Life is busy for Maggie Fisher as she rushes to her job at Bed Bath & Beyond, leaving her toddler with Nick after his shift at the restaurant. This young couple may struggle with time and money constraints but little Wyatt is the sparkling center of their lives. After Maggie dropped out of school and virtually out of site, she couch floated directionless for quite a few years. Falling in love with Nick and the life they have created in Arizona is finally putting her back on track. But Maggie will not be content with the check out line forever. She dreams of a college degree in education so she can earn a decent salary and a promising career. Refusing to beg her estranged parents for help she finds the cash earning opportunity to change her life. Tucked in the back of a home magazine is an ad to be a gestational surrogate. After much research and battling with Nick, Maggie is chosen by a NYC couple named Chip and Donovan who against the odds, dream of having a family of their own. A decade later the phone rings and the impossible becomes reality. Maggie is faced with decisions no mother should have to make. As her past comes barreling forward she wonders if her marriage can survive. Highly recommend this captivating story of family, trust and advanced technology all rolled into one. Didn’t love love the main characters but there is no doubt this one would be a fascinating book club discussion.

I was hooked by these characters and this situation from the opening chapters. I couldn't put down He Gets That From Me.

A fast-paced plot, well developed characters that you can get attached to, and believable complications kept me turning pages.

Maggie is a young mother living with Nick, the father of her young son, Wyatt. Maggie choses to be a surrogate for Chip & Donovan, a gay couple from NYC. In exchange she will have the funds she needs for college. Nick is not in favor of her decision. Ten years later, Donovan gets DNA kits to help the boys with a school project only to discover that one of the twins is not a genetic match to anyone in their families. How can this happen? What is in the best interest of the child?

The ending presented another dilemma for Kai that left me chuckling.

I'm in the minority on this