This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher for the copy. What a gorgeous book! The author has a great gift for characterisation - nuanced, interesting, believable people.

I was drawn to the cover of this book (what a beautiful cover!) and was intrigued by the premise.

I thought the writing about adoption in the Us was interesting. It's so vastly different to her in Ireland where adoption to non-family/ spouse is practically nonexistent now. I enjoyed this element, and I thought writing the book from this angle was a good one and yet it was the character of the birth mother that fascinated me the most. I wanted to know more about her. I also very much enjoyed the brief stories of the prospective adoptive parents.

The actual main characters were ok. I kept waiting for the pace to kick up a gear and it didn't happen. A pleasant read and well written but had the potential to be excellent, just fell a bit flat for me. I will read the authors earlier book though now , I did enjoy her writing.

Such an interesting book, really compelling.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this book in exchange for my review.

As they embark on vacation, they seem like a large family, but their family makeup is different. There are three different sets of parents, that adopted four biological siblings and they have promised to keep the children in contact with each other. Open adoption can create its own hardships as the families attempt to create and maintain bonds. True to their promise, the families get together for activities such as dinners and vacations so that the siblings have an opportunity to spend time with one another. Things become complicated when the birth mother, Brianna becomes pregnant again, and asks the families to help her find the adoptive family for her fifth child. It is interesting to get to know the current families, and to read the sections about the families wanting to adopt the fifth baby. This was an enjoyable, heart-warming story. There were many relevant topics addressed relating to motherhood and families including: infertility, adoption, open adoption, post-partum depression. The overarching theme is that shared blood and DNA doesn’t make a family. I recommend this book and author. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It had me turned pages without even realizing. It was so good!

I was intrigued by the relationship dynamics in this book but didn’t find that intrigue sufficient to really hold my attention throughout. It was good to see this kind of adoption addressed though as it is something I hadn’t really heard of before.

This sounded like an interesting read as I like reading about families of all kinds, but I just couldn’t get into this one. Too many characters and I had a hard time keeping them apart, I had to write up my own family tree as I couldn’t keep going back to the front of the book every now and again.

There was some drama but I was preoccupied figuring out who was who and that took away a lot from the reading experience.

Not the book for me.

Eleanor Brown explores the fascinating subject of what makes a family, specifically the unusual nature of a family linked through the open adoptions of 4 children from the same birth mother, Brianna. It explores the 3 different women and their personal experiences of motherhood, and their commitment and responsibilities, driven by the need to see their children spend sufficient time together to build and continue to develop their relationships with their biological siblings. We have the able and efficient Tabitha, the organiser of events, intent on ensuring the family remain strong and connected, she adopted the twins, Taylor and Tate. Ginger, plagued by trust issues, is a single mother to the eldest daughter, Phoebe, she feels far more wary of the push to enforce their togetherness.

Elizabeth is the mother of baby Violet, struggling with motherhood after the emotional impact of undergoing failed fertility treatments, worrying and wondering if being a mother is for her. Tabitha has planned a two week holiday for the whole family, only for them to receive the unsettling news from Brianna that she is once again pregnant, asking them to help find a adoptive family for the latest child too. The complications of their family as it is give rise to troubling tensions at the challenges of the task now facing them, causing them to examine who they are, their feelings and reflect on the nature of their family, their ties to each other and their children. Will they survive the repercussions as a family?

Brown writes with humour, wit and compassion about the complexities of the open adoption process, the strains, pressures and joys of family, and the differences in perspective in what it means to be a mother. If you are looking to learn about and understand the birth mother, Brianna, and her continuing pregnancies, I should point out that she is very much a background figure who is not really fleshed out as a character. This is a thought provoking, enlightening, and insightful look at the evolving development of families, the sacrifices, the challenges of open adoptions, covering issues that resonate, it is not a perfect book, but it is an eye opening, informative and engaging read. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Genre: family drama
One sentence summary: One birth mother, four siblings, three adoptive families - what could go wrong?

I love family dramas, and this was the most unusual one I've read! I loved getting to know the three families and see their connection. Things may not always be sunshine and roses, but at the end of the day, they are a family, and they love and support each other. This book made me laugh, smile, roll my eyes, and want to call my mom.

