Don't let the slow family drama fool you, this book is an emotional roller coaster.

When Andie marries a man with two daughters, she hopes she can add two more children of her own children to the mix. Unfortunately, perimenopause puts a damper on her dreams.

But when her stepdaughter, Emily, becomes pregnant and is too far along to abort, Andie's hopes resurface.

Can she adopt her stepdaughter's child and raise it as her own?

Green tackles several hard topics: step-parenting, teenage pregnancy, blended families, midlife crises, drug and alcohol abuse, codependency, and adoption through interweaving narratives of a family torn by tension and mended by love.

Although the jump from Part One (told in third person limited omniscient through Andie) to Part Two (told in alternating points of view, including first-person through Emily) can be distracting, the overall novel will have you turning the pages as quickly as you reach for the tissue. ( )

I received this book as a first reads/Good Reads giveaway.

I started this book full of anticipation given its positive reviews. Once I read a few chapters I started to become annoyed and bored with Ethan, the father of rebellious, angry Emily (who could not accept her new step-mother, Andi) for excusing her disrespectful behavior. Then, I became upset with Andi for tolerating the situation for as long as she did. Eventually, there is a turning point which brought the story together for me. The characters developed strength and depth that I did not feel initially. The story covers a variety of overlapping issues to which most people can probably relate...marriage, divorce, addiction, step-parenting, infertility, first love, guilt, feeling alone and misunderstood, etc. Overall, I enjoyed this book alot more than I thought I would given the slow start.

Http://bookwormreviewblog.blogspot.com ( )

really good book about a mom starting over ( )

I won this as part of the Goodreads First Read program.

This is the story of a blended family, and while I have enjoyed Jane Green books in the past...this one wasn't that great to me.

Synopsis: "Andi has spent much of her adult life looking for the perfect man, and at thirty-seven, she's finally found him. Ethan--divorced with two daughters, Emily and Sophia--is a devoted father and even better husband. Always hoping one day she would be a mother, Andi embraces the girls like they were her own. But in Emily’s eyes, Andi is an obstacle to her father’s love, and Emily will do whatever it takes to break her down. When the dynamics between the two escalate, they threaten everything Andi believes about love, family, and motherhood—leaving both women standing at a crossroad in their lives…and in their hearts."

While I really liked all the characters and felt the story was a good one, I just couldn't get into it for some reason. It just felt really flat to me. This was a quick read, and is sure to delight more hardcore fans of Jane Green, but it was overall very meh for me. ( )

Jane Green is a great story teller. This book sucks you into the lives of this family, which could be your neighbor. Makes you feel for all parties involved. Very good book ( )