Any Other Family

Tabitha, Elizabeth, and Ginger aren't related by blood or by marriage, but they're indisputably family: they're mothers who find themselves (and, in two cases, their partners) indelibly linked after adopting four biological siblings. They've committed to keeping their kids as close to one another as possible, though they've got wildly different ideas of what that looks like; for example, Elizabeth and Ginger could do without the two-week vacation Tabitha's been eagerly anticipating and voraciously planning (down to the minute) for months.

The format of this book - alternating perspectives from each of the women - worked well. While their personalities occasionally teetered on the caricature-esque (the perfect one! the cool one! the anxious one!), they were inarguably vivid. I suspect most readers will find one of the women most relatable (for me, it was Ginger), but will find elements of themselves in all three. I also loved how Brown interspersed notes - I won't say from whom for fear of spoilers - throughout. However, the overall reading experience felt fairly slow (and I love character-driven fiction, so it's not that); it dragged for me, especially in the middle, and I feel like it would have been stronger had it been 50 pages shorter.

Ultimately, I'd describe it as a beach read with a twist - an interesting exploration of what it means to be a family and how our own childhood hopes and fears never really leave us. I think fans of Gina Sorrell's “The Wise Women” and Therese Anne Fowler's “It All Comes Down to This” will really enjoy it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for my ARC.