A review by midnightmarauder
You Were Always Mine by Jo Piazza, Christine Pride

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

You Were Always Mine by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza follows the story of Cinnamon, a thirty-something year old woman who feels like her life is stagnated. She hasn't been dealt the best hand of cards in her life:
her mother abandoned her when she was young, leaving her bouncing around from her grandmother's house, to foster homes, to her paternal aunt's house, then into homelessness
, which she has kept well-hidden through a string of little white lies. She lives in the fictional town of Sibley Bay, Georgia, where she has a decent job as a professor at a community college, and a husband who dreams of opening his own restaurant. Cinnamon does feel a bit of resentment towards her husband, Jayson, who is revealed to have
drained their life-savings into "The Ruins", the restaurant he wants to build
. Yet, despite her anger and his all-around disregard as to how his choice has affected their lives, she still tries to be a loving wife.

Cinnamon spends time at the local park during her lunch break, where she meets Daisy, a young girl who she forms a bond with. Her and Daisy meet up with each other every day over the span of a couple of months and talk about their lives. Since Cinnamon is so used to sharing the fictional parts of her upbringing to people, she naturally does the same with Daisy. This ends up backfiring when she finds an abandoned baby in the park one afternoon.

Attached to the baby's carseat is a note from Daisy, simply saying, "Please, Cinnamon." Cinnamon freaks out a bit and ponders on whether or not she should surrender the baby to the police, or keep her. She ultimately decides on the latter.

The main topic that was explored in this novel was how race plays a part in people's everyday life, whether intentionally or unintentionally. As the novel takes place in the south, racial differences between black and white people were touched on a lot. For instance, during Cinnamon's
time in foster care
, she was neglected by her
white foster parents
, mentioning that one
foster mother
would buy her a bunch of different hats just because she couldn't be bothered to learn how to do her hair. There was also Daisy herself revealing her grandfather's staunch racism and how both him and her grandmother made it clear how much they hated black people. There was also the obvious implications of Cinnamon, a unambiguous black woman being the mother of a pale-skinned, blue-eyed baby. Most people assumed that she was a nanny to the infant and were rude about how she could possibly be the child's mother. In a way, I understand some of the judgement that people displayed. I can't imagine how tricky it may be to be a black parent trying to teach your white child about racism, as they'll most likely never experience it in the same way. However, no one really bats an eye when white parents adopt black children, nor worries about how they might go about doing the same thing. 

Another big topic that was covered in the novel was what it means to be a parent, especially a mother. The mothers/motherly figures in the novel weren't exactly the best examples. Cinnamon's mother
abandoned her
, and Daisy's mom
drowned in a lake shortly after hving her
. So, they each lost out on that part of their lives. Even the closest thing Cinnamon had to a mother, her aunt, treated her like a project that needed to be fixed and ultimately left her
homeless
, not really apologizing/regretting what she had done until she
was on the brink of death
. With that being said, what Cinnamon could've treated the baby the same way. However, she knew, based on her own upbringing, that she didn't want to subject the baby to the things she had to go through and made it a point to break the cycle.

Cinnamon's adamancy about breaking the cycle ties into the last main topic of the novel: the foster care system and its effects on people's lives. Cinnamon's
experience in foster care
greatly shaped how she handled finding the baby and making the choice of whether or not she wanted to keep her. Because she had gone through it feeling unloved and discarded, she felt as though surrendering the baby to the authorities would lead her into that very same life. She definitely projected her own childhood trauma onto the infant and used it as fuel to create a better outcome (which I loved!)

Ultimately, this book was a great read. I love a good heartfelt story with a happy ending. I feel that both authors did a wonderful job at tackling a largely unexplored issue (i.e. black families adopting white children) and executed their message respectfully, while also being realistic about people's reactions. 
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