported their mother to the city hospital. Forcibly removed from their home the next morning, the children are horrified to learn that the life they once enjoyed, however simple and pitiful in the eyes of many, has been substituted by an unimaginable nightmare. As wards of the Memphis Tennessee Children's Home Society, the children suffer intolerable indecencies, wondering if life on the Mississippi has become a distant and irreversible memory.
Federal prosecutor Avery Stafford has been groomed for greatness by her prestigious Aiken, South Carolina family for years, everyone assuming that she will marry her long time friend, then eventually seek her father's position in the state senate. Having recently returned to South Carolina, Avery is learning to deal with her beloved grandmother's transition into long term care along with her father's steady health decline. When she happens upon a photograph that sends her family history into a tailspin of uncertainly, her inquisitive mind demands to find the answers to questions that no one wants to answer.
Through-out the pages of "Before We Were Yours", Lisa Wingate beautifully merges disturbing reality with uplifting possibility for , . . . . "life is not unlike cinema. Each scene has its own music, and the music is created for the scene . . . . .. no matter how much we may love the melody of a bygone day or imagine the song of a future one, we must dance within the music of today". Will Avery devleop the courage to "find her own music"?
Enjoy another outstanding story by a masterful storyteller. I received a copy of this book from the author. The opinions stated above are entirely my own.
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