I received an ARC copy of Little Pieces of Me by Alison Hammer from Net Galley. This book tells the story of Paige, who receives unexpected news from a DNA test. What makes this book so compelling are the dual timelines in which both Paige's and her mother's stories are told. I feel like both characters were well-developed and believable, and I really came to care about both. This would be a great book for a book club!! I have so many things I would love to talk about, but I can't do it here because of spoilers. I highly recommend this book! It is scheduled to be released on April 13.

Thank you to @williammorrowbooks, @goodreads and @thishammer for my gifted copy of Little Pieces of Me! I had the pleasure of buddy reading this wonderful book with @lovearctually. The synopsis is in the comments.

While I initially had a tough time starting this book, I couldn’t put it down after the first third. The book was told in two timelines: present day, and during Paige‘s parents time at the University of Kansas. The transitions between the two time periods were seamless, and happened at the perfect times within the plot. Both timelines built towards climaxes at the perfect times as well and with good pacing. The two timelines really helped us learn more about Paige‘s parents as well, and how certain events unfolded as they did.

The journey Paige went on after she got her DNA test results was so emotional, and Alison Hammer did a wonderful job of conveying it through her words. I was moved to tears several times, and Hammer became an autobuy author for me. I loved Paige’s friends as well, they were a fabulous support system for her, and had just the right amount of coverage in the book.

This book was just okay for me. All the suspense had petered out by the 60% mark and the rest was just denouement. The last section didn’t go along with the rest of the book and in fact negated some of the earlier bits.

I loved this book! Between this book and her last book, Alison Hammer has become an auto-buy for me. I will read whatever she writes! This story was very intriguing to me. I was so engrossed with finding out what was happening, I really liked the duel storylines and it hopping back and forth to tell the story. Highly recommended!

Little Pieces of Me was definitely a sleeper book for me. I began the book thinking I would maybe just like it, and ended up loving the characters and the concept of the book. This was told in dual time lines, Paige’s and her mother, Betsy’s. I know dual timelines are often done (and overdone now) but this one worked out perfectly for the concept of the storyline. Paige is an unemployed woman, who is getting married. Her world is turned upside down when she gets a message from a genealogical website that a new familial match has been made. At first, Paige thinks (knows?) it is a mistake, since the match is for her father. Paige’s father died two years prior, so she didn’t understand how she could have a match for her father on the website. This book explores that, the relationship Paige has with her mother, and the complicated relationships that Betsy had in her youth, which led to Paige’s existence. This book is so different than others I’ve read lately, in the best possible way. I’d highly recommend to those interested in families, drama, and women’s fiction.

The premise of this story intrigued me because I love researching genealogy and love hearing stories about something unexpected people find when they do their DNA. Usually it is not as striking as finding out your parents are not who you expect, but it makes for an exciting story. I liked the format of the story so we learned what happened from her mom's perspective as well as it's impact in present day.

What if two years after your father's passing, you find out he wasn't your biological father, courtesy of an online DNA testing company?

That's the premise behind Little Pieces of Me, a dual-timeline story where you follow the Then & Now. I really enjoyed the look back at Paige's mother's side of the story, because it humanizes her in a way that you don't get from Paige's point-of-view.

The character development throughout this book is fantastic. Alison Hammer gives depth to Paige, her Mom, her "DNA Dad," her amazing friends and even her Dad comes alive again on the pages.

I almost didn't pick this one up because I'm extra sensitive to "loss of a Dad" stories, but I'm glad I did because this was really moving.

Thank you to The Book Club Girls Early Reads Program, William Morrow, Custom House and Net Galley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book, in exchange for my honest review.

Content Warnings: deceased family member, grief, homophobia, unplanned pregnancy & abortion considerations

This is another story told in two timelines, current day is Paige, an engaged woman in her 40s who’s always been a Daddy’s girl and he recently passed away and now she’s trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life when an email comes in from a DNA testing company that she sent in as a result of a free trial from her former job, and it changes her whole life.
Then we have Betsy’s timeline, who is Paige’s mom, and it covers her college life and how Paige came to be. Paige and Betsy’s relationship is rocky and strained. When Betsy was in college, she dates Mark until he gives her a gift for her birthday that shows he doesn’t really know her at all, so they take a break and she meets up with Andy, who is a frat brother of Mark’s and they comfort each other in the wake of both their break ups. Andy has secrets he’s keeping from everyone and Betsy vows to keep his if he will keep hers.
I really enjoyed learning more about these cases of people who found out that they weren’t who they thought they were. I didn’t realize there were so many until Paige talked about joining a Facebook group for it and lost hours and hours reading similar stories. And I loved Andy! I just wanted to hold him and make things better for him!
Thanks to Netgalley for this arc in exchange for my review.

