BEFORE WE WERE YOURS by Lisa Wingate & GIVEAWAY

** GIVEAWAY CLOSED **

 

There are occasions when I start a novel based on a time in our country’s history and I feel sick. Lisa Wingate’s brilliant novel, BEFORE WE WERE YOURS (BallantineBooks) is one such example. She manages to turn the true story about a woman in charge of the Memphis, Tennessee Children’s Home Society, who kidnapped and sold children – creating the great market of kicking flesh and blood babies – to wealthy families across the country illegally, into a thought-provoking story of sibling love and deeply buried secrets.

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four siblings live a life of wonder on their family’s Mississippi River shanty boat, the Arcadia. One night while their father rushes their mother, Queenie to the hospital, they are left alone, until strangers show up. The children are taken to the Tennessee Children’s Home Society and told they will soon be able to go home to their parents. But they don’t and soon realize the awful truth. They are prisoners of the facility’s cruel director and it’s up to Rill to protect her brother and sisters.

Aiken, South Carolina. Present day. Avery Stafford has it all – a successful career, gorgeous finance and an over the top wedding planned. But when she comes home to help her father with a health crisis, she faces a situation that leads her to question her family’s long hidden past. It’s a path that will take Avery down a road to either ruin or redemption.

Have you ever connected with characters that you kept reading until you finished the novel? That’s what happened with me and BEFORE WE WERE YOURS.  Lisa’s writing is lyrical, poetic and knowing the story is inspired by true events have me hooked. I cared so much for the Foss children, I couldn’t leave them. I somehow felt responsible for them, in my own way. Perhaps that sounds odd, but I think you will understand when you read BEFORE WE WERE YOURS.

*****

Lisa Wingate is a former journalist, inspirational speaker, and bestselling author of more than twenty novels. Her work has won or been nominated for many awards, including the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, the Utah Library Award, The Carol Award, the Christy Award, and the RT Booklovers Reviewer’s Choice Award.

The group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with six others as recipients of the National Civics Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life. Booklist summed up her work by saying, “Lisa Wingate is, quite simply, a master storyteller.” More information about her novels can be found at  www.lisawingate.com.

We are so fortunate to have one copy of BEFORE WE WERE YOURS signed by Lisa Wingate to giveaway. Just tell us what’s the latest literary novel you’ve read and really connected with. We’ll announce a winner next Friday.