We see Grace grow to accept new people into her life, and to come to terms with giving her daughter up, as we watch Maya find her place in both of her families and begin to heal her relationships, from her adoptive sister, adoptive mother, girlfriend, and eventually biological family. The twists and turns in the story - the alcoholism of Maya’s adoptive mom and the strain it puts on her family, the accident that gets Joaquin kicked out of his prior foster home and the ways in which he self-sabotages - are revealed not just as elements to keep the reader intrigued, but to support character development. On her own, Maya could be too much for the book, with her sarcastic humor and tendency to dominate all conversations quickly overtaking the scenes, but when juxtaposed with the quieter Joaquin, the narrative seems effortless. Benway does this by giving her characters distinct voices to help differentiate each shift in POV as the most level-headed character, Grace serves as the reader’s anchor, leading the reader through the story amidst all its turns. Together, they tackle heavy issues: should they find their mother, who gave them up and abandoned them? Can they count on one another as their own found families start to fall apart? As they go through their own struggles - Maya’s relationship with her girlfriend and her adopted family spiral out of control, Joaquin can’t accept he deserves the love he’s found with his foster family, while Grace must learn to accept the decision she made - they learn the shocking truth about their biological family, and must find a way to come to terms with it - and each other.īenway’s strength in this novel are characters while the plot is intriguing, it is the characters who make the story so compelling and touching.
Thus begins the relationship with Maya, a younger sister who was adopted into a rich but struggling family, and Joaquin, who was put into foster care and has been through it all, including racism and abuse. As she struggles with the decision she made to put her baby up for adoption, she’s told the truth: she has bio siblings. But when she’s finds herself pregnant before graduating high school, and tossed aside by her boyfriend and his family - who worry about “his future” and not hers - she begins to wonder about her biological family more. Grace has always known she’s adopted with a loving adoptive mother and father, it hasn’t mattered much to her.
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