I thought the book was interesting and delved into some great ethical/moral/identity conundrums of Paige finding out that her dad isn’t really her biological dad, while her mother kept it hidden for her entire life, and feeling like she didn’t know who she was anymore, especially after the grief of losing her known-dad recently.

While the story was compelling and the writing good, I gave it a lower rating mostly because I felt that there was so much baggage and dysfunction between Paige and her mom, and then Betsy/Elizabeth and Andy, and it all wrapped itself relatively quickly into a nice bow at the end. With 43+ years of secrets, lies and resentment, it just seemed way too quick and easy to resolve like that in a 3 month span. Usually a family with that much of a past needs therapy and a whole lot of conversation and *maybe* it can find a sense of closeness and moving forward. And maybe I’m wrong, but it seemed to allude in the end that maybe there was an inkling that Andy knew which sours it for me since he told Paige he had no clue. I also felt like Jeff was a little too perfect.

All in all I like the story and the potential what-if, but was a little too perfect after a whole lot of mess, and therefore disappointing for me in the end.

Thanks to Netgalley and William Morrow for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Alison Hammer is such a skillful writer. Similar to the thrill of opening a book by Kristin Hannah, the opening pages of an Alison Hammer novel promise you’ll embark on a sweeping, immersive, emotional journey that will give you all the feels.

Paige Meyer is having a down moment; she’s lost her job, and although she dearly loves her fiancé and has close friends, she’s struggling with planning for her wedding just two years after losing her father. Plus, her lifelong strained relationship with her mother and siblings is weighing on her, especially during this time.

The last thing she expects is to discover from a DNA test that the Dad she’s still grieving is not her genetic father. A scenario guaranteed to worsen Paige’s relationship with her mother, Elizabeth. Could she have lied to both Paige and her Dad?

The author cleverly interweaves a dual timeline narrative from two points of view. We gradually learn what happened forty-plus years ago to turn Elizabeth, Paige’s mother, into the woman she became. Along the way, we gain empathy for Elizabeth’s decisions, and the situation they are now in, but will Paige her daughter be able to forgive her?

As recent revelations open doors for Paige; she struggles with whether a change in her DNA is a change in her core identity and needs to decide whether she will she step through the new doors that open for her because of her new genetic heritage.

At its heart, Little Pieces of Me is a story about what makes for our identity, and the fears we all hold of who we really are inside. It’s about finding belonging and self-acceptance. Little Pieces of Me is an uplifting read, glowing with warmth and love.

You know when you read a book, it stirs up all the emotions, and you know you are a better, more empathetic person for having read it? That’s what Alison Hammer’s novels do for me.

This week @lovearctually is reading 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗶𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗲 by @thishammer and I read this book in two days so I could join in on the chat! I was so into this story; I had to know what happened next.⁣
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Paige Meyer had recently been laid off when she receives an email from FamilyTree, a family DNA website. She’s intrigued and clicks in to find she has a new parental link- to a man who is not her recently diseased father. She sits on this info for a few days before calling her slightly estranged mother who vehemently denies this. Paige confides in her fiancé, Jeff, but can’t stop thinking about who this man is or what her life would be like if she was Paige Abrams. The book also has flashbacks of Paige’s mother, Betsy, when she was a sophomore at the University of Kansas, and this shows the story who Paige’s father is and how this happened.⁣
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I absolutely felt for Paige- she has never really connected with her mother and her father was her person. He passed suddenly and she feels so separated by her mother and twin sisters. Luckily, now she has Jeff to help her. This book was just so absolutely genuine and heartfelt. I loved how supportive her friends and Jeff were and especially Maks speech about needing to push her sometimes. I love how she reconnected with one of her twin sisters when she was away from the other. ⁣
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As someone who waited until 35 to get married, I loved to see an older bride! Paige is 43 and has some thoughts about weddings that I just loved to see. Thank you to @williammorrowbooks, @netgalley, @lovearctually, and @thishammer for the advanced reader copy. Little Pieces of Me is on sale April 13! ⁣
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4.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫⁣

Beautifully written! It is hard to put the book down once you start reading it. What would you do if you found out the man you knew as your father had no biological link to you? Paige grows up in a Jewish family with a devoted father that she shares a birthday who recently passed away. Paige discovers through a DNA site that the man she always thought of as her father is not. When reaching out to her mother, her mother vehemently denies what Paige tells her and shuts Paige down. Paige turns to the internet and her support system of friends and her fiancée to help her understand the shocking revelation that some unknown man shares her DNA.

