ALA Booklist (Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2018)

Eighteen-year-old Jules envies her best friends' close-knit families, since her own mother, a former addict, has never had time for her. When Jules needs a baby picture for her yearbook, she discovers that there are none because she was a foster care child until she was almost two. Shocked, Jules searches for the past that was kept from her. What she finds is a family who had wanted to adopt her and held her in their hearts since she left. Reunited with her "big brother" Luke, who provides answers to her questions, Jules begins a dangerous journey that creates a deepening chasm between her and her mother, while throwing herself headlong into an ill-advised crush. Garner's (Phantom Limbs, 2016) novel clearly illustrates the way one's world can turn inside out in a heartbeat, cautioning readers to be careful what they wish for. Changing friendships, the need for validation, and the desire to be whole will strike a chord with readers who feel a part of their lives is missing.

Kirkus Reviews

A teen's discovery that she spent 19 months in foster care as an infant sends her searching for answers.Jules' single mom, an addict in long-term recovery who has kept Jules' origins secret, prefers painting in her studio to spending time with her daughter (mother and daughter are assumed white). Confronted with evidence of Jules' placement in foster care, her mom says only that she relinquished her during a one-time relapse. Jules' friends Gab, cherished daughter of Jewish psychologists, and Leila, adopted by affluent parents from a Ukrainian orphanage, encourage her to seek her foster family. Through social media she connects with former foster brother Luke and learns his Jewish parents longed to adopt her and were heartbroken when she was returned to her mother. With Luke's mother battling cancer, Jules spends a reunion weekend with his loving, financially comfortable family, contrasting their lives with the neglect she's experienced. She also crushes over Luke (amid titillating fears it's incestuous). Like Eli—Jules' gay, goth barista friend—Luke's an underdeveloped character. The demographically atypical depiction of foster care raises questions: why wasn't Jules placed with relatives? Why did Luke's family foster when their goal was to adopt? However, the stronger final chapters honor the myriad complexities of family life.Despite flaws, Jules' hard-won insights into what families can give us and what we must find and create on our own make for a moving read. (Fiction. 14-18)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

High school senior Jules has just learned that she lived with a foster family for 19 months as a baby-her mother was an alcoholic and couldn-t care for Jules until she got sober. Feeling betrayed, Jules contacts her long-ago foster brother, Luke, against her mother-s wishes. Luke, a piano prodigy now in college, has longed for this reunion for years, and when the two reconnect, Jules soaks up everything Luke can tell her about her past. Jules has long had an uneasy relationship with her two best friends, the time she-s spending with Luke is straining things with her mother, and in a further complication, Jules is starting to fall for him, too. Garner (Phantom Limbs) weaves a complex story, with Jules gaining her foster family back only to risk losing them again: her former foster mother is dying of cancer. Garner sensitively explores the tensions that can arise between close friends, but she allows questions of what makes a family to remain the heart of Jules-s story. Ages 14-up. Agent: John M. Cusick, Folio Literary Management. (Apr.)