Pam

Another wonderful twisty journey with Allan Karlsson.

The ending was such sweet perfection! I hope to read the next book soon.

Keeper of Lost Children tells the story of the Brown Baby Plan. After World War II ended, US forces were sent to rebuild Germany and other parts of Europe. These soldiers and German women often had relationships. Many times these relationships resulted in babies. In the case of the babies whose fathers were African American, they often caused the mothers to be shunned for having relationships outside of marriage. As such, many of the women took the babies to churches and orphanages to protect the babies and themselves. One woman saw this happening and took it upon herself to put these babies with families who were unable to have children of their own.

While this is a work of fiction, Johnson works hard to make you believe every word. She has a way with telling the hard stories, the ones that often fall through the cracks, and making them easier to understand.

Keeper of Lost Children is told through three POV. Ethel is the woman behind the plan to send the babies to loving families. Sophia is a teen struggling to find her place in her family and her school. Ozzie is a young man who found himself in an awkward situation. Each POV is easy to discern; their voices are distinct.

There may be some language that readers find offensive, but it is used in the context of the time period, as the majority of the story is set in the 1950s and 1960s. While I’m not saying the language was ever right to use, it was more common in certain historical eras.

My biggest issue with the overall story was some of Ozzie’s parts. There were times his story felt like it was dragging the book down. Then I remembered he was a young man in a foreign country, in a tenuous situation.

Overall, I think everyone should read Keeper of Lost Children. It tells a true story that has often fallen through the cracks of time.

Another great book from Jimenez. Lots of Easter eggs from other books.

I want to thank St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Maybe This Once. However, all opinions expressed here are solely mine.

I added Maybe This Once to my TBR because I’ve enjoyed previous books by Sophie Sullivan. Last year, I read and reviewed Get Lost with You. As I said last year, while this is part of a series, you don’t have to read the series in order. That said, there are events in this book that may spoil the other books.

Maybe This Once is Grayson’s story of finding love. He is the oldest of the three Keller kids. He thought he had found his true love earlier in life, but ended up having a messy divorce. It was so bad that he swore off love and romance forever. Charlie has struggled to trust others and let people in. Both are discussed throughout the book.

Overall, I found the pacing to be a bit slow. There seemed to be a lot of will-they-or-won’t-they moments. When they first meet, the sparks fly. There’s an instant connection, but neither does anything about it because of their previous experiences with relationships. When they see each other again, the sparks are still there, so much so that everyone sees them, except Grayson and Charlie. Once they decide to explore their feelings, the pacing improves a little. But once they reach the climax and face the pressure of external forces, the pacing improves significantly.

While I may not have loved this story, I will continue to read Sophie Sullivan’s books.