THE BLOCKBUSTER HIT—A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller
For readers of Orphan Train and The Nightingale comes a “thought-provoking [and] complex tale about two families, two generations apart . . . based on a notorious true-life scandal.”
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The storyline was heartbreaking, but certainly well-written. I’d recommend it to anyone.
The writing was beautiful. The character stories that were inspired by true events were told with deep perception as each one was introduced and grew along with the plot. I really enjoyed the chapter buildups with each changing POV/timeframe. I also appreciated the way that the author, Lisa Wingate, was able to convey the thought processes and emotion of a child when expressing fear, joy, doubt, resilience, desire, and distress.
I must say I did get lost in the who is who a few times and I had to go back through chapters to check several times. I also didn’t really know if the adult romance storyline played as much of a key role as I thought it was going to. The developing relationship became less fulfilling and engaging to read about especially as the last few chapters of the book moved at such a different pace than the rest of the book. Toward the end there were play by play descriptions and less progression which ended up being less fitting to my expectations of how it was going to wrap up. Nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed the story.
An excellent book.
