
Any Other Family
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
By:
-
Eleanor Brown
About this listen
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
The New York Times bestselling author of The Weird Sisters returns with a striking and intimate new novel about three very different adoptive mothers who face the impossible question: What makes a family?
Though they look like any other family, they aren’t one—not quite. They are three sets of parents who find themselves intertwined after adopting four biological siblings, having committed to keeping the children as connected as possible.
At the heart of the family, the adoptive mothers grapple to define themselves and their new roles. Tabitha, who adopted the twins, crowns herself planner of the group, responsible for endless playdates and holidays, determined to create a perfect happy family. Quiet and steady Ginger, single mother to the eldest daughter, is wary of the way these complicated not-fully-family relationships test her long held boundaries. And Elizabeth, still reeling from rounds of failed IVF, is terrified that her unhappiness after adopting a newborn means she was not meant to be a mother at all.
As they set out on their first family vacation, all three are pushed into uncomfortably close quarters. And when they receive a call from their children’s birth mother announcing she is pregnant again, the delicate bonds the women are struggling to form threaten to collapse as they each must consider how a family is found and formed.
©2022 Eleanor Brown (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
More Than You'll Ever Know
- A Novel
- By: Katie Gutierrez
- Narrated by: Inés del Castillo, Yareli Arizmendi
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1985, Lore Rivera marries Andres Russo in Mexico City, even though she is already married to Fabian Rivera in Laredo, Texas, and they share twin sons. Through her career as an international banker, Lore splits her time between two countries and two families—until the truth is revealed and one husband is arrested for murdering the other. In 2017, while trawling the internet for the latest, most sensational news reports, struggling true-crime writer Cassie Bowman encounters an article detailing that tragic final act. Cassie is immediately enticed by what is not explored:
-
-
Don’t Bother if You Don’t Understand Spanish
- By Gliknis on 08-28-22
By: Katie Gutierrez
-
We All Want Impossible Things
- A Novel
- By: Catherine Newman
- Narrated by: Jane Oppenheimer
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edith and Ashley have been best friends for over forty-two years. They’ve shared the mundane and the momentous together: trick or treating and binge drinking; Gilligan’s Island reruns and REM concerts; hickeys and heartbreak; surprise Scottish wakes; marriages, infertility, and children. As Ash says, “Edi’s memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.”
-
-
When your bff goes into hospice...
- By Barbara S on 11-15-22
By: Catherine Newman
-
Happiness Falls (Good Morning America Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Angie Kim
- Narrated by: Shannon Tyo, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Thomas Pruyn, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything—which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.
-
-
A mixed review, but recommend
- By Andrea B. on 09-07-23
By: Angie Kim
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Like a House on Fire
- By: Lauren McBrayer
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After 12 years of marriage and two kids, Merit has begun to feel like a stranger in her own life. She loves her husband and sons, but she desperately needs something more than sippy cups and monthly sex. So, she returns to her career at Jager + Brandt, where a brilliant and beautiful Danish architect named Jane decides to overlook the “break” in Merit’s résumé and give her a shot.
-
-
Been there
- By M. Barn on 05-11-22
By: Lauren McBrayer
-
Fellowship Point
- A Novel
- By: Alice Elliott Dark
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy—to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels; and even more consuming, to permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly.
-
-
Too far fetched at the end
- By JMNE on 08-25-22
-
More Than You'll Ever Know
- A Novel
- By: Katie Gutierrez
- Narrated by: Inés del Castillo, Yareli Arizmendi
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1985, Lore Rivera marries Andres Russo in Mexico City, even though she is already married to Fabian Rivera in Laredo, Texas, and they share twin sons. Through her career as an international banker, Lore splits her time between two countries and two families—until the truth is revealed and one husband is arrested for murdering the other. In 2017, while trawling the internet for the latest, most sensational news reports, struggling true-crime writer Cassie Bowman encounters an article detailing that tragic final act. Cassie is immediately enticed by what is not explored:
-
-
Don’t Bother if You Don’t Understand Spanish
- By Gliknis on 08-28-22
By: Katie Gutierrez
-
We All Want Impossible Things
- A Novel
- By: Catherine Newman
- Narrated by: Jane Oppenheimer
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edith and Ashley have been best friends for over forty-two years. They’ve shared the mundane and the momentous together: trick or treating and binge drinking; Gilligan’s Island reruns and REM concerts; hickeys and heartbreak; surprise Scottish wakes; marriages, infertility, and children. As Ash says, “Edi’s memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.”
