This was a great feel good story and would make a wonderful gift for friends and family. Giveaway of one copy for a lucky reader that enters via my Facebook Blog/Group, Baer Books.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/899272610122986/
Nina Popkin always knew she was adopted. She loved her adoptive parents, but she always felt somehow that she didn't belong, even though she knew they loved her more than anything. She was the child they could not have. That didn't stop her from wondering if people she passed on the street were related to her. Nina and her best friend growing up, Melanie, used to make up scenarios about people that Nina might actually be related to. Even now that Nina is an adult she still has those thoughts about who her birth mother was.
Nina's life has gone off the rails. She's thirty-five, recently divorced, but still calls and texts her ex as if nothing's change. Dan is now remarried to Julie, whom he met six months after marrying Nina. He broke it to Nina one night by saying about Julie, "she had the magic sauce he'd been looking for. So, surely she could see that he had to leave, because even though he really, really, liked her, and maybe would always love her on some level, it wasn't the level that really counted with his shadow side and his mystical side and the side of him that wanted to turn vegan and loll about in hot tubs." Her adopted mom has just passed away from cancer, so Nina finds herself lost and confused, BUT she's still looking for answers. She WANTS to find her birth mother.
Lyndy McIntyre is focused, busy, and successful, yet suffering from horrible anxiety and a touch of OCD. Her hair salon & spa are totally successful, but somehow she just doesn't think she measures up. When Nina Popkin turns up in her life and she finds out they're sisters, that seems like the last thing she needs, but Nina keeps popping up and trying to force a relationship.
The only good thing to happen to Nina in the midst of the craziness that is her life? Carter Sanborn. He's an attractive, fun-loving guy who really likes Nina, but she can't seem to accept him. She makes a list of reasons not to fall in love with him. They include, 1)Too old, WAY TOO OLD, 2) Divorced, until very recently he was still living with his ex-wife 3) Does not support glutton-free diet (okay, she crossed that one off!) 4) Not looking for a relationship now 5) I am sad 6) My mother died 7) My ex-husband fell in love with his bank teller 8) Terrifying teenage kids.
The title says it all and you will have to read the book to see if Nina is successful in surviving her crazy life. I enjoyed the witty writing style of Maddie Dawson (this is my first book by her). Her quirky characters will certainly remind you of someone you know or you will feel like you'd like to be friends with them for sure. I found myself wanting Nina to be successful in trying to "make" her family, with Lyndy and their birth mother, who turns out to be another colorful character, Phoebe Mullen, who Nina tracks down with the reluctant help of Lyndy.
What happens, even without Nina realizing is family is not just blood & DNA, it's those people that are there for us, to dry our tears, to give us a hug when we feel alone, and provide love when we feel we are not worthy.
Thank you TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book.
http://tlcbooktours.com/
About Maddie Dawson
Maddie
Dawson grew up in the South, born into a family of outrageous storytellers. Her
various careers as a substitute English teacher, department-store clerk,
medical-records typist, waitress, cat sitter, wedding-invitation-company
receptionist, nanny, day-care worker, electrocardiogram technician, and Taco
Bell taco maker were made bearable by thinking up stories as she worked. Today
she lives in Guilford, Connecticut, with her husband. She’s the bestselling
author of four previous novels: The Opposite of Maybe, The
Stuff That Never Happened, Kissing Games of the World,
and A Piece of Normal.
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