This story was told from 3 different viewpoints. Amy is the mother/wife who recently had breast cancer. Paul is the dad/husband who is a police officer and has seen some terrible tragedies. Carly is the daughter who is struggling with life and goes to live with her great aunt Rae

There was a lot of introspection by each of the characters as they deal with the valleys associated with life.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc. The opinions expressed are my own.

This is hands down one of the best books I have read in 2020. The subject is a difficult one and I did cry a few tears, some of sadness and others of happiness. I love a book that makes me feel. Amy, her husband Paul and daughter Carly all have a story to tell in this most heartwarming book. My suspicion was confirmed when I read the Acknowledgements. I wish the Author continued good health. Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press for the invitation to read this book and the Author for the privilege to read and review this book.

This book is a emotional journey of not only the person diagnosed with cancer but the people around her.
Written in three different points of view and written so honestly it will capture your heart and soul.
This author wrote this book with her full heart and soul and you can feel that In these pages.
A wonderful book to read and I look forward to more by this author. Thank you to St Martins Press and the author for my advanced reading copy I’m exchange for my honest review .

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book Amy was 46 when she got the news that she had breast cancer. After Amy treatment she wants to visit Washington State which she visited when she was younger. Amy has been married to Paul for twenty five years and is not sure if her marriage can survive. This book was very moving

The book read like a biography. The story is told from 3 points of view. Paul was a policeman that was traumatized by The Oklahoma City bombing.. His wife gets cancer and each of them becomes absorbed by their own traumas. Their daughter is left feeling forgotten and adrift. The book is after the surgeries are over and healing is beginning. Each person is the family is feeling alone and unhappy. Each chapter is from a different point of view. So every third chapter is the same person. The book was sad. It is like seeing a family destroyed. So the ending was better than expected. The book was well done and pulled me into the story.

A beautiful, emotional story that brought me to tears. A story of a family each going through their own trauma .
Paul is a Policeman who dealt first hand with the Oklahoma City bombing.
Amy has just finished going through treatment for cancer.
Carly their daughter is trying to figure out how to deal with everything around her.
A powerful story on how each one deals with their own sure with support of family.
Can this family heal?
Can this family come back together and be whole?

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book.

Amy has finished her cancer treatments and is so tired of no hair and feeling uncomfortable. She leaves to tour national parks and reconnect with the memories she had as a child with her parents when her dad was a park ranger. Paul, her husband, is a detective and suffers from PTSD after the Oklahoma City bombing. He is on administrative leave after trying to settle a domestic dispute. Their daughter, Carly, just graduated from high school and Paul takes her to her aunt’s so she can help with trail rides. Carly is tired of seeing her mother so sad and not being able to connect with Paul. Amy, Paul, and Carly spend the summer trying to find out what is important to them. Good insights into being a cancer survivor, living with someone who has cancer, and the effect of terrible events faced by first responders. Great book!

This is emotional - just like, prepare yourself. If you're looking for a good cry and can handle conversation surrounding cancer, you should grab this book. If that doesn't sound appealing right now, maybe another time!

I had a hard time reading this one, but I did enjoy the character development we got throughout.

After going through treatment for breast cancer and preemptively going through a hysterectomy, Amy feels the need to get away and connect with happy times from her childhood. Due to her father’s job with the National Park Service, she spent her summers at Mt. Ranier in Washington state.

She also wants to spend time away from her husband Paul. While digging through papers in the desk on the day of her biopsy, she had come across divorce papers dated for the day after their daughter Carly would graduate from high school. After the cancer stresses Carly out and she goes wild for the end of the school year, her parents decide to send her to her great aunt for the summer. While Paul is driving her there, Amy leaves on her trip.

The summer turns into a time of discovery for all three of them. I personally have not dealt with cancer, so I can only relate to the extent of having recovered from multiple major surgeries and experienced the feeling of nerve regrowth. I think that the author’s personal experience really adds to the depth of the story. On the other hand, I have been to some of the national parks mentioned and been in awe of the beauty. Makes me want to go out on another road trip out west, when it is safe to do so.

