View source for Before I Was Yours by Virginia Macgregor

{{infobox1
|title=Before I Was Yours
|author=Virginia Macgregor
|reviewer= Zoe Morris
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A superb book about a confusing situation and the lengths people will go to to get what they want.
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=448
|publisher=Sphere 
|date=August 2017
|isbn=978-0751565225
|website= http://virginiamacgregor.com/
|video=
|cover=Macgregor_Before
|aznuk=0751565229
|aznus=0751565229
}}
 
Rosie can see clearly her future family in her mind. And when that doesn't happen, she adapts. So maybe she won't carry the baby inside her, but that lovely blonde girl at the adoption event could be their new daughter. Yes, she looks like she belongs to them already. It's meant to be. Except it's not. Rosie and Sam don't get to have a genetic child of their own, and they don't get to adopt the perfect blonde girl. They end up with the exact opposite: a boy from Kenya with a peculiar back story and an ardent wish not to be adopted. As optimistic as Rosie and Sam try to be, this isn't quite what they pictured or hoped for.
 
It's not what Jonah pictured, either. Leaving his mother behind, he has travelled half way around the world with Mister Sir to start a new life in England, where he will learn to read and become a True English Gentleman. And now, instead, he's living in a small cottage with a weird couple who keep trying to get him to call them ''Mum and Dad''.
 
This book was an incredible story that far surpassed my expectations based on the blurb. Far from a saccharine tale of do gooders doing good and feeling smug about it, this is a realistic and pragmatic story that brings together the realities of family drama, cultural barriers, social work and immigration responsibilities and the strain infertility can place on a marriage, with just a smidge of romance for good measure. It's not all smooth sailing by any means, and having Jonah leads Rosie and Sam to see themselves and each other in a new light. Is this really what they wanted, what they have fought for for so long? The ending is also up in the air from the start. If Jonah gets what he wants, Rosie and Sam will be torn apart, but if they get their way, a little boy, and his previous life back in Africa, can never be the same again. Can one talk the other round, or is it going to be a case of no one winning, but one side just losing more than the other?
 
The writing really sucked me in. It's a longer book than some, and the font is on the small side, but I barely noticed the extended content as I thumbed my way towards the end. The last few chapters were read in a moving car (from the passenger seat, obviously) as we wound through the valleys of Wales. All the beauty of nature couldn't compete with me finding out what would happen and who, if anyone, would get a happily ever after.
 
I would like to thank the publishers for sending us a copy to review, and for introducing me to Virginia Macgregor. I've already ordered [[The Astonishing Return of Norah Wells by Virginia Macgregor]] for my upcoming holiday. If it's half as good as this one, it will be superb.
 
If this is your cup of tea, you might also enjoy [[I Found You by Lisa Jewell]].   
 
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