I’ve had this novel on my TBR for awhile and I am so thankful I finally had the opportunity to sit down and read it. It is such a sad, depressing, yet endearing and uplifting tale that is based on a true story, and happened a few short miles from where I grew up, making this read all the more impactful.

The Berachah Industrial Home was a real place in Arlington, Texas in the 1930’s that existed to help women who where down on their luck, lending a helping hand to those that found themselves pregnant out of wedlock, or in a life of prostitution, drug addiction, and other issues. It was a religious outreach that focused on second chances, and it is one that changed the lives of many women who walked through its doors. For its time this was revolutionary, but was a much-needed outreach that I found fascinating existed.

Home for Erring and Outcast Girls is a dual timeline that focuses on some of the women at The Berachah, while the future is focused on two women that are researching the history of The Berachah. As to be expected, there are twists in each timeline, along with adult subjects of all kinds that some could find triggering. There is nothing graphically depicted, but was handled in a tasteful and respectful manner, which helped me not be as triggered.

The writing is so subversive that once I picked it up I seriously could not put this novel down, and read it in mere hours. I found myself absorbed in this world, emotionally attached to these women, and craved to see the outcome, whatever that may be. After I was finished I did some research and found out that the Berachah cemetery is still in Arlington near the University of Texas in Arlington which is mere minutes from where my own grandparents are buried, so the next time I go to visit their graves I plan on going by Berachah Home Cemetery and paying my respects to those buried there.

This was n incredibly powerful read that will stick with me for a long time. It has imprinted on my heart, reminding me that all women have a fight, have a story, and are so much stronger together.

*I have voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book which I received from the publisher through NetGalley. All views and opinions expressed are completely honest, and my own. ( )

I have had this book on my TBR for some time since I loved Kibler's Calling Me Home. I felt this book was a bit long. Told in alternating timelines, it is the story of Mattie and Lizzie (in the early 1900s) and then Cate (told in present day). Cate is a librarian, and comes across information on The Home for Erring and Outcast Girls, and begins to find out about the lives of the women in the home. She feels a kinship towards them, especially as it relates to her own life, where she had a traumatic event as a teen, and a relationship that she left as a result.
This is a very sad story of women and the lives they were forced to live based on things that happened to them which were out of their control. ( )

In turn-of-the-20th century Texas, the Berachah Home for the Redemption and Protection of Erring Girls is an unprecedented beacon of hope for young women consigned to the dangerous poverty of the streets by birth, circumstance, or personal tragedy. Built in 1903 on the dusty outskirts of Arlington, a remote dot between Dallas and Fort Worth’s red-light districts, the progressive home bucks public opinion by offering faith, training, and rehabilitation to prostitutes, addicts, unwed mothers, and “ruined” girls without forcibly separating mothers from children. When Lizzie Bates and Mattie McBride meet there—one sick and abused, but desperately clinging to her young daughter, the other jilted by the beau who fathered her ailing son—they form a friendship that will see them through unbearable loss, heartbreak, difficult choices, and ultimately, diverging paths.

A century later, Cate Sutton, a reclusive university librarian, uncovers the hidden histories of the two troubled women as she stumbles upon the cemetery on the home’s former grounds and begins to comb through its archives in her library. Pulled by an indescribable connection, what Cate discovers about their stories leads her to confront her own heartbreaking past, and to reclaim the life she thought she'd let go forever. With great pathos and powerful emotional resonance, Home for Erring and Outcast Girls explores the dark roads that lead us to ruin, and the paths we take to return to ourselves. ( )

The author visited our Hideaeay reading groups and autographed her book.

FROM AMAZON: In turn-of-the-20th century Texas, the Berachah Home for the Redemption and Protection of Erring Girls is an unprecedented beacon of hope for young women consigned to the dangerous poverty of the streets by birth, circumstance, or personal tragedy. Built in 1903 on the dusty outskirts of Arlington, a remote dot between Dallas and Fort Worth’s red-light districts, the progressive home bucks public opinion by offering faith, training, and rehabilitation to prostitutes, addicts, unwed mothers, and “ruined” girls without forcibly separating mothers from children. When Lizzie Bates and Mattie McBride meet there—one sick and abused, but desperately clinging to her young daughter, the other jilted by the beau who fathered her ailing son—they form a friendship that will see them through unbearable loss, heartbreak, difficult choices, and ultimately, diverging paths.

A century later, Cate Sutton, a reclusive university librarian, uncovers the hidden histories of the two troubled women as she stumbles upon the cemetery on the home’s former grounds and begins to comb through its archives in her library. Pulled by an indescribable connection, what Cate discovers about their stories leads her to confront her own heartbreaking past, and to reclaim the life she thought she'd let go forever. With great pathos and powerful emotional resonance, Home for Erring and Outcast Girls explores the dark roads that lead us to ruin, and the paths we take to return to ourselves. ( )

This is truly a thought-provoking book. Even if it is novel. (I think that is the best kind, don't you?) It truly shows how far women as a whole have come over the last century. Home is where we share each other's burdens. It does not have to be the home we were born into, nor the one we mistakenly or unwisely married into. It is the place where we can be safe and secure; where we can be happy and kind; where we can be our true selves because of the contentment in our soul and the unconditional love of others. Circumstances may play a large role in our lives for good or evil. It is how we live our lives despite our circumstances (or even because of our circumstances) that matters. A truly heart-warming story with all kinds of emotions and heartbreak thrown in. A must-read! ( )