I received a copy from Netgalley for review.

So I read this whole book in a day. I really enjoyed it, but I had a lot of gripes with it. Firstly, every single adult in both Henry and Samira's lives failed them repeatedly. But I guess that's why we have the story isn't it? I think the hardest thing to get around was the abuse brought on by Henry's Dad/uncle. He repeatedly showed prejudice towards his own son's ancestry and then expects him to not rebel and try and re-connect with that missing piece of himself? Ridiculous.

I really enjoyed the story of Samira reconciling her views about her dad in connection to how his actions affect the present. I think even without Henry's story being present too it would have made a compelling story.

I really enjoyed this book. This book def has so many elements that worked for me half siblings dymanics. I also liked both characters. This book also had a super short time table. but this was a super quick read and this book handled so many harder topics like abuse in so many forms with the backdrop of PTSD!! I liked the harder topics!! would love to read more by this author in the future!

The Search for Us is one of those novels that sort of sits with you as you read it and after completion. Everything about the circumstances Samira and Henry find themselves in is messy and complicated and makes perfect sense in this sort of senseless world.

Samira is very much someone who needs to feel stability. The only way she can accomplish that is by being in control. But when she’s faced with things over which she can’t regulate, her body literally has an allergic reaction. Samira is smart, determined and has given it her all — but it’s not enough.

Henry feels like he’s never “enough.” Stuck in between the mother who gave him up and the aunt and uncle who raised him, he can never please everyone. Henry’s “adoptive” parents feel aloof, and he always feels like he’s doing thing for them and letting them down.

The common link between Samira and Henry is their father, an Iranian immigrant and U.S. Army veteran who got into trouble in Afghanistan. As the two search out their father, they realize how much having a half-sibling means to them. There’s a comradery that’s sort of built in, even though they’re practically strangers themselves.

In The Search for Us, author Susan Azim Boyer has crafted a compelling character study that is hard to put down. It feels deeply personal, and it’s easy to connect with her protagonists. The ending does feel a bit too “clean” for a lack of a better word. I wasn’t expecting this messy thing to feel quite so wrapped up, but that wouldn’t stop me from recommending it.

I could barely put this book down once I started it. The author did a masterful job of weaving together so many of the issues facing young people today into a powerful story. I plan to order the author's previous book which also sounds very good. Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

This was a good book about what can happen when you send in DNA. You never know what can happen!

The book is told from two point-of-views and they come from Samira and Henry. They don’t know that when they put in their DNA to find out more about their father they will get more than they could have ever expected, a half-sibling. We see this type of story all over the news since Ancestry.com and other sites were created. I don’t think that I have come across a fictional about it and so I was intrigued by this one. The author does a good job with the topic and shows the hardships as well as the good memories that are being created between the two who now share a connection they never knew they had. It was also cool to learn that the author took this from her own experience as her husband found a half-sibling in the same way!

There is a lot that happens in the plot and it all doesn’t have to do with the DNA match. Topics that are covered range from child endangerment to addiction with alcohol. Since the book is not on the long side it felt like a lot to cover and some topics just didn’t get the same treatment as others.

Overall, this was a good read!

Very interesting YA novel. Samira Murphy and Henry Owen are seniors in high school in California and have ongoing issues in their families. Samira is bright but has too many adult responsibilities as she tries to help her alcoholic older brother and watch over her grandmother. Her mother is supportive but lives a state away. Henry's family relationships are complicated too. He was raised by a strict aunt and uncle but his bio mother is a part of his life too which causes tension at home.

Both Samira and Henry take DNA tests hoping to find their Iranian-American father who left them behind. Samira hopes he may have money (back child support) and can help with her brother's drinking issue, rehab and legal problems. Henry wants answers and a family or cultural connection. And both are surprised to learn they are each other's half siblings. (They live a few hours apart.)

This one surprisingly hits home for me. My spouse's parents legally adopted a grandchild and although raised in a loving home there are lasting issues dealing with feelings of abandonment and more. Also four of my first cousins are adopted and three in the last few years have found their biological families thanks to DNA testing. I found the story hit on a lot of emotional topics I have seen play out in my extended family.

