I love coming of age young adult novels. This was such a good read, I’ll for sure be reading more by this author.

I have read Rebekah Crane's books before and I loved the way she wrote cute little contemporary romances. This novel by her, was not really my favorite at all. I didn't like the way the shaming of the main character having a baby as a teen by her family - it just didn't seem healthy. And I felt like the cast of characters that Esther meets was just bland, and way too archetypical. It felt like everything was very robotic and I couldn't connect at all to the story and the books. I think Rebekah's other book - The Upside of Falling Down - was way better and I highly recommend that if anything

Wow, this book tackles a lot of issues teens may experience. There were aspects of this story I enjoyed and many I really didn’t. Overall, just not for me.

I have not read a Young Adult novel as well as I liked this one. Well written and engaging, I was immediately swept into the story and did not want this contemporary to end.

I think teens will connect with the variety of characters in the book and the emotions and struggles of being 16. The author does an excellent job at writing books geared toward teens.

So the pluses and minuses were equally dispersed in this before me. I loved the main character and her raw emotion. I loved the friendships she cultivated and these characters were great. Her family and their treatment of her “big bad secret “ seemed shallow. They loved her one minute and were disgusted by her the next? Her mom was just too unforgiving in a situation that seemed to be not as big as the drama it generated in this book. It’s worth a read for the great characters, solid friendships and easy flowing writing.

I have many feelings about this one. On the one hand, I find it a frustrating cliche. We have a meek, repressed teen with hyper-religious parents who makes friends with a band of misfits who help her to embrace her true self. Its a story that gets told ad nauseum. On the other hand, it subverts expectations in a lot of ways. The parents aren't actually so repressive as they are trying to put up a good front, compromising their happiness in the name of image. THe protagonist embarks on a road trip to find her child, sees the child with it's new parent, and walks away with minimal interaction. She learns about herself more from confronting the situation rather than from the interaction. And there's no "all at once" change. There's a series of little things that finally fore the family to address their issues. nOt thrilling but subtle with some interesting ideas.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of The Infinite Pieces of Us by Rebekah Crane. I voluntarily read and reviewed this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Infinite Pieces of Us is a story about Esther, who has a secret. Because of that secret her family: her mother, stepfather and sister move from Ohio to Truth or Consequences. The secret turns out to be that Esther had a baby and had to give that baby up for adoption. To run away from the "shame" of having a baby and keeping up appearances, her stepfather makes the decision to move the family away. While in Truth or Consequences Esther gains a few new friends who help her understand what she wants to do about her secret.

I have to admit that this story did not capture my interests. The best thing about this book were the friendships. They were written so beautifully and truthful. Other than that, I just couldn't connect to the characters, the story annoyed me a bit and I think I probably rolled my eyes too many times.

This books touches upon many themes: friendship, faith, shame, secrets & lies, homophobia, homelessness, abusive relationships but also hope. I couldn't really connect to all the mentions of church, choir practise, God, Jesus and other religious practices. That is probably why the story fell a little flat for me. The parents in this book were absolutely aweful and just made me so angry and annoyed. How could you possibly act like that towards your own child? Bizarre.

I do think this story shines a light on some very important themes and gives a voice to a lot of different characters dealing with certain topics. That, and the beautifully written friendship were the highlights of this book for me. That is why I give The Infinite Pieces of Us a two star rating.

MY RATING: 3/5 STARS

I received a copy from Thomas Allen & Sons in exchange for a honest review.

Great book, but, I found it hard to believe parents could be so clueless and care so much about "how things look" in this day and age. No email address allowed? Not leaving the house because a teen is pregnant? Then they changed in a matter of two days? Nah. It didn't ring true.

I did love the writing, and the characters except for the main character's parents, who were well developed but dishonest, distateful. The test of the characters were flawed, growing, and loveable. The spirituality in this book is beautiful.

The friendship formed between Esther, Color, Moss, Jesús, and Beth was really special. They made Esther see how she had retreated inward, pulled her out, and helped her value the connection they made with each other. They were all very supportive and encouraging, and by the end of the book, I knew each one would go to great lengths for each other. Most of them had some void in their life, and they filled that space for each other in a really beautiful way.

