Publication Date: September 15, 2025
I take a deep breath and turn to my sister. I have to make things right, but my heart pounds as I say what I should have said sixteen years ago. “But she’s not your child. She’s mine.”
My adoring husband Reid squeezes my hand in delight as we gaze at the grey and white ultrasound images, tears in his eyes. Finally, we are going to have our perfect family. But my husband doesn’t know this isn’t my first baby.
As a teenager, I was forced to give my baby to my older sister. I desperately wanted to care for her myself, but our mother said I was too young. My sister couldn’t have children of her own, and I was told it was for the best. But as I watched my sister over the years, brushing Carley’s hair and tucking her into bed with a kiss, I wanted to cry out: I am her mother.
Now I have a new life growing inside me, I realize just how much I had to give up. As I look ahead to my baby’s arrival, I have an impossible choice to make. Do I tell my first child the truth of what really happened all those years ago? Or will telling her destroy our family forever?
An unforgettable and completely emotional story about family and what it means to be a mother. Perfect for fans of Diane Chamberlain, Jodi Picoult and Melissa Wiesner.
A 17-year family secret has the potential to destroy everyone involved, but maintaining it may no longer be possible.
Author Jen Craven illustrates a family heading for a crisis in She Was Never Yours to Take. Violet, now married and expecting a baby, can’t forget about the one she was forced to give away as a teen mother.
Violet’s emotional turmoil bleeds over into her other relationships, especially with her mother and older sister. While she wrestles with revealing the truth, she doesn’t quite understand the impact it will have on the family and her unsuspecting husband.
The family business, ruled by their mother’s iron hand, also comes under fire when Violet’s older sister discovers potential fraud related to a huge business deal. In the meantime, the author delivers an intriguing plot twist.
She Was Never Yours to Take highlights a family with a secret and an effort to bring it out in the open.
Jen Craven is the author of emotional and suspenseful women’s fiction, stories where one decision changes everything. A former college instructor, she loves dark campus novels, which led to her contemporary debut, Best Years of Your Life, published in August 2022. Her writing style blends poignancy with drama to create what-would-you-do narratives of the human experience.
Aside from fiction, Jen has personal essay bylines in national outlets, including The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Today’s Parent, Scary Mommy and many more.
She writes from northwestern Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband and three children. When not working on her books, she can be found thrift shopping, taking long walks, and beating her kids in backgammon.
