What's Mine and Yours Review

Title: What's Mine and Yours
Author: Naima Coster
Style: Contemporary, Literary
Rating: 5/5

"They would guard everything they had, however little, as if lives were prizes they'd rightly won that others had no right to claim. They'd never admit how willingly they'd played their parts."

In a small community in North Carolina many parent are angry about a new initiative to integrate the east and west side of town into Central High School. Noelle and Gee are two of these students and their interactions will set off a chain of events that spans decades.  On one side is Jade, Gee's mother who after a terrible loss wants to give her son the best opportunities and the tools needed to survive as a black man in America.  On the other side is Lacey May who refuses to see her three daughters as anything but white despite having a father from Columbia.  She wants to protect them in a way she couldn't do for herself when it comes to her ex-husband Robbie. When Noelle and Gee start to do a play together at school there is tension and things start to get messy.  Both mothers only wanting what is best for their children.

This story is beautiful and engrossing.  As a mother, it's easy to connect to both Jade and Lacey May who only want to provide the best life for their children.  The characters are well developed.  The reader becomes captivated in their lives, they begin to feel like friends and the you are left with the feeling of wanting to know what happens to these characters when the book is done.  The story jumps from past to present.  It allows the reader to see how the choices made make an impact on their lives in the future. The story is timeless, relatable and touches on a lot of tough topics like addiction, race, interracial and same sex relationships, social class and family drama.  I highly recommend.