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.

Family Family opens as India Allwood is being cancelled. Star actress of a popular TV show, India is taking heat for problematic depictions of adoption in a film she's just starred in. India refuses to back down or concede, adding fuel to the fire. Through jumps back and forth in time starting from 16-year-old India to present day 32-year-old India, we find out that her reaction to the drama stems from a close relationship with the process of adoption. As the novel goes on, we understand India's story more clearly and Frankel unfurls a unique story of how families get made all different kinds of ways.

Frankel's method of storytelling in Family Family makes for an entertaining journey that keeps the reader hooked. India, her children, and all the other characters we come to know are charming and heartbreaking all at once. It is a bit of a long story and I feel the latter quarter or so dragged on a tad, but resolving the Allwood family story is worth the effort.

After DNFing two books in a row, I knew Laurie Frankel's newest release would not disappoint. India is an actress and her latest movie centered around adoption is facing scathing reviews from critics and the general public. India's response is flippant, but she has her own personal connections with adoption that are slowly revealed as the story unfolds, switching between the present day and a few decades in the past. The format of the book is unusual, but it was not hard to follow the timeline of events.

As I've mentioned in previous reviews of Frankel's works, she has a gift for writing young characters in a fresh way. She can reach into their psyches and express their deepest desires and worries in a genuine and mature way. Her young characters are fearless and ambitious, not afraid to go after what they want, even if it is a little misguided. Frankel also has the uncanny ability to take difficult situations and add both humor and a heartwarming story. The banter between the characters is witty and endearing, and the dynamics she portrays are wholly unique and compelling. Each person is so unapologetically themself, devoid of any pettiness or narcissism. The crazy family dynamic she creates in this book is unexpected and unconventional but completely filled with love. She draws from her own personal experience with transracial adoption and has captured the essence of family beautifully.

Family Family was my first Laurie Frankel book but won't be my last! This book sucked me in from the start with its likeable characters and remarkably fast-paced story. The story centers around the life of India, who is an actress that causes controversy when she makes some statements about adoption when promoting her new film. It turns out India's personal life has been touched by adoption in several ways, and it's such a pleasure the way we learn about those during the course of the story. This is a story with heart, with laughs, and with great food for thought. Utterly delightful read!

Thank you Laurie Frankel for writing your powerful and moving novel “Family Family”. It’s a story with deep insight into the much needed to talk about topic of adoption. I fell in love with the protagonist who is a world famous mega star. She is the most honest, thoughtful and strong women who you cannot help admire even when faced with unimaginable, and heartbreaking decisions. This book is about parenting in all its forms. It’s about unconditional love, family and the acceptance of family in all its varied structures.

Thank you NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I love Laurie Frankel’s characters, they never disappoint. I enjoyed this book almost as much as This is how it always is, and much more then One Two Three. She is a great writer with such unique characters and the humor in her storytelling keeps you engaged..it makes you rethink what makes a family & the beauty in crating your own story

Laurie Frankel has done it again - taken a tenuous, nuanced family topic and created a beautiful story ripe for discussion. Each of these characters are so well developed and human, I can’t decide who I enjoyed most.

India Allred is a famous Hollywood actress who gets in hot water when she makes some comments about her recent movie surrounding adoption, and her past comes to light. But despite how the public may want her to feel about the topic of adoption, India is steadfast in her perspective and her experience that there need not always be trauma or perfect closure linked to every adoption.

I loved the voices of Fig and Jack, and I really enjoyed how the book jumped between present day (taking course roughly over the span of a week) and back in time so we got to watch India grow up. It was so fun to put the pieces together between then and now - what is why I actually think the bulk of the metal was the most enjoyable part of the book. It was such a joy to meet other characters from throughout India’s life, and to see how she grew from an independent young girl into an independent woman.

This book was masterfully written and makes the reader consider family and the creation of family in a new light, and my favorite type of book is one that makes you rethink some thing you thought you understood. Must read!

Thank you NetGalley For providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Laurie Frankel has done it again. Family Family is a lovely and engaging story about the complicated gossamer of human connections that really hits you in the feels. She shares an uncommon, but indispensable, story of adoption and the many ways that families exist.

The novel invites us into the life of India Allwood, an actor and single adoptive mom to Fig and Jack. Her carefully balanced life is upset when some misunderstood comments about her recent movie about adoption take the media by storm. India and her family find themselves navigating uncharted waters as they attempt to rectify the situation.

Frankel’s writing is so skillful and beautiful. She truly has a knack for capturing the nuances of emotions and showing the dialectical nature of relationships. Family Family is rich with ideas that make you ache and is tempered with humor and lightness for a strikingly readable story of love, loss, unbreakable bonds, and finding ones footing through life challenges. I love that the characters are well developed and relatable. They are flawed, but likable. The story takes place in the present, but there are interspersed chapters that give us the history of the characters. Frankel has laced together the past and the present seamlessly.

I give Family Family five out of five stars. It is a well written quick read that really takes on the idea of adoption from a needed perspective. Bravo Laurie Frankel and thank you for putting this book out into the world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for sending me this book in exchange for my honest review.

Stories about families are not my go-to, but this has humor and an engaging plot and more, and I was pleasantly surprised. Recommended.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!