Overall: An emotional and honest story of forgiveness, family, faith, and finding the strength to move on, which tugged at my heartstrings and filled me with happiness.

I thought this would be a cute book about a girl who made bad choices or had something bad happen to her and her family ran away. That was not the case, it was an emotional ride with characters and storylines that touched on everything from homelessness, teen pregnancy, religion, sex, homosexuality, abandonment, and more. The main character, Esther, has a secret but isn’t ashamed of it. Her family on the other hand are very much invested in keeping her shame, her sin, a secret. The main story in the novel is about Esther coming to terms with the consequences of what happened and how she feels about it.

There is SO much more to this story than just Esther’s evolution, because the characters who become her friends, her Heaven, her trampoline (read the book if you want to know what that means) are all going through things themselves and make for a story that seems very true to the lives of a lot of teenagers today. They and their problems don’t exist in a vacuum and their friends are struggling too. This is a group of friends I would love to join.

My one complaint, and what kept the rating from being 5 stars, is that the end wrapped up too quickly. I wanted more. I wanted more answers, more hints at the future, and more resolution for some things that Esther left in her past. The novel was under 300 pages so I think it would have been easy to add more, but I will add that I think the way things fell into place may also have been intentional to show that when you deal with what you are afraid of things will progress. Even with this caveat, I am excited to read more books by Rebekah Crane and I will be thinking about this book for a while to come.

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I want to thank Netgalley for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly I didn’t really know what I was expecting from this book.
I started it and was a bit skeptical but once I read a few chapters and got into it I found I really loved it.
I found our main character really interesting her story was so heartbreaking and raw.
The author captures your attention immediately in such an amazing way with the amazing characters who’s personality’s jumped off the page.
It’s hard for me to put into words how much I emotionally connected to Esther and her journey.
Overall this story is authentic, Honest and truthful and covers a lot of issues including Homelessness, Teen pregnancy and religion.
I gave it 5 stars.

Infinite Pieces of Us by Rebekah Crane, 250 pages. Skyscape, 2018. $17.

Language: R (83 swears, 2 ‘f’); Mature Content: R (lots of sexual innuendo and body words, some LGBT); Violence: G

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Esther, 16, and her family have moved from Ohio to Truth and Consequences, New Mexico because of something Esther did. But you’d better not tell anyone. Both girls are being homeschooled in order to help hide the secret, but that doesn’t keep the girls from going to church, or running, or to the local coffee drive thru. Esther finds a small, tight group of friends who can help her through her own trauma in their wacky way, but will she be there when her sister is ready to dive straight into her own trouble?

The lengths that people will go to avoid “embarrassment” just astounds me. Esther and her sister are damaged by their mother and stepfather’s actions and they have to blindly grope towards healing, like too many teens today, when they need love and understanding instead. I read almost straight through the day.

Cindy, Middle School Librarian, MLS

2.5 Stars. This book has it's cute moments - Esther getting Moss to Mexico, Color fixing up the car and the road trip to California, but there were too many things in this book that made me cringe - the way Tom controls his family, Esther not having a say in her pregnancy, the pastor with Hannah, Esther's mom pretending to be someone else in her relationship. The characters don't seem to be fully fleshed out either. For example, Esther has to tell Beth that she had a baby in order to be friends with her and Beth tells Esther she's gay. Do they ever learn anything else about the other's personality? Why does Tom have a tattoo if he spends all his time hiding it and making his family appear to be good Christians?

Also, the math references seem to be forced and aren't very clever like I had hoped they would be after reading the synopsis of the book.

Content warnings include abandonment, homelessness and homophobia.

When Esther’s family move to Truth or Consequences they are weighed down by all of the lies, secrets and judgements they bring with them. Esther’s big “mistake” has necessitated the move and her sister and once best friend Hannah doesn’t want anything to do with her, her stepfather Tom is more controlling than ever, her mother refuses to talk about it, and the family in general vacillate between judging Esther and trying to pretend they’re not all keeping a secret. Both girls are now homeschooled and missing the lives they left behind in Ohio.

