Before I Called You Mine is the story of Lauren, a single elementary school teacher who wants to adopt an orphan from China.
This means staying single, because the adoption agency only allows children to go to single mothers or to couples who have been married more than two years. Single hasn’t been a problem until she meets the substitute teacher across the hall …
In some respects, Before I Called You Mind is a typical contemporary romance novel with a unique application of the “decides to remain single, then meets Mr Perfect” trope. But setting the novel against a backdrop of international adoption introduced a whole bunch of questions, many of them uncomfortable. One of the characters says of a child adopted internationally:
“Leaving the only place she’s ever called home, and the only people who’ve ever cared for her, is a traumatic event. That’s a fact, not an opinion … She won’t know the language, the food, the sounds, the smells.”
International adoption rips a child from everything familiar—their country, their culture, their language, even their name (yes, the main character planned to change her child’s name). That bugged me. What psychological message does that send to a child, that not even their name is theirs and has value? It smacks of a nineteenth-century white saviour complex, where the missionaries converted the natives and changed their names to “Christian” names. I’d hoped we’d got beyond that, but comments about “dark chocolate, almond-shaped eyes” suggested we haven’t.
When I started the novel, I was in two minds about international adoption.
I read plenty of stories about how the US foster care system is crying out for qualified carers. Why choose international adoption when there are thousands of disadvantaged and needy children in the US?
The author herself has adopted internationally, but says the purpose of the novel isn’t to persuade readers to adopt a child from overseas. Rather, it’s to challenge us to find the hard thing that God’s asking us to partner with Him in. Do I think it met that objective? No. But was it a good story? Mostly.
Lauren is torn between her desire to adopt internationally, and her attraction to Joshua … who also happens to be the son of the education expert who inspired many of Lauren’s most successful teaching methods. The family is everything Lauren’s family isn’t—friendly, loving, Christian.
There were times when I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for Lauren and her predicament.
She complains about her family, then insults her mother and wonders why they don’t have a great relationship. She has been working towards adopting an orphan from China for two years, and had been considering it for three years before that, yet had never bothered to learn any Mandarin, or anything about Chinese food or culture.
Before I Called You Mine by @NicoleDeese is a well-written story with great characters and plenty of conflict. It's memorable, and will definitely make you think. #BookReview #ChristianFiction Click To TweetAt the same time, I could empathise with Lauren. She’d been earnestly seeking God and was convinced He placed the idea for international adoption on her heart and brought her into contact with people who could encourage and support her in that journey. Then God throws Joshua in her path, and she starts second-guessing herself. It made fascinating and compelling reading.
Overall, this is a well-written story with great characters and plenty of conflict. It’s memorable, and will definitely make you think.
Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
About Nicole Deese
Nicole Deese is an award-winning author who specializes in humorous, heartfelt, and hope-filled novels. When not working on her next contemporary romance, she can usually be found reading one by a window overlooking the inspiring beauty of the Pacific Northwest. She currently resides with her happily-ever-after hubby, two sons, and a princess daughter in Idaho.
Find Nicole Deese online at:
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About Before I Called You Mine
Joshua may be a substitute teacher by day, but Lauren finds his passion for creating educational technology as fascinating as his antics in the classroom. Though she does her best to downplay the undeniable connection between them, his relentless pursuit of her heart puts her commitment to stay unattached to the test and causes her once-firm conviction to waver.
With an impossible decision looming, Lauren might very well find herself choosing between the two deepest desires of her heart . . . even if saying yes to one means letting go of the other.
Find Before I Called You Mine online at:
Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Kobo | Koorong
