NOT YOURS TO KEEP
The Gulf Harbour Book Club met on December 3, 2025 to discuss Not Yours to Keep by Zelly Ruskin. There were 19 of us in attendance including those on Zoom.
Joan did the author review. Zelly Ruskin is a pen name for Wendy Isaacs. Wendy is a dear friend of mine. We met while serving on the Board of Directors for The Lisa Foundation. We were involved in a campaign to bring awareness to the public about brain aneurysms. Wendy is a survivor of a brain aneurysm that did not rupture.
In her first career, Zelly was a social worker in the adoption and foster care field. From there, she owned an online retail store specializing in hand-painted children’s gifts and party favors. Along the way, Zelly volunteered and raised funds for several nonprofit organizations. In an alternate universe, she is probably an event planner. But once she moved to New York City, Zelly gave in to the compulsion to write women’s fiction spiced with suspense about motherhood, relationships, loss and love. Her debut novel, Not Yours to Keep, came out October 2024 with She Writes Press.
She loves traveling, hiking with her (now adult) children, and, as a survivor, is passionate about and volunteers for brain aneurysm awareness. Zelly and her ridiculous doodle, Strudel, currently live in New York City.
She graduated from Skidmore College and obtained an MSW from Simmons School of Social Work. Wendy is a survivor of an unruptured aneurysm in October of 2018 and has been a dedicated advocate for brain aneurysm awareness since.
When she’s not devising twisty plots, Zelly loves traveling, hiking, and is passionate about and volunteers for brain aneurysm awareness. Her involvement in the cause is driven by personal experiences, including surviving an unruptured brain aneurysm, the tragic loss of a family member to a rupture, and supporting a friend in their recovery. Read more about why she’s a dedicated advocate for brain aneurysm awareness and research in her Brain Aneurysm Essay.
“As an adoptee as well as being involved in adoption communities on the Internet for over 30 years, the premise of this book was intriguing to me. What happens when an adoption counselor finds herself suffering through her own infertility issues? There’s much more to this story than that, and much of it is good. There’s also a degree of ignorance on the part of how being adopted can affect the people in the triad (birthparents-adoptee-adoptive parents). It came as no surprise to learn the author, Zelly Ruskin, is a former social worker and adoption consultant. She’s been involved in adoption as an observer, not as a participant.
Billie Campbell is the adoption consultant in this story, set in Boston. She and her husband, Tyler, have been trying to start a family with no success. When Madison, a pregnant college student, and her boyfriend visit the agency Billie works for with the intention of placing their baby for adoption, Billie starts thinking about the possibility of adopting Madison’s baby herself, despite all of the ethical issues this would raise.
Tyler is a successful lawyer, and he is about to become a partner at his law firm. Between the infertility issues and the anonymous messages, he has begun receiving, he’s a bit distracted from his work. He’s also having doubts about whether he really does want to be a father.
Anne is a troubled woman who lives on the edge of poverty. Her father abused her, and when she was 14, she surrendered a child to adoption. There was no counseling following these events and she’s been forced to try to make her way in life pretty much on her own. She’s had a hard time keeping a job and is distanced from her mother who now lives in Arizona. When she gets a glimpse on television of the man she believes fathered the child she surrendered, her mental state deteriorates, and she begins stalking him.
The best part of Not Yours to Keep was how it depicted Anne’s mental state due to her abuse and surrendering a child. My birthmother was told to “pretend the baby died” and forget about it, but who can forget they gave birth? The time Anne surrendered was a bit later than my mother’s and I would have thought that by then there would have been better counseling options available. This is especially true as she shows signs almost immediately of not coping with the loss well. However, it’s ignored by the two women who care for her and basically tell her to “get over it.” They don’t realize the depth to which that loss can be felt. Spotting the putative father on television sets off a chain of events as she becomes delusional. I found this to be very believable.”
Billie and Tyler are supposed to be the couple readers are rooting for. Their marriage is sorely lacking in communication as the two of them seem to be lacking communication skills. Billie’s mother apparently took DES when she was pregnant with her, which is what her infertility issues are blamed on. I had friends growing up whose mother did that and they all had children, it was just a case of having to stay in bed for the bulk of the pregnancies. It seemed a little convoluted that after two miscarriages Billie is giving up on the idea of giving birth and thinks she is more deserving of a child than other people she counsels, although this attitude is present in many prospective adoptive parents I’ve encountered. Whether it be wealth or social status, they seem to think they are entitled to someone else’s child.”
Her next book is One of Us Must Die. We will advise when it becomes available.