-
-
When your bff goes into hospice...
- By Barbara S on 11-15-22
By: Catherine Newman
-
Happiness Falls (Good Morning America Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Angie Kim
- Narrated by: Shannon Tyo, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Thomas Pruyn, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything—which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.
-
-
A mixed review, but recommend
- By Andrea B. on 09-07-23
By: Angie Kim
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Like a House on Fire
- By: Lauren McBrayer
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After 12 years of marriage and two kids, Merit has begun to feel like a stranger in her own life. She loves her husband and sons, but she desperately needs something more than sippy cups and monthly sex. So, she returns to her career at Jager + Brandt, where a brilliant and beautiful Danish architect named Jane decides to overlook the “break” in Merit’s résumé and give her a shot.
-
-
Been there
- By M. Barn on 05-11-22
By: Lauren McBrayer
-
Fellowship Point
- A Novel
- By: Alice Elliott Dark
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy—to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels; and even more consuming, to permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly.
-
-
Too far fetched at the end
- By JMNE on 08-25-22
-
Mad Honey
- A Novel
- By: Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Finney Boylan
- Narrated by: Carrie Coon, Key Taw, Jodi Picoult, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business. Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.
-
-
Good writing but...
- By Suzanna on 10-08-22
By: Jodi Picoult, and others
-
The Latecomer
- A Novel
- By: Jean Hanff Korelitz
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Latecomer follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF. As children, the three siblings—Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally—feel no strong familial bond and cannot wait to go their separate ways, even as their father becomes more distanced and their mother more desperate. When the triplets leave for college, Johanna, faced with being truly alone, makes the decision to have a fourth child.
-
-
Conservatives and religious are the villains
- By Ashley on 09-01-22
-
Our Missing Hearts
- A Novel
- By: Celeste Ng
- Narrated by: Lucy Liu, Celeste Ng
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left without a trace when he was nine years old. He doesn’t know what happened to her—only that her books have been banned—and he resents that she cared more about her work than about him.
-
-
Listen to the sample
- By Sunny White on 10-11-22
By: Celeste Ng
-
Hello Beautiful
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Maura Tierney
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all.
-
-
Book was great, performance terrible
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-23
By: Ann Napolitano
-
Nora Goes Off Script
- By: Annabel Monaghan
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it’s her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage’s collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it’s picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne’er do well husband Nora’s life will never be the same.
-
-
Not enough smut for me
- By Anonymous User on 07-26-23
By: Annabel Monaghan
-
Carrie Soto Is Back
- A Novel
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez, Mary Carillo, Patrick Mcenroe, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two.
-
-
Not great, disappointing
- By Chrisbunny on 09-01-22
-
Thank You for Listening
- A Novel
- By: Julia Whelan
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Sewanee Chester, being an audiobook narrator is a long way from her old dreams, but the days of being a star on film sets are long behind her. She’s found success and satisfaction from the inside of a sound booth and it allows her to care for her beloved, ailing grandmother. When she arrives in Las Vegas last-minute for a book convention, Sewanee unexpectedly spends a whirlwind night with a charming stranger.
