The Girls We Sent Away

By: Meagan Church

Narrated by: Susan Bennett

Girls in your condition don't get to have their say.

It’s the 1960s in North Carolina, and Lorraine Delford has it all—an upstanding family, a perfect boyfriend, and an idyllic home complete with a white picket fence. Yet every time she looks through her father’s telescope, she dreams of leaving it all behind to go to space. It’s ambitious, but Lorraine has always been exceptional.

But when this darling girl-next-door gets pregnant, she’s forced to learn firsthand the realities that keep women grounded. To hide their daughter’s secret shame, the Delfords send Lorraine to a maternity home for wayward girls. But this is no safe haven—it’s a house with dark secrets and suffocating rules. And as Lorraine begins to piece together a new vision for her life, she must decide if she has the power to fight for the future she wants or if she must submit to the rules of a society she once admired.

Powerful and affecting, The Girls We Sent Away is a timely novel set during the intersection of the Baby Scoop Era and Space Race that explores autonomy, belonging, and a quest for agency when the illusions of life-as-you-know-it fall away.

“Readers will be entranced as author Meagan Church steadily peels away the veneer of the era, revealing the dark underbelly of a secretive and unforgiving society.”—Tracey Enerson Wood, international bestselling author of The Engineer’s Wife and The War Nurse

©2024 Meagan Church (P)2024 Recorded Books

Another amazing title from Meagan Church

Very well written. The author allows you to be transported back into time and gets you feeling Loraine’s feelings in all she goes through. Meagan is an amazing author. Her writing is very well done and she makes you feel all the empty of every character she writes about. Another job well done!

Very well written and narrated.

The story was sad, but accurately depicted the way girls were treated in that unfortunate era.

Very Enjoyable

Loved the look back with much respect at history & how life has changed. Author brought color into this word picture.

Very predictable

While this is an important story to tell, of women’s oppression and unscrupulous baby mills during the 60’s and 70’s, the tone was less to educate the public and more as a dramatic intrigue. Entertaining, but not too historical overall.

Way to long to get to the point

I kept feeling the story would go somewhere and it ended flat. Disappointed that the author did not do more with the story

Everyone should read this

So glad I read this. Birthdays please read this. Then write your story. Some scars necer heal but God makes beautuful.

Well researched and deeply moving

I loved the characters in The Girls We Sent Away and I wish there was a sequel.

Will make you mad, but listen anyway!

This book......it made me so MAD!!! Everyone let this poor girl down. As parents shouldn't we be protecting our children, not just pushing them off? That's all I can say about the story. The book itself was great. There was a nice twist at the end. I listened to it. It's a story set back in the mid 1960s about unwed teen mothers. I enjoyed the story a lot. The characters were interesting, good and bad people. The story is mostly told from Lorraine's point of view, but occasionally we get the mother's and the house mother's point of view. The narrator did a great job with bringing this book to life. I will recommend this book, just be prepared to be mad.

Excellent Book!!!

Loved this book so much. The story really grabbed at my heart strings. It was well written. Characters were well described and to such a point I felt like I knew them all. Their personalities came alive. I really cannot say too much about it or I’ll give the story away but it’s a good story that I hated to see the end of.

Simple storyline good characters

Good characters and easy read
I enjoyed this book and the easy flow and thoughtful characters .