A genealogy test connects two women from Brooklyn and Puerto Rico causing one to hope she's reuniting with her long-lost sister and the other to vehemently deny the test results. Aside from the family drama, this book is also an intriguing mystery that will keep you hooked until the end.

I will pick up a tale about lost sisters reuniting every single time, and La Familia has the added bonus of a reuniting with your homeland storyline as well. This is a book that will stick with me for a while and I will definitely be suggesting this for my book club to read!

There was a lot a liked about La Familia. I love the contrasting personalities between Gabby and Isabella. Each sister is fully fleshed out and has a satisfying character arc, which is not always the case in these kinds of stories. I enjoyed the pacing. The book doesn’t feel too long or melodramatic. And I’m happy there is an HEA.

What I didn’t like, and what ultimately makes me give La Familia 3 stars, is that the writing feels super basic. With this kind of story, the reader pretty much knows how things will end (or at least we know right away that Gabby will actually be the missing sister) and so to keep the reader’s attention, the story should be engaging. La Familia just wasn’t very engaging. Although the characters all feel unique, they feel very flat. It was obvious who’s good and who’s bad and they weren’t very interesting to read. I think the flashback chapters to characters who took Gabby as a baby killed a lot of the suspense. I found myself growing frustrated toward the end that Gabby was still so clueless and struggling to believe things, when I had already read and knew everything.

Thank you for the ARC. La Familia is a fun, quick read perfect for readers who enjoy family dramas!

Such an enjoyable story! I was immediately drawn into the tale and couldn't wait to find out what happened. Imagine having a DNA test uprooting your whole life, making you question everything.
The setting of Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 really appealed to me, as I lived there for a short time.
The characters were so well written and the story will keep you enthralled. I highly recommend it.

Gabby's world is turned upside down when she takes a DNA test for an article at her work. The results show she has a sister, but Gabby was the only child of Lucy and Mack DiMarco. Furthermore, it says her sister lives in Puerto Rico and that she is of Puerto Rican descent. Her sister contacts her, telling her they have been trying to find her after she had been kidnapped as a child.

Gabby decides to travel to Puerto Rico to meet this person who says she is her sister, bent on proving the sister and the DNA tests incorrect. However, once Gabby meets Isabella she feels an instant connection. Could this really be her sister? If so, did her parents kidnap her?

Familia follows New York twentysomething Gabby DiMarco, whose life takes a swift turn when a genealogical test reveals a sibling match. A confused Gabby, convinced that this is a mistake, embarks on a trip to Puerto Rico to investigate with Isabel Ruiz, the woman claiming that Gabby is her long lost younger sister.

Isabela was by far my favorite character out of the cast. Despite her (somewhat stereotypical hotheadedness) Isabel handles the situation with grace and patience, despite Gabby's spoiled, bratty demeanor. Gabby's inability to recognize her own flaws was incredibly frustrating and made it hard to recognize any redeeming qualities that she might have.

While the storyline was intriguing and my desire for answers kept my turning the pages, the book was sadly lacking for me. At several points, I felt that the tone of the story, specifically when juxtaposing the darker content regarding the past crime and the lighter moments of conversation in the present, was quite discordant. Additionally the discussions regarding Lucy and Mack's actions and their ultimate complicity in the crime didn't seem to be taken seriously enough during the present day storyline and felt a bit like white saviorism. This was further emphasized every time that the narrative reminded us how dirty, unsafe, and crime ridden Puerto Rico was. The writing it self was fine, aside from the excessive overuse of ellipses, which I stopped counting after reaching the hundredth instance in the first 10 chapters.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. I would definitely pick up another book from Lauren E. Rico in the future, if the premise was of interest to me.

Two young women are searching for family: one for a family member lost, the other for one she’s never known.

Gabby DiMarco’s life has not turned out as she had hoped. She works for a well-known magazine, Flux, but is stuck in the position of fact-checker for others’ articles when she desperately wants to be writing the articles herself. As the story opens, her boss Max has yet again rebuffed her idea for an article. An only child, she has lost both of her parents and her best friend Franny has left New York for California. She’s alone and in a rut, and isn’t sure quite how to get out of it. Opportunity presents itself when Gabby receives the results of a ancestry/DNA test that Max insisted everyone in the office take, and it indicates that not only does she have genetic roots in the Caribbean (when she knows perfectly well that she is Mediterranean through and through)….but that she has matched in the system with someone whose own test indicates that she is Gabby’s full-blooded sister. She’s sure that the company running the tests made a mistake somewhere along the line, but thinks that this could be a story even Max would agree she should write. When he agrees its the basis for a great story but wants to give it to someone else to write, Gabby walks away from the job and travels to San Juan to meet the woman who she knows isn’t, couldn’t be, her sister and to write the story of how a mixed-up genetic test affects people.
Isabella Ruiz’s life has not turned out exactly how she had hoped it would either, though given how dysfunctional her childhood was it is amazing that she has done as well as she has. She is an artist, with the walls of buildings her favorite canvas, but makes her living painting palm trees and frogs on the nails of the many tourists who pour out of cruise ships and into her city. She is married to a fantastic guy, Matéo, and survived a hardscrabble life raised by a father who spent most of his time drunk or high. When she was just five, her mother died giving birth to her little sister Marianna. Alberto, her father, used alcohol and drugs to numb the pain of that loss, and woke up one morning in the street to discover that Marianna had been taken. Even in La Perla, the part of town where tourists wouldn’t go and locals sought oblivion, this was a crime that could not be endured. But no trace of Marianna was ever found. Secretly, Isabella blames herself for Marianna’s disappearance….hadn’t she said over and over that she wished Marianna was never born, because if she hadn’t been born Isabella’s mother would still be alive? Over time, everyone but Isabella has given up hope of finding Marianna….but now a genetic test has identified a young woman in New York as being Isabella’s full sister. Surely this is Marianna, at last!
Gabby is convinced that the test result is a mistake, but for Isabella it means her lifelong search is at an end. These two young women, whose lives could not have been more different, have to decide what is fact, what is truth, and what in the end is family. Getting to know one another, and trying to find out exactly what happened all those years ago on the streets of La Perla, may expose truths about their pasts that neither wants to know….or open them up to a whole new life.
I absolutely loved this story….I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Gabby Isabella, and the rest of their family and friends both in the now and in the past. Most chapters are told from the point of view of either Gabby or Isabella, but we hear a bit from others who played a part in each of their stories. Isabella is frustrated that Gabby isn’t ready to jump into a new life as Marianna her sister, but Gabby can’t reconcile her loving, wonderful honest and giving parents with the fact that maybe she isn’t their natural child and they just never told her. Was her childhood a lie? Were her parents not the kind of people she thought they were? Each are searching for the truth of what happened, who they are, and what if anything they are to one another. There are fights and disappointments, laughter and tears, lies and secrets to experience. It all plays out against the backdrop of Puerto Rico, its colors, its food, its buildings, its history, and its people. Once I started the book, I found it hard to put down, and throughout I kept my fingers crossed that these two women could manage to find a truth that would enrich both of their lives. I was kept guessing until the very end! If you have enjoyed the writings of Elizabeth Acevedo, Elizabeth Berg, Alice Hoffman or Julia Alvarez, you should do yourself the favor of picking up a copy of Familia and jump into the lives of Gabby and Isabella. Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy of this enchanting novel in exchange for my honest review.

Gabby takes a DNA test and finds out she has a "sister" in Puerto Rico, and Isabella is convinced Gabby is her lost sister. The mystery of finding out what really happened to the missing sister and the rich characters kept me inrtigued.

A stunningly written and compelling story of families lost and found, expectations, and how the truth can hurt and heal. Familia is a book that's part women's fiction, part mystery, and all heart, Lauren Rico has gone deep into the culture of her ancestral home of Puerto Rico to give us a glimpse into this complex and beautiful country and the people who bring it to life. Highly recommended.

I’m so glad I was able to read this because it completely took me out of a reading slump. I think I might even put it in my top ten favorite books of the year! I loved it so much that I’m going to get the physical copy when it comes out in December. I already know this is a book I could talk about for hours and I’ll definitely be re-reading it in the future.

This was such a powerful and beautifully written story of both lost and found family. There were so many times that I laughed, got angry, and cried. The depth of the relationship between Gabby and Isabella really kept me engaged and I couldn’t put the book down. I cried for both the life they never got together as sisters and for the life they each endured.

Lauren did a great job of unraveling the complexities of the kidnapping of Isabella’s sister. It is both a book about family and the dewebbing of an unsolved crime. Going back and forth between the past and present really made me want to keep reading to understand how and why things ended the way they did. I cannot say anything bad about this book (only that switching between multiple POVs was slightly confusing) I definitely recommend it!

Themes/TW:
↪ Set in Puerto Rico
↪ Found family
↪ Multiple POV
↪ Dual timeline
↪ Alcoholism
↪ Mental health
↪ Sexual assault

Wow, this story hooked me from the beginning. The opening chapter really sets the stage for all that is to come. This covers an intense story of two sisters being separated due to tragic instances. Throughout the story, we get to really know the two main characters: Isabella and Gabby. We get to see their struggles and insecurities. We also get to see them give guidance and support to each other. Throughout the story we also get to read snippets about what actually happened that fateful night. This is a story that really shows the power of family.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in an exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! I will definitely recommend it. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Familia explores questions around the meaning of family, what story our DNA tells, identity, and what shapes who we are. It tugs at the loose threads of who we think we are -- and explores what happens if they start to unravel.

Gabby DiMarco grew up as a single child of Italian American parents, and now works as a fact checker at a magazine in New York. But when a story about DNA testing prompts the magazine staff to do their own genealogy testing, she's hit with an unexpected result - and a potential sister. Meanwhile in Puerto Rico, Isabella Ruiz has been searching for her lost sister for 25 years, and she's sure her search is over. When a highly skeptical Gabby flies to Puerto Rico to try and track down the truth, she and Isabella must work together to uncover what happened all those years ago.

The mystery of this story really drew me in, and I couldn't stop turning the pages to find out what happened. I was also so compelled by the evolution of Gabby and Isabella's relationship, and they got me feeling emotional at times! And I admit, I did get a bit emotional at times (especially around the end).

The writing largely worked for me. The narrative voice feels less like you're in the character's mind and more like they're telling the story to you -- kind of like a narrator's voiceover in a movie. The writing style wasn't the most embellished, but it did keep the pacing moving ahead smoothly.

I did find Gabby to be a little immature for my taste. She has a bit of a "teenager insisting they're an adult" vibe. Isabella was more my speed, despite her hotheadedness. I liked a lot of the side characters, like Isabella's husband Mateo, too.

Overall, I'm very glad I picked this up and I look forward to more by Lauren E. Rico.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for this ARC to read and review.

3.75 stars, rounded up

This truly wonderful tale warms my heart as an adoptee who didn't learn the story behind her adoption until well into her life. I was gripped by the storyline as well as the emotions of the sisters as they attempted to uncover the truth about what had happened in Puerto Rico some twenty-five years earlier. No loose ends were left at the end, tying up the plot perfectly. This story became about healing and figuring out what your adult life is going to be like as much as the reunion of two long-lost sisters. Bravo!

Familia was a wonderful book, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it was written, and how thorough the story was. Gabby took a DNA test, not really expecting to find any relatives, but hoping she was. An only child of only children, and her parents are deceased, so she is hoping to find some distant relatives. What she finds is so, so much more!
When a match comes back showing she has a sister, she doesn't think it's possible. Surely her parents would have told her! So she heads of to Puerto Rico to meet this DNA match and research what is really going on. The story takes twists and turns, and keeps you guessing. I was surprised by a few details at the end, I didn't see it coming. It all wrapped up nicely, and left me with a heartwarming feeling.
I truly enjoyed this book, it was wonderful!

Familia by Lauren E. Rico introduces us to Gabby DiMarco, a fact checker for a magazine, who recently took a genealogy test provided by her employer. What she didn’t expect was to receive a message from an Isabella Ruiz that lives in Puerto Rico and is a genetic match as her sister. And on top of that, Isabella tells Gabby she’s been searching for her since she mysteriously disappeared at the age of one.

