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[personal profile] alobear
Based on the blurb on the back of Before I Was Yours by Virginia Macgregor, I was expecting a fast-paced thriller where I was more interested in finding out what happened than immersing myself in the story.

What I got was a slow, tender, character piece that focused much more on internal struggles than on external factors.

It's about seven-year-old Jonah, who travels from Kenya with a white man he only knows as Mister Sir, and is then abandoned at Heathrow, to be subsequently taken into care. It's also about Sam and Rosie, who've been trying unsuccessfully to have a child for ten years and are now desperate to adopt. And it's about social worker Trudi, trying to make an impact in the lives of the people she's assigned to help.

All the character viewpoints (and we get all four) are incredibly well written and completely distinct. I particularly loved (and was heartbroken by) Jonah's perspective, as he struggled to make sense of his situation and was pulled in several directions at once, trying to find a place in the world while at the same time protecting his mother from potential threats.

I was a bit concerned about where it was going to end up, but the ultimate conclusion made me cry in a good way and I found the whole book very affecting and involving. A great read.

July 2025

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