100 Pages A Day...Stephanie's Book Reviews

I had no idea what I was getting into with this book.  I liked the cover, it's about a family with issues.  Good enough for me.  It is really about the perfect-looking family that cracked in the most unbelievable ways and then found their way back together in very different ways.  

I loved the writing style, down to Earth, easy to read, every character had their own voice. There were many characters and jumps through time, and yet I was not that confused.  When the Bird family starts out, they seem perfectly normal.  Lorelai, the mother a free-spirit who like to keep things around her to preserve memories, Colin, the level-headed father and four children.  Two girls, two boys, Megan the opposite of her mother, serious and clean, Bethan, beautiful and faithful, and twin boys Rory and Rhys, polar opposites, Rory popular and outspoken, Rhys quiet and misunderstood.  One Easter, all of their world's will be changed and the perfect Bird family will go on their imperfect, separate ways.  

Since the writing jumps back and forth through time, we know that things go very wrong early on.  We know that the family is estranged.  The point of the story is to see why everything collapsed and how everyone came back together.  The different points of view made it really interesting for me.  There were also many different issues covered, mental illness, suicide, adultery, homosexuality, drugs and of course, forgiveness.  This is definitely one to read if you think that your family is messed up.  The only thing more I wanted out of this book was a little more from Rhys' point of view to really tie things together.  

This book was provided for free in return for an honest review.  

This book can be my 'Strong Sibling Relationships' block for Summer Bingo: