Meet quirky India Allwood, she keeps ripped up notecards in her pocket for when you need to celebrate with some confetti, she has dreamed of being an actress her whole life, and now she is a famous one! Except – she has stepped in it – she spoke badly about her new movie and now she is in a PR mess and her family is stepping in to help – but who India’s family is, that is what makes this story interesting. This novel looks into what defines a family. At its core this is a novel about adoption, but it is also a novel about the multiple ways that families can be created and structured and the different ways you can love someone.

I wasn’t sure I would love this novel as much as I did because India was just a little bit too much for me, but I ended up really just enjoying all of the characters and the story so much that I couldn’t put it down. Laurie Frankel’s voice has a unique quality to it that I have always appreciated and I like her novels so I was so excited to read this one; and her personal story at the end made this even more worthwhile for me. This is a fun and meaningful story which is a combination that I think Frankel excels at.

4.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for this ARC to review

Lights, camera, action! This was a great read. I came into it not really knowing what to expect, but it sucked me in. I love how complicated and accurate it portrayed the definition of a family, not something defined solely by blood or love. This would make a wonderful book club read!

I have not read anything by this author before but I will definitely be checking out her backlist of books. I had a great time reading this one and I really enjoyed the plot and characterization. Definitely recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. This book was so beautiful and will definitely be one of my favorites of this year. Such a beautifully written story of family and found family and what exactly makes a family. It is also about choices and love and parenting. Could not recommend this book more. If you liked “This is What it Always is,” you will like this.

I was so excited for this ARC. I first discovered this author from Reese’s book club which featured “This is How it Always Is” and then went “One Two Three” which I also very much enjoyed. This book has a similar sentiment to the ones mentioned above which features a strong portrayal of family dynamics. As someone who is adopted, this book was probably the one I connected to the most. There are laugh out loud moments, moments that made me cry, and moments that made me feel something. This book is still something I think about weeks after reading it and will be one I will be recommending when it is released in January 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company and Laurie Frankel for this ARC.

In this novel we meet India Allwood, starting with her teenage dreams and transitioning back and forth between more recent time frames and her lifestyle as a television celebrity. Throughout we learn of her choices regarding childbearing and adoption, relationships and growth, and how that families come in all shapes and sizes.

I really enjoyed this novel, the growth of India as well as her family and children, and found it to be a wonderful exploration of adoption and family. I would have liked a little more about the adoptive families and a little less about India's acting adventures, but that may be just me. Each character was delightful and well drawn out so maybe thats why I wanted more of even the minor characters. This is another winner from Laurie Frankel.

Thank you to Net Galley for an e galley in return for an honest review.

I really loved the message of this book that family is what you create, whether it be biological or via adoption. I thought the author's note at the end was very good. I knew the author had a trans child, but I didn't know that she had a child via adoption. I loved that her and her husband chose adoption instead of trying to conceive naturally.

In this novel, India has a love of theater, although she can't sing, and she finds herself pregnant as a senior in high school. While there is an easier road she could have chosen, India decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption. That child is trying to come find her in the present-day strand of this dual timeline novel.

While I really loved the last 1/3 of this novel, I struggled some with the first 2/3. I felt it languished in India's career more than I would have liked. I wanted to know more about her biological children and the adoptive parents from their perspectives. It was only later in the novel that I got what I was looking for, so that is my reason for taking off 1 star.

Overall, this is a very solid novel that explores multiple facets of adoption. I really appreciated those perspectives and the author's sentiments.

I received this as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt publishers for allowing me to read an arc. I have read several books by Laurie Frankel so was pleased to get a copy. Laurie Frankel has a superb writing process where you feel emotionally attached to the characters as she covers sensitive issues in her stories. This book covers adoption as a sensitive issues but she does it with such charm.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reading copy of Laurie Frankel's Family Family.

I was not able to finish this book, but I did soldier through more than half of it. Truly wrought dialogue and a meandering, contrived storyline aided my desire to put this book down after I flipped each page. Was is a unique look at how families become families? Sure, but it just wasn't engaging to this reader.

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

While this is a review of Family Family, if you haven't read Laurie Frankel's This is How It Always is, stop everything and go read it now. Loved that book so much.

While promoting her new movie about adoption, actress India Allwood makes comments that bring her under fire. India has two adopted children and she had placed a child into adoption when she was 16 and in high school and doesn't want to retract her opinions.

The book is full of great characters. Laurie Frankel's writing shines when it is personal to her.

