Before I Called You Mine - Nicole Deese

Author Nicole Deese's personal experience of adopting her daughter is poured out into her novel Before I Called You Mine and it gives the story a distinct and powerful feeling of authenticity.  (This isn’t a biography, but it IS a story about family, and specifically adopting.)  

Teacher Lauren Baily has a secret. For over a year she has been working through the processes of international adoption, and even her family don’t know. To satisfy her adoption agency’s requirements only single women or couples married for 2 or more years qualify.  Lauren is single, and happy to remain so if it means her longing to be a mother can be fulfilled.  Naturally, this means that when dinosaur-loving substitute teacher Joshua Avery sweeps into the story Lauren’s life becomes ever more complicated as she finds herself falling in love with him despite her convictions to keep her distance.  In the midst of her emotional turmoil, she receives a life-changing email.

If I could give this book 50 stars I would.  I liked Lauren at once, and Joshua – the type of character I’m easily irritated by in lesser stories – has depth as well as humour.  The text conversations throughout are really well done and several times made me chuckle aloud.  This book, while often being a light and fun read, also raises deep issues of family relationships both blood and adoptive, as well as the importance of friendship.  The people are relatable, the romance very well done with a nice twisty path to the end of the book, and it would be a fantastic book for a book club choice.  I was hooked by the end of the first page, didn’t want to put it down, and finished it longing for more.

If you're curious and would like to read an extract, you can find one here.

9780764234958, Bethany House, Published May 2020 (UK).

For transparency, I work with Revell books in the UK, but I am not required to write any specific review. All views herein are my own.