-
-
Julia Whelan is the GOAT
- By echo404 on 08-03-22
By: Julia Whelan
-
Almost Missed You
- A Novel
- By: Jessica Strawser
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Violet and Finn were “meant to be,” said everyone, always. They ended up together by the hands of fate aligning things just so. Three years into their marriage, they have a wonderful little boy, and as the three of them embark on their first vacation as a family, Violet can’t help thinking that she can’t believe her luck. Life is good. So no one is more surprised than she when Finn leaves her at the beach—just packs up the hotel room and disappears. And takes their son with him.
-
-
AMAZING!
- By Jesutofunmi Mojeed on 06-08-17
By: Jessica Strawser
-
Perfect Little World
- A Novel
- By: Kevin Wilson
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she's just about out of options. She recently graduated from high school and is pregnant with her art teacher's baby. Her mother is dead, and her father is a drunk. The art teacher is too much of a head case to help raise the child. Izzy knows she can be a good mother, but without any money or prospects she's left searching. So when Dr. Grind offers her a space in The Infinite Family Project, she accepts. Housed in a spacious compound in Tennessee, she joins nine other couples, all with children the same age as her newborn son.
-
-
Infinitely awesome
- By Lauren Jennings on 07-14-18
By: Kevin Wilson
-
Before We Were Yours
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin, Catherine Taber
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge - until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents - but they quickly realize the dark truth.
-
-
I was rivetted, finished in three days.
- By Lin Cloward on 06-26-17
By: Lisa Wingate
-
The Unbreakables
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Barr
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A delicious, sharp novel about a woman who jets off to France after her perfect marriage collapses, putting the broken pieces of herself back together while rediscovering her own joie de vivre - a lust for life, art, and steamy sex.
-
-
Could have been a good story
- By Leslie Francis on 12-24-20
By: Lisa Barr
-
Little Fires Everywhere
- By: Celeste Ng
- Narrated by: Jennifer Lim
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned - from the layout of the winding roads to the colors of the houses to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother - who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter, Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons.
-
-
Boring and Drawn Out!!!
- By M. Ryder on 10-05-17
By: Celeste Ng
Critic reviews
One of:
Real Simple's Best Books of 2022
Southern Livings’s Beach Reads Perfect for Summer 2022
Entertainment Weekly’s 16 Novels We’re Excited for This Summer
"A tearjerker that nails the issues of fertility, adopton, and raising kids, this is a conversation starter about parenthood you don't want to miss." –Real Simple
“[A] treat of a novel…[Brown] examines the pressures placed on mothers while considering what makes a family and comes up with a wonderful answer: commitment and love.” –Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Brown explores the meaning of motherhood and the limits of a blended family in her vivid character study of four biological siblings adopted by three sets of parents, set across the span of a single (and singular) vacation.” –Entertainment Weekly
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Lucky Girl
- A Novel
- By: Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu
- Narrated by: Musu-Kulla Massaquoi
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Soila is a lucky girl by anyone’s estimation. Raised by her stern, conservative mother and a chorus of aunts, she has lived a protected life in Nairobi. Soila is headstrong and outspoken, and she chafes against her mother’s strict rules. After a harrowing assault by a trusted family friend, she flees to New York for college, vowing never to return home.
-
-
Lucky Girl
- By ELLA WILLIAMS on 02-17-24
-
Days of Wonder
- A Novel
- By: Caroline Leavitt
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Stephanie Willing, Steve Quinn
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a teenager, for a moment, Ella Fitchburg found love—yearning, breathless love—that consumed both her and her boyfriend, Jude, as they wandered the streets of New York City together. But her life was unexpectedly upended when she was accused of trying to murder Jude’s father, an imperious superior court judge, and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. When she learns she’s pregnant shortly after sentencing, she reluctantly decides to give up the child. Ella is released after serving six years. While she is desperate to turn the page on a new life, she can’t seem to let go of her past.
-
-
Love Caroline Leavitt’s work!
- By Writer Gal on 05-17-24
By: Caroline Leavitt
-
Hope and Glory
- A Novel
- By: Jendella Benson
- Narrated by: Kelechi Okafor
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Glory Akindele returns to London from her seemingly glamorous life in LA to mourn the sudden death of her father, only to find her previously close family has fallen apart in her absence. Her brother, Victor, is in jail and won’t speak to her because she didn’t come home for his trial. Her older sister, Faith, once a busy career woman, appears to have lost her independence and ambition, and is instead channeling her energies into holding together a perfect suburban family.
-
-
Great book, ending left me wanting more
- By Jessica Cofield on 08-05-22
By: Jendella Benson
-
My Parents' Marriage
- A Novel
- By: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
- Narrated by: Ekua Ekumah
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Determined to avoid the pain and instability of her parents’ turbulent, confusing marriage, Kokui marries a man far different from her loving, philandering, self-made father—and tries to be a different kind of wife from her mother. But when Kokui and her husband leave Ghana to make a new life for themselves in America, she finds history repeating itself. Her marriage failing, she is called home to Ghana when her father dies.
-
-
Insightful on many levels!
- By Elizabeth P. on 08-23-24
-
Lola in the Mirror
- A Novel
- By: Trent Dalton
- Narrated by: Victoria Graves
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A girl and her mother have been on the run for sixteen years, from the monster they left in their kitchen with a knife in his throat and the police who want to make them pay for his death. Home is now a van with four flat tires in a junkyard by the edge of the Brisbane River. The girl has no name, because names are dangerous when you're on the run. But she has a dream.
-
-
Trent Dalton is a Titan of Literature
- By Brianna Blacet on 09-28-24
By: Trent Dalton
-
The Mutual Friend
- A Novel
- By: Carter Bays
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the summer of 2015, and Alice Quick needs to get to work. She’s twenty-eight years old, grieving her mother, barely scraping by as a nanny, and freshly kicked out of her apartment. If she can just get her act together and sign up for the MCAT, she can start chasing her dream of becoming a doctor...but in the Age of Distraction, the distractions are so distracting. There’s her tech millionaire brother’s religious awakening. His picture-perfect wife’s emotional breakdown. Her chaotic new roommate’s thirst for adventure.
-
-
HIMYM meets Social Media
- By BEE on 11-10-22
By: Carter Bays
-
Lucky Girl
- A Novel
- By: Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu
- Narrated by: Musu-Kulla Massaquoi
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Soila is a lucky girl by anyone’s estimation. Raised by her stern, conservative mother and a chorus of aunts, she has lived a protected life in Nairobi. Soila is headstrong and outspoken, and she chafes against her mother’s strict rules. After a harrowing assault by a trusted family friend, she flees to New York for college, vowing never to return home.
-
-
Lucky Girl
- By ELLA WILLIAMS on 02-17-24
-
Days of Wonder
- A Novel
- By: Caroline Leavitt
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Stephanie Willing, Steve Quinn
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a teenager, for a moment, Ella Fitchburg found love—yearning, breathless love—that consumed both her and her boyfriend, Jude, as they wandered the streets of New York City together. But her life was unexpectedly upended when she was accused of trying to murder Jude’s father, an imperious superior court judge, and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. When she learns she’s pregnant shortly after sentencing, she reluctantly decides to give up the child. Ella is released after serving six years. While she is desperate to turn the page on a new life, she can’t seem to let go of her past.
-
-
Love Caroline Leavitt’s work!
- By Writer Gal on 05-17-24
By: Caroline Leavitt
-
Hope and Glory
- A Novel
- By: Jendella Benson
- Narrated by: Kelechi Okafor
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Glory Akindele returns to London from her seemingly glamorous life in LA to mourn the sudden death of her father, only to find her previously close family has fallen apart in her absence. Her brother, Victor, is in jail and won’t speak to her because she didn’t come home for his trial. Her older sister, Faith, once a busy career woman, appears to have lost her independence and ambition, and is instead channeling her energies into holding together a perfect suburban family.
-
-
Great book, ending left me wanting more
- By Jessica Cofield on 08-05-22
By: Jendella Benson
-
My Parents' Marriage
- A Novel
- By: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
- Narrated by: Ekua Ekumah
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Determined to avoid the pain and instability of her parents’ turbulent, confusing marriage, Kokui marries a man far different from her loving, philandering, self-made father—and tries to be a different kind of wife from her mother. But when Kokui and her husband leave Ghana to make a new life for themselves in America, she finds history repeating itself. Her marriage failing, she is called home to Ghana when her father dies.
-
-
Insightful on many levels!
- By Elizabeth P. on 08-23-24
-
Lola in the Mirror
- A Novel
- By: Trent Dalton
- Narrated by: Victoria Graves
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A girl and her mother have been on the run for sixteen years, from the monster they left in their kitchen with a knife in his throat and the police who want to make them pay for his death. Home is now a van with four flat tires in a junkyard by the edge of the Brisbane River. The girl has no name, because names are dangerous when you're on the run. But she has a dream.
-
-
Trent Dalton is a Titan of Literature
- By Brianna Blacet on 09-28-24
By: Trent Dalton
-
The Mutual Friend
- A Novel
- By: Carter Bays
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the summer of 2015, and Alice Quick needs to get to work. She’s twenty-eight years old, grieving her mother, barely scraping by as a nanny, and freshly kicked out of her apartment. If she can just get her act together and sign up for the MCAT, she can start chasing her dream of becoming a doctor...but in the Age of Distraction, the distractions are so distracting. There’s her tech millionaire brother’s religious awakening. His picture-perfect wife’s emotional breakdown. Her chaotic new roommate’s thirst for adventure.
-
-
HIMYM meets Social Media
- By BEE on 11-10-22
By: Carter Bays
-
The Gulf
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Cochran
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Parson, Texas, a small town ravaged by a devastating hurricane and the Vietnam War, twenty-nine-year-old Lou is diligently renovating a decaying old mansion for Miss Kate, the elderly neighbor who has always been like a mother to her. Mourning her brother’s death in Vietnam, Lou dreams of enjoying a more peaceful future in Parson. But those hopes are crushed when Miss Kate is murdered, and no one but Lou seems to care about finding the killer.
-
-
A Latticework of Sapphic Gothic Noir
- By Ian on 06-14-23
By: Rachel Cochran
-
Shadows of Pecan Hollow
- A Novel
- By: Caroline Frost
- Narrated by: Alex McKenna
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was 1970 when thirteen-year-old runaway Kit Walker was abducted by Manny Romero, a smooth-talking, low-level criminal, who first coddled her and then groomed her into his partner-in-crime. Before long, Kit and Manny were infamous for their string of gas station robberies throughout Texas, making a name for themselves as the Texaco Twosome.
-
-
WARNING: GRAPHIC ANIMAL ABUSE/MURDER
- By M.K. Kennedy on 04-02-23
By: Caroline Frost
-
All That's Left Unsaid
- A Novel
- By: Tracey Lien
- Narrated by: Aileen Huynh, Yen Nguyen, Amelia Nguyen
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just let him go. These are the words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation with friends. That night, Denny—optimistic, guileless, brilliant Denny—is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, a refugee enclave facing violent crime, an indifferent police force, and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history.
-
-
Author is obsessed with going #2
- By LS on 09-14-22
By: Tracey Lien
-
Gilt
- By: Jamie Brenner
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pavlin family built an empire on love. As the first jewelers to sell diamond rings exclusively for proposals, they started a tradition that has defined engagements ever since. But when an ill-fated publicity stunt pits the three Pavlin sisters against one another for a famous family jewel, their bond is broken. No ordinary diamond ring, the Electric Rose splinters the sisters, leaving one unlucky in love, one escaping to the shores of Cape Cod, and the other, ultimately, dead. Now, over a decade later, Gemma Maybrook is still reconciling the reality of her mother's death.
-
-
My favorite Jamie Brenner book!
- By Shopsamazon on 05-02-25
By: Jamie Brenner
-
The Farewell Tour
- A Novel
- By: Stephanie Clifford
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jaded from her years in the music business, perpetually hungover, and diagnosed with career-ending vocal problems, Lillian cobbles together a nationwide farewell tour featuring some old hands from her early days playing honky-tonk bars in Washington State and Nashville, plus a few new ones. She yearns to feel the rush of making live music one more time and bask in the glow of a packed house before she makes the last, and most important, stop on the tour: the farm she left behind at age ten and the sister she is finally ready to confront about an agonizing betrayal in their childhood.
-
-
Country music
- By RueRue on 03-09-24
-
Hope
- A Novel
- By: Andrew Ridker
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 2013 and the Greenspans are the envy of Brookline, Massachusetts, an idyllic (and idealistic) suburb west of Boston. Scott Greenspan is a successful physician with his own cardiology practice. His wife, Deb, is a pillar of the community who spends her free time helping resettle refugees. Their daughter, Maya, works at a distinguished New York publishing house and their son, Gideon, is preparing to follow in his father’s footsteps. They are an exceptional family from an exceptional place, living in exceptional times.
-
-
Not long enough
- By Jess on 09-14-23
By: Andrew Ridker
-
The Great Reclamation
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Heng
- Narrated by: Windson Liong
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ah Boon is born into a fishing village amid the heat and beauty of twentieth-century coastal Singapore in the waning years of British rule. He is a gentle boy who is not much interested in fishing, preferring to spend his days playing with the neighbor girl, Siok Mei. But when he discovers he has the unique ability to locate bountiful, movable islands that no one else can find, he feels a new sense of obligation and possibility—something to offer the community and impress the spirited girl he has come to love.
-
-
Fantastic historic fiction, and a change of pace
- By Geonn Cannon on 04-12-23
By: Rachel Heng
-
The Woman with the Cure
- By: Lynn Cullen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1940s and ’50s America, polio is as dreaded as the atomic bomb. No one’s life is untouched by this disease that kills or paralyzes its victims, particularly children. Outbreaks of the virus across the country regularly put American cities in lockdown. Some of the world’s best minds are engaged in the race to find a vaccine. The man who succeeds will be a god.
-
-
sience and the struggle to do no harm
- By Anonymous User on 07-20-24
By: Lynn Cullen
-
Life and Other Love Songs
- By: Anissa Gray
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman, Karen Murray, Nicole Lewis
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s a warm, bright October afternoon, and Ozro Armstead walks out into the brilliant sunshine on his thirty-seventh birthday. At home, his wife Deborah and daughter Trinity prepare a surprise celebration; down the street, his brother waves as Oz heads back to his office after having lunch together. But he won’t make it to the party or even to his briefcase back at his desk. He's about to disappear.
-
-
very good story, and excellent readers.
- By Lisa on 05-06-25
By: Anissa Gray
-
The Divorce
- A Novel
- By: Moa Herngren
- Narrated by: Sofia Engstrand, Cameron Krogh Stone
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bea couldn't be more excited to trade the stifling Stockholm summer heat for vacation on Gotland Island. She’s looking forward to spending quality time with her beloved husband of thirty-two years, Niklas, and their two moody teenage daughters, and recuperating from the stress of daily life in the company of her beloved in-laws. One night shortly before their departure, Bea and Niklas have a seemingly mundane argument over a trivial issue, and Niklas goes out with a friend to blow off steam.
-
-
So boring
- By Darlene F Kuhn on 02-27-25
By: Moa Herngren
-
The Queen of Fourteenth Street
- By: Barrie Kreinik
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Orlagh Cassidy, Imani Jade Powers, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York City, 1932: Eva Le Gallienne is trying to save her theatre company from the jaws of the Depression by mounting an innovative new production of Alice in Wonderland. She agrees to give a radio interview for the sake of publicity, but while revisiting the moments that shaped her career, she struggles with the need to keep a significant secret: she and her leading lady are in love. As Eva’s work careens toward catastrophe, she fights to preserve her dream of a people’s theatre—but will she destroy the people she loves in the process?
-
-
An immersive and compelling audiobook drama
- By Audiobook Fanatic on 09-16-24
By: Barrie Kreinik
-
Time's Undoing
- A Novel
- By: Cheryl A. Head
- Narrated by: Jade Wheeler, Ronald Peet
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birmingham, 1929: Robert Lee Harrington, a master carpenter, has just moved to Alabama to pursue a job opportunity, bringing along his pregnant wife and young daughter. Birmingham is in its heyday, while Robert and his family find much to enjoy in the city, it’s also a stronghold for the Klan. 2019: Meghan McKenzie, a young reporter, has grown up hearing family lore about her great-grandfather’s murder—but no one knows the full story. Determined to find answers, Meghan travels to Birmingham. But as her investigation begins to uncover dark secrets, her life may be in danger.
-
-
Wonderful Storytelling - Wonderful narration
- By Cheryl on 04-30-23
By: Cheryl A. Head
Keeping family a priority.
Family
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A blended family
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good book. disappointing ending.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What is family?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very inventive story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
fascinating approach to open adoption
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A true gift
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
highly recommend!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The characters are hard for me to like …
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
“They look like any other family,” Brown writes. “They are a family formed by three sets of parents who adopted from the same group of biological siblings.”
Brianna, the birth mother, had one child and realized she could not take care of her. She decided to place her child up for adoption, with the caveat that it’s open. The adoptive parent agreed. Brianna chose her child’s preschool teacher; it was easy. And then, Brianna finds herself pregnant again! With twins! She finds a couple who agree to the open adoption and to include the other family in important family events. The mother of the twins, Tabitha, is an organizer. She takes control of the family events, birthday parties, holidays, occasional Sunday dinners. Brianna gets pregnant again. It is Tabitha who finds a family for the fourth child. Tabitha arranges this 2-week family vacation for all three families which now total four siblings. Brianna is to attend the family vacation, and calls in last minute, saying she cannot make it because, surprise! She’s pregnant….again.
Brianna, whom Brown spends little time on developing her character, is almost a side note. Brown never addresses how this woman can irresponsibly keep getting pregnant when she knows she cannot take care of her children. Plus, she makes the parents of her children find the other parents. She cannot be bothered. This irresponsibility is not addressed well, for me anyway. The oldest child is entering middle school. The youngest is still an infant.
I believe Brown had Brianna pass her responsibility of finding adoptive parents so that she could show in the story the sadness of the families who want to adopt. How she did that is through brief interludes of letters from prospective parents. Through the letters the reader feels the emotional rollercoaster of people wanting to adopt.
Each mother has her own chapter, providing alternating perspectives, and we learn their inner thoughts, fears, strengths, and dreams. Brown writes them with attention and kindness showing their humanity. We learn of the highly relatable complexities and nuances of each character. Even bossy Tabitha, the mother hen, we learn of her true intentions, and she becomes more relatable and enduring.
“How odd that they came on vacation only to feel further apart from each other. When she thinks of how close she hoped they would all become during these weeks together, she doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
In her Author’s Note, Brown informs the reader that she is an adoptive mother of a son. She intended to write a story of adoption exploring all the variables involved in adoptions. She’s an advocate of adoption and wanted to show how adoptive families choose to structure their families. She also showcased the emotional journey parents must go through to get to the decision to adopt. She admitted that she could not address all complexities of adoption in one story, and this is NOT a story of all adoptions.
I chose to listen to the audio, narrated by Brittany Pressley and 8 others who read the letters of prospective adoptive parents. The audio was done very well.
Motherhood and blended families are highlighted here. This is a story of family, made by choice, with the ideal of healthy, grounded children as the main intention.
What is a family?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.