The story is well written and I was so upset at the parentification Samira endured. And I was frustrated at her mothers seeming lack of concern about it. Also mom knows more than she shares when she is asked about her ex husband. None of the parents are bad guys but there are a lot of mistakes and miss-steps in their roles that causes a lot of the frustration and angst for Samira and Henry. The true good guys are Henry’s girlfriend and Samira’s best friend who are supportive and loving at all times.

The cover makes this look like a romance. It is NOT! This is a story about family and connections. And finding a family doesn’t solve all the problems. This has a realistic ending not a HEA. I would have liked it to have gone a bit further and seen Samira get counseling and help for herself. I read this in a few hours and could not put it down. I’d recommend it for older middle school and up. (4.5 Stars)

The Search For Us is a hopeful and emotional read that showcases the impact of mental health on young people. It also allows readers to see how the actions of others impact the young people around them. The major themes of the book are showcased in an amazing way, leaving the reader inspired.

Thanks to Wednesday Books for an e-ARC of The Search for Us by @susanazimboyer which publishes in late October!

Samira and Henry meet when they discover they are related after taking a DNA test to get information about their missing father. They end up working together to try to find their father and get answers on why exactly he disappeared when they were both little. The book tackles alcoholism, adoption, absent mothers and mental health. In addition, the book gives us Iranian main characters which is representation that the author never saw growing up and as a result, she wrote what she wanted to see. I love that so much.

The Search for Us is available for pre-order now wherever you buy books!

Man, this book. Sometimes my 3-star reads indicate apathy. Other times, like this, they indicate frustration with really weird choices at the ending.

First off, some things I liked: Most of the book does a great job of capturing some frustrating, upsetting, and enraging elements of family. Certain aspects of this book were really familiar to me from my own family, and the dual POV gave Boyer a chance to show two very different sets of family dynamics. I also really enjoyed that as these two characters connect, they're also forming a new relationship with their Persian ancestry at the same time, and there's so much love in those scenes. It's really beautiful. Samira's relationship to her brother Kameron (who's struggling with alcoholism) is nuanced and troubling and hits a lot of complex notes. Henry's uncle/adoptive father does some stuff that had me tearing my hair out, even as I could sort of see WHY he was making those choices.

And then we get to the end, where Boyer ends up trying to put a neat little button on every single nuanced plot point she's established throughout the book. She tries to clean it up. To make it all okay. To make everything almost magically better. And that rang so false and left me so frustrated. For one thing, there are people who made very poor, selfish, harmful, or otherwise negative choices throughout the book, and suddenly they're just... fixed? Often with one throwaway line? Part of that annoyed me on a personal level, because as someone with a pretty dysfunctional family, it felt SO unbelievable for everything to be resolved so neatly. Also, some of the other characters' actions have lasting impacts, and indicate deeper issues, so to have them brushed off read as disingenuous. For me, it undermined a lot of what Boyer had done throughout the book to build up these nuanced and complex relationships.

Apart from that, a lot of the prose felt mechanical and flat, especially toward the end. Or maybe I was just more aware of it at the end because the need to give absolute closure was so stilted and forced.

All that said, there were so many excellent scenes in this book. Boyer's note at the end explains where this story came from. It's based on an experience her husband had, which is pretty close to parts of Henry's. I can understand the desire to give a character, based on someone she loves, closure. Perhaps for a kid who felt how Henry or Samira does at the start of the book, the ending which struck me as forced might offer hope. It might be healing for older readers who had similar experiences as kids. So I don't want to discount it entirely, because the author tackles so many heavy topics. I just wish she had been willing to leave is in a place where that nuance still lingered.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this book as an ARC. I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

The Search for Us, by Susan Azim Boyer, really blew me away! I knew nothing about this novel going into it, and was interested based on the blurb and the fact my mom is adopted. The journey that Samira and Henry go through, two half-siblings that didn't know the other existed, is beautiful and poetic. They're both Iranian-American, a demographic we don't often get to see represented in novels. The display of mental health issues woven in is done so with grace. Having Samira and Henry take turns telling their story works really well. I got really attached to the characters and the new family relationships that these two siblings created in this novel!

