It is those we love, and live with, who often elude us.
As seventeen-year-old Calliope Silversmith comes to discover, the last days leading up to her eighteenth birthday are full of the trepidation’s of the future. Her heart is filled with the beating spirit of her country home, the love and strength her moms, and the friendship of her two lifelong friends. Still, she continues to question the choice of reaching out to her sperm donor and learning more about where she comes from.
I loved that Calliope is a well founded character who is comfortable in her roots and surroundings, she still has a curiosity and openness in the world and is unafraid to seek the answers to the questions in her heart. Her interactions with Max and the development of both their characters were as warm as a summer day.
Katelyn Detweiler’s work followed a unique narrative twist about what makes family, the dynamics and connections we share, and the history and future that unite those we encounter in our lives.
Favorite Quotes
"We feel like one big messy family. Blood. Not blood. Family."
"To eighteen being as luminous and warm as this fire."
"I'm supposed to be a the simple country girl. But it turns out you're actually the sheltered one."
Book Title: The People We Choose
Author: Katelyn Detweiler
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson Books
Release Date: May 4, 2021
Genres: YA Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Book Description:
When 17-year-old Calliope meets her new neighbor Max, their connection is instantaneous, but the revelation of her sperm donor’s identity changes everything.
Calliope Silversmith has always had just two friends in her small Pennsylvania town, Ginger and Noah, and she’s fine with that. She’s never wanted anything more than her best friends, her moms, their house in the woods, and their family-run yoga studio—except maybe knowing who her sperm donor is. Her curiosity has been building for years, and she can finally find out this summer when she turns eighteen.
Then Max and his family move into the house across the woods from Calliope, and she immediately feels a special connection with her new neighbor, one that feels different than just friendship. The stability of her longtime trio wavers over the next few weeks as she and Max start to spend more time together.
But when Calliope makes contact with her sperm donor she learns a surprising truth: her donor is Max’s father. How is this even possible?
As she and Max struggle to redefine their friendship now that they know they’re half-siblings, Calliope realizes she has much to gain by recognizing and accepting that family is both the one she has been born into, and the one she chooses to make.
Perfect for readers looking for stories about family dynamics and fans of The Other F-Word by Natasha Friend.
Book Purchase link:
Amazon:
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-people-we-choose-katelyn-detweiler/1137456360?ean=9780823446643
Book Depository:
Indiebound:
Author Bio:
Katelyn Detweiler was born and raised in Pennsylvania, living in a centuries-old farmhouse surrounded by fields and woods—a setting that fueled her childhood imagination and, many years later, inspired her YA debut, Immaculate. Katelyn is a writer by night (and weekend) and a literary agent by day, representing books for all ages and across all genres. She currently lives, works, and writes in Brooklyn.
Author Links:
Comments