Fiercely Protective

You Were Always Mine by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza is a really powerful, contemporary novel that consumed me from the start.

Once again, the two authors have produced a marvellous novel, after their fabulous debut book We Are Not Like Them.

Where to begin?… I loved so much about this book it is hard to know what to discuss first. This is a book about love, social injustice, racism, prejudice and pre-conceived ideas leading to judgement.

Cinnamon, the leading lady, is very likable. She is a product of the school of hard knocks but is an over-comer. She was brought up in the social care system which failed her on every level. She saw close up just what was wrong with the system. Now an adult, she is determined to change the system from within, determined that no child in her care will ever feel unwanted.

As an African American woman, Cinnamon has been a victim of both open, and convert racism. “ ‘You know, Cinnamon, you’re the first coloured friend I have ever had’, with the proudest look on her face like she’d earned the hardest Girl Scout badge.” The reader’s heart just weeps.

To see a black woman with a white baby, American society assumes she is the nanny. To see a black man with a white baby, American society assumes he is an abductor. But to see a white couple with a black baby, American society applauds. Clearly something seriously needs to change.