As much as I love a romance, it's refreshing to pick up a YA book that's about family and friendships, and the ways we're changed as our non-romantic relationships shift over time. Told through the dual POV of half-siblings Samira and Henry, the story follows the pair as they struggle with uncertainties about their emotions, their career and college goals, their parents and other closest relatives, and their friendships. Each senses something is missing, information or context about their past that leaves them filling in the blanks with assumptions rather than truths. When they discover they're related, they combine forces to track down their absent father, anxious to get the answers each has been craving since childhood. What unfolds is a thoughtful look at what shapes us as we grow into adulthood, and how truth can be complicated, and how withholding that truth--even with the best of intentions--can have lasting repercussions.

The Search for Us by Susan Azim Boyer, 304 pages. Wednesday Books (St. Martin’s Press), 2023. $21. Centering me, lgbtqia
Language: R (175 swears, 26 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH
With the upcoming college decision deadline, stress is rising for Samira (17yo) and Henry (17yo) as they struggle to officially accept or decline due to their respective family drama. In the same week, these two teenagers, who have never met, choose to do DNA tests in an effort to find their fathers to come in and save the day. Instead, they find each other.
I love how Boyer addresses so many common mental issues that can be hard to live with, even if they aren’t diagnosed or categorized as mental illness. And it can be as difficult to navigate in real life as it was to read about. As Samira’s stress increased, so did my anxiety. It felt like bad just kept getting worse, until I was sure that the book was not going to have enough time to offer a solution. But despite how everything seemed to be wrong and was falling apart, Boyer showed readers that everything can still be okay—that we can make choices to be okay regardless of the circumstances we cannot control.
Samira and Kamron are Iranian/Persian, Irish, and American; Henry is Iranian/Persian, Russian, British, and American; Tara is implied Middle Eastern American and is also bisexual; Linh is Vietnamese; and Daniel is Black. The mature content rating is for alcohol use; groping; and mentions of drugs, condoms, and erection. The violence rating is for mild assault (hockey fighting) and for mentions of firearms and suicide.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

First off, I want to thank Wednesday Books for sending me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

This is the story of two half-siblings who find out about each other through a DNA test that they were hoping would help them find their biological father, an Iranian immigrant and U.S. Army veteran. That right away is an interesting hook, and it was really easy to get into this story just to see what happened next.

Samira Murphy feels responsible for taking care of everything and everyone, such as her widowed grandmother and her brother, Kamron, who is struggling with alcoholism. That’s a lot of responsibility for a seventeen-year-old. She thought that if she found her father, she could get him to finally support her and her brother. Henry Owen, who was raised by his aunt and uncle, along with his biological mother who would visit at times, always wondered what it would be like to meet his biological father. Meeting him would change everything and maybe he’d finally feel more understood. When they end up finding each other, they start to eventually learn more about the missing pieces from their past and who their father really was.

This book was very engaging, and I couldn’t help but want to see how their first meeting would go down, where their father was and what it would be like once they finally met him. I felt sympathy for Samira and Henry, who had very different ideas of their father and what the outcome would be. The book did not stray away from tough topics, showing how Kamron would get, the sacrifices Samira made, the emptiness Henry would feel and their father’s past. It was nuanced; rather than excusing a person’s actions, it was about understanding their actions. Also, at the end of the day, Samira and Henry are only teenagers who have to grapple with all these emotions, and I liked that it showed how evidently their upbringing would cause them to have different reactions.

I typically love reading books that include romance, but it was nice to read a book where the focus was about family and reconnection. Family can be very messy, and we saw how this affected Samira and Henry, as well as Kamron. But there is this feeling of hope that things will get better. They aren’t perfect, but they have the chance to reconnect and feel like a family.

I will admit that the text messages and slang threw me off a bit, but it didn’t take away from the story. What I would’ve loved, however, was to see more of the ending fleshed out, as well as certain issues with characters, like Henry’s uncle. I know there was a lot to wrap up, but certain things felt a little quick. However, overall, I was happy to see Samira and Henry reconnect with their biological father and his side of the family.

