THE OTHER FAMILY

A middle-aged woman who was adopted as a baby searches for her birth family as she simultaneously struggles to care for her own chronically ill daughter.

Ten-year-old Kylie Anderson suffers from food allergies, joint pain, headaches, skin irritations, and other symptoms of a mysterious chronic illness. Her mother, Ally, is at her wits' end attempting to adequately respond to her daughter’s ailments. Ally and her husband, Matt, have also recently separated, torn apart by the emotional and financial strain of caring for a sick child. When a new doctor tells Ally that Kylie’s disease might be genetic, Ally accepts that Kylie’s condition necessitates a genealogy search even though she never wanted to know about her own past. With the minimal effort of completing an at-home DNA test, Ally quickly locates a biological family member who lives less than an hour away. Unfortunately, Ally’s adoptive mother, Sophie, can’t stand the idea of reconnecting with the family that gave Ally away. As Ally attempts to piece together a medical history for Kylie without destroying her special relationship with Sophie, she also struggles to understand her feelings for her now-estranged husband. The couple dances around each other, worried for their daughter and nostalgic for what they’ve lost with each other. Circumstances grow increasingly complicated, and Ally must determine how to best move forward as a daughter, a mother, and a wife. Through Ally’s complex journey toward self-determination, this engaging, plot-driven tale examines what it really means to be part of a family. With the book told entirely from Ally’s perspective, the self-deprecating, girlfriend-y tone will draw readers right into Ally’s inner circle as she wrestles with questions about parenting, friendship, love, and loss. Replete with details about conventional and alternative medicine as well as quaintly humorous small-town moments of school board elections and run-ins with neighbors, the novel is engrossing throughout. Moments of self-doubt and embarrassment abound, but they are tempered by messages of hope and palpable love that hit just the right note.

A captivating and uplifting tale about the essence of self-reliance and the unsung benefits of modern families.