Soon Gabby heads to Puerto Rico to find out what the truth is. She is, after all, a fact checker striving to be a writer. Whatever she finds out, she’s hoping she can write about it. But she’s not convinced she’s found a sister she was ripped away from, even if that’s what Isabella and the genetic test are telling her.

This premise intrigued me because I personally know of so many stories like this — siblings that were separated from a very young age and don’t know for many years where the other one ends up, adoptions that aren’t done through the proper channels, and the ways in which this affects all the people involved.

I appreciated that we got to hear both sisters’ perspectives for this story because they were both going through very different experiences and emotions. Seeing that and making space for that was a large part of what I appreciated about this book.
What I didn't love so much was how much it simplified a very complex issue. Without getting into any spoilers, I felt an element of white saviorism coming from this book that kept me from loving it. At the same time, there are so many reasons that children end up being adopted when their parents are still alive, sometimes even with their parents’ consent, and sometimes while their parents are fighting for custody of that child. What I’m saying is that this is just one story that isn’t capable of doing justice to every type of underground adoption that takes place between one country, let alone all of Latin America.

While I haven’t been through anything like this, I know people that have, and it’s such a big, complicated, emotional web to untangle. This book gave me so many feelings, but I was never entirely sure if it was telling the story in the most responsible way possible or not. Like, I’m just generally not sure because of how complicated this subject matter feels and how happy the ending was, wonderful as that was.

I don’t think this one will be high on my recommendation list, but I’m not going to go out of my way to hate on it either.

Isabella Ruiz has been searching for her missing sister for 25 years. She can still see her baby sister's face, the baby that was stolen off the streets of San Juan so long ago. The longing and need for her to find her missing sister has never left her.

Gabby DiMarco is a fact checker for a popular magazine in New York, and she believes in absolute truths. The facts don't lie. Until a DNA test she took for a research article comes back with a truth she can't believe. She has a sister in Puerto Rico.

I really enjoyed reading these two characters and the different ways they approached this life changing information. Isabella, who's been looking for her baby sister nearly her whole life, is stoked, but Gabby is convinced there's a mistake. Her parents would confirm that, if they were alive.

I did find the two women's voices (narratively speaking) to sound a bit the same in places, but besides that, I really enjoyed the found family story here. Change is never easy, and trying to rethink and reimagine who you are and the identity that you have for yourself is a nearly impossible task. I can't decide if I like the neat way things wrapped up or not. It seems like, of course we need a happy ending - but if this was real, would it have ended that way? I'm torn on that.

Overall though, fantastic found family story. I loved the dynamics between the sisters as the story went on and how their perspectives and their relationship evolved. ❤️

Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The opening really catches a reader's eye, and the story of two sisters finding one another after that is worth the read, which goes by quick because of the straightforward writing. The shared or dual POV is a great way to show how a family reunification, of sorts, can affect those involved — such that it avoids the pitfalls of some single first person voice works where moments may not land emotionally because it's very up in the air how others are feeling.
However, I personally found it hard to fully connect with one of the two main narrators so it wasn't as enjoyable a reading experience as I would've liked.

Netgalley doesn't allow for a half star rating but this is a solid 3.5, which for me means it did keep me hooked enough to finish and I'd recommend it to those into romance and family drama reads, but I won't necessarily revisit it.

Familia…where do I even begin with this story. Well, for one thing, this is a 5-star book, one that I plan on buying for family and recommending to friends. I am actually quite agitated that I cannot buy it now! But I guess it’ll just have to be part of the Christmas gifts. Oh wait! It’s not being published until after Christmas…ugh.
This story was engaging from the start, it’s not usually my go-to genre so I was a little apprehensive (I really just picked it because it was set in PR) but I could not put it down. I read it during downtime at work and the second I got home I needed to know what happened. I could not control my facial expressions and outbursts, every time we learned something new I freaked out. This is written so incredibly well and I don’t know how I haven’t read a book by Lauren Rico before… especially since she usually writes romance which is my go-to genre.

