Review: Little Pieces of Me by Alison Hammer
Little Pieces of Me
by Alison Hammer
Thank you GetRedPR for this amazing copy.
Publisher: William Morrow
Publish Date: April 13, 2021
Paperback
400 Pages
Standalone
Genre: Contemporary
When Paige Meyer gets an email from a DNA testing website announcing that her father is a man she never met, she is convinced there must be a mistake. But as she digs deeper into her mother's past and her own feelings of being the odd child out growing up, Paige begins to question everything she thought she knew. Could this be why Paige never felt like she fit in her family, and why her mother always seemed to keep her at an arm's length? And what does it mean for Paige's memories of her father, a man she idolized and whose death she is still grieving? Back in 1975, Betsy Kaplan, Paige's mom, is a straightlaced sophomore at the University of Kansas. When her sweet but boring boyfriend disappoints her, Betsy decides she wants more out of life, and is tired of playing it safe. Enter Andy Abrams, the golden boy on campus with a potentially devastating secret. After their night together has unexpected consequences, Betsy is determined to bury the truth and rebuild a stable life for her unborn child, whatever the cost.
When Paige can't get answers from her mother, she goes looking for the only other person who was there that night. The more she learns about what happened, the more she sees her unflappable, distant mother as a real person faced with an impossible choice. But will it be enough to mend their broken relationship?
My Review:
My heart has been taking a beating this year with my reads (happily so, but uff). Little Pieces of Me is a roller coaster of emotions. As a 40-something childless woman, I understand her behavior and relationship with her mother. I am also SUPER close to my Dad so I couldn't imagine losing him and then finding out a couple of years later that he's not tied to me by blood. Cue tears! ðŸ˜
I'm a sucker for a dual timeline and various POVs. Not only do we get to see from Paige's view but also from her mother and the person she never knew was her biological father. I think something this books does that I really enjoy is how it reminds us that while we are obviously living in our own little worlds and dealing with our own issues - sometimes selfishly so as is human nature - is that those who raised us or those older than us that we put into these little boxes... are actually very complex people. They were their own individuals before they became your parents and if you stop to really listen and learn, you'll find that they just tried their damndest to do the best that they could.
What can I say? This is an amazing story. There were a couple of times it felt a bit slow but other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed it and quite frankly, it really makes me miss my parents. Definitely will read more from Hammer.
★★★★
Oh my gosh, what a premise! I've heard of things like this happening to people that I know via Twitter after they took an ancestry test. I'll have to check this one out!
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