Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

I read this for my book club (although once again, I won't be able to attend it) and I didn't love it. It's about an adoption agency in the 1940s that would literally kidnap children from their homes with poor parents or single mothers and then send the kids out to other families, and about one set of siblings that was taken in that way. I think that's why I didn't love it, because I hate any stories that have anything to do with kids being put in danger or having bad things happen to them. I know that those things are real and that they happen, but I don't like reading about them in my books. There was a parallel modern-day storyline that follows one of the siblings' granddaughter finding out about the mystery of her grandmother's childhood and life, and unraveling the mystery to be able to help her grandmother come in contact with her sisters again. This storyline was not sad, which made me more likely to read it than just skim (like I was honestly doing in the 1930s chapters), but all of the conflict and issues the character was facing in this storyline seemed really over-inflated. Oh no! I'm worried that my parents are going to be disappointed because I don't want to run for the Senate at the age of 30! I'm attracted to this guy that I had a way over-the-top argument at our first meeting even though I'm engaged to this fiancee that I clearly don't care that much about! I'm finding one or two hints of my grandmother having a life that I wasn't aware of--this is SO WEIRD! I'm worried that people are going to find out about my grandmother's past as a child who was stolen and adopted and I think that will ruin my father's Senatorial career! (What? Why would that affect it??) The whole storyline was not super believable to me and all of the emotions seemed to be over-the-top and exaggerated. The writing in this book was also just average.

I can't say I loved this book (obviously) but it was a quick read and I was interested in the look into history about Georgia Tann's adoption agency, even though it's a horrible part of history. I was kind of sick thinking about how these things are still happening with immigrant families trying to come to the United States, and how their kids are getting taken from them. It's an important story if it helps people think about those issues.