20190728_233336.jpgToday I have a review of Keeping Lucy by T. Greenwood and publishing on August 6, 2019 via St. Martin’s Press.

I’m a huge fan of this author. HUGE. She writes emotionally powerful stories, and I can’t get enough of them!

My Thoughts:

It’s the late 1960s in Dover, Massachusetts, when Ginny Richardson’s beloved daughter, Lucy, who has Down Syndrome, is taken away from her. Her husband does the taking, sending little Lucy to Willowridge, a school for those with disabilities (though it wasn’t worded quite this way back then).

Ab, Ginny’s husband, tells her to grieve for Lucy as if she has died, and they need to move on. That completely broke my heart.

Two years go by, and some articles are written exposing Willowridge as an unsafe place for children to live. Marsha, Ginny’s best friend, shares the articles with her. Ginny is convinced she has to pick up Lucy along with Marsha. Ginny is then on the lam and fighting with Ab and his family for the right to keep her daughter.

As ever, T. Greenwood has penned an emotional and thought-stirring read where her characters have big hearts, and you fall in love with them. I understood Ginny’s pain and despair, and everyone needs a best friend like Marsha. Lucy was drawn with so much love and care. I’ll never forget her depiction.

Overall, Keeping Lucy is a sensitively told story about the power of a mother’s love for her daughter.

I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

About the Book:

From the author of Rust & Stardust comes this heartbreaking story, inspired by true events, of how far one mother must go to protect her daughter.

Dover, Massachusetts, 1969. Ginny Richardson’s heart was torn open when her baby girl, Lucy, born with Down Syndrome, was taken from her. Under pressure from his powerful family, her husband, Ab, sent Lucy away to Willowridge, a special school for the “feeble-minded.” Ab tried to convince Ginny it was for the best. That they should grieve for their daughter as though she were dead. That they should try to move on.

But two years later, when Ginny’s best friend, Marsha, shows her a series of articles exposing Willowridge as a hell-on-earth–its squalid hallways filled with neglected children–she knows she can’t leave her daughter there. With Ginny’s six-year-old son in tow, Ginny and Marsha drive to the school to see Lucy for themselves. What they find sets their course on a heart-racing journey across state lines—turning Ginny into a fugitive.

For the first time, Ginny must test her own strength and face the world head-on as she fights Ab and his domineering father for the right to keep Lucy. Racing from Massachusetts to the beaches of Atlantic City, through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to a roadside mermaid show in Florida, Keeping Lucy is a searing portrait of just how far a mother’s love can take her.

Have you read Keeping Lucy, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR