Wow. This book threw me for an emotional loop I wasn’t expecting. I thought it sounded like an interesting story, but I didn’t plan to relate to it so much and certainly didn’t know I would learn so much about genetics and DNA.

Paige Robson is a geneticist with an 8-year old son, Miles, whom she conceived with an anonymous sperm donor. She loves her son fiercely, and he is aware of how he was conceived. But Paige hasn’t ever really considered how having a blank paternal history will affect Miles until the day he tells her how different he feels from other kids who know who their dads are. I admit, at this early point in the story I felt for Miles, but I was also irked at the idea that it seemed that the rest of his class had two parents. In this day and age, that’s not so common any more. Luckily, the story progressed past this stumbling block, and so did I.

Paige grapples with memories of her own childhood, and the disconnection from a father who disappeared frequently for months or years at a time throughout her life. She has painted herself in a box, not letting people get too close, while trying to keep control over her own feelings and the lives of her son, her lover Liam, and herself.

When, through a remarkable coincidence (almost too remarkable, but the story owned me at this point and I didn’t care if the odds were astronomical) Paige finds her son’s father, a whole new set of problems and potential issues arise. With a tragic twist thrown into the mix, the story kept me enthralled and I finished reading it in just a few hours.

One thing that kept the book from being a simple run of the mill family story was the insertion, between each chapter, of a little blurb, definition or explanation regarding things scientists have determined about genetics and DNA. These little notes all related back to what was going on in the story, but they were also riveting bits of knowledge that not a lot of laypersons know. I was immediately fascinated by this information. It has made me consider my parents and my children, and now I want to learn even more about my own genetic history.

I highlighted many lines in the book, and for me, that’s a sure sign that I loved it and will refer back to it again. The author, Julie Clark, showed a real grasp of the family and how loss and pain can change us all, either for better or worse, and she did a wonderful job of explaining how those feelings become part of our own DNA, to be passed on forever.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I give this one 5 stars.

I loved that the author wasn't a professional geneticist. She did enough research into genetics and sperm banks that the backstory was fully fleshed out without it being taken over by medical details.