This was my first book written by Jessica. Her pageturning writing is amazing!! You'll want to pick this book up!

This book has very strong character development which helps you to really experience this story to its fullest.
The twists you’ll never see coming and a complete range of human emotions make this a must-read, unforgettable book.

Sorry for the late review honestly thought I sent it. Jessica Strawser is a very talented writer but A Million Reasons why is not one of her best. Just merely ok for me.

Sela needs a kidney transplant. She just found out through DNA testing that she has a half-sister, Caroline. Will Caroline be her saving grace?

I really liked the premise of the book where Sela reaches out to Caroline. It was great they were able to make a connection despite the circumstances. This book is full of emotional ups and downs! It alternates between Sela and Caroline’s point of view and I have to say I enjoyed Sela’s story a lot more than Caroline’s. Caroline is too caught up in the past and her backstory isn’t really necessary to make the story wonderful. I also found that the writing was inconsistent. One moment the words flowed and were perfect, but in the next few paragraphs, I found myself confused and wondering if I missed something in the reading. If you like emotional reads, you might enjoy this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

⚠️Trigger warnings: chronic illness, loss of baby, mental health issues, depression, parent affair, organ donor, discovery of new sibling.

This book was okay, but it just had too much going on. If it had been cut to about 2/3 of what it actually ended up being I think I would have liked it more. As it is, it's okay, just looking.

A Million Reasons Why is the third book I have read of Jessica Strawser

DNA tests kits are all the rage and it was no different in this story. Test kits given as Christmas gifts unravel what Caroline has believed to be her life. Everything comes crashing down with the test results come back that she has a match in a woman who would be her half-sister. Sela, the half sister, is suffering from irreversible kidney failure and is in need of a kidney donation.

The main reason I only rated this book a 2.5 stars was because there were too many things going on in this book. I was okay with everything the author threw at the reader until about 4/5 of the way through. Then Strawser added the last twist and it was just too much for me to the point that it unraveled the entire story and believability. I did however round this up to 3 stars from the 2.5 instead of rounding down because of the inclusion of organ donation. As a double cornea recipient, I do not feel like we can emphasize enough how these gifts can change a person's life.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

With the help of a DNA test, two people find that they are half siblings. A true-life fictional story that ended up being very sad and a slow story for me. The twists that the book took were interesting and surprising but made it very slow going.

I think a sign of a good book is when it really gets you thinking "what if". What would I do if this were my life, my story, my drama. While this book is a heavy book, in my opinion... it is definitely a thought provoking book. I really appreciated the time and care the author goes into explaining the process of organ donation on both the donor and recipient side. She also does an exceptional job in delicately conveying the pains, struggles, fears and concerns a person living with a chronic disease has.

There are multiple themes and layers to the story from love, family, sibling relationships, infidelity, deceit, forgiveness, friendship, mental illness and second chances to name just a few. Caroline's family is all given DNA tests one year for Christmas. Little did they know the pandora's box that would open from those test. A Million Reasons Why takes you on an emotional journey into that pandora's box and how the family deals with it. Some of it good, some of it bad. Some of it loving, some of it painful. But at the end you have a beautiful story with some aspects you won't see coming.

I think this would make an excellent book club pick as there is so much depth and substance to explore and discuss.

My thanks to the author, St. Martin's Press and netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was ok. I enjoyed reading it but it wasn't very memorable. I enjoyed the characters. Thanks for letting me read it.

Thank you to the author for this book and #NetGalley.

I have a love and hate relationship with her books it seems. This one was just too long.

It starts with a Christmas gift of a DNA kit that Caroline's husband gives the family. From there it unravels into unknown family, deceit, love, and other factors with both Caroline and Sela. Sela is divorced and needs a kidney after having a complicated pregnancy (which evolves into another sad story within). Caroline wants to meet up with Sela but Sela is unsure. They do meet up a couple of times.

The ending works out positively but in a different way I would have thought and I'm sure maybe a lot of readers thought so too?

Caroline and Sela know nothing about one another until a by chance DNA test is taken and they will forever be bonded. In a tear jerker book, Strawser really pulls at your heartstrings. This is a must read.

A Million Reasons Why is one of those books that has such an earthshattering realistic feel to it, especially with the rise of DIY ancestry tests. This theme has been done quite a few times, but Jessica Stawser has a way with words and thoughts that make a been there before storyline seem fresh and new.

This new novel by Jessica Strawser is a real page turner. It's a book that will make you question what you would do in a similar situation. It's about love and family, past mistakes brought to life and a story about two sisters who aren't real sure that they want to be sisters.

Caroline lives a busy life. With three children and a full time job she has no free time in her life. Luckily she has a husband (Walt) who helps take care of the kids. He is very loving to his wife and at times she doesn't seem to appreciate him. He did the Christmas shopping a few months ago and got Caroline's parents and he and his wife DNA kits. Caroline went ahead and did the test as a lark knowing that it wouldn't come up with any matches but she had no idea that the results of the tests would find something that totally changed the dynamics of her family and created havoc for her parents lives.


Sela lives in Brevard, NC. Her mother has died, she and her husband are in the midst of divorcing and she is losing the battle with kidney issues that will kill her if she can't find a donor. She worries about her future since she has a two year old son that she treasures. She knows that she has a half sister somewhere in the world, and uses her DNA test to locate her. She contacts Caroline with a request to be friends but doesn't want to tip her hand to the fact that she needs to find out if Carolina would be a good match and would be willing to donate her kidney.

Carolne and Sela begin to communicate and it looks like they may become friends until Caroline and Walt find out the real reason for her initial communication was to find a close match that would give up her kidney.. Questions remain after the truth is revealed and it begins to look doubtful that the sister will bond.

This is a compelling story about organ donations and how people make the decision to become a donor. The two main characters tell the story in alternate chapters. Caroline and Sela are well written characters and most of the secondary characters add considerably to the story.

I have read all of Jessica Strawsers' books and she has become one of my go to authors. Give her books a try, you won't be disappointed.


Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

This is my first book I have read by Jessica Strawser. The plot was something I feel has been done quite a bit recently with the popularity of DNA testing but she took it in a different way, with one of the half sisters needing an organ transplant. I felt like the characters were complex and interesting and the book kept my interest throughout. I felt like there could have been a little more to the ending though. I will definitely be checking out other books by this author in the future.

One year for Christmas, Caroline buys her family one of those DNA test kits. Unbeknownst to her that the simple gesture was going to turn her perfectly normal life upside down. It was months later when she discovers she has a half-sister, Sela. And just like that, Caroline's perfectly normal life is turned into chaos. Her parents want nothing to do with Sela, but as an only child, the thought of having a half-sister intrigued Caroline. But then she discovers that a half-sister is not the only secret her mother has been keeping. What her mother did changed the course of Caroline's life. Will she ever be able to look past the secrets of her parents?

Sela didn't want to take the DNA test. Her friends coaxed her into doing it, hoping it would save her life. Sela has been battling chronic kidney disease and her situation is getting dire. Sela has had a lot of heartbreak in her life, but meeting her half-sister was one of the most positive things that have happened in a long time. But she doesn't want to burden anybody with her disease, let alone her new half-sister. Will she be able to find a donor before it is too late?


I will be honest, I was expecting A Million Reasons Why to be a psychological thriller. Instead, it was a heartbreaking work of fiction that covers several hard-hitting topics. I liked both Sela and Caroline. They both had taken different paths in life but were just your average human seeking love and happiness. I can understand Sela wanting to keep her illness from her new sister, but it was literally a matter of life and death. Caroline, I didn't like how she went chasing down her ex-boyfriend. And I certainly didn't like the way her parents handled things, not in the past and not in the present. In the end, things worked out well, but not in the way I expected. CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS


Bottom Line - A Million Reasons Why is one of those books that will tug on your heartstrings, so keep the tissues handy.

Details:
A Million Reasons Why by Jessica Strawser
On Twitter
Pages: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 3.23.2021
Buy it Here!
Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for a review.

A Million Reasons Why // by Jessica Strawser

I don't really have a whole lot to say about this one so you can breathe easy knowing it won't be one of those giant reviews from me this time. While some of this book definitely turned out pretty predictable, the beginning more so than the end, there were definitely some turns that I personally wasn't expecting that had me hanging on to every word. I'm not a scientist or any other professional that would be able to judge the accuracy or probability of certain events in this book but without that knowledge, I found it very enjoyable and I found myself reading a whole lot more of it some days than I usually would for this type of story (it's usually memoirs or SFF that keeps me glued to the screen that long). There were lot of emotional reactions, both good and bad, to the consequences of a seemingly simple and fun Christmas gift that leads to many unexpected consequences but this is also a story of love, hope, and forgiveness that really brings everything together in the end.

Thank you for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not surprised that this was blurbed by Jodi Picoult, because it feels like a novel she would write, in a good way. The premise is that a family gets DNA tests for Christmas and as one of the characters finds out, she has a half-sister who is in need of a kidney transplant. She then becomes a strong candidate for donation. Do you do it? Or, do you decline because you didn't even know she existed previously? How do you decide? There are a lot of questions here. I enjoyed the moral dilemmas of this story. My only negative is the DNA trope has been used by many authors (not surprising), so it just becomes a little repetitive.
Overall, a good reading experience and I will look for other work by this author in the future.
#AMIllionReasonsWhy #Netgalley #StMartinsPress

Honestly I don’t have an interest in reading this book anymore and I want to be more selective with what I request.

This was an intricate family drama, where two women find out they’re half sisters from a DNA test. But what if that isn’t even the biggest secret in their lives?

Caroline’s husband gifts the adults in their family a DNA test for Christmas. Seems like a fun idea, right? But a few months later, Caroline gets a notice that she has a match—a new family member that she’s never known anything about. As expected, family upheaval ensues. While she’s reservedly happy that she may now have a sister, like she always wished for, the discovery that there may be an ulterior motive for them reconnecting threatens to destroy the relationship they’ve built so far.

The first half of the book was more or less predictable, although the fact that Sela wasn’t as driven to get Caroline’s kidney and save her own life was a bit unexpected. The author explained her reservations quite well, and the character’s motivations were believable. The twist toward the end of the book was a surprise, though.

Overall, I gave this book four out of five stars. The twist cast a whole new light on the characters’ lives, organ donation, and the expectations and responsibilities of the medical community. It can really make a reader think. I’d recommend this book for those who enjoy contemporary family dramas.