ŷ������

What an interesting book on family: perceived family, found family, blended family. And DNA! It illustrates the results of successfully searching your ancestry. Very often, things are not as they seem.

I always thought that people who discover lost or unknown family members (through DNA searches) would be thrilled. I did not realize how much hurt and confusion revealed secrets can cause. Existing relationships can be threatened. Coming together does not happen in an instant.

The root of the story is about a young woman, age 18, who is sent to a maternity home for unwed mothers. It's hard to believe that as late as 1969, these homes could be such horrible places. Decisions were forced on these young ladies that impacted them forever. It was still not acceptable to keep a baby born out of wedlock.

I was fascinated by how much many things have changed for women in my lifetime. We've come a long way in 50+ years. I think that sometimes we don't realize it until it is spelled out for us. Mind you, there are still changes that need to be made.

The book is well written. Usually, when there are two timelines, I tend to like one better than the other. But, in this case, both timelines were interesting and they flowed together well. There is a fairly large cast of characters. Just like in real life, I liked some of them. Others, not so much. But, I cared to see how everything would play out. And, it played out realistically, as it should.

The only problem I had with the story was that I found it difficult to keep the different members of each branch of the family straight. Regardless, it did not distract me for long.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.