What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross

All Lucy Wakefield has ever wanted was to have a child to call her own. When her marriage dissolves she sees this dream slipping farther and farther away. When shopping at a store Lucy finds a baby girl lest in a cart while her mother is a short distance away. Without even realizing what she is doing Lucy takes the baby and leaves the store.

Lucy wants to believe she will give the child back, but as her love for this child grows, she justifies her actions with the fact that the girl was left unattended. She ignores the TV news with the pretty and devastated young mother pleading for her babies return and fabricated a story to her boss about having to leave the state to work through an adoption of a baby girl that she names Mia.

And so it goes. Now over two decades later, the truth begins to come out. As Lucy scrambles as to what to tell her daughter about what happened, she knows that time is running out.

Helen Klein Ross writes about every parents nightmare. When I read this synopsis I wanted to know more. What Was Mine is a devastating story that feels as thought it could have been ripped form the headlines. It is one of those stories where you get to hear both sides with watching Mia grow up with Lucy and Lcy’s love for her, and at the same time watching Mia’s real mother trying to hold it together all the while believing that her daughter is alive and out there somewhere.

I enjoyed this fast pace read on audio. There is a winning cast of narrators: Julia Whelan, Cassandra Campbell, Amanda Carlin, Rebekkah Ross , and Jonathan Todd Ross (Narrator). Normally I do like multiple narrators because it gives me the feeling of a “production” or “show”, but this was not the case. The narrators complimented each other well and I did not even notice the change as I do in some multiple narrator books.

The book is not without it’s bumps in the road. There are things that if you really think about them become a little hard to believe. You need to read this one as one of those books that you don’t think too hard about. Just enjoy the wild and scary ride. And yes I think it is worth it.

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 8 hours and 44 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Audible.com Release Date: January 5, 2016

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Gallery Books (January 5, 2016)

10 thoughts on “What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross”

I just got this book at the library today 🙂

Sometimes I can suspend disbelief and others times I can’t and I’m not sure why. This sounds like something out of the headlines.

I really enjoyed this one, even feeling empathy for Lucy, as well as for the birth mother.

I plan to give this a read.

Sounds scary definitely. But very readable!

Mm I have entertained the idea of listening to this one on audiobook and I like multiple narrators too.

This does sound very riveting, Sheila. The audiobook sounds like a good way to become absorbed in the story.

What a beautiful book cover. I like multiple narrators.

I liked this one too, but felt, too, that you couldn’t think too hard about it or it might fall apart. Like how Marilyn found out about Mia? Really?

I don’t know. I remember reading The Deep End of the Ocean and the follow-up to it, but this story might be even sadder. Twenty years! It sounds like a great group of audiobook narrators, though!