I received an advance copy of this book to review from the publisher, St. Martin’s, through NetGalley.

What's Worth Keeping by Kaya McLaren, published by St. Martin's Press, is a touching story, told in a multiple pov.
Meet Amy Bergstrom and her husband Paul, her daughter Carly. This is their story.
Amy was dealt a bad hand, she has some serious health issues and needs her family to fall back on. But can she count on them wholeheartedly?
What's Worth Keeping is a complex story. It took me a minute to get in the story. All three are characters I could connect with and I liked the writing, the storyline and the hard earned and well deserved hea.

This was an emotional but healing read. The story addresses illness and how it can affect a family. It was a great reading experience.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book follows three point-of-views. Each one is of a family member that is trying to find themselves after heartbreaking events.

Amy is a mother and wife who recently beat breast cancer. That takes a toll on someone emotionally and physically. My mother had cancer once (different than what the book was) and it brought back a lot of those memories. Not only had she dealt with that but her marriage is falling apart and her dad has Alzheimer. I also felt everything she was feeling when it came to her dad, except it was my grandma who couldn’t remember anything anymore. It’s a terrible thing to go through and reading those parts in this book just had me reeling in the emotions.

Paul is a father and husband who is having a hard time coping from the Oklahoma City bombing. PTSD is no joke. I’ve seen someone deal with it during a plane show. The loud noises were just too much for him. He hides his feelings and it causes issues in the marriage.

Carly is their daughter and has had a hard time coping with what has happened to her mother. Since she may carry the same gene as her mother, which means she could be at higher risk, she doesn’t know what that means for her. She is newly graduated from high school and trying to work through hard questions about life.

I am so glad that each of these characters had a point-of-view. It makes the plot just that more heartbreaking and emotional. You start to understand that it isn’t always what the other person thinks. Sometimes people are going through problems on their own and they don’t want to be a burden and they just don’t know how to open up and cope. Having terrible communication can be frustrating but it is so real in all relationships!

Even though this book is heartbreaking, there is healing as well. Each character is taking their own journey and finding out what it means to live again. The ending is pretty open but it was satisfying enough and left me happy to know that maybe things will be alright.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Emotionally, I wasn’t prepared but it was so worth it!

I'm still trying to process this book, so forgive me please for the short review. This is a true tear jerker. One that will make you cry but you can't help but love it at the same thing. Its a gut wrenching look at cancer and what it does to not only the people who are fighting it but also those who are watching someone they love go through it. I cried through out most of it.

Such an emotional read, and it has to be on your TBR list for 2021!

This was a very engaging story of a family of three who are all going through a
personal trauma of their own, and of the people and places that help them through it.
I love a story that delves into the feelings of a character, and really brings them to life for me. This book does just that.
The husband, a policeman plagued by the job he had to face after the Oklahoma City bombing, his wife who ends up wrestling with the onset of an aggressive cancer, and the daughter who has to come to terms with the chaos around her.
Very well written, and a story that could help anyone going through a tough circumstance. The ways each of them deal with their issues are all great stories.
I will see what else this author has to offer.
I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book.

A poignant and emotional book about a family dealing with their mother’s cancer and how they’re all dealing with it.

Real. Raw. Brave. Emotionally true. These are the words that come to mind after finishing this book yesterday and reflecting on it some. I have survived cancer treatments and surgeries twice and have to say that the author is spot on with her descriptions particularly of the emotional ramifications of such a diagnosis. She doesn’t flinch from asking the real, raw questions about life and illness and even the possibility of death.

One of my favorite characters was Great-Aunt Rae. Her wisdom and tenderness with Amy (and also with Carly) was beautiful to my own sometimes-weary soul.

I think that any woman who has ever had cancer, past or present, would benefit from this novel, even if just for the fact that she would know she’s not alone.