Alison Hammer has crafted a then and now story that keep you turning the page to find out how things resolve. Through flashbacks to 1970s college life to discover what really happened and their position in the story timely in explaining where Paige came from, you realize how much you are rooting for Paige’s mom and biological dad. Not cheering in hopes that they end up together, but being hopeful that they find their happiness apart to live a fulfilled life.

You will keep reading to see if her mom ever opens up about what really happens, if she ever meets her “DNA dad,” and how/if she allows it to change her life. This book is a refreshing breath of fresh air.

#netgalley #littlepiecesofme

This book felt very very close to home. I had a very similar DNA experience to Paige. I really enjoyed seeing how her experience with uncovering secrets played out. I also gained a few insights into how I could navigate my unexpected discoveries as well.

Hammer handled this topic with such grace. I appreciated how she created the Then and Now timelime to really help us see the entire picture of events.

This was a fantastic read. Trigger warnings: parental death, DNA discoveries.

Paige is a 43 year old woman, planning her wedding to Jeffrey. She and her mom, Elizabeth (Betsy), are both learning to adapt after the death of her dad two years previously. And then Paige receives an email from the company that ran her DNA alerting her to a new leaf on her family tree.

The story is told in dual timelines, alternating between the Now of Piage's life and the Then of a younger Betsy. In many ways, this book focuses on Paige and her mom. However, the book also provides insight into Betsy's childhood and relationship with her mother, reminding us that every mother was first a daughter.

I loved that Paige was 43. It works well for the story that her parents were born in the 1950's, and the math of her age flows from that. But more than that, seeing a focus on a woman who is in her forties and planning a first wedding was so refreshing. And seeing her navigate her identity as an adult felt relatable.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was phenomenal! I love that it touched on subjects that aren’t in many books like finding a parent later in life, losing your job later in life and being an older bride. I really disliked Betsy most of the book but I understood her more by the end. I related to Paige in a way I haven’t with any other character and I appreciate that! But this book on April 13th!!
TW: loss of a parent

I enjoyed this book so much! The story centers around a woman who finds out after 43 years that her biological Dad is not the Dad she was raised by, through the results of a mail away DNA kit. As the story to her past unfolds, we meet the characters both in the past and the present. For the most part, the characters are very enjoyable and it feels easy to connect with them and be on the journey to find answers. The journey includes so many thought provoking topics about family, friends, lovers and how things can be so complex beneath the surface. Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this digital ARC for an honest review.

An enjoyable read! The main character, Paige, is her 4os, unemployed and about to get married. Through a DNA test, she finds out that she has a match for a biological parent. This adds to the complicated relationship that she has with her mother, while she is still grieving the loss of the man, who she believed to be her father. Told from different points of views and different timelines this is a captivating book about finding one's biological father while cherishing the memory of the man who raised her, Thank you to NetGalley, the Book Club Girls, and Alison Hammer for the ARC!

This book touched on some important issues around genealogy and DNA resources that are available today. It was a look at a fascinating at what can go wrong or what can go wonderfully right when you dig into your DNA and find unexpected family connections.

I thought the book was well written but a little long in some places. The author hops back and forth in time and it could have been shortened up a little bit. The events that took place in the 70's felt a little outdated to me and long. It felt like they were describing the 50's not the 70;s.

Paige has had her world simultaneously turned upside down but also falling in to place, as she had never felt she fitted in with her family. Her mother whom she has never had a connection with is in denial and refusing to be honest. Grieving the loss of a father who she adored and adored her, only to find out he was not (in DNA terms) and a DNA dad that she has never even heard of but fits all these missing pieces. Sisters who have always naturally had the connection with her mother that she so desperately wants but for reasons unknown - to her - she doesn't know how to get.

I did enjoy the book, but I just felt we should have dug a little deeper, peeling back the layers or each character, meaning we could feel how they felt and understanding why they did what they did, we could have connected more with them. However as we only seemed to stick at the first layer, it was a bit linear. However, this is why it makes it good for a lazy day or beach read and it flows well and is an easy read!

I did enjoy this story, but I can’t help wanting more and feeling a little cheated.

I find that I always enjoy a well-written dual-timeline story and in that, this book did not disappoint. I thought both Paige’s and Betsy’s timelines were very well developed, but both of them went very slow. They each needed so much more. There just wasn’t enough meat in this story.

I also had a really hard time identifying with Paige. She is 43 in this story, but her behavior and general over-the-top emotions point to a teenager or very young adult. She also doesn’t seem to have a very adult relationship with her mother. She behaves toward her like a petulant child.

I can’t fully describe what made me feel cheated in the story without spoilers, but the author quite deliberately leads you in a wrong direction through most of the book on two related points that turn out to not be true. In the end, I felt lied to and that the story just didn’t hold up with the new information.

Thank you to William Morrow Books and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review of this book.

Review on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3878415440