Family Family is a heartwarming story about what constitutes a family. I adored the way adoption is portrayed and love that this books exists in the world. I really enjoyed the past storyline and fell in love with many of the characters. The present storyline did not work as well for me, and it included one plot point/trope that I really dislike in novels. Definitely read the author's note at the end. Overall this is a great pick for book clubs, or anyone in the mood for a cute family story. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy. 3.25 stars.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

I haven't read any other books by this author, but the description intrigued me so I decided to give it a go. I am left with mixed feelings.

Stars - The author writes in a very witty, breezy way. The concept (a story about adoptions that isn't tragic) was great, and as an adoptive parent she obviously has a wonderful perspective on the topic.

Wishes - I felt like this book tried to be everything. Every minority, every opinion, every possibility...it just didn't ring true for me. It felt like a LOT. Maybe it should have been a TV series!

Definitely thought provoking and would make for a good discussion. I just didn't love it.

👩‍👧‍👦 Family, Family - Laurie Frankel

4.5 ⭐️ - I loved this book. What a unique, different, and fun way of discovering the meaning of family. I don’t know much about adoption but I love the way it’s told and discussed in this book. PLUS I easily fell in love with allllll of the characters.

India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. She goes from awkward 16 year old broadway ingenue to TV superhero. Her new movie is about adoption, but unfortunately it’s the same old tragic story. India is an adoptive mom though so she tells a journalist the truth - this is a bad movie. When she ends up in the middle of a media frenzy, her twins decide there’s no one better to call than family…

This is a lovable, huggable, relatable story. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It reminded me of Modern Family, not in a comedy skit show way, but in a non-traditional looking family way. What is the definition of family anyway? I think we all have our own and that’s what makes this story relatable and unique. It has fun characters, tough conversation topics, and relevant storylines. It has surprises at every corner and certainly keeps your attention. I definitely recommend this one for all family fun fans and contemporary fiction readers!

This family moves into your home on 1/23 so keep your eyes out for them! Thank you to Netgalley, Henry Holt, and Macmillan Audio for the early access to this beauty!

India has always wanted to be an actor. She's is currently a successful one and tells as reporter the truth about her feelings of her new movie. The truth is always complicated and this is the story of the fallout and, told in a separate timeline, India's story of her life.

Another winner from Laurie Frankel. I felt all the feels reading this book. Not only does it tell a different and important perspective about family and adoption but it also is just a really good story. Frankel writes with obvious passion and it makes her books even more impactful. Highly recommend this book!

Family Family by Laurie Frankel was lovely. I adore her snarky sense of humor and quick wit. I also like that she brings her life experiences to the page with each book that she writes. I highly recommend reading her author’s note after the book. She argues that adoption can be traumatic but in many cases it can also be joyful. This is a joyful adoption story and it is based on her own experience with adopting a child. No, not everything in the story is rose-colored, but she brings to life the concept that all families are complicated and that there are a trillion different iterations of family in this world. The only thing I’d dock the book a little bit for is dragging a bit around the 60% mark. It probably could have been a tad shorter. Still, I really enjoyed it.

FAMILY FAMILY was such an interesting read - every time I had to put it down, I found myself saying “…yeah okay one more chapter”

I absolutely LOVED Frankels One, Two, Three, so I was incredibly excited about Family Family. Following India, an actress who strongly believes that not all stories of adoption are about pain and sadness. She knows - because she’s adopted children .. and given children for adoption.

Family Family was an incredibly moving story about family - what makes a family, what you would do for family, and what family really means. I cried multiple times! Frankels stream of consciousness writing and the multiple small stories told within one large story made this like nothing I have read before. Frankel is a masterful storyteller - I really truly deeply enjoyed this!! Thanks to @netgalley & @henryholtbooks for this eARC! Publishes 1/23!!!

When I was reading the final pages of this book, my husband saw tears falling off my cheeks. "Another sad book?" he said, to which I responded, "no, another beautiful book." That's what this is. Another beautiful book by Laurie Frankel. I hope she never stops writing the stories she writes, never stops sharing the parts of herself she's willing to share. Sometimes, the hopefulness and optimism can seem like it's almost too good to be true. No one's stories are as good in real life as the ones she tells on the page. But maybe, just maybe, there is goodness and optimism and happiness and joy out there, and maybe those stories deserve to be told as well.

This was fantastic! Laurie Frankel knows how to write characters so well. You absolutely can picture them-quirks, flaws, and all. India Allwood is a famous actress, raising two adopted children on her own. She stars in a new movie about the trauma of adoption, and it doesn't sit right with her. After all, the public doesn't know yet--but she twice chose adoption when she got pregnant at age 16, and then again at age 20. Suddenly, she is caught in a "war" with her fans, the paps (or smears as her kids call them), and her producers. Will her career survive? Her children, adopted and birthed, come together to try to help her and learn more about themselves. The cast of characters is fun! I adored this read!

