***The Starry-Eyed Revue***: kidnapping

Title: What Was Mine
Author: Helen Klein Ross
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: January 5th, 2016
Source: Received for review from publisher via NetGalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Simply told but deeply affecting, in the bestselling tradition of Alice McDermott and Tom Perrotta, this urgent novel unravels the heartrending yet unsentimental tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby in a superstore—and gets away with it for twenty-one years.

Lucy Wakefield is a seemingly ordinary woman who does something extraordinary in a desperate moment: she takes a baby girl from a shopping cart and raises her as her own. It’s a secret she manages to keep for over two decades—from her daughter, the babysitter who helped raise her, family, coworkers, and friends.

When Lucy’s now-grown daughter Mia discovers the devastating truth of her origins, she is overwhelmed by confusion and anger and determines not to speak again to the mother who raised her. She reaches out to her birth mother for a tearful reunion, and Lucy is forced to flee to China to avoid prosecution. What follows is a ripple effect that alters the lives of many and challenges our understanding of the very meaning of motherhood.

Author Helen Klein Ross, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, weaves a powerful story of upheaval and resilience told from the alternating perspectives of Lucy, Mia, Mia’s birth mother, and others intimately involved in the kidnapping. What Was Mine is a compelling tale of motherhood and loss, of grief and hope, and the life-shattering effects of a single, irrevocable moment.

This book was awesome. Sometimes I like to break away from the YA and read something different. What was mine certainly did the trick. I saw this on Netgalley and the description grabbed me. It ended up being so much more than I expected. I'm not even sure where to start, but I'm gonna try.

Lucy Wakefield has always wanted a baby. Clearly, because she up and stole one. I won't get into details but she cannot have one on her own, otherwise this story would not have come to fruition. Does that excuse a woman from stealing another persons baby? No... not at all. This was a constant struggle for me and other readers I'm sure. She loves this baby, She raises this baby, and while I loathed her for what she did, I felt bad for her when she was finally caught.

My favorite thing about this story is how it's told. It's almost like everyone is being interviewed, or not so much interviewed, but telling their story. In the present tense. After she's been caught. Lucy talks to us and gives us her life story pretty much. We get snippets from her family members, ex family members, and other people tied up in the web of Lucy's lies.

The most heart breaking point of view we get, is the birth mother. Oh my gosh, some of those passages had my eyes filling with tears. And eventually we even get to hear from Mia herself. Through every detail of her finding out the truth. I was glued to my kindle. I could not put that shit down if I wanted to. Wow. Such an emotional story .

The only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars was the ending. It's not a bad ending by any means, it just a personal preference. I would have liked a little more closure, and well.. something else, but I'm not sure what, if that makes any sense at all. lol. I would read this a thousand times over though, even knowing the conclusion. So glad I picked this one up. :)

About the author:

Helen's poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York
Times, literary journals and in anthologies, including SHORT, published in 2014 by Persea Books. Her first novel, Making It: A Novel of Madison Avenue, was published as an e-book in 2013 by Gallery/Simon and Schuster. Her debut novel What Was Mine, will be published in January 2016.

Helen is also the creator and editor of a poetry anthology, The Traveler's Vade Mecum, forthcoming next year from Red Hen Press. Over 80 poets-- including Frank Bidart, David Lehman and Billy Collins-- wrote to titles from an 1853 compendium that provides a glimpse into habits and social aspects of nineteenth-century America.

Helen lives in New York City and Salisbury, Connecticut where she is on the board of a haven for book lovers: Scoville Memorial Library.

Find Helen:

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Labels: Adult Fiction, Gallery Books, Gray Area, Helen Klein Ross, kidnapping, reviews, What Was Mine

Title: Stolen: A Letter to My Captor
Author: Lucy Christopher
Narrator: Emily Gray
Series: Standalone
Length: 8 hrs 38 mins
Publisher: Recorded Books
Publication Date: August 16th, 2010
Source: purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

It happened like this. I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him.

This is my story.

A letter from nowhere.

Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back?

The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist - almost.

Why have I waited so long to read this book!!!!!???? OMG. I loved it so much. I recently bit the bullet and purchased the Kindle edition. At the time it was on sale for 2.99. (I think it still is). Then I saw the audible version was on sale for 3 something just because I already owned the Kindle. Heck yeah, I grabbed that shit too.

I ended up going with the Audio for my first read, because I wanted to get to it sooner rather than later. And plus, it takes place in Australia, and I really enjoy hearing the accents. It bring the book even more to life. I loved the narrator for Stolen. There are some moments that the fear just drips from her voice. She was freaking awesome.

Stolen took over every hour of my day. If I wasn't listening I was thinking about it. It was that interesting. I mean, this poor 16 year old girl gets kidnapped. You have no clue going into this story what kind of man this is. Now I'll admit, he's a bit screwy in the head, but for those of you who fear this story, because of what normally happens when young girls are kidnapped... it will be okay. Trust me. I think that is one of the things that made me hold off on it, because I was afraid I would be reading a horrible story.This isn't your normal kidnapping though.

Stolen is told from Gemma's point of view, but in a letter. She's writing everything that happened and writing it to her captor Ty. I really like that. I think it helps us get in her head a little better. Because it's not all "OMG, Happening Right Now!!!". She's telling us with a calm way about her. Now that she's had time to give it all some thought, before putting it into words. It makes things much clearer than if she was telling us in real time. At least that's how I felt about it.

Also, the setting! It almost made me want to go to Australia. Even with all those poisonous thing that live there. So beautiful, and the heat has an appeal to me right now as I'm living in single digits.

I struggled with how I felt at the end of Stolen. It's one of those stories, that really make you question your feelings. Those are the best kinds of books. This one will go down as one of my faves this year. Love love loved it!

About the author:

Lucy Christopher was born in Wales but grew up in Australia. She obtained an Undergraduate degree at Melbourne University. She moved to the UK to earn a distinction in a Creative Writing MA from Bath Spa University. The novel she wrote for this class, The Long Flight, was picked up by a publisher under a new name of FLYAWAY.

Lucy’s debut novel, Stolen, was written as part for her PhD degree. Stolen explores her thoughts on the Australian desert through the story about a teenage girl who is kidnapped and taken there.

Lucy is working on another teen novel. When she is not writing, Lucy spends her time daydreaming, emailing friends and horseback riding a mare named Topaz as well as helping to run a kid’s wildlife group at Newport Wetlands.

Find Lucy:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads