”We have people we get to keep, who won’t ever let us go.”

I received an ARC of The People We Keep about six months ago, and upon finishing the book this week, my first reaction was one of profound regret for not reading it sooner. I could have had six extra months to know & enjoy the story of spunky, scrappy April and the family she builds for herself as she travels all over the country. Six extra months to recommend this book as one of the best I’ve read all year!

”It’s amazing how much you can miss people you only got to be with for one tiny little perfect bit of time; how a place where you barely got to live can be the closest thing you’ve ever had to home.”

The People We Keep is a beautiful and moving saga of growth, self-discovery, acceptance, belonging, and found family. It will break your heart and then put it back together, one piece at a time, as April navigates old & new relationships over many years, learning when to let go and when to hold on.

”I wonder if maybe all you do is meet people and lose them and your smile fades the further you go because you have to carry the space they leave.”

Alison Larkin’s writing style is memorable, thoughtful, and impactful. I could not put this book down, and kept saying out loud (to anyone who was listening, and even a few who weren’t!), “This book is so good!” Even in moments where April made questionable decisions or acted in ways that highlighted her youth & immaturity, I just couldn’t help but love her and root for her, every step of the way.

”She was my first true friend, and I haven’t met anyone like her since. You don’t get over someone like that.”

This was, without a doubt, a 5-star read for me—one I wish I’d read sooner, and one I will absolutely read again! I think I broke a personal record with how many beautiful, memorable passages I highlighted. I would highly recommend to lovers of music, life on the road, or families we choose for ourselves, rather than being born into.

”You, here, makes my whole life better.”

——

A huge thank you to Alison Larkin, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this book...⁣
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"What I want the most is more more simple. What I want most is a life that's all mine."⁣
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April has two parents that "crap out on" her. She yearns for more so she sets out at the age of 16 and her journey is one you do not want to miss.⁣
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The title The People We Keep means so much. She was dealt a shitty hand but along the way she found some amazing people -- some she keeps in her heart and some that stay in her life. ⁣
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Growing up, family, love, the journey of life are all a part of this fantastic book. So glad I read this -- thank you to Katie @katieisreadingthis for our millionth texting buddy read chat 😀⁣
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Thank you to @netgalley for the eARC for it allowed me to continue to read this one when I didn't have my physical copy.

WOW! Put this book on your must reads for 2021! From the very start this book captured me, and reading it let me feel so many different emotions. I did not want this book to end and really do wish there was more. I loved reading about April’s journey and the people that drifted in and out of her life over the three year time span. The ending had me in tears, which does not happen often for me. This book gave me the feel of a Taylor Jenkins Reid story. Easily 5 stars!

I'm not usually a huge fan of character driven novels because they tend to be too slow for me or I just don't care for the main character. However, The People We Keep grabbed my heart and didn't let go.

We get to follow April on her journey to find her people. You see, she grew up with a father that pretty much left her to fend for herself during her teen years while he went and started a new family and her mother left years ago. When a huge blowup happens between her and her father, she flees her small town making her own way in the world by playing gigs or finding odd jobs. Of course she has a lot of challenges and bumps along the way.

While I wasn't a huge fan of some of the choices April made, it felt true to her character and her age. It got a little slow in the middle, but then picked right back up at the end leaving me with tears rolling down my face as I read the last page.

4.5/5

April is such a great character. You can't help but love her. Your heart breaks for how her parents leave her alone and be worried for her as she strikes out on her own, and be ecstatic for her as she finds her place in the world. A beautiful, heartwarming story of friendship and chosen family.

I feel like this book was a beautiful telling of loss and love. It reminded me so much of Where the Heart Is. I loved April and the family she chooses verse the family that was given to her. This was not my typical read, but I am not disappointed I read it.

Synopsis:
April gets the short end of the stick when it comes to childhood, family, and hometown. People leave her. She knows nothing else, so she leaves people. She takes her guitar and hits the rose, playing gigs for meals and sometimes a bed to sleep in. This is enough for her to get by on, except she meets people who want to keep her, and whom she wants to keep, then things get messy. Vulnerable. Staying is hard, painful, doesn’t usual end well. This is a coming of age story about finding people who feel like home.

I recently read What Comes After by Joanne Tompkins, and from the description, I thought April and Evangeline would be too similar for me to enjoy this book. I was right: they were somewhat similar, but I was also wrong: I really enjoyed this story. It was definitely along the YA lines, the writing was easy and smooth. April was very much naive, which makes sense with her exposure, and lack of adult figures, but she is very much observant and wise, from the same reasons. This book was tender and sweet, heartbreaking but also healing. I loved the people, the ending, the lessons. There are many beautiful quotes in this book that I have written down and will keep for a long time.