First, I just want to say that Laurie Frankel has become a go-to author for me. I will read anything she writes because her meticulous research and her unique perspective gives voice to the greatest stories. This is probably going to be a favorite for me of the year.
India Allwood is a famous actress who has a hit tv show on a big network. She had recently made a movie regarding adoption. It wasn't the greatest. India is aware of how not-great it is because as a 16 year old, she had a baby and gave it up for adoption. And again at 20. And as an adult, she adopted twins, Jack and Fig. So she knows how truly monumental adoption can be. Unfortunately, India gives an interview regarding how not-great the movie was, which blows up and threatens to obliterate her life.
Enter all the "family". There's Bex, the 16 year-old biological daughter of India and her adoptive mother, Camille. There's Louis, the 12 year-old and his dads, the Andrews. There is Louis's biological dad, Davis, and finally, we meet Bex's father, Robbie again. And of course there's Jack and Fig. Ultimately, this is the story of how family doesn't really have anything to do with blood and sometimes, the families we make ourselves are the greatest.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for this e-arc.

This is a book of about family and adoption, especially about how wonderful adoption can be as a choice for some families. This would be a great book club book, as there is much to discuss in the ways a family can come to be. I liked the story in general but it felt really long and repetitive at points, probably could have been 75 pages less.

3.5 stars but rounding down.

Thank you Netgalley & Henry Holt and Co. for the advanced reader copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Laurie Frankel for allowing me to review this work.
I’ve often marveled at the guts Ms Frankel has to tackle such difficult topics and this is no different.
In Family Family we follow main character India from impressionable high school student, to being a mom and actress. We see how she uses her life experiences to aid in her acting career, but how they could be her downfall as well. These experiences include teenage pregnancy, abortion, adoption, single parenthood, gender roles, and most definitely daily life. Told in in the span of a week, and in flashbacks, we see how many of her monumental choices affect her and those around her and beyond, at one point making her the hero and villain at the same time.
I can totally see how the authors character development endears them to us and we can see that they all just want someone to love them. But then again, don’t we all?

This was really good! Anything dealing with family drama is always a favorite for me. The writing is exquisite.

My eyes are tired from not putting this book down, and my heart is heavy.
I loved this story so much!! It reeled me in right away and kept me turning the pages.
So much of this is so true and at times, we need to be reminded of how precious family is.
This was an eye opener as far as the whole adoption process can effect each person differently.
Just one of my favorite quotes from this story was, “There are infinity different kinds of families and every member of one has a different story, to tell about it.”
Thank you for the opportunity to receive the ARC of this book, I will be telling everyone in my 4 book clubs to read it!

Book Review: Family Family
by Laurie Frankel

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

​​"Regardless of how it gets made, family is a force to be reckoned with."

India Allwood has known she wanted to be an actor since she was 10 when her mother Sarah first took her to see Guys and Dolls. The novel occurs in two timelines, flashing between that period of India’s life and the present allowing us to see how she becomes who she is today. Present day, India is a rising TV star in Hollywood. When India is courted to star in her first movie, a film about adoption, she would like to be excited. The problem is, she thinks it’s a bad movie. The mother of adopted twins, she thinks she can tell a better story. When she accidentally shares her thoughts with the a journalist, you know what hits the fan! In step her kids to try to save the day. If you guessed that things only get more complicated, then you would be correct!

Laurie Frankel has become an automatic read author for me. Family Family is as compelling as her last two novels, This It How It Always Is and One Two Three. You can expect Frankel to smartly present important social issues with a lot of heart and humor. In Family Family, she tackles the very personal subject of adoption with all its joys and complications. In typical fashion, Frankel challenges the reader to reconsider what they think they know or to turn prevailing social views on their head. Here she succeeds in interrogating prevailing notions about adoption and commonly held misconceptions. If you’re looking for a story about what it means to be family, whether by blood or choice, then Family Family is for you. I suggest you go in blind to fully enjoy the twists and turns. The Author’s Note is a must read as it is sure to capture your ♥️

Many thanks to the author @Laurie.Frankel, @HenryHoltBooks, and @NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

“Family ties are more complicated than mere genes.”

How do you define a family? That is the overall theme of this wonderful book by Laurie Frankel. Family Family is the story of India Allwood, an actress who finds herself at the center of a media storm after she says some not-complimentary things about a movie she’s starring in, a movie which focuses on adoption. India is an adoptive mother herself and feels the message of the movie isn’t the best one. The publisher includes the following quote in the book’s blurb: “Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?”

Frankel is a master at writing nuanced stories. (I’ve loved the other two books of hers that I’ve read: This Is How It Always Is, and One, Two, Three.) Life is not black and white; it’s shades of gray. And families are complicated.

This character-driven story bounces between present-day (2021, I believe, based on various references to COVID, etc.) and the past, letting us get to know India and how she got to where she is now: an actress who has adopted a brother and sister and is a single parent.

Without revealing any spoilers, I can only say that India’s life is nothing but unusual, and there are quite a few quirky characters and funny moments along the way. The theme of “found family” is one of my favorites, and this certainly has a lot of found family in its pages. You also get a behind-the-scenes look at how being a celebrity/public figure affects the lives of the family members of the celebrity, not just the celebrity, as well as some great behind-the-scenes information on how plays are put together (rehearsals, tech week, and so forth). For someone who loves live theater, this was a bonus.