If you enjoy family dramas, definitely check this one out!

Thank you to Legend Press for my NetGalley copy in exchange for an honest review.

Highly recommend this one! This was my first book to read by this author but definitely won't be my last. The characters will stay with you long after you finish the book and you will find yourself wishing the story would never end.

Any other family was a really heart-warming novel, looking at adoption and non-traditional families. the writing moves slowly but I did enjoy the character study.

I think this book had a really interesting premise with the 3 adopted families of siblings coming together to create one family unit, so I was keen to read and review it and I ended up really liking it. It is slow paced and unbelievable at times but I didn't really care that much. I enjoyed it,

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Any Other Family by Eleanor Brown.

When four siblings are adopted out to three sets of families, and the families decide to raise these kids together, you have a very unconventional family indeed. But this quilted up family is ramping it up a notch during a long vacation in the mountains of Colorado together. It should be a wonderful time, full of bonding, laughter, and plans for future trips. But it turns out to be anything but, especially when the birth mother of the children call with some earth shattering news...

I WAS TRIGGERED THE ENTIRE TIME I READ THIS. Uuuuugh, I'm just not the right audience for this book, but for sh*ts and giggles, let's essay for a while about what gave me the absolute hackles throughout the entire thing.

Tabitha, that's what! Taaaaaabitha, you are my worst nightmare babe. And don't look at me like that, I'm not buying your "I'm just trying to help" absolute BS. You are a control freak with no sense of boundaries!

For context, Tabitha is the OG mom, who adopted birthmother Brianna's first two children. Joining the family is Ginger, a single older woman who adopts daughter number three. And then Heather, who after a grueling time with IVF, has adopted baby number four. These women could not be more different from each other and all of them have completely different ideas of parenting, their styles, perceptions, and even expectations of how this odd family unit should function.

And that's fine! That's normal! What's not normal is when you have a "well-meaning" absolute busy body of an ADHD perfectionist nightmare, sticking your giant nose in everyone else's lives and trying to control EVERYTHING. I'm not blaming this book for my feelings, but I have spent my whole life becoming okay with setting boundaries, so this was not sweet or quirky to me. It was my worse freaking nightmare. Because I don't see Tabitha as someone who just wants to help. Tabitha is an unhealed baby who holds every ounce of control in her tight grip to keep herself safe and feel whole, when what girlfriend really needs is THERAPY. I could have given her room, but **SPOILER** when she started putting white hot pressure on Heather, who is suffering some serious post-partum, to adopt another baby within just minutes of learning about a new baby?? Nope, Tabitha, especially when you wouldn't even consider adopting yourself because you felt like your family was complete? That's not looking out for someone's best interest, it's looking out for yours, and you CANNOT TELL ME ANY DIFFERENT.

Listen, despite the ranting I could do on this particular topic, it wasn't the entire premise of the book, but to be completely honest, I didn't find much else about it believable either. It's readable, but for me, it was not enjoyable. My fight or flight was on high alert the whole time, and clear to the end it didn't go away. IDK, maybe I'm the one who needs therapy.

What makes a family?
A story of three women struggling through motherhood, adoption and infertility.
How can three different families that adopt children from the same birth mother become a family unit?
Any Other Family really shows the complexities of adoption.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions and thoughts expressed are my own.

Okay, this book really surprised me, but in a totally good way! I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I really did. It was awesome!

This book was sent to me by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher for the electronic copy. This is a book that is different…blended family in an unusual way…the characters are trying to raise siblings in more than one family…although the book moves slowly at times it comes to a resounding end. The author is talented at writing a book about families with intrigue.

This is a lovely story about family and the many ways we define it. It follows three sets of parents who adopted children from the same birth mother. Together, they form a larger family and raise the four children together despite living in different households. When they find out the birth mother is pregnant once again and wants one of them to keep the baby, the three women have to figure out what to do next. The audiobook for this was GREAT!! A full cast of characters and lots of emotions portrayed through the narrators’ voices. I felt connected to each woman’s individual story as well as the group dynamic.

Read if you like:
-Blended families
-Stories that explore adopting
-Family dramas
-Raw and emotional reads
-Varying POVs