Julie's Review: Little Pieces of Me

Author: Alison Hammer
Series: None
Publication Date:  April 13, 2021
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 398
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: How do you define everything you know when something turns it on its head?
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Summary: 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? Told in dual timelines, Little Pieces of Me examines identity and how the way we define ourselves changes (or not) through our life experiences. ~amazon.com 

Review: Little Pieces of Me is a study in nature vs. nurture. How important is DNA to who you are and who you want to be? Does it change everything you thought you were? Does it change how you view your parents? This is what Paige has to confront when doing a DNA test alerts her to the fact that she has a different father than she thought. Especially since her dad died and she can't go to him.  It pretty much sends her spirally and vacillating between wanting to connect to her biological father and feeling like she would be betraying her dad. Paige and her mom, Elizabeth, have never been close and so asking her any questions about this situation is next to impossible. 

The story changes POV between Elizabeth (Betsy) during college and Paige dealing with the aftermath of her mom's decisions. For this reader, the flashbacks didn't make me like Betsy anymore than if we hadn't gotten the past. I can understand why she did what she did but it doesn't really put her in a good light. 

Meanwhile, Paige is trying to figure out how to connect with her distant mom, her new "dad", her sisters that she's never been really close to and now she understands why she always felt a bit out of place in her own family.

Ms. Hammer did a fantastic job with the subject matter and getting to the core of the novel, what really makes a family. Does one fact change who you are and who you were going to be? I really liked Paige but her friends are really the thing that sold this book for me. They kept her grounded and push her when she needs to be pushed. 

I can't wait to read what she writes next! 

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