Also, I loved that the healing power of nature was such a prevalent force in Amy‘s story of recovery and making her way back to good health

Omg! I knew this was going to be a tear jerker. I knew it was going to hit close to home. She had the cancer. I had the cancer. Here we go...



I thought the book was ultimately going to be about Amy and her cancer journey. While this is about her journey, after cancer, this is also a journey about her husband, Paul and daughter, Carly.

We have the three different POV’s: Amy, Paul and Carly. At first I thought, Paul and Carly were jerks. But, it turns out they have their own traumas and issues.

Amy decides she has to get away. She has to find a way to heal. Not only from the trauma of cancer treatment, but of other things that have been haunting her. Secrets she found... So she’s going back to nature. This is the exact place I went after I got my energy back. The same place I go today, to hike, to get away, to feel love.

*Uncorrected Proof Quote

"I just want to be in the forest. I feel like nature is the only thing that might heal me. For months, I kept thinking that if I could just be with the really big trees, I would be okay."




Amy goes off on her own journey to visit as many National Forests as possible. We get to read about the beautiful places, feel the heartbreak of Amy’s thoughts (which really, only cancer patients understand), and slowly see her start to heal.

Meanwhile, Amy and Paul discussed taking Carly to work on Great-Aunt Rae’s horse farm.





Aunt Rae has Clydesdale horses and she takes people camping and trail riding with them. My favorite horse and Carly’s as well is T-Rex. She’s loved him since she was a little kid.



Aunt Rae is one of my favorite characters. She’s the glue that bonded everyone together again.

Carly loves the horses and her aunt. Carly finds herself on the farm, opens up about her anger and pain, decides what she really wants for her future and can finally get some peace.



Paul is a cop and he’s only a few years from retirement. He’s battling his own demons from being a first responder in a bombing and watching the world and friends go downhill. This has taken its toll on him. Not to mention going through cancer treatment with Amy.

At one point in the past the family bought a house not far from Aunt Rae’s farm in Chama, NM. Paul has finally started to fix up the house, trying to find his own peace of mind and create a nice home for the family to possible move into some day. He finally met some of the wonderful neighbors and I fell in love with Mr. Martinez. He helps Paul in some important ways.

All of the pieces of their lives start to fit together the way they should. This was a long road for each person but getting there was the most rewarding in my opinion. I loved it and this book will be going on my real life bookshelf.



*Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s for a digital copy of this book.

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

Amy is going through her clothes. She misses so much about her life like her hair and breasts. I like when characters are named Amy. Paul is taking his daughter Carly to Rae's house in New Mexico. I loved switching to different characters. The gene Amy has that makes her likely to get breast or ovarian cancer could be genetic. Carly trys to not show how scared she is of the future. Amy is spending time in the forest in Washington. I thought Amy's cancer could be good thing it helped give a second chance to the marriage. I loved reading about how the family handled Amy's health. Paul is fixing up the old house he owns

A lovely, haunting story about the echo of genetics and illness through generations. Very touching.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is such a highly emotional book that I almost didn’t read it. I am 56 years old and I have Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer. My cancer will never be beaten, I will never go into remission but I have battled it for 2 1/2 years and I will continue to battle it until there is nothing left to fight with. Amy’s diagnosis of cancer brought on so many emotions that she was unable to express them to her family, she was barely able to survive each day of treatment. The author was bang on with what Amy was feeling and what Amy was unable to feel anymore. Reading the acknowledgements I see that the Author had cancer herself so this is likely why she could right such an emotional novel. She wrote a true scenario of how a person that is battling breast cancer feels. While some of us will never have an “after” Cancer life we all are searching for a path that leads us to living a life that has meaning. You don’t have to climb a mountain or jump from a plane, you just have to find the peace within yourself to accomplish the little things that others take for granted. The author shows us, through Amy, that this is possible. I thank St, Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this novel. I found it realistic and reassuring and instead of leaving me upset or feeling sorry for myself I felt a little more at peace. Thank you to the author for giving me this. I have read a few other books by this author and they were all wonderful. Give this book a try, it will leave you feeling better.