Book Title: YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE
Character Name: Cinnamon Haynes
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
In a word, tough.
What was your greatest talent?
I can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, anywhere, anytime. Or at least I used to be able to, before Bluebell came into my life and everything changed– including my sleep.
Significant other?
Jayson, my husband, who could sell holy water to the devil with the right sweet talk.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Trust
Where do you live?
A pretty coastal town in the South
Do you have any enemies?
None – that I know of at least.
Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
The silver lining of my upbringing is that I can figure out how to be content enough just about anywhere.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
Before Bluebell, I’d never taken care of a living thing in my life, not even a plant.
What do you do for a living?
I’m a career counselor at the local community college, helping kids reach for a better life, figure out their dreams, raise themselves up a rung or two with education.
Greatest disappointment?
Not getting to spend more time with my grandma Thelma.
Greatest source of joy?
My friendship with Lucia. She’s my first and best friend.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
Read, read and then I read some more.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
Not standing up for myself.
What keeps you awake at night?
Wondering whether I’d be a good mother.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
Not getting enough sleep
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have?
For yourself or for someone important to you?
I learned a long time ago to not let myself need or want things.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
I still have so much shame about my childhood that I find it hard to believe in myself.
YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE by Jo Piazza, Christine Pride
The acclaimed authors of the “emotional literary roller coaster” (The Washington Post) and Good Morning America book club pick We Are Not Like Them return with this moving and provocative novel about a Black woman who finds an abandoned white baby, sending her on a collision course with her past, her family, and a birth mother who doesn’t want to be found.
Cinnamon Haynes has fought hard for a life she never thought was possible—a good man by her side, a steady job as a career counselor at a local community college, and a cozy house in a quaint little beach town. It may not look like much, but it’s more than she ever dreamed of or what her difficult childhood promised. Her life’s mantra is to be good, quiet, grateful. Until something shifts and Cinnamon is suddenly haunted by a terrifying question: “Is this all there is?”
Daisy Dunlap has had her own share of problems in her nineteen years on earth—she also has her own big dreams for a life that’s barely begun. Her hopes for her future are threatened when she gets unexpectedly pregnant. Desperate, broke, and alone, she hides this development from everyone close to her and then makes a drastic decision with devastating consequences.
Daisy isn’t the only one with something to hide. When Cinnamon finds an abandoned baby in a park and takes the blonde-haired, blue-eyed newborn into her home, the ripple effects of this decision risk exposing the truth about Cinnamon’s own past, which she’s gone to great pains to portray as idyllic to everyone…even herself.
As Cinnamon struggles to contain old demons, navigate the fault lines that erupt in her marriage, and deal with the shocking judgments from friends and strangers alike about why a woman like her has a baby like this, her one goal is to do right by the child she grows more attached to with each passing day. It’s the exact same conviction that drives Daisy as she tries to outrun her heartache and reckon with her choices.
These two women, unlikely friends and kindred spirits must face down their secrets and trauma and unite for the sake of the baby they both love in their own unique way when Daisy’s grandparents, who would rather die than see one of their own raised by a Black woman, threaten to take custody.
Once again, these authors bring their “empathetic, riveting, and authentic” (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author) storytelling to an unforgettable novel that revolves around provocative and timely questions about race, class, and motherhood. Is being a mother a right, an obligation, or a privilege? Who gets to be a mother? And to whom? And what are we willing to sacrifice for the sake of marriage, friendship, and our dreams?
Women’s Fiction Contemporary [Atria Books, On Sale: July 20, 2023, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781668005507 / eISBN: 9780008336004]
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About Jo Piazza
Jo Piazza is an award-winning reporter and editor who has written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the New York Daily News, New York Magazine, Glamour, Marie Claire, Elle and Salon. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, Fox News, the BBC and MSNBC. Her novel, The Knockoff, with Lucy Sykes became an instant international bestseller and has been translated into more than seven languages.
Jo received a Masters in Journalism from Columbia, a Masters in Religious Studies from NYU and a Bachelors in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed If Nuns Ruled the World and Celebrity Inc: How Famous People Make Money.
She currently lives in San Francisco with her husband and their giant dog.
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About Christine Pride
Christine Pride is a writer, editor, and longtime publishing veteran. She’s held editorial posts at many different trade imprints, including Doubleday, Broadway, Crown, Hyperion, and Simon & Schuster. As an editor, Christine has published a range of books, with a special emphasis on inspirational stories and memoirs, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. As a freelance editorial consultant, she does select editing and proposal/content development, as well as teaching and coaching, and pens a regular column—“Race Matters”—for Cup of Jo. She lives in New York City.
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