I love the multiple POVs, we don’t just see Gabby and Isabella, but we also see the perspectives of the people they interview and what they saw on the day of Marianna’s kidnapping. Which brings me to my one complaint…

The ending made me so mad. I am sure everyone else is going to love it, and maybe I have my own personal issues with it (I promise not to give another personal rant), but I just…I can’t…I don’t…ugh! Let me be clear, the ending in no way makes me want to knock it down from its 5-star standing, this is still incredibly good and I want others to see it, and it’s a Happily Ever After! But it’s also an “ignorance is bliss” type of ending. But ignorance is only bliss for the characters! I am not a character! I know everything and I don’t feel blissful! I think I am so used to authors catering to the reader and this doesn’t cater to the reader’s wants, it caters to what’s best for the characters. I actually love that so much, sometimes I read a book and think just once I want a sad ending! Yet here I am, complaining. I wanted vengeance! I wanted justice! Yes, there was justice in its own way, but not the justice I was looking for. This is probably one of those times where I will look like the crazy person for wanting a different ending, but let me be crazy alright! Half the reason I desperately want someone else to read this book now is so that I can discuss it with someone without spoiling it for potential readers.

But fine, I loved it, you’ll love it too, I’ll post a reminder when it’s finally published and available to the public.

Familia is a contemporary novel focusing on, as the title says it all, family and past tragedies through following two protagonists solving a mystery after a DNA test and matching.

I found the premise intriguing as I never really thought much about DNA testing. The different perspectives are interesting and made me curious about this thing: what happens when you actually get your results and find out something, like a relative, a new family, or that your whole life is a lie? What do you make of it? Do you shrug and forget about it, or do you try to learn a bit about this part of yourself? You may start questioning your entire existence, have an identity crisis, etc. It can for sure be a life changing event. And I think it's nice to have a book about this topic.

I enjoyed Familia. It wasn't too long nor too short. I thought the story was told well through the structure of the book and its narration. I liked the author's prose was well; simple, not poetic but not too much dialogue. The mystery part of the novel was good, obviously you want to know. Because of the first chapter, I don't think the mystery is about the DNA test result, but clearly more about what went wrong to lead to this. I think the main theme remains family, with the classic questions: what it means, does blood only make family, are you willing to start bonding with a newly found family member, and so on.
There were a lot of different points of vue and I have to say I sometimes got lost, in particular regarding the recurrent characters and the chapters in the past but it's fine. I personally think that Isabella's pov was the most interesting. She could be annoying at times, being a little naive and not taking into account Gabby's feelings about this whole situation they were both in. Obviously, her way of seeing things is understandable. Nevertheless, the author gives Isabella a well appreciated character development.

This book takes place for the most part in Puerto Rico. I can't really say anything about the representation of Puerto Rico and the Latino/hispanic culture as it is not my place. The only thing I will say though is how I wasn't too sure about the constant reminders that certain places were far from being safe, and the whole "drugs, crime, child traffic" thing because in my opinion it lacked nuance. I feel like I didn't get to see another side of Puerto Rico? From my small experience, Latinos and their culture are often represented as that old 'criminals' cliché. Then again, I don't know how valid my opinion is. But is there enough of a balanced, or enough of a positive, latino representation in general so these themes can still take so much place in one book? It is noted in the preface of the book that the author has origins from Puerto Rico through her grandparents and she clearly stated she wanted to give justice to the Puerto Rico of her grandparents, that she meant well. So maybe this lack of nuance comes more from her own unconscious American and western vision of Puerto Rico and Latin America in general.

If you want to read about family, DNA testing consequences in a Puerto Rico setting with a touch of mystery novel, then go for it. Be very careful with the trigger warnings: rape, alcoholism, addiction, murder, violence, mention of child trafficking.
3.5/5.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an easy read that flowed smoothly, sometimes it flowed a little too smoothly. Two sisters, connected by DNA genealogy testing meet in Puerto Rico. One sister, Isabella is positive that she has found her long, lost sister. Gabriella is positive that the genealogy lab has made a mistake. She wants to write an expose on the downfalls of DNA testing. The outcome is pretty assured throughout the book as "the sisters" investigate the mystery of the lost sister. It wraps up a little too nicely--without any obstacles along the way. Still, I did enjoy it. Maybe it was the simplicity of the book in a busy world? For me it was a 4 star read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC. This review is my own opinion.