I really enjoyed this book about family and friendships and secrets. It is told in dual timelines that are easy to follow. Paige takes a DNA test that reveals a family secret and her path to finding out the truth and how it changes her. The characters were well written and relatable and I enjoyed some of their humor and seriousness. I would definitely recommend this book. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Upon participating in one of those Family Tree DNA sites, Paige discovers that the man she grew up believing was her father is, in fact, not.
The book is told in two timelines - Paige’s in the present, and her mom’s as a young, about-to-become-pregnant, college student.
The flashback chapters were the better ones. Paige’s chapters were just alright. A great deal of them concern her digesting the news and whether or not she should pursue any sort of relationship with her DNA dad. And while I’m sure it would be an extremely disquieting thing for anybody to learn, I thought her storyline just plodded along, getting nowhere very slowly. Seriously, at least half of the book was just the same thing written over and over with different words. Sometimes, even the same words. Plus, she came across as whiny, juvenile and not very likable. I kept being surprised each time her age was mentioned, as she seemed more like an immature twenty-something, rather than a woman in her forties.
Thanks to #netgalley and #williammorrowbooks for this ARC of #littlepiecesofme in exchange for an honest review.

Little Pieces of Me by Alison Hammer is a story touching on a really sore subject for many. Paige discovers, at age 43, that her father is not biologically her father. It was all a big coincidence, emanating from a genealogical DNA test she had taken when she was working in marketing for the company. All of a sudden there is an email, breaking her world apart. She never had gotten on all that well with her mother, Elizabeth, but she had been Daddy's little girl. This had to be a mistake. First she contacted the DNA site. They double-checked and assured her there was no error. Next she contacted the man in question. He replied saying it was "unlikely." She kind of started stalking him, found out he was an artist. Next she discovered he was participating in a showing here in town. She had to go, didn't she? She lacked courage so she didn't put her own name on the name badge, name badges he had requested it turned out. She spoke to him that was all. But it wasn't all, was it?

What would you do if you discovered you were adopted? Or that your mother or father really was not? I have often wondered about this very question as I have witnessed friends go through similar things. I have always decided that at this late date, it wouldn't matter to me, but is that true? I will probably never find out, but through a series of coincidences, Paige did and it rocked her to her core. It made her question herself, her talents, her emotions...it was a rough journey. It was difficult for her mother, too, having to confront a mistake she had made years earlier. It is yet another time it is proven: lies don't stay hidden. They cause trouble. Don't tell them. This was a tough time for Paige and the story kept up with her and allowed the reader to be part of it. It was a remarkable few months, told in a breathtaking way. Kudos to Hammer. She told the story and told it well. I congratulate her. Read it. You will like it.

I was invited to read a free ARC of Little Pieces of Me by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #littlepiecesofme

Paige is 43, engaged to be married for the first time, and still grieving the loss of her father from a couple years ago. In the midst of this, she gets an email alert of a new familial connection through an ancestry service she used in the past. The connection--her apparent biological father--totally blindsides Paige.

The story is told in dual timelines-present day Paige and then through her mom and biological dad’s perspectives 44 years ago. We see how Paige’s mom navigates her pregnancy, and how Paige navigates the news of figuring out who she “is” now that she knows.

The writing is tight and flows effortlessly. I easily read it within 24 hours. It’s a very bingeable book. The characters were slightly flawed and authentic, and I genuinely enjoyed the story. Thanks to the Book Club Girl Early Reads program and William Morrow for a digital review copy.

Little Pieces of Me by @thishammer is the story of a woman, Paige, who receives an email from a DNA testing website that her recently deceased father is a man she never met. Everything gets thrown in a tizzy as Paige’s life is turned upside down and she starts to question everything. The book alternates in a dual timeline between Paige who is in a deep dive to find out the truth and Betsy, Paige’s mom, back in 1975 when Paige was conceived. I know, I know, books about secrets revealed by DNA testing is all the rage in 2021 but, this book is so much more. So much more. The character development was beyond deep, to the point that I felt like I knew these characters personally, their struggles, their ambitions, their grief and their doubts. The dialogue was so realistic and honest and tugged at my heartstrings over and over again. When I wasn’t wiping my tears, I was giggling, especially at the side characters who weren’t just there but rather played such a critical role in Betsy’s and Paige’s lives. This book was so compelling that it sparked such a lively discussion in our buddy read as to our feelings about the characters and how we would act in a similar situation.

