Quick Synopsis – Ethel Gathers, the proud wife of an American Officer, is living in Occupied Germany in the 1950s. After discovering a local orphanage filled with the abandoned mixed-race children of German women and Black American GI’s, Ethel feels compelled to help find these children homes.

Philadelphia born Ozzie Phillips volunteers for the recently desegregated army in 1948, eager to make his mark in the world. While serving in Manheim, Germany, he meets a local woman, Jelka, and the two embark on a relationship that will impact their lives forever.

In 1965 Maryland, Sophia Clark is given an opportunity to attend a prestigious all white boarding school and escape her heartless parents. While at the school, she discovers a secret that upends her world and sends her on a quest to unravel her own identity.

Song This Reminds Me Of – Brown Baby by Nina Simone

Publication Date – Feb. 10, 2026

Bookshop Link – Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson (I receive a small commission if you use my link)

Content Notes – This is a heavy book that contains a lot of overt racism. There is use of racial slurs, bullying, mentions of racial murders, mentions of racial beating, and mentions of slavery. The book is about adoption and contains mentions of child neglect, child abandonment, infertility, and child abuse.

Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

Review – This is one of the best books that I’ve read that I would never read again. Mostly because it made me cry. The story is split into three different POVs we have Ozzie who is a solider helping with reconstruction in Germany, Ethel who is a wife of a solider while stationed in Germany right after WWII, and Sophia a teenager who is one of the first African American students at a prestigious New England Boarding schools. I did really enjoy the three different POVs. The author really gives a well-rounded view of the obstacles that each character faces and the horrific racism each faces.

The main theme of the story is adoption. Ethel is based on Mabel Grammer; Mabel was the real-life organizer of the Brown Baby Project. Ethel is unable to have children and when she discovers an orphanage comprised over mixed-race children, she makes it her mission to find homes for them. She herself adopts 8 children (Mabel Grammer had adopted 12). Ethel is really the lynchpin of the story and connects us to our other two characters, Ozzie and Sophia. Each character’s story is told over multiple years, and it does take a while for the stories to converge. Even though the timelines didn’t sync until the end, the story building felt natural, and I was truly invested in their stories.

There was one main reason this wasn’t a 5 Star read for me and that was Sophia’s storyline. I felt like her realization she was adopted was too forced. I didn’t think that the love interest really added to the story, it felt kind of forced. There is a point where the school requires a birth certificate, and I feel like that would have been a more natural turning point in the plot. I actually feel like a lot of historical fiction novels struggle with unnecessary love stories. Sophia could have still had a boyfriend character that supported her journey to self-discovery without said boyfriend being the catalyst.

If you enjoy historical fiction, I think you’d like this book. Especially if you like historical fiction that focuses on black stories.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster – 37 Ink for the advanced copy. All opinion are my own.