What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross

 What Was Mine: A Novel by Helen Klein Ross. Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster, 2016) Adult fiction.


When Lucy and her husband cannot have their own child, Lucy's marriage falls apart and she is stressed out to the max. One day at IKEA, she sees a four month old girl alone in the store and Lucy picks her up and just walks out with her. The whole novel is how Lucy takes care of Mia, eludes the press, the police, and the baby's parents.  Only when Mia is grown does she learn what happened to her and seeks to reconcile her emotions and learn how to become part of the families who love her.


Told from the perspectives of Lucy, her husband Warren, the birth mother Marilyn, Lucy's sister Cheryl, the birth father Grant, Wendy the Chinese nanny, neighbors, coworkers, and Mia herself, the story moves forward engagingly. Each character lends an important view and details that ring true. At times, it seems a little implausible that Lucy could actually navigate medical, educational, and social situations with lies and creative thinking, but she does. The differences between Marilyn and Grant's children and their family and the life Mia has lived is almost jarring. Mia really has two mothers who love her dearly and would do almost anything to secure her happy future. But how can anyone over come the kidnapping and its long aftermath?  Ross will keep readers wondering until the very end.