Overall, I give it 4 stars!

This book really dives into family dynamics in a real and refreshing way. It does not shy away from heavy topics, and I appreciate how the author handled this. This story is about unexpected found family, and how the search for a father also leads into the search and discovery of oneself. A newly found brother and sister creates a support system both needed in a chaotic family environment.

ARC Review

The Search for Us is a NEW book about family and everything that comes along with it. Release Day is October 24th!

Samira Murphy has a close best friend, an educator who really cares about her, and a submitted application to her top-choice university giving her hope for the future.

She also has an alcoholic brother, a widowed grandmother, and financial problems pushing that hope down ounce by ounce.

Henry Owen is all-around stuck. He is stuck between one family this should be his own, one family that makes him feel suffocated yet alone, and one family that he has never known.

Though they have very different reasons for taking a DNA test to find their father, they instead find each other.

This is a heartwarming tale of a newly found brother and sister on a journey to much more than simply finding their father. On their search for him, they find themselves.

This book contains some realistic insight into mental health and addiction and offers a powerful perspective on what it means to be family. I enjoyed watching Samira and Henry grapple with their identity, desires, and culture both on their own and together.

I would recommend this book for readers ages 18+ because of some heavy topics.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Touchy Topics: vehicular manslaughter, mental illness, addiction, alcoholism, abuse, self-medication, blended family, prison

Thank you, @netgalley and @susanazimboyer for this ARC!

I love that there’s another book in the world that reminds us that every part of our story and identity matters—that our family history is a part of us, whether we like it or not.

I love how personal this story is for the author’s family. I found it to be incredibly relatable to mine as well. While I love that being family doesn’t require sharing blood, I am incredibly sensitive to the loss that is present whenever biological family cannot be together (whatever the reason). Samira and Henry’s stories teach readers so much, and I cannot wait for others (young folks especially) to read this!

I was not expecting to be blown away by this book. It was a beautiful story about learning your family history, contending with a new reality, making space for more people in your heart, and accepting that things are not always what they seem.

Samira and Henry were easy to root for, and I'm so impressed with Azim Boyer for writing such layered, lovely characters!

cw: Alcoholism, Islamophobia, Addiction, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Mental illness, Death, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders

This story pulled all the heartstrings for me as I had a very similar DNA experience. It is a well written, beautiful story.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks to Wednesday books for the free book.
This was an emotionally charged books with characters that it was easy to root for. Samira and Henry just want to find their father and a DNA test leads to them finding each other instead. There is a lot going on here, and I do wish there was some depth with some of the topics. But the unknown family history was so well done. I think some young adults - and adoptees will be able to relate to a lot of the storylines here. I also liked the revelations that came at the end about alcoholism, just wanted a bit more. This is a book full of heart that I think will resonate with lots of readers.

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Search For Us releases October 24, 2023

This is a wholesome coming-of-age story featuring two biracial Iranian-American half siblings who find each other through the 23andMe genetic test as they search for their biological father.

Samira is an “overfunctioner” and is juggling staying on track to graduate and get a scholarship, while looking out for her older brother who is in and out of AA, as well as their family’s recent loss of their grandfather.

Henry is a hockey player, also facing the pressure of maintaining a scholarship offer. While grateful to have been raised by his aunt and uncle, they don’t get along with his bio-mom and he faces adversity within his own family when it comes to embracing his Iranian ethnicity.

Though Henry and Samira grew up in two different households, they shared a lot of similarities and carried more burdens and responsibilities than a teen should typically have to.
Despite the themes, I would say this was written as a lighter read.
I kind of wanted more emotional depth from the parents which is why this isn’t quite a 5 star for me — for example, having one line of dialogue saying you’ll delete your facebook page after being so openly racist just feels like a quick bandaid that could have used more time to expand upon.

I still would definitely recommend if you’re looking for a contemporary YA centered found family story.

cw: alcohol addiction, war ptsd, DUI, vehicular manslaughter, prison, mental health/depression