In this book you learn a lot about family and not all family could be related by blood
This book was approved by netgalley and the publisher for me to read and eeview.

Description: A sweet and hopeful novel about loss, connection, and the many ways to make a family from the bestselling author of The Other Family.

Single mother Roxy Novak works days at a dentist’s office and delivers food at night, making the best life she can for herself and her son, Aero. When her wealthy ex-husband decides to ask for full custody, telling her Aero will be better off living with him and his Instagram-famous new wife, Roxy is stunned and scared. How can she possibly get the money to fight back?

Meanwhile, Nora and Owen Finnegan have been trying to have a child for years without success. After their latest surrogate suffers a miscarriage, they start the search again—and find Roxy, who sees a chance to salvage her own dreams of family by fulfilling theirs.

But family is never simple, and neither are dreams. Nora, Owen, and Roxy hope that their surrogacy journey will lead them to what they want most in the world. All three will get more than they expected.
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TW: pregnancy, miscarriage, divorce, seizures

I have a lot of feelings about this book and the characters. Mostly, it seemed REAL. All of the characters were flawed in some way, not enough for me to completely dislike any of them (except maybe Livvie at times), but enough for them to seem like regular people who sometimes make poor choices. It is hard to separate what we want as parents with what is best for our kids, and Roxy lives that. It is also hard to realize that dreams of the perfect family are not always fulfilled. All 3 main characters live that.

I appreciated the development of Roxy and Nora and the ownership Owen took of things. I would have liked a little more insight into Roxy's ending decisions regarding Vinnie and handling Gabe. But the ending was satisfying. Overall a very good picture of what family is, what it can mean, and how it can change over time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with a copy of this booj in exchange for a review.

The New Person, a deceptively simple story examining our choices and relationships, hooked me from page one. I found the characters to be perfectly imperfect and therefore so relatable. We have Roxy, a divorced mother scrambling to keep things together, who works for Door Dash and struggles to find balance. Then we have Nora, who longs to be a mother, and who is not always an easy or a likeable person. When surrogacy (and the payment involved) becomes a possibility, Roxy and Nora have to make some difficult decisions about how to move forward and how to relate to each other. I also enjoyed the ruthless, successful ex-husband and his new wife Livvy, the social media influencer.

Of all the books I have read that incorporate our newer realities (Tik Tok, delivery services, and other modern tech), this one felt the most authentic. Livvy's influencer persona and posts were well thought out and I could see people relating to them. We also see the other side: Livvy sharing things that were perhaps better kept private. Roxy's Door Dashing was stressful and exciting, and at times a little sketchy. Aero, her son, faces hyper-competitive sports and finding new friends in his dad's sparkling suburb.

This was a book that made me examine my own choices and how and why we do what we do. It made me feel the grief, joy, and connection that the characters were feeling deep in my soul. I think a lot of 30+ moms can relate to having a small social circle with only 1 or 2 genuine friends.

Lastly, I appreciated the ending. It wasn't a twist, but it was as unexpected and as genuine as the rest of the plot.

I would give this 9 out of 10 stars and recommend it to anyone who liked to think deeply about life, choices, and consequences.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

In The New Person by Loretta Nyhan, two women’s lives intersect in their quest for motherhood, specifically when one becomes a potential surrogate for the other. This was a powerful read and a very difficult one. It reminded me of a similarly heartbreaking article I had read in (I believe) the Guardian many years ago when women in the UK were donating eggs to afford IVF treatment for themselves, treatment that sometimes worked for the families who received a donated egg but not for the women who had donated. Overall, we have characters in this story that have led incredibly difficult lives. They are portrayed with beautiful nuance, and none of them are perfect.

There wasn’t much to dislike about the story or its structure. The narrative may have been a bit cleaner if we didn’t have the chapters with Owen’s POV, which were few in number anyway. Rather than dislike, I can speak to what it would have been nice as a reader to see more of towards the end. The epilogue was abrupt. When we left each character, they were at their lowest points in the narrative (which is saying something for Roxy, one of the main characters, who goes through a lot of shit throughout the story). Yet the final chapter leaves each of them close to a happily ever after. Notably, for me, there was not a clear or adequate resolution between Roxy and her ex-husband’s family, the latter for whom I did not care for. These thoughts serve to just highlight that I did have strong emotions and opinions while reading this book, which in itself is a testament to how engrossing it is.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I expected a light hearted, simple read. Instead, it made me think about how we live so many different lives, even when we all live on this planet. In this book, Nora and Owen are married, but she's suffered several miscarriages. They have one embryo remaining, and they want to choose wisely.
Roxy is a single mother, raising her son, Aero, the best she can. She is loving, she loves him, and she works two jobs to get by.
Her ex-husband, however, seems to have hit the jackpot. He has remarried, and his wife, Livvy, is an influencer. They have a magnificent house, Livvy is pregnant, and they can (and do) give Aero all the advantages in life.
When Roxy's ex decides he and his new wife can provide more than Roxy is able, he decided to push for full custody. The only way she can get the money she'd need to fight this would be...you guessed it...to be a surrogate.

What was difficult for me was how Gabe gets Roxy pregnant, and he then sails off into the sunset. He's there, but just because you have money are you the better parent?
The author did a good job with character development. I saw the good and bad in all the characters.

If you're looking for a book that's a good read, not super heavy, and the author has done a great job, this is a great choice.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing (you've done it again!) and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The New Person – Loretta Nyhan

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Three words: Hopeful, poignant, easy-reader.

Trigger warnings: baby loss, miscarriage.

I received an ARC from Netgalley, so here is my unbiased review.

Synopsis

The book follows the three-person point of view of:

Roxy is a single mum to son Aero, sharing custody with his father Gabe and Gabe’s influencer wife, Livvy. Roxy works as an assistant in a dental office, as well as doing fast food deliveries in the evenings as she struggles to make ends meet.
Nora, an accountant who has suffered multiple miscarriages as well as a baby that their surrogate didn’t surrender, and is desperate to complete her family, wanting a baby with her husband.
Owen, Nora’s husband, also desperate for a baby, keeping a series of secrets as he tries to find the best way to keep his family together and support Nora.
When Roxy’s ex-husband threatens to change their established custody agreement, Roxy needs to find money – and quickly. Prompted by an article in her fancy lawyer’s office, she looks into surrogacy, where she meets Nora and Owen.

The story follows their journey, while exploring the nuances of grief, family, surrogacy and friendship.

First of all, I thought this was a really nuanced and intelligent story of what family can mean. There are a whole host of characters who are family to Aero, while Nora and Owen are trying to have a baby to complete their family. The narrative between Roxy and Nora could have been a little repetitive, but the addition of Owen provides an extra (often missed) dimension of what baby loss can mean to a father as well.

The characters felt really human, they were well-rounded and while there were times where I found Roxy in particular pretty annoying, it’s fair to say that there’s nothing wrong with having a flawed character.

I’m not usually a fan of a communication/miscommunication trope, and that does appear a couple of times in the book – I always find myself just screaming “why would you not mention that” – but most of the time the motives here have an understandable context, and that’s more of a comment on my preferences than the writing of the story.

The only thing I can flat-out say I disliked was the multiple synonyms for McDonald’s that get swapped in throughout the book. If I could have got past that with Roxy doing it, Nora also started rotating them, which didn’t make sense to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love a Mickey Ds as much as the next gal, but I’m happy if we just call a spade a spade.

Overall, it was a really compelling story, with understandable characters and an ending that might not have been the one I wanted, but that was perfect for the story we had. I’m really looking forward to reading more of Nyhan’s work, her style is easy to read and the pacing felt just about right – although I’d have loved a little more time with Vinnie, and less on Nora’s Instagram account, as that didn’t feel hugely important to the story.

Four out of five stars from me!

Roxy's ex husband has remarried to a well known influencer and the pair inform Roxy that they're pushing for sole custody of her son and that they can give him more opportunities. Determined to fight this but having no money, Roxy signs up to be a surrogate for a couple that can't conceive. I thought this book was great, a really unique idea and well written. I was completely gripped and read it in just over a day!

I really enjoyed reading about people who were dealing with big life issues and how they navigated through them.

Single mother Roxy Novak works days at a dentist’s office and delivers food at night, making the best life she can for herself and her son, Aero. When her wealthy ex-husband decides to ask for full custody, telling her Aero will be better off living with him and his Instagram famous new wife, Roxy is stunned and scared. How can she possibly get the money to fight back?
Meanwhile, Nora and Owen Finnegan have been trying to have a child for years without success. After their latest surrogate suffers a miscarriage, they start the search again and find Roxy, who sees a chance to salvage her own dreams of family by fulfilling theirs.
But family is never simple, and neither are dreams. Nora, Owen, and Roxy hope that their surrogacy journey will lead them to what they want most in the world. All three will get more than they expected.
Really enjoyed this book totally recommend
Thank You NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing
I just reviewed The New Person by Loretta Nyhan. #TheNewPerson #NetGalley