Little Pieces of Me is the heartfelt examination of what family really is .Young Paige Meyer, discovers through an email from a DNA testing site that there is a match to her father. But Paige knows who her father is! He was a kind and loving man who she adored and worshiped and he has recently just passed away. Needless to say Paige's world is turned upside down by this information and her first thought is that it must be a mistake. But as Paige thinks about her past growing up she realizes she has never felt like she fit in with her family. She was assured of her father's love but was never really sure about her mother. Betsy has always seemed cold to Paige and not at all close to her daughter. But as Paige looks into her mother's past she finds she was involved in a tragic event that reshaped her life. Betsy had extremely difficult questions to ask herself and hard decisions to make . But Paige will find that her mother put her first and did everything she could to bring her unborn child safely into the world.

In this dual timeline novel, Paige will find that DNA doesn't always make you a parent and some mother's will go to great lengths to protect their children. And Paige's memories and love for her "real father" wil never fade.

This was such a fun book to read and a new idea that I think was fantastic! Paige Meyer is 43, engaged, still grieving the loss of her father, and has recently done a DNA test - which just informed her of a new family member.

I can’t imagine what this would be like. I feel like Paiges emotions and feelings were captured so well. The confusion of who she really is and how to handle all of the new information. I can honestly say I don’t think I would have been as collected as she was.

I loved Jeff, Maks and Margaux. I honestly kept waiting for something to happen with one of them but I’m so glad they stayed true to themselves and their friend/fiancé and we’re just 100% supportive.

Now, I loved Andy. I mean really, really loved him. I loved his excitement (and Patrick’s!), his nurturing nature and how genuine he seemed with Paige. So....when I read the last few lines of the book I was gutted. So conflicted. I hate that we were introduced to a new secret. I just wanted a full blown, no more secrets, happy ending! BUT aside from that tiny thing I think this book was fantastic!

Thank you William Morrow Books, Bradeigh Godfrey and NetGalley for my gifted copy I return for an honest review!

Little Pieces of Me by Alison Hammer is a really good book! This was my first time reading this author and I really enjoyed this story and her writing style. It grabbed my attention right from the start and held me captive the entire way through. I think what I really liked was that the storyline felt so believable. It’s about Paige Meyer who around the age of 40 finds out through a DNA site that the man who she has always believed to be her dad actually wasn’t! This probably explains why she’s always felt a little different. She never felt as loved by her mother or as close like her twin sisters were. Although I did get a little emotional and tear up a couple of times, I was pleased that the story ended on a happy note. It’s a book I will be telling all my friends about and know everyone will enjoy. I’d like to thank The Book Club Girls Early Reads Program and William Morrow Marketing along with NetGalley for the arc to read, review and enjoy. It was a great story and I’m now looking forward to reading other books by this author. Little Pieces of Me deserves a 5 star rating!

This book is amazing. It is set over dual timelines as we join Paige in the present day as she finds out her dad is not really her dad when she gets an alert from a DNA website that she has a father daughter match. We jump between Paige in the present day figuring out who she is and what this discovery means for her and we jump back to the past to see how her mum and biological father ended up in this predicament during their college days and keeping these secrets for over 40 years.
It is beautifully written and I spent a lot of the book in tears. It is such a relevant story for today as more and more is revealed with these DNA tests.
Thanks to the Bookish Ladies Club and Alison Hammer for drawing me as a winner of an eARC copy.

I’m late with this review. Honestly, because after sitting with my feelings for a couple of weeks, I can’t find the words to do it justice. But I will say this: It hit close to home, and I still loved it.

Thanks for LetsTalkBooks and Netgalley for the copy of this one.

