Unfortunately I had to DNF this one after a few chapters. I couldn't get into the story, I felt it was going around in circles a bit.
I hope other readers enjoy it though.

I really enjoyed Frankel's This Is How It Always Is, fiction about issues and feelings that the family of a gender dysphoric child may have to deal with. When I saw she had written a new book, I quickly requested it from NetGalley. I think Laurie Frankel tells a story quite well when she writes from her own experience, and she is successful at doing that once again in Family Family. This is another work of fiction, one that looks at adoption and shows us that all adoption stories don't have to be about trauma in some way. India Allwood is an adoptive mother who placed a child for adoption before she entered college and after college, she became a famous Hollywood actress. After starring in a movie about adoption, her life gets drastically upended after she makes some comments about the movie. Family Family examines how children who are adopted might feel, the feelings of parents who adopt are considered, and how it might feel for a woman who has placed a child for adoption. I don't have experience with any of these situations but I'm a firm believer that reading a well-written book can give me an idea of how others who may have dealt with issues might feel. With representation and enlightenment, understanding and empathy can grow more easily and Laurie Frankel has provided all of these in Family Family.

“Regardless of how they get made, family is a force to be reckoned with.”

Thank you to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. This book will be published on January 23, 2024.

This book has so much to unpack that I will just say read it. This is only my second Laurie Frankel book and to be honest I have struggled with some of her other books. This book grabbed me from the start. I did find it a little long but the writing was good and I loved the characters. It gave me a different view of adoption and placing children.
Thanks too NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for a honest opinion. 4⭐️

What a captivating book! Famous actress, India Allenwood, finds herself in the hot seat after giving her opinions on her latest movie. The movie focuses on adoption and provides one perspective on the topic. However, India has her own, very personal, opinions on the subject as well. As she tries more and more to tell her story, the media continue to misinterpret her words. We follow India and her extended family as they navigate the spotlight. This book is really special and sheds a lot on adoption. Thank you, NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! I love Frankel's books so was so excited for this one! At the beginning the time jumps confused me a little bit but this was a very beautiful story about the positive sides to adoption. I really thought it was a very pro choice novel as well. I did find myself enjoying younger India's storyline the most though.

This book is so well-written and funny and delightful!

While we do follow other characters (each of them more wonderful than the last - Andy’s chapter especially!), we are mostly inside Fig’s and India’s heads, and their voices are pitch-perfect. Fig is a precocious—but not annoying!—ten year old; a rare child in literature who didn’t make me roll my eyes in annoyance or cringe.

And India. I loved her so completely. She was such a full, vibrant character; she leapt off the page at me. I loved her when she was 16, I loved her when she was in college, I loved her when she was 26, and I loved her when she was 32. At one point, Davis says what he loved most about her is that she was weird, but I’d say what I loved most about her was that she was herself. And while she evolved, she never changed who she was at her core. Just a really wonderfully-written character and such a heartwarming book. I expect this to be near the top of many best-of-the-year lists in 2024!

Thanks, NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company, for the Digital Review Copy. Available: 23 Jan 2024

I loved Frankel’s 2017 book, THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS, so I jumped at the chance to read her latest family drama. The story is heartwarming, heartfelt, and gloriously messy. The author is an adoptive mother and uses her story to shine a bright spotlight on the beautiful side of adoption and counteract all the negative press it often receives.

India went from a driven student confident of her acting success to a Broadway ingenue and TV star. But after a movie dramatizing adoption, she makes the mistake of speaking her mind. The ripples that rock causes pull more and more of her family into the drama that ensues.

I loved Frankel’s characters (especially 10-year-old Fig) and the strong family ties demonstrated. I enjoy her writing style because she is wordy in a good way. (Imagine the Gilmore Girls delivering the lines.) The combination kept me reading late into the night and eager to return to the story.

Family, Family tells the past and present story of India Allwood, a Broadway and Hollywood star embroiled in a scandal about adoption. The book contains many reveals and I don’t want to spoil any of them here but it is safe to say that the book explores every which way you can create a family.

I really enjoyed this book, it was funny, heartwarming, interesting and quite surprising at times. Laurie Frankel, truly has a way with words and it shows. There was a passage in this book that made me break down crying. I felt that the book does suffer slightly from Frankel’s agenda of proving that adoption can be a great first option for families and does not need to be a source of trauma. There is a lot (too much?) telling in this book, though I will say there is a lot of showing as well.

This book is really good but it is not at the level of greatness of One Two Three or This is How it Always is (I found the parenting insights in my this book to be breathtaking, not so in Family, Family) but I suppose not many books are. Still a great read.

Thank you to Henry Holt and co. and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First and foremost, thank you so much to Henry Holt for the e-arc and paper ARC!

One Two Three was one of my top reads last year and ever since I've been eagerly anticipating what Laurie Frankel would put out next. She writes MEMORABLE characters truly better than anyone else I've read. She has such a wonderful way of making these characters seems so unique yet so common, ordinary, and relatable; I don't know how she blends to the two together so perfectly.

These characters were some of the best I've ever read. The banter and writing was also shockingly good. Some authors have an excellent way with words but aren't necessarily a master storyteller. Some authors create the most incredible stories but can't articulate them property. Laurie Frankel does both. It's beautiful and it's rare.

I don't think readers should read the back of the book and I don't think reviewers for this book should really say much about what happens within the pages of this book either. What made it so special was the way that the story unfolded naturally.

All that being said, I don't think this will be the book for every reader. I don' t agree with every choice the characters made. They made me smile, they made me cry, they made me want to take them by the shoulders and shake some sense into them. I think that's the point.

If you have concerns about the content since much of it could be very sensitive to certain audiences, I'd suggest looking up content warnings or DMing me if you have questions!

Family Family will be available for purchase on January 23rd.

I found this...kind of annoying? I loved the parts of the story about India's childhood, her college years, basically everything up to the present-day-plotlines. Laurie Frankel knows how to write, for sure, and her characters are awesome, for sure, but the way the present day story unfolded wasn't my favorite.

Laurie Frankel does an amazing job of writing about nuanced situations with humor and heart. She has a gift for taking social issues and making them instantly relatable through her storytelling. She creates witty characters who are slightly imperfect and wholly loveable.

I adored this book, which only confirmed Laurie Frankel’s status as an auto-read author for me. Perfect for book clubs, Family Family will make you think about the different ways there are to be a family and how those stories get told. As usual, Frankel’s writing is incredible. I don’t know how she does it, but I’m glad she does. I recommend this book with my whole heart!

Thank you to @NetGalley and @HenryHoltbooks for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

India’s dream is to be an actor and live in New York. She wants to go to college. She wants to be a star in the school musical in high school. She meets Robbie, falls in love, and gets pregnant. She decides to place the baby for adoption. I don’t want to reveal any more because I think this story is woven together really well.

I really, really enjoyed this one and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. I didn’t think about how often adoptive stories are portrayed, but this book opened my eyes a bit. There were a couple parts I did not necessarily love in this book, but man there was a lot to like. I truly loved the storytelling device of past/present and how it met up at the end. I loved how India’s life and choices were presented, acknowledging her privilege to have the choice too. The kids were great. Robbie and Davis could have been throwaway characters but they were fleshed out and complex.

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

I really liked this book, it was different than anything else I've read which was a breath of fresh air. I will be recommending this to my friends, and auto buy this author!

One of my all time favorite books is This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. I think part of the reason it was so good was that the author has a transgender daughter. This daughter is also adopted which brings us to Family, Family. Both books are complete fiction, but the germ of an idea from her own experience makes them extra special, in my opinion. Family, Family has great characters, especially India and Fig. I absolutely loved both of them. Actually, I loved all the members of this Family, Family! This book will stay with me for a long time just like This Is How It Always Is.

I would say this is the best book I read this year.
Laurie Frankel spins such a gripping story that I read it in one day straight, taking hardly any breaks. The story had many twists and turns that I could not stop reading. The characters are so well fleshed out and their every emotion was well portrayed. I loved India through all her ups and downs. I also loved the idea of the big, 'blended' family coming together to support their beloved member, 'Family Family' is all about who we choose to be our family and how our choices make us who we are.
The essence of 'Family Family' will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you @netgalley and @henryholtbooks for this advance copy.
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As you can probably guess from the title, this book is complicated. Frankel said she wanted to create a fresh narrative around adoption and orphans in literature, and she did just that. There were several times I wanted to roll my eyes at the main character, but those same moments infused such thought provoking elements into the story, I couldn’t be mad about them. It’s hard not to fall in love with every character in this book. There is so much to discuss here - I can’t wait until more readers get ahold of it. It would make a terrific book club selection. If you like stories of found family, complex family dynamics, and loveable characters, definitely pick this up! The author’s note is a beautiful summation at the end of the story and not to be missed.

This was a cute book about found family. It teaches a lessson that family isn’t always the one you were born into. I struggled with the beginning, I found it a bit too slow for my liking but overall it was an enjoyable read. I loved Indias character

I had high hopes for this and my expectations were met. Family Family is a well-written, well-constructed book that was perfect when I needed something excellent to read. I've got some heavy, distracting stuff going on and when I was able to take a break this book took me out of my own life and into something different. Any time I could get back to the book I was relieved to be in Laurie Frankel's hands.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for this Advanced Readers Copy of Family Family by Laurie Frankel!

I just reviewed Family Family by Laurie Frankel. #NetGalley Where to start… well it is mid December and this is one of the best books I have read this year, and that is out of 122 books! The story is a glorious combination of characters, all quite beautiful and believable. Adoption is a theme but not in an overwhelming manner. India the main character is charismatic and really seems to grow from a relatively mature teenager to a self assured, together adult with more than a slightly complicated relationship with parenthood and self preservation. If I had not been gifted this book by NetGalley.. thank you for that, I would definitely buy a copy, and still likely will to reread again. Love love love this book!!