Don’t miss the Author’s Note at the end of the story!

I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient, although I mostly listened to the audiobook. Patti Murin did a fabulous job with all the voices. There’s a bonus track, which is a conversation between the narrator and the author, which I also really enjoyed.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book and to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

India Allwood knew from a young age that her life’s ambition was to act. Along the way, she was faced with difficult life choices in order to follow her dreams. When her latest movie’s depiction of adoption draws a media storm of criticism, art and life intersect to tell the story of her beautiful, complicated family.

I was captivated by this heartfelt story of what makes a family. It’s told on two timelines, one in the present and one that takes us from India’s teen years along her journey to the Broadway stage and the silver screen and brings us up to present day. Frankel’s tender and quirky examination of what family means had my emotions running the gamut from laughing out loud to being moved to tears. The depiction of adoption in such a lovely, positive light was refreshing, and themes of parenthood, choice, and balance are thoughtfully explored with warmth and witty banter. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for providing me an advance copy of this book.

This was a beautiful introspective novel centered around family and what makes a family. Laurie Frankel has a way with exploring the complexities of family dynamics. I am typically not a fan of novels that go back and forth between timelines, but it worked very well throughout this novel and helped move the novel along with a purposeful manner. We initially meet India through the lens of the world of celebrity. As she battles a media storm associated with her portrayal within a movie centered around adoption, we learn more about India and the characteries that live within this family. The characters were fully thought out and the voices were unique to each person. This novel was both comforting and introspective at the same time. I could see myself rereading this novel again taking in new things with each reading.

The short summary of this book is that it is a story that is pro-adoption. Of course with 400 pages there is a lot more to the story. It begins with India Allwood at 16 wanting to be an actor. The young India is driven and focused. The past story alternates with her present life where she is a star of a popular TV series. She has completed a new movie and isn’t thrilled with how it stereotypes adoption. Her comments turn into a social media frenzy because the press are demanding her stance adoption and other options. India’s main concern is protecting her twin adopted ten year olds. But as the press exposes her past, her career and livelihood are being threatened. Her kids try coming to her rescue which only causes more mayhem.

This is a very likable story. India is very funny, smart, gifted and a unique character. She is probably on the spectrum (as is another character) but it isn’t addressed. I love her quirkiness of having confetti in her pocket always in case there is a need to celebrate. And she is very articulate in her viewpoint that adoption is a choice and creating families can come in many, many forms. My spouse has three adoptive siblings so this was a book I took to heart. Each sibling came from differing situations and how they individually react to being adopted is unique to them. I’ve had cousins who are adopted too and have recently reunited with their different birth parents. There is no, one story fits all in adoption just like there is no one way to be a family.

This book has funny moments and the author has a subtle way of throwing in very funny lines. And while serious topics are covered she isn’t demanding that everyone think like her. Religion and morality don’t come into the discussion. I very recently read and really enjoyed a previous book from Frankel, This Is How It Always Is (Jan 2017). Her main characters in both books are almost too positive and accepting. That isn’t a bad thing. India has trials, her adoptive kids have issues, but she deals with things in the most positive ways imaginable. And of course her character has resources and security that may not apply in the real world.

I enjoyed the book. I didn’t think that everything could realistically happen, but it wasn’t totally implausible. I love that so many viewpoints are presented. The kids' differing feelings are represented as well. I will add that covid is brought into the storyline in a realistic way.
It isn’t a big factor but it interrupts her work and of course kids schooling. Most books I read ignore the pandemic.

I received both a copy of the audiobook and an ARC via NetGalley. I alternated listening and reading the story. I enjoyed the narration by Patti Murin and the author’s notes from Laurie Frankel. Thank you to Henry Holt & Company and Macmillan Audio for the copies I enjoyed. I’d recommend either depending on your preference. (4.5 Stars)

Many thanks to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company, and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of the latest novel by Laurie Frankel, the audio perfectly narrated by a favorite, Patti Murin - 5 stars!

India Allwood is now a famous actress, having achieved her dream from childhood. Her latest movie involves adoption, and having personal experience, she makes the mistake of telling a journalist her true feelings - that the way the movie portrays adoption isn't really accurate in so many cases. That ignites a media frenzy, with both sides weighing in, and India's job may be in jeopardy, which is something her twins won't stand for.

Laurie Frankel has done it again - through a funny, engaging, heartwarming story, she's shown that family can look and feel very different than our traditional thoughts. I have loved all of her books and each one makes you really think once you close the pages. This book was told in such a unique way - we are introduced to all the characters at many different points in the past, to learn the backstories as well as the connections. I also liked the distinction between "family" and "family family." This book shows that adoption shouldn't always be portrayed as a poor me situation for the children, that love isn't always enough to make relationships work, and that there can never be too many people that love us. I was so fortunate to listen to this on audiobook as well, and the conversation between the author and narrator was fabulous and enlightening. Highly recommended!