Paige is in her early 40s and getting ready for her wedding. She’s devastated that her father is gone and won’t be able to participate in her day. Then things get turned upside down when she gets an email from a DNA testing website she joined saying her father has been located. ⁣
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Through stories of both the past and present, the story of Paige is told. I was interested in both sides of the story and flew through this book. ⁣
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Although I have not been in a similar situation, I can see how this story could be comforting to people that may have found out their parents were not who they thought they were. ⁣
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Overall this is a good one and really makes you think!

Thank you to William Morrow and Custom House for the advanced copy of Pieces of Me!

These days, it’s pretty common to take one of those home DNA tests to see what you are “made of.” Seems so simple and fun, right? But how would you feel if that simple thing turned your life inside out? In Little Pieces of Me by Alison Hammer, Paige Meyer receives an email after taking one of those tests claiming that she has a parental match that just entered their system. Still grieving the loss of her father, who was her best friend, she assumes there must be some mistake. So she contacts the company and her mother, and as things begin to unravel, it becomes clear that what she thought she knew about her life was built on secrets. Paige has never felt close to her mother, so will this be the thing that finally drives them completely apart? Or will finding out the truth about the pieces that make up who she is help to strengthen her sense of self and her feelings toward her family?

A dual timeline story, telling Paige’s story as she grapples with the truth and her parents’ college story of how all these secrets came to be, Little Pieces of Me is hard to put down once you start reading. I think this story is very timely in that these ancestry kits are very popular and many people are finding family members they didn’t know they had. And just like Paige, do these new “pieces” change who you are? I’d like to think we are all just a big set of Legos that can be built and rebuilt using the “pieces” that come into our life.

If you like family stories and stories about how people deal with the things life throws your way, Little Pieces of Me is a good one!

Little Pieces Of Me is a wonderful exploration of identity. What do you do when you find out your biological father is not who you thought he was? Does that change the way you think about yourself?

Paige Meyer is 43 when she gets a hit on her familytree.com listing that they have added a parent/child relationship to her profile. She knew both her mother and father, so she is wondering what in the world this could be about. As secrets are revealed, Paige begins to question what characteristics about her come from nature vs. nurture. There are multiple other characters in the book who deal with the same questions of identity.

This book is told in multiple timelines, one from Paige in the present, and one from her mother Betsy in the 70s. I am such a sucker for multiple timelines and multiple POV‘s!

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

I’m always interested in a book about a challenging mother and daughter relationship and Little Pieces of Me fit the bill.
Paige is in a difficult place. While she’s happily engaged and living in Chicago, she’s also unemployed and still mourning the death of her father. Her relationship with her mother was never very good and she also has a pretty distant relationship with her much younger twin sisters. And, then, a bombshell hits her life.
Overall...an interesting story and characters, and I especially liked that Paige, the main character, is in her early 40’s. This adds some additional depth and interest to the story (since it seems that a main character in her 20’s and 30’s is much more common these days).
Thanks to Book Club Girls Early Read Program, Netgalley, and William Morrow for the opportunity to read Little Pieces of Me in exchange for an honest review.

ALL THE STARS! This was such an engaging story that captivated me from first page to the very last. And I truly mean that the authors note is a can’t miss! Have you taking one of those DNA test, like Ancestry or 23 and me? Imagine you do and you find out the man that you called dad *the man who love you unconditionally* the man that coached your softball team *the man who took you camping* imagine that man is not your biological dad. That is the situation that Paige finds herself in. To further complicate things Paige’s beloved father has passed away and her relationship with her mother is complicated, to say the least.

The story bounces back-and-forth between perspectives and now and then. The present day storyline is told solely from Paige’s Point of view. The past storyline takes place in the 1970s and gives us the perspective of both Betsy Paige’s mother and Andy Paige’s bio dad. In the beginning I found Betsy‘s story more intriguing, but as the book progressed I found both storylines equally compelling. Both Paige and Betsy ( who went by Elizabeth as an adult) were complicated characters who occasionally frustrated me. Andy was probably the character I found most sympathetic. He was just a good guy who had a Secret he was scared would get out. My favorite characters of the book however were Paige’s Besties Max and Margeaux, seriously we all need friends like this when we find out we have a long lost bio dad. The audiobook was narrated bySarah Naughton and Piper Goodeve Who did a remarkable job! I always appreciate when there are multiple narrators when the story is told from different perspectives. Alison Hammer narrates the authors note and I loved that!

