I absolutely loved this book and could not stop reading! It’s a beautiful novel that spans over a decade as India Allwood launches her acting career and defines what it means to be family. I loved the refreshing take on adoption and how it was portrayed in many different ways. I enjoyed all the characters, the witty banter between them, and how the story all comes together at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Laurie Frankel is a must-read author for me, and this new novel is no exception. Warm, humorous and emotional, this dives into the messy and complicated beauty of family relationships, and how there are multiple narratives to adoption stories other than regret.

The dueling timelines for the main character, India, were a good way to illustrate her youth and naïveté while emphasizing her unique ambition. I liked how it ultimately intertwined with the present day, and I was able to read about her journey while also knowing what she had achieved. I found all the other characters had fun and unique voices, and were shining stars in their own right.

Frankel delicately addresses the complicated emotions for the female and male perspectives surrounding pregnancy/career and how there is not black and white clear-cut path regarding these decisions. She also illustrates the emotions of the child being adopted and how these journeys are different for everyone involved.

The writing has a fast-paced wit that could give Mrs Maisel a run for her money while remaining thoughtful and tender. This book deserves a giant toss of pocket confetti! IYKYK

10/10! Five Stars! Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. I am so grateful that I was able to read this book. I loved it, couldn't put it down. My mother is adopted and my husband is adopted and it was so interesting to hear a different version of the adoption story because like Frankel says "we are multitudes". I love the message behind the story - we need more stories that represent different perspectives on topics and I think Frankel nailed it with this one. I'm screaming it from the roof tops ... read this book.

This book surprised me because of how much I liked it. India is a 16-year-old girl who gets pregnant. She loves her boyfriend and he loves her but she dreams of being an actor on Broadway and has just been accepted to all the colleges she applied for. She decides that in order for her to be happy and her daughter to have a good life she places her with Camille all while fulfilling Camille's dream to have a child. Robbie, being wiser than his years, realizes that this time love isn't going to be enough to keep them together. India is a great character. She is complex but straight forward and I love her sense of humor. She keeps her head during an emergency but never tells anything but her truth. Actually I liked all the characters and the way they all related to one another. Even though it had a contemporary setting masks were mentioned and Covid was mentioned in a few paragraphs. I found that kind of unnecessary. The story would have been just as good without it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Henry Holt and Co. for providing me with a digital copy.

Once again the author does it and has written another great novel.

The story is about a woman and her life and dream of being an actor and i didn't know much about this subject but it is well written and makes you understand. Add this to your TBR because this is such a beautiful and complex read.

I will continue to read from this author! I would def recommend this book to anyone and this would be a great book club read.

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

Family Family is a messy, complex yet beautiful story that explores adoption and what it truly means to be part of a family. India Allwood is a celebrated TV star in the middle of a media controversy. As an adoptive mother, she wants nothing more than to protect her ten year old twins from it all, but her twins have other plans and enlist the help from their ‘family’.

I really enjoyed how this story presented itself. Frankel does a great job of creating characters that we can’t help but root for. The banter is witty and funny, and the plot has some surprising twists that help keep me engaged. While this story centers around adoption, it is more of an examination of family- the challenges and the hardships and who will show up for you when it truly matters most.

Thanks to @netgalley and @henryholtbooks for the #gifted e-galley!

I am once again blown away by Laurie Frankel and her ability to capture and represent family complexities in such a beautiful, meaningful way.

“Family Family” is a story of adoption, but not in the misrepresented “tragic” or “tragic turned miraculous” way. India Allwood is a woman whose true love is theater, and she is determined to have her dreams come true. When she finds herself pregnant at sixteen and accepted into her dream acting programs, she decides to follow her dreams, and make someone else’s dream come true by placing her baby up for adoption rather than choosing termination. Fast forward 16 years to India as a Hollywood A-lister who is on the verge of cancellation for voicing her true opinion of her recent movie which centers around a tragic adoption story.

I cannot recommend Laurie Frankel’s novels enough. “This Is How It Always Is,” One, Two, Three,” and now “Family Family” are among the top of my favorite novels centered around what it means to be a family, unconditional love, and shedding light on underrepresented populations in literature. If you’re already a fan of Frankel, then this book is perfect for you. If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading her books yet, then I advise you to run to your library or local bookstore and consume this book immediately. This is an easy 5 star book for me, a frontrunner for my favorite fiction novel of 2024, and a book that solidifies Laurie Frankel as one of my favorite authors of all time.

“Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?”
India Allwood is one of a kind. She's a well-known TV star and just hoping to launch a movie career when aspects of her teenage life are brought to life. They aren't secrets, but they weren't broadcast and suddenly India finds herself in a public position of discussing choice, adoption and more.
Bursting with heart, laughter, wit, and connection; Frankel has shone a light on a topic that isn't talked about much: adoption. And gosh, does it shine bright like the sun. The characters in this book are so real and fully formed. Laurie Frankel writes the best family-affirming stories, hands down. A special contemporary novel I will be pushing into people's hands.

Gosh, I loved Family Family. This is the second book I've read by Laurie Frankel, and I liked it even more than the first. Family Family is about the different ways families are started, more specifically, the role adoption can play in starting families. India Allwood is convinced she's going to be a famous actress one day. So when she ends up pregnant her senior year of high school, she is determined not to derail her dream. India decides to make an adoption plan, giving birth in the summer after she graduates, and starting NYU in the fall as she originally planned. And she does. The results are wonderful and play out over the course of this book.

The book moves back and forth from young India to present-day India, a single mother of two - Jack and Fig - who is now a successful actress. India's high school pregnancy leaks to the media (despite that she never kept it a secret) and drama ensues.

This book is about the upside of adoption. Frankel details in the afterword how she was struck by the number of adoption stories that depict adoption as a terrible, last-choice resort, for the birthing parent and the adoptive parent. Frankel, through India, Camille (adoptive mother) and Andy and Drew (adoptive fathers), depicts the beauty of adoption and how it can be the foundation of a strong, loving family.

The writing is smart and funny. I laughed throughout. The banter is constantly witty in a way that could annoy me, but didn't because it was oh-so-good. While this book moved slowly, I didn't look forward to finishing it. Highly recommended. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought the writing in this book was so good – clever turns of phrase, some vivid metaphors, and descriptive language that established a vibrant sense of place. Some of the characters had some laugh-out-loud-funny dialog and inner monologue, and to write such comedic timing is a very hard thing to do. Despite these positive aspects of the book, however, I had trouble getting through it. For me, the narrative was in lockstep with the main character, India—a tangled mess. I was less interested in India (who showed little to no character growth throughout the story) and would have been more vested if the story dug more deeply into the lives of all the children as well as the relationships and experiences with Camille and the Andrews. These were the adoptive relationships I wanted to learn more about.

I appreciate the author’s want to put forth a positive story on adoption, but, in this case, while the writing was strong I didn’t feel the story executed.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Net Galley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Laurie Frankel truly sets herself apart in the family drama genre with her endearing characters that you can’t help but root wholeheartedly for. This isn’t my first book of hers, but like all the others it’s made me more compassionate towards others and has made me think of my own internal biases and challenged me to overcome them. She writes a masterpiece of humanity each time, and this is certainly no exception.

Thank you so much to the early copy of Family Family that I was given. Laurie Frankel’s whip smart and comedic writing gripped me from the first page. I found myself laughing at the wit one moment and stopping at the next page to take in the depth of dialogue at the next. Books centered around adoption are not new thematically, but somehow in Family Family, Laurie Frankel crafts something new. I truly wanted this book to last and spent much longer than usual reading it, settling in with the characters, and finding myself surprised and yet saying, “YES!” As each surprise unfolded. This was an easy five star rating for me and I truly hope many will enjoy it as much as I did.

"Family Family" by Laurie Frankel looks at the issue of adoption from the vantage point of: what if the "traditional" portrayal of adoption isn't the only adoption story? What if it isn't something that is traumatic? What if it is a positive experience for both the adoptee and the person who places a child up for adoption?

In this book, India Allwood finds herself pregnant at 16 and makes the choice to place her child up for adoption. Sixteen years later, a series of events lead to her reuniting with the child she gave birth to, and bring back several other people from her past as well.

I really enjoyed this story and the characters, and I had a hard time putting the book down. I also enjoyed it stylistically, how Frankel alternated chapters between present and past to tell a cohesive story from beginning to end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an ARC of this book!

Thank you to Henry Holt & Company for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

India Allwood as the main character is dramatic, direct, pragmatic and driven. When the high school guidance counselor won’t help her prepare for college she researches, studies and makes it happen because she wants to go to college in NY and become an actress. She falls in love and senior year of high school she gets pregnant and they decide (mostly her) that placing the baby through adoption she can make their dreams come true with her baby and her own as well. India is a complex and fascinating character with her successful career and the choices she makes along the way. Laurie Frankel does an amazing job of creating such interesting characters and interweaving them with the process of adoption and the broad meaning of family and love. I adored this book!