There was something simplistic and yet utterly fulfilling about this book. The People We Keep is a timeless sort of story about growing up and trying to find your space in the world. It’s a narrative that opens a few windows into the life of April Sawicki, a teenage girl from a small town in New York. She’s restless and has a longing for a life that would take her away from her tiny town and the path she thinks life is trying to lead her down. When a confrontation with her father pushes her over the edge, she leaves in an attempt to save herself and her future.

I’m not sure I realized how much of an emotional impact this book would have on me when I first started reading it. The writing style is simplistic but it makes it more accessible since sometimes lyrical prose heavy works keep people from picking it up. Since it was so easy to immerse myself into the story I flew through this and finished the book in one sitting. From the get go it could have been like any other book where a small town girl leaves to find her way but this is one I plan on passing on to as many people as I can. It was profound to see April get so caught up in negative things she experiences that the only way to save herself is to run away again and throughout the whole book that’s what she does. It’s a self defense mechanism that I know well and I know other people may see in themselves too. So seeing how her story came almost full circle in the end was highly emotional.

The characters in here were all unique and so special to April that they had an impact on me as well. Her found family by the end of the book came from all walks of life and yet rallied behind this one girl. And even though it took her years of running away to realize that she always had people in her corner it was a heartwarming end to her story. It was a powerful message that even when there are hardships or trauma we may face it’s important to remember that there are people that we keep and carry with us everywhere we go that keep us going. This book was beautiful and I couldn’t recommend it more.

Absolutely beautiful, moving writing, This novel took me back to the era of my childhood. Such a memorable story of a girl making her way in this unforgiving, remarkable world.

The People We Keep is a gorgeous book about a teen who sets out on her own at 16 yo and makes a life for herself among the misfits of the world. It is fun, very emotional and such a heartfelt journey, you won't be able to put it down.

April Sawicki is 16 in 1994, when she has been abandoned in her home by her Father so he can live with his pregnant girlfriend and her son. She sets off on her journey after stealing her Father's car and sets off wherever the wind will take her. She lands in Ithaca and gets a job in a coffee shop, where she meets Adam, and falls in love. And Carly, her first best friend. But never tells them her age. When they are close to the truth, she runs and ends up in another town. And then another one. Meeting wonderful people all along the way.

The Author, Allison Larkin, reminds us we are a collection of stories, memories, chance encounters, and mistakes. We can choose the people we want to keep and leave the others behind. April's loneliness and eager to be accepted is painfully apparent but luckily she runs into mostly good people who want to love her and take care of her. The People We Keep is divided into three parts - each a leg of April's personal journey.

If I had to change anything about the book, I would have loved more closure with some people she did meet and left behind. There are so many unanswered questions!

There are only a handful of books that have brought me to tears at the end, both for how the author brought everything together and also out of sadness that it was over.

The People We Keep is one of those books. There were so many amazing characters in this book, all of whom were well-developed, easy to relate to, and hard to stop thinking about.

⁣This story, set in the 1990s, follows the life of April, who at the age of sixteen, leaves her neglectful father, broken down motorhome, and small-town behind – in search of a different life.
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Over the years ahead, April moves frequently, never able to settle down, and always leaving before things get too comfortable. It is the friendships she makes along the way that ultimately will show her what a home and a family truly are.
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I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to see what author @allielarkinwrites will write next! ⁣

Thank you to Gallery Books for my gifted copy.

🌟Book Review🌟 The People We Keep by Allison Larkin

Page Count: 368 pages
Publication Date: August 3, 2021

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⚡️4.5/5. One of the marks of a great book is that it makes you feel something deep down. This one did that for me.

The early hype is well-deserved! It is the 1990s. Sixteen-year-old aspiring singer/songwriter April has been dealt a bad hand in life. After certain events cause April to abandon high school and leave the motorhome she lives in (with very little emotional or financial support from her dad), she sets out in search of something better. The writing is nothing fancy, but the raw emotion seeps through each page. Maybe this reference will date me, but while I was reading I kept thinking of Jenny from Forrest Gump. Like Jenny, April is constantly running from an invisible childhood trauma that she cannot escape. She is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking and resilient female protagonists that I have seen in quite a while, and I was rooting for her like crazy. This book really moved me. I absolutely recommend that you pick this one up when it comes out in August!

Thank you to @gallerybooks, @netgalley, and @allielarkinwrites for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be published on Goodreads and Instagram - @sanfranliterarygal.

I loved this book for one main reason, the main character April. I got a sense of her pretty quickly and couldn't stop reading about her journey. I almost feel like I was watching, more than reading, April's story unravel. I could picture the motorhome, the camp site, the beaten up bars where she was playing guitar. April is a young woman who had been abandoned many times in her life yet somehow has the inner resilience to keep going. Yes, she had her music and some sincere friends along the way , bit I got the sense that it was just her own character that got her through. There were moments in the story where the author could have gone to some darker places but she chose not to. It would have been realistic to go there but it also wasn't necessary. I can easily recommend this to a wide range of patrons precisely because the author reduced these areas of trauma for the reader. I will fully recommend this book to older teens through adult.