I sure do love Laurie Frankel's writing. She has a beautiful ability to capture the messiness of life in the most delightful of ways. This book is about FAMILY... parenting, adoption, heartbreak, tough decisions, and LOVE. The characters were flawed, but beautiful... and maybe so beautiful because of their flaws. I loved every chapter of this book and I didn't want the story to end. Another winner from Laurie Frankel.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free advance ereader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved Laurie Frankel’s latest gem, “Family Family.” The book follows protagonist India Allwood from her teen years through college and into her career as a famous actor playing a TV superhero. In chapters alternating between the present (over the course of about a week) and the past, India navigates love, acting, women’s autonomy, parenting, and what makes a family of any kind. Five stars for this beautiful read. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

It is impossible to put into words how much I loved this book. I have been a massive fan of Frankel's writing for a very long time, and have devoured everything she's written. She has an absolutely spot-on ability to capture the confusing, brilliant, hilarious, heartbreaking chaos of humanity and presents it, warts and all, in a way that never fails to make you think and cry and rage and laugh - all while being immensely entertained at the same time. She crafts incredibly complex and wholly relatable characters and then sets them loose to confront the fact that the world is an insane place populated by people who are (mostly) just trying to find a way to live within that insanity with dignity and love and grace. Her books shine a light on the hypocrisy underlying so much of the nonsense that divides people into rideously competing camps. And on top of that she simply writes fun and engaging and endearing stories that are complicated and messy and delightful and infuriating, just like life. I loved everything about this book, and can't stop raving about it to everyone I meet...

Title: Family Family
Author: Laurie Frankel
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: January 23, 2024
My Rating: 3.4 Stars
Pages: 400

This story is about adoption and what makes a family. As a mom of two adopted daughters I was looking forward to this story.

India Allwood is an actress and while promoting her latest film about adoption, India tells a journalist that the movie isn’t all that good as it is one sided and is the tragic side of adoption.

India not only is an adoptive mom but sixteen years ago when she was a senior in high school she gave her baby up for adoption.

The point of this story is that family love comes in many ways certainly not “one size fits all’.
The love a parent has for their child - biological or not is an emotion ride!

Loved Ms. Frankel’s ‘Author’s Note’. Be sure to read it – Trust me it is a story in itself!

Want to thank NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for January 23, 2024.

Put this on your January TBR now! I loved this book, every single main character. I did not want this book to end. A story about family, adoptions, dreams and loves. This is my third book by Laurie Frankel and she writes family like no one else can. I’m grateful to the publisher for an ARC.

Thank you to Laurie Frankel, Net Galley, and Henry Holt & Co for the ARC. Beautifully written, poignant, and thought-provoking. Not 5 stars because too long and overwritten, and became highly unbelievable as the story compounded. #netgalley

Great Author, Great Story, Loved it more than her others. A great book for a lazy weekend afternoon for an escape. Thanks

India knows a thing or two about adoption.
She gave birth to two babies, one in high school and one in college and gave them both up for adoption.
Then, she later adopted children herself.
Frankel's insightful novel explores adoption and family through a humorous lens.

Family Family sucked me right in from the very beginning. Laurie Frankel is a master at creating characters I love and care about deeply, and Family Family is no exception. This book is a story about adoption, different than the stories we normally get told. There is trauma, what family doesn’t have trauma, but there is so much love. The main character- India Allwood is a movie star but not a typical movie star that we see in books. She loves hard, is quirky but not in an annoying way (to me), she’s optimistic (once again not in an annoying way.. to me), and she’s funny.

The writing was fast paced. There were two-ish story lines - present day that spans about a week & the years leading up to present day. This book made me giggle and tugged at my heart strings often. I adored every member of the family as we got to know them.

Some of the sentences or translations were a bit quick/ confusing for a split second which I could see bothering someone readers.

This is in my top 3 books of the year - I never wanted to put it down and my heart is so so full after finishing it 💕

Thank you to netgalley and Henry Holt for the opportunity to read this e-arc!

Fans of Laurie Frankel’s previous repertoire, get ready because you are going to love her latest: Family Family. Based loosely on her own experiences with adoption (as This Is How It Always Is was loosely based on her experience as a parent of a transgender child), Frankel has crafted a story of adoption that encircles her main character, movie star, India Allwood. Alternating timelines and perspectives, a story unfolds about how families are created and the broadly stretching web that this family has become.

For readers who loved Eleanor Brown’s Any Other Family, big families, multiple POV, dual timelines, and Hollywood.