#NetGalley. #Familyfamily
@Susannas.bookshelf

What denotes a family and who can tell you how to feel about how your family came about?

All India Allwood has wanted is to be an actress. She has worked hard for herself to get there. The best laid plans....India get pregnant when she is a senior in high school after getting accepted into every college she has applied for. She decides to give her baby up for adoption so the baby has a chance to live out her dreams as well. She finds the mother she feels is perfect for her baby. She goes to college and dreams about being on Broadway and living out her hopes and dreams. Best laid plans again... she becomes pregnant when she is a senior. She gives this baby to a couple who have dreams of family and she makes it to Broadway. Not that she doesn't think about her babies, she knows she did right by them. She makes it to Hollywood and a starring role in a tv show and decides she should become a mother and adopts twins who have been through a lot of trauma. She works hard at her career and as a mother but when a movie she makes about adoption causes a lot of press because of something she says, it throws all their lives in another direction.

I loved how family is shown in so many different ways. I loved the spunk of the kids. I loved how it showed family period. India is very flawed but she loved deeply. Another really good read from Laurie Frankel.

Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt and Co. for a copy for review.

Laurie Frankel does it again! I have loved her two previous novels and, while it took me a bit to get hooked on this one, I loved it just the same; in fact, it may now be my favorite of her novels. An absolutely gorgeous, and beautifully written, story of found family and the ways in which family = in whichever form it may take - finds us, bonds us and, sometimes, breaks our hearts. While I do not have any personal experience with it, I can only imagine that this is a fantastic representation (based on the author's experience, as shared in the author's note) of adoptive families - both adoptive and biological parents, children, other individuals involved in the process - and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommend for fans of stories by authors like Ann Napolitano, Kevin Wilson, and Angie Kim.

What a beautiful story about family and all the joy, love, messiness, and complications it takes to be one!

India Allwood is quirky, ambitious, and unstoppable. After placing her baby for adoption as a teenager, she creates a full life for herself filled with acting and motherhood. When Covid hits and her regular tv work dries up, she signs up to do a movie that happens to be about adoption— and that’s where Family, Family really begins…

The media firestorm that results from the movie creates a havoc in India’s personal life, havoc that forces her to reckon with the decisions she made as a young woman.

This fresh look at adoption—taking it from the position of a last, worst choice, to a thoughtful choice no matter the circumstances— is one that actually challenged my engrained thoughts. There are multiple timelines and strong character development— there are quite a few characters, each written to make their way into your heart. But it’s not only for those with a connection to adoption— it’s for anyone who considers others part of their family, family.

The author’s note at the end is also a must read! This was my first by this author, but I will definitely be checking out her backlist.

Thank you to @netgalley and @henryholtbooks for my advanced copy! *throws confetti in the air #iykyk

Thank you to @netgalley and @henryholtbooks for the advanced copy of this book for my honest review.

“Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?”

This is the story of India Allwood, who grows up always knowing that she wanted to be an actor. Through drive, determination, great talent and a lot of tough decisions, she brings her dreams to life. India is a fantastic character, full of humor, honesty and wild and crazy decisions. The other characters in the story are introduced along the way as the story unfolds. It's a bit of a spoiler to actually name them all and who they are to India. It's so fun to see them all come onto the scene. The book really explores the different meanings of family, adoption and how families can come about. Laurie brings special insight into it from her own personal experience with adoption. I love how it really made you see things in a different light and how wonderful adoption really is. Lots of laughter woven into the story as well. I was drawn in right away and couldn't put it down until I finished. Highly recommended!

This was a book that I at first, only picked up because of the cover. After reading it, I appreciate a bit more the fact that I picked it up in the first place. This book wasn't legendary, it wasn't anything SPECTACULAR, but I enjoyed it.
The dual timelines were interesting, although I'm a little lost as to the point of them. I'm not too sure why it was vital, although it was fun to read. I felt like I knew what the author was TRYING to say, but it didn't come through, it was as if I had to fill in the blanks FOR her in my mind because the writing was not up to par. The dual timelines felt like two separate people (I know it was with India being a teen and then an adult). India didn't feel her age when she was younger or older, I get who she is. . .kinda but not really.
My library will be carrying a copy of this book, it was good, not great, but okay.

This was my first five star read of the year and I’m not surprised at all. The way that the author writes characters and their worlds is perfection. Every every single book I’ve read from her has made me feel every possible emotion and I love that. This one is no different and I love that it explore the different ways that people become families. I will definitely be recommending this to everyone I know.