This book in emojis 🧬 👩🏼‍🎓 🍹 👩‍👧 💍

*** Big thank you to William Morrow and Harper Audio for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

I loved so many things about Little Pieces of Me by Alison Hammer, a nuanced novel of unexpected DNA test results and the rippling aftershocks they cause. In addition to the main theme, Paige, the primary character. also experiences the unique stressors of getting married for the first time in her 40s and being unemployed in our work-centered society. I was equally engaged with the Now and Then storylines even though the final outcome of past events was known.

The characters and their relationships felt so real I had to remind myself I wasn't reading a memoir. That's likely because I was first introduced to this topic by Dani Shapiro's memoir Inheritance; of course the situation is incredibly significant when it occurs in the lives of actual people vs. fictional characters.

Alison Hammer is a new author for me. I now want to read her debut You and Me and Us and am eager to see what she writes next. Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the gifted review copy; all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this novel about family and relationships. Paige is a daddy’s girl, missing her father who died a few years ago. Engaged to Jeff, and already in her forties, Paige is looking to the future when something comes to throw a curveball her way. After a DNA test, she finds out that her father is not her biological father. Her relationship with her mother has always been a bit strained, and now Paige feels like she must have been an unwanted surprise. This is the third novel I read recently about DNA tests, but it’s my favorite. I loved the best friends, Maks and Margaux, helping her through this new wrinkle in her life. I highly recommend and thank NetGalley for the ARC.

Wow. Just wow. Only rarely does a book make you think, pull you inside the fictional events, but also make you feel like curling up with a warm blanket and devouring it in one sitting, but that’s exactly what happened for me. Alison Hammer’s sophomore novel is every bit as phenomenal as her last year’s debut novel, You and Me and Us. They both make you feel and make you think about how you might react. I knew that Alison would be an auto-buy author me last year, but Little Pieces of me cemented it. All the wows.

4.25 identity stars

Paige Meyer is just getting over the grief of losing her Dad and excited be getting married. Although at 43, she feels like weddings are for much younger women! She barely glances at the email that says her family tree has added a new leaf thanks to her recent DNA test. She’s sure it must be an error that her father has been found and her mom confirms that it must be a mistake.

The other chapters feature Paige’s mom Betsy back when she was in college at University of Kansas, and we learn all about the romance with Paige’s Dad. I really liked Betsy’s best friend Sissy and their devotion to each other.

As Paige digs deeper, she realizes that there might be some truth in that DNA match, and she embarks on a journey to define herself. How much of your identity is based on your parents and your upbringing? Paige has two really good friends and I loved how they all support each other, and her fiancée is a steady part of her life. I really liked that part of the story, no drama!

I really liked the writing style in this one and getting to know both women in their storylines. It was really good to see the growth in both of their characters. I think there are many true stories like this out there as DNA testing is getting so popular and prevalent. I would definitely read more from this author.

I believe DNA testing websites have opened a whole new world of family drama in our society. I've noticed many authors using this as the basis for their storylines and they've been inventive and interesting. Little Pieces of Me is no different. Ms. Hammer does a nice job of weaving heartbreak and shock into the story when Paige finds out that the man she always thought was her father really wasn't.

I really liked that the author also chose to flashback to the past and give the reader insight into how everything happened. You get the viewpoint of both Paige's mother and her birth father. You better understand where they were at emotionally during that time period. Then you toggle back to the present day and how Paige deals with the aftermath of this emotional "bomb." Trying to make contact with her birth father and not even knowing if he wants contact is stressful. Her mother doesn't help any by not wanting to discuss it with her. She feels as if she's betraying her Dad by even thinking she wants to meet her birth father. There's so much involved.

I believe Ms. Hammer writes emotional novels with a great deal of empathy. She makes it quite easy for the reader to feel the character's emotions. This was very nicely done.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review this book and the opinions contained within are my own.