This is a book with iced mocha Frappuccino soy lattes, pools that are as parched as the desert, red tacks on maps, Heaven in Blockbuster, a gigantic Touchdown Jesus, terrible math jokes, and the search for truth.

I am a sucker for books with road trips and quirky personalities living with quirkier names. ‘Where the Heart Is’ started the quirky thing with me and as a result every book with quirk since then has been judged against my love of Novalee, Sister Husband and Lexie.

This book has Color and Moss; Color cleans houses when she’s not at school and her brother Moss (also known as Fungus) runs through the book in his short running shorts. Jesús (pronounced Hey-soos) works at a cafe and wants someone to ‘froth his wand’. Beth is the proud owner of humourous science shirts and can be found singing in the church choir.

I’m a romantiphobe anyway so maybe take this with a grain of salt; I suspected going into this book that there’d be romance involved but it didn’t really work for me. It felt like we went from this guy is standoffish to the point of seeming to actively dislike her to oh, they’re kissing now without much of a progression.

I did get a little misty eyed at one of the ‘Aw, I want friends like that’ moments. I didn’t particularly like Esther although I really liked most of her friends and wished their stories were fleshed out more. Although she was the main character I actually found her story to be the least interesting. In this book all of the kids are dealing with really big issues including abandonment and homophobia but this, being Esther’s story, relegates most of this to the periphery.

I waited the whole book to find out what truth Jesús was going to include in his senior statement and wondered how his secret remained one for so long. I wanted to know what the deal was with Color and Moss’ mother. I wanted the situation with Hannah to result in something much more satisfying and appropriate than her getting grounded.

I wanted there to be some resolution for Amit. I wanted to hang out with Beth’s parents. I wanted Tom’s character to develop rather than all of a sudden changing in the end to wrap the story up more neatly. I wanted Esther and Hannah’s mother to be who she was instead of pretending to be who her husband wanted her to be.

The only parents in the book that I had any respect for were Beth’s but they were only spoken about, not on the pages themselves. The rest of the parents needed a swift kick up their abandoning, homophobic, judgemental ‘consequences’.

I preferred ‘The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland’; I think I was destined to compare the two. I don’t remember having so many outstanding questions at the end of Grover and while I’ve given both books 4 stars, I’m rounding up from 3.5 for ‘The Infinite Pieces of Us’.

Thank you to NetGalley and Skyscape for the opportunity to read this book.

A fabulous journey through the eyes of a teenager whose seen and felt more than her young years should ever. Great freinds, growth and rebuilding against the odds.

The Infinite Pieces of Us by Rebekah Crane is a very interesting young adult novel. I loved Rebekah Crane's book “The Upside of Falling Down”, but this book was hard for me to get into. There are so many different unique characters, but sometimes I found it hard to keep straight. A lot of people loved this book, but it wasn't for me. I look forward to more books by this author.

I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

"I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review"

Pondering math problems is Esther Ainsworth’s obsession. If only life’s puzzles required logic. Her stepfather’s solution? Avoidance. He’s exiled the family to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, to erase a big secret from Esther’s past. So much for the truth. Now for the consequences: an empty swimming pool, a water-sucking cactus outside her window, a goldfish rescued from a church festival, and Esther’s thirst for something real.
Step one: forget about her first love. Step two: make allies. Esther finds them in Jesús from the local coffee bar; a girl named Color who finds beauty in an abandoned video store; Beth, the church choir outcast; and Moss, a boy with alluring possibilities. Step three: confess her secret to those she hopes she can trust. Esther’s new friends do more than just listen. They’re taking Esther one step further.
Together, they hit the road to face Esther’s past head-on. It’s a journey that will lead her to embrace her own truth—in all its glory, pain, and awesomeness.

First of all if you have ever had to give a baby up for adoption or have lost a child this may be a bit of hard read for you. Also if you don't like reading anything about the christian faith this may not be the best book to read also.

