YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE
Christine Pride, Jo Piazza
Simon and Schuster Canada
June 13, 2023
336 pages
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This book has so much depth, it’s hard to know where to start. A one sentence synopsis: a young black woman finds an abandoned white baby in the woods, which was left for her to find. This unusual incident sets off an interesting tale.
There are racial issues (direct and indirect), there is a young woman whose early life was so messed up she invents stories about an idyllic childhood, foster parenting, strife in a marriage.
The list seems to go on and on. And, sometimes, life is like that. Most of us have no idea what others’ pasts have been like.
The main character, Cinnamon, shows incredible strength throughout, though at the same time, she experienced terrible self-doubt. Quite the paradox. The other characters in the story are well portrayed, some are good, some are not so good. It’s a good cross section of life.
There are a lot of thinking issues brought up in this book, I think it could be good for a book club discussion. It’s also an excellent briefing on the foster care system.
The further I got into this book, the faster I was reading it. Though, I did not want it to be over. The only negative I can say about it is that there are times that it is very wordy…..the same idea could have been expressed using fewer words. But, that might be a “Me” problem……I was just anxious to move the story forward.
Great ending!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
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