But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including—
Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.
And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him (Goodreads).
Content in the knowledge that no matter what happened with your parents, or your girlfriend, that your siblings will still be there, like a bookend that keeps you upright when you feel like toppling over.
Author: Robin Benway
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fic, Family
Pages: 374
Goodreads rating: 4.29
Publication: October 3rd 2017 by HarperTeen
Source: Google Play Books
Reading format: E-book
Standalone/Series: Standalone
review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
It took us fifteen years to find each other, but we still did! And sometimes, family hurts each other. But after that's done you bandage each other up, and you move on. Together. You've got us now, like it or not, and we've got you.
This book is hands down, one of my favourite YA contemporaries. It's just everything for me right now. It's simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking and very emotional. It's about siblings finding their way to each other and trying to break the walls between them built by 15 years being separated. It's about finding comfort in each other and trusting them enough to tell them their deepest secrets. This book made me cry big tears.
Each of the characters has their own struggles and I personally don't relate to any of those struggles but the characters were written so beautifully and they felt so real, growing closer and closer to my heart as I read, making me really felt for them. In searching the truth about their mother and why they were given away, they found their way to each other and somehow, that was everything that it took for the world to make sense again. I loved how supportive they were of each other through all the lows and how they celebrated the highs. The adoption aspect was also very well done. We see the perspective of three children who were put up for adoption; two of them were adopted and one was not. Each of them trying to find their mother for different reasons but not because they were treated bad or they were miserable.
The older she got, the more human her parents seemed, and that was one of the scariest things in the world. She missed being little, when they were the all-knowing gods of her world, but at the same time, seeing them as human-made it easier to see herself that way, too.
I haven't read any other book from this author before but now I think I should. Important real issues were tackled in the most beautiful way in this book and I'm sure that needs a lot of work and patience. The story was very well-executed, writing style-wise, plot-wise and characters-wise.
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