If I had maybe read some more reviews regarding this book I may of waited till I was in a better mental state to read it because I have lost a baby in child birth and this book just hit me really hard in a way I was not expecting.

Even though it hit me emotionally I could not put this book down. This story was so heart breaking but heart warming at the same time. I found this book was more about friendship and finding your self again after going through a tragic event and feeling like there is no end in sight. I think that could be why it got to me so much because I have felt that feeling before and it is a lonely and scary feeling.

All I could focus on with this book though was Esthers family, I hated them with every part of me. This poor girl has gone through something so hard and her family's way of treating her made me feel sick. I was hoping that this would be more focused on in the book and they got their shit together to be there for her but nope. Her sister did slightly but her selfish behaviour just made me so damn angry.

Due to the mixed feelings I had when reading this book it was beyond hard for me to rate. I ended up giving this book 3.75 stars maybe more a 4 stars. It is one that made me feel but it was negative emotions in regards to the situations and characters .

The Infinite pieces of us was a very unique story about a young girl named Esther. Her  family has moved from their long time home in Ohio all the way to New Mexico in an effort to run from the past; Esthers past that is. A past where she made mistakes, hard decisions were made, and she needs to escape from the painful memories. The story weaves in some very unique characters and friendships. Rebekah Crane dives headfirst into a story about family relationship, secrets and the damage hiding the truth can cause. This story will resonate with me for awhile.

What I liked about this book was the characters. Esther is so likeable and her friends are a riot, each in their own unique way. I really love a book that has a focus on the power of friendships rather than just romantic relationships. I loved how Rebekah Crane weaved a picture of all sorts of different people doing life together and the effects they each had on one another. Also, main character Esthers character development was a great story of acceptance and overcoming.

What I do need to mention, that I did not like about this book, is the not so subtle controversial remarks, especially towards God and religion. I can not shame someone for writing whatever they choose in their own story. However, to gear a book towards a larger audience is challenging when there is an abundance of comments made about God. As a Christian myself it bothered me a bit and took away from the enjoyment of the story. So I would say, although overall I enjoyed this one, I would not recommend it to everyone, which is why I could only give it 3 stars. If religion does not bother you then I do recommend ithttp://bookishjem.home.blog/2018/11/13/the-infinite-pieces-of-us-review/

The author wrote a book that showed how imperfectly perfect people can find each other. The writing allowed me to feel so many different emotions as I read this and I am definitely going to be seeking out more by this author.

I don't know if I will be able to properly express how much I loved this book, but be certain, I LOVED this book! When I first met Esther, she was suffering a double-dose of broken heartedness. She never thought she would be able to overcome her loneliness and feelings of abandonment, but special things happen, when you find Heaven in a former Blockbuster.

• Pro: Esther captured my heart, and I instantly claimed her as one of my own. I ached and openly cried for her. I had this profound need for her to get the closure that she so desperately desired, because I knew it was the only way she would be able to maintain any forward motion in her life.

• Pro: Crane is so good at crafting characters. This book is flush with characters, who were each special in their own way, and I adored each and every one of them.

• Pro: The friendship formed between Esther, Color, Moss, Jesús, and Beth was really special. They made Esther see how she had retreated inward, pulled her out, and helped her value the connection they made with each other. They were all very supportive and encouraging, and by the end of the book, I knew each one would go to great lengths for each other. Most of them had some void in their life, and they filled that space for each other in a really beautiful way.

• Pro: Esther was a math wiz, and there were these Complex Math Problems, which popped up from time to time in the book. They were absolutely brilliant, and such an interesting way for Esther to frame some really profound thoughts.

• Pro: There was this "search for truth" throughout this book, and I really appreciated the different ways Crane addressed and explored the idea. Definitely thought provoking.

• Pro: There was a lot of fallout from what happened to Esther. It not only affected her, but her family, and the coming to terms with the situation, seeking and granting forgiveness was a important part of Esther's journey.

Overall: An emotional and honest story of forgiveness, family, faith, and finding the strength to move on, which tugged at my heartstrings and filled me with happiness.