This is an incredible coming of age story about April and her resilience. Does she make mistakes along the way? Yes. Did I question some of her decision making at times? Yes. But she is 16 when the story begins and I absolutely loved her journey, growth, and the family she makes along the way. I found myself rooting for her so much throughout the story and by the end, I do think she still felt a bit like a kid, but she went through so much and I think she finally felt grounded enough to stop running. This is one I will be thinking about for a long time.

Side note: this book takes place for a good chunk of the book in NYS and mainly in Ithaca, NY, which is close to us and I loved all of her references to Ithaca - I could imagine so much of the story!

Thank you to @gallerybooks and @netgalley for my gifted copy.

This is a good coming of age story. I was a little uncomfortable reading about the relationship between a 24 year old man and a 16 year old girl. I almost stopped reading, but kept reading anyway. It was just one chapter in the story of a young girl trying to find somewhere to call home. April Sawicki goes on a journey to find her perfect homecoming. She is both wiser than her years and unbelievably naive.

This coming of age story is engaging from the beginning. As the reader you automatically fall in love and relate to the MC. April. As a mother I felt protective and scared for her well being once she set off alone in the world with only $140 some bucks and a car.

Luckily she meets wonderful people that automatically see how special she is.

Now to the reason I am rating this well written book so low. Her first relationship out there as a 16 year old is with a 27 year old man. The author finesses this relationship as careful as she can but doesn’t stop the fact that this is normalizing pedophilia. There was no need for this story or plot. Seeing as this love is not the main guy. It’s disgusting and wrong regardless of how rose colored the author tries to make it.

I really, really loved this book. To be honest, I figured it would be perfectly fine, but it ended up that I couldn’t put it down.

April’s story is one of heartbreak and resilience. The book is separated into three different parts- part one when April is 16 years old and parts two and three when she’s 19. The difference in them is great- part one really highlights how young and naive she is despite having been on her own for so long and part two really shows the change in three short years.

I loved the ending and would happily read a sequel!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my digital copy in exchange for an honest review. I chose this book because I loved the title and the cover seemed so happy. I was drawn in almost immediately upon meeting the main character...a kind of "forgotten" girl who only has a few real people in her life. Once she heads out on her own and brings new people into her life, my feelings for her changed...she started leaving people that cared about her and that she cared about and I just couldn't connect anymore. In fact, there were a few times where I didn't seem to like her at all. Towards the end, I started to like her a little more...I guess because she was showing some growth...and it picked up for me again. I will say that this book is one where the author described a city so well, I had to look it up when I was done reading...and now Ithaca NY, of all places, is on my list to trawl to some day. The book went from a four down to a two and back up to a four for me. In general, I really liked it. :)

As someone who never felt at home in their hometown growing up, I related to April’s journey so much. The quote I related to the most was: “I say that it’s amazing how much you can miss people you only got to be with for one tiny little perfect bit of time; how a place where you barely got to live can be the closest thing you’ve ever had to home.”

When I left for college, I had never even left my home state of Florida, and then I found myself surrounded by new people in a new city, and by the time I graduated I never wanted to leave. I finally liked who I was because of who I surrounded myself with and where we lived. As I read this book, I just kept returning to that feeling as April made her way up and down the coast looking for a place she had already found.

There’s so much to love about this book, it’s just not one I think I will reread in the future. I felt complete by the story and the ending and don’t see a reason to return to it, but maybe I will. Regardless, I think anyone who’s ever felt lost and in search of a home should read this book.

Genre: new adult, women's fiction, coming of age
Pub date: August 3, July early release through BOTM

In 1994 New York, April Sawicki is stuck in an old motorhome with little emotional or financial support. All that changes when she "borrows" a car to perform at an open mic night. Fueled by her success, she hits the road to find a life beyond her small town.

Read if you loved: Mary Jane, Almost Famous, Everything After, The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes

When I picked up this book, I didn't know what to expect plot-wise, but I'd seen so many positive reviews that I knew this would be a good one! I loved the writing from the beginning - Larkin did a great job capturing April's voice - you can feel her determination to find her path. I loved the musical aspects of her story, including her original songs and some notable covers.

It's important to know that this is a character-driven story rather than a plot-driven story. Plenty of things happen to April, but her coming of age and found family stories are what make this a great read. The title of the book - the people we keep - refers to the meaningful connections in our lives. April encounters plenty of unique and special characters throughout her journey, and I enjoyed getting to know them too. If you like coming of age stories, definitely don't miss this profound tale.

Thank you to Gallery Books for my NetGalley ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Review posted to Instagram and Goodreads on 7/9/21.