Book Blurb:
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?
My Review: 4 stars
Little Pieces of Me is the a wonderfully meaningful title for this book. We’re all made of millions of things – biological, emotional, environmental and experiential. The popularity of DNA tests in today’s day and age, has caused a plethora of outcomes – heartache, joy, surprise and shock. It often seems like we all know of someone or have heard of someone who has learned something astonishing about their lineage. Someone has a half-sister, another learns his parents aren’t actually his biological parents or she learns foreign lineage…the list goes on and on. Hammer’s book gives a face to one of those stories. Paige gets an email saying she’s matched with her father, however she’s confused and blindsided with the information. The man the site claims to be her biological father is someone she’s never heard of and is certainly not the man who raised her and who she dearly loved. This leads Paige on a page-turning journey to find out who her biological dad is and why her mom is hiding the truth.
The narrative is told in alternating storylines. One storyline follows Paige in current times as she struggles to connect who she’s always been with how the news of a “DNA dad” transforms her identity. Would her life have been different if she had known? Why didn’t her mom tell her, and why won’t she? The other storyline is from Paige’s mom, Betsy, told back when she was a college student. The two different timelines worked well for the nature of this story. The transition from chapter to chapter was seamless and helped set the pace of the book. Without Betsy’s storyline, I would have found her extremely unlikable. I still didn’t love her but getting to know her though her own story helped me understand her decisions and actions as it relates to Paige’s story.
The lack of communication among characters was slightly frustrating — I kept wanting to yell at the characters through the pages — but it did keep the book more realistic. The characters were raw and compelling. Hammer did a beautiful job exploring what actually defines who you are, and who your family is. I also loved the Jewish representation and having a main character finding love in her forties.
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