We love Patti's Books (see our review for Coming Up For Air), so I was quite happy to review this one, especially since the concept struck home pretty closely!
You see my Mom recently found her two nieces via Facebook, after not knowing where they were for forty years! She had promised her mother she would alway keep trying to find them. Divorce can be an ugly thing and in the days waaayyy before the internet, the kids were too young to be able to keep in touch themselves, and the family (including their grandparents) lost contact with them when they moved across the country. Mom has been diligent in searching for them but as both of them married, as did their mother, we had NO idea how to find them. Pure luck led Mom to their aunt's Facebook page and there they were listed as family. Ya just gotta LOVE Facebook!
Seeing the joy on my Mom's face when she actually got to TALK to them was amazing (honestly, I couldn't stop crying!). So I eagerly sat down to read this book!
The book is being released next week- April 9th! You can read an excerpt HERE!
Synopsis: Twenty-two years ago, >New York Times bestselling author,Patti Callahan Henry’s sister placed a baby girl for adoption. Then in April 2010, a Facebook request put an end to all the waiting and wondering. Patti’s sister’s daughter had found her.
AND THEN I FOUND YOU, coming next month,, is an unique story inspired by Henry’s personal family history with adoption. The novel, much like the true story, is a compelling narrative of love lost, love found, and a miraculous reunion that changed everyone’s lives forever.
Told from the points of view of birth mother, Kate Vaughn, and her thirteen year-old daughter Emily, the book spans over twenty years and follows the characters as they move through their lives in South Carolina, Arizona, Alabama and New York. Now thirty-four years old, Kate seems finally ready to begin her life with someone else, but memories keep holding her back. In her wish to conquer her painful past, Kate decides to visit Jack, the father of the baby she placed for adoption many years before. Their reunion and an unexpected Facebook request starts a chain reaction that will change not only Kate’s life, but that of her loved ones too. AND THEN I FOUND YOU is ultimately a story about brave choices, our yearning for certainty and the courage it takes to find our place in the world.
Review: Ok, I'm just going to say it.
EVERYONE should read this book!
WHY?
Because there is still a misconception about adoption and it's affects not only on the birth mother and her family, but on the adopted child and their extended family. Patti lets loose on some very honest and fundamental truths in this novel, even though it is a piece of fiction, and they are ones that should be shared AND acknowledged.
I was adopted by my step-father when I was 4. But my mother did a wonderful thing- she kept in contact with my bio-father's parents, siblings and extended family. I knew who they were, and it provided a way to see answers to 'is this genetic?' questions, that came up. For them it gave them peace of mind, knowing I was fine, well loved and cared for. Yet my step-father is DAD. PERIOD. He dealt with all the traumas, dramas and highs of my childhood and adulthood. Writing these sentences is weird, as I never think of him as my step-father or adopted-father, but just as DAD, with all the love that word entails. His family IS my family too. It may have seemed odd to others, but I considered it normal growing up having 5 sets of extended families (mom's 2, dad's 2 and bio one). I like to say a child can't have too many grandparents or wonderful aunts and uncles! Unconditional love is something that children not only need, but feed upon, giving them extra confidence and belief in themselves and their place in the world.>
This book takes that idea and shows how that love is there, even if the adopted child is NOT aware of it, and what happens when they are. Admittedly there are times when knowing the biological family may not be a good idea, but generally a somewhat open or totally open adoption, usually is to everyone's benefit. I cried my way through this book and I know you will too! I can't recommend this book enough!>
About the Author:Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times Bestselling novelist. She has published nine novels (Losing the Moon, Where the River Runs, When Light Breaks, Betweeen the Tides, The Art of Keeping Secrets, and Driftwood Summer, The Perfect Love Song, and Coming up for Air , including this one) Patti has been hailed as a fresh new voice in southern fiction, appearing in numerous magazines (Good Housekeeping; SKIRT; The South; Southern Living, etc..). She has been short-listed for the Townsend Prize for Fiction. She has been nominated four different times for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Fiction Novel of the Year. Her work is published in five languages and all novels are on Brilliance Audio. Two of her novels were OKRA picks and Coming up For Air was an Indie Next choice. Patti is a a frequent speaker at fundraisers, library events and book festivals, discussing the importance of storytelling. Patti Callahan Henry is a full time writer, wife and mother of three living in Mountain Brook, AL.
Ready to win your own copy?
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge, from Wunderkind PR, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it
You see my Mom recently found her two nieces via Facebook, after not knowing where they were for forty years! She had promised her mother she would alway keep trying to find them. Divorce can be an ugly thing and in the days waaayyy before the internet, the kids were too young to be able to keep in touch themselves, and the family (including their grandparents) lost contact with them when they moved across the country. Mom has been diligent in searching for them but as both of them married, as did their mother, we had NO idea how to find them. Pure luck led Mom to their aunt's Facebook page and there they were listed as family. Ya just gotta LOVE Facebook!
Seeing the joy on my Mom's face when she actually got to TALK to them was amazing (honestly, I couldn't stop crying!). So I eagerly sat down to read this book!
The book is being released next week- April 9th! You can read an excerpt HERE!
Synopsis: Twenty-two years ago, >New York Times bestselling author,Patti Callahan Henry’s sister placed a baby girl for adoption. Then in April 2010, a Facebook request put an end to all the waiting and wondering. Patti’s sister’s daughter had found her.
AND THEN I FOUND YOU, coming next month,, is an unique story inspired by Henry’s personal family history with adoption. The novel, much like the true story, is a compelling narrative of love lost, love found, and a miraculous reunion that changed everyone’s lives forever.
Told from the points of view of birth mother, Kate Vaughn, and her thirteen year-old daughter Emily, the book spans over twenty years and follows the characters as they move through their lives in South Carolina, Arizona, Alabama and New York. Now thirty-four years old, Kate seems finally ready to begin her life with someone else, but memories keep holding her back. In her wish to conquer her painful past, Kate decides to visit Jack, the father of the baby she placed for adoption many years before. Their reunion and an unexpected Facebook request starts a chain reaction that will change not only Kate’s life, but that of her loved ones too. AND THEN I FOUND YOU is ultimately a story about brave choices, our yearning for certainty and the courage it takes to find our place in the world.
Review: Ok, I'm just going to say it.
EVERYONE should read this book!
WHY?
Because there is still a misconception about adoption and it's affects not only on the birth mother and her family, but on the adopted child and their extended family. Patti lets loose on some very honest and fundamental truths in this novel, even though it is a piece of fiction, and they are ones that should be shared AND acknowledged.
I was adopted by my step-father when I was 4. But my mother did a wonderful thing- she kept in contact with my bio-father's parents, siblings and extended family. I knew who they were, and it provided a way to see answers to 'is this genetic?' questions, that came up. For them it gave them peace of mind, knowing I was fine, well loved and cared for. Yet my step-father is DAD. PERIOD. He dealt with all the traumas, dramas and highs of my childhood and adulthood. Writing these sentences is weird, as I never think of him as my step-father or adopted-father, but just as DAD, with all the love that word entails. His family IS my family too. It may have seemed odd to others, but I considered it normal growing up having 5 sets of extended families (mom's 2, dad's 2 and bio one). I like to say a child can't have too many grandparents or wonderful aunts and uncles! Unconditional love is something that children not only need, but feed upon, giving them extra confidence and belief in themselves and their place in the world.>
This book takes that idea and shows how that love is there, even if the adopted child is NOT aware of it, and what happens when they are. Admittedly there are times when knowing the biological family may not be a good idea, but generally a somewhat open or totally open adoption, usually is to everyone's benefit. I cried my way through this book and I know you will too! I can't recommend this book enough!>
About the Author:Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times Bestselling novelist. She has published nine novels (Losing the Moon, Where the River Runs, When Light Breaks, Betweeen the Tides, The Art of Keeping Secrets, and Driftwood Summer, The Perfect Love Song, and Coming up for Air , including this one) Patti has been hailed as a fresh new voice in southern fiction, appearing in numerous magazines (Good Housekeeping; SKIRT; The South; Southern Living, etc..). She has been short-listed for the Townsend Prize for Fiction. She has been nominated four different times for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Fiction Novel of the Year. Her work is published in five languages and all novels are on Brilliance Audio. Two of her novels were OKRA picks and Coming up For Air was an Indie Next choice. Patti is a a frequent speaker at fundraisers, library events and book festivals, discussing the importance of storytelling. Patti Callahan Henry is a full time writer, wife and mother of three living in Mountain Brook, AL.
Ready to win your own copy?
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge, from Wunderkind PR, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it
thanks for this memorable book. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
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