I loved this family so much and the characters. It was so uplifting and I had an absolute blast with it. It was a quick read as it’s very engaging and you’re not going to want to put the book down for a second!

This is an insightful look at a family in the midst of crisis, and how they navigate that crisis together. A lovely study of the bonds of family and love, and what we will do for the ones we love.

Sunday Brennan is forced to return to her hometown that she fled five years earlier. Her brother Denny travels from Boston to Los Angeles to bring his sister home after a drunk driving accident that has left her badly injured and needing time to heal. Denny is the co-owner of a bar and is currently planning to expand by adding a second location. His married business partner is Sunday’s former fiancé.

Being back home is an adjustment and as Sunday heals, she tries to help her brother with the financial mess he’s created. Working on the business brings her in touch with the man who was once the love of her life – Kale. Since he’s part owner of the bar, it’s necessary that the two interact. Despite trying to maintain a merely friendly relationship, the electricity between Sunday and Kale sets off sparks every time they are near each other.

There is a lot of dysfunction in this family and some of the reasons for the current chaotic situation are a bit protracted. Still, one can’t help but be drawn to the four Brennans and their foibles. Each of the siblings is unique and has their own appeal. As the only sister, Sunday carries her own weight amid the family testosterone. Kale was raised alongside the Brennan children and is like a brother, an honorary 5th Brennan. The presence of sweet brother Shawn reinforces the strong bond that exists and highlights the support they have for each other. There are family secrets from the past that continue to haunt the family, but if there’s a reason for them to rally, it’s someone or something threatening them.

Even if there are small issues with some elements of the plot, the family tale is strong and heartwarming. Readers will be immersed in the tale of an Irish family who love with open hearts and fierce protectiveness. The narrator adds a great deal and does a fantastic job of moving the plot forward with flare. A winning story with immense appeal.

I had a hard time seeing the comparisons that others were making about this family and the family from Shameless. It was OK, but I didn’t connect with the characters and found them all unlikeable.

I received an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

Here with a book that’s been all over the ‘gram recently: We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange.

It’s a sweeping family drama with multiple POVs that explores topics of shame and guilt within a large New York Irish Catholic family.

This book begins with the Old English Nursery Rhyme:

“Monday’s child is fair of face
Tuesday’s child is full of grace
Wednesday’s child is full of woe
Thursday’s child has far to go
Friday’s child is loving and giving
Saturday’s child works hard for a living.
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day is bonny and blithe,
and good and gay.”

Even though I don’t get a bad wrap as a child born on Tuesday, I’m glad there’s more to determine our fate than the day of the week on which we were born…like our star signs. 😂😂😂

But seriously, the tie-in to how daughter Sunday, born on the Sabbath, anchors the family is a throughline in this novel.

It’s her disappearance to Los Angeles that pushes the family apart and her return to New York that has the potential to bring them back together. The reason why Sunday left, however, has the potential to destroy the Brennans and those who love them, or exposing it may finally heal them.
☘️☘️☘️

This book is one for readers who enjoy big family dramas with a focus on relationships. There’s action and secrets to unveil, but the core of the novel is around interpersonal dynamics.
☘️☘️☘️

Many thanks to partner Celadon Books, NetGalley, and the author for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

All I can say is if you love family drama and contemporary fiction this book is perfect for you Tracy Lange did amazing in writing this book and I can’t wait to read others by her.

The narrator was great!

If you like family drama and multiple perspectives, pick this one up! You will get to piece together the truth behind the family secrets. The author brings some very flawed characters to you to explore some topics of miscarriage, sexual assault, death, and alcoholism.

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨/5

I found We Are the Brennans to be a very engrossing listen, one that had me completely engaged, right up until the final minutes of the book. The narrator, Barrie Kreinik, was fantastic and did a wonderful job at bringing so many different voices to life!

What I Loved:
-Multiple View Points - You get several chapters from each family member's point of view and this really adds a significant amount of detail and depth to the story.

-Interconnectedness of Chapters - Lange has a real knack for creating seamless transitions between chapters. She’s also really good at smoothly shifting between her characters’ perspectives. This makes it difficult to stop reading because of how well the story flows.

-Familial Relationships - I adored getting to know the Brennans and especially loved getting an inside look into how each character felt about everyone else. Lange also does a great job at capturing the messy realities of what it means to be a member of a large and imperfect family.

What I Didn’t Love:
-Predictable at Times - I was able to guess quite a bit of what was coming (including the mystery aspect that pops up during the second half of the book). I’m personally someone who likes to be kept on their toes when reading, so I’m never a big fan of things being too predictable.

-Infidelity - One of my biggest reading dealbreakers is infidelity. There’s very few contexts in which I enjoy reading about it, and this book wasn’t an exception to the rule for me.

-Rushed Ending - The ending felt very hurried and the book’s final page left me with one too many questions. I definitely would read a follow up book about the Brennans simply to get some answers.

Overall, if you like stories about small towns and tight knit families with plenty of secrets and scandal mixed in for good measure, you’ll definitely enjoy, We Are the Brennans.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

I had heard a lot of things about this book and I was happy to have to have the opportunity to listen to it. I enjoyed the narrator. It was an enjoyable listen and I have told others to get their hands on it!

This book was fine. I usually love reading family dramas but for some reason I found this book to be underwhelming and hard to pay attention to. The first half was good, but then I quickly got bored and I found the ending to be very anti-climatic. I kind of feel the same about this book as I do about Malibu Rising; super popular family drama books that follow a group of siblings that I wanted to love but I just personally don’t understand the hype.

ow wow wow. This was a great one. First of all, the writing was awesome. Each chapter started with the last sentence of the previous chapter causing a domino effect of perspectives. It was wonderful. The whole book felt like a puzzle being out together. Sort of came full circle. Second, I loved the characters. I think they were developed great. Also, representation of a person with disabilities, we need more of this! Lastly, I loved the feel of community within the family. This is relatable to me being Jewish, we rely on our Jewish community like the Brennans relied on their Irish community.

Highly recommend this one!!

This book was such a good read! I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did. I will say that the characters were a tad but frustrating at times, but overall, they were really loveable by the end. So glad I read this one!

Family dramas are one of my favorite genres of books, but that also means I tend to be a little bit critical of them. While there's nothing necessarily wrong with We are the Brennans and plenty of people have loved it, it just didn't do a lot for me and I felt a little bit bored during it. A solid 3 stars for me.

When Sunday Brennan returns home to be with her family in New York after getting in a drunk driving accident in Los Angeles, we meet her entire family and learn a lot about their history. A tight-knit Irish Catholic family, it's clear that something happened 5 years prior that caused Sunday to leave suddenly, abandoning her confused fiancé, brothers, and father. Her ex-fiancé, Kale, has since married and had a child and Sunday's return is a bit jarring (for both of them).

Each chapter is told from a different perspective, including Sunday, her brother Denny, their father Mickey Brennen, Kale, and Kale's wife. I didn't love where the plot went and the big reveal felt problematic in many ways (not that it was unrealistic in any way, but more the way it was spoken about felt icky). I never really felt fully drawn in and didn't feel a real connection with any of the characters. Usually when I'm reading family dramas (like The Most Fun We Ever Had and Ask Again, Yes), I don't want them to end, but I felt pretty indifferent about this one.

Like I mentioned, this book does have a ton of love and I didn't necessarily dislike it; I just didn't love it. Definitely give it a try yourself and see how you feel!

Who doesn’t love a good family drama? This book is just that – a whole lot of family drama. The Brennans are a tight knit large Irish family living in New York. Each family member carries their weight of secrets and angsts. Lange does a nice job developing each of the characters and weaving the stories together.

I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by Barrie Kreinik. The format of the audiobook made it easy for the listener to know which character was telling the story, and Kreinik added to that through telltale accents and bits in the narration.

**Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for sending me the ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
Rounded up: 3.5 Stars

I went into this audiobook knowing nothing about the author, the story or the narrator. I found myself slowly falling in love with them all more and more as the book went on. Truly a delight and one of my new favorite books about family drama from a modern author.

👏 This is how you do a family drama. 👏

This is one of those books that gives you a hangover. No matter what you thought of the book, it's devastating when you finish and realize the Brennans are out of your life.

The Brennans are a very large, very dysfunctional, and very Irish-American family. There's the golden boy, the weathered father, the artist, the younger brother with a disability, the unofficial family member, and so many more. And when Sunday, the only daughter, has a drunk driving accident and finds herself back in her family's arms, the tenuous peace is shattered.

Each character is broken in their own way, but you can't help but root for them. All of them. Even the ones who are not so savory. It's rare to find an author who breathes this much life into the characters.

There's a little bit of romance, a mystery to solve, a business in trouble, and layers upon layers of secrets. This high level of drama is just this side of believable, making this a deliciously soapy story.

If you're on the fence about this title, stop wondering and go for it. Sometimes it's a little predictable and a lot over the top, but it's worth taking the time to meet the Brennans.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Although this book delivered on its promise of a dysfunctional family drama, it didn’t impact me all that much. I really didn’t experience the emotional piece I was anticipating. Perhaps it was the audio narration which was a sad lacklustre performance or maybe it was the 3rd person perspective that seemed to create a void between reader and characters. Whatever the reasons, this book just didn’t work for me. It was challenging to engage and stay engaged. I was apathetic to the characters and their plights.

I received an advanced audio copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Brennans are an Irish catholic family torn apart by secrets, and all these secrets begin to reveal themselves as prodigal daughter Sunday Brennan returns home to New York after years on the west coast.

This one was compared a lot to Ask Again, Yes, and I LOVED that book. I absolutely see the similarities, but in my opinion it didn’t completely live up to the comparison. Admittedly, I have been in a bit of a slump in that no book is really captivating me, but I know a home run would pull me out! It’s still absolute a solid read and the ending won back points for sure!

💚 WHAT I LIKED
• the intrigue — wouldn’t say it was thriller level but it was a little something something to move the plot.
• the beginning and the end — both were fully captivating.
• Lange’s unique chapter structure — each chapter flips from character to character and the beginning of each chapter is the last thing the character said in the past chapter. It is kind of cool how she was able to do that! And it really kept the story going.
• solid audiobook narrator

This one is going to be short and sweet. Perfection - all of it. The story, the narrator, the character development. My only complaint is that the book is too damn short. I want more Brennan!!

I liked We Are The Brennans. It’s about family allegiance, found family, first love, and secrets that will find the light of day eventually. It included a surprise toward the end and had a satisfying ending. I enjoyed listening to this audiobook (the narration was well done) and I would recommend it to readers who enjoy family dramas. Those from an Irish Catholic background will find this one particularly relatable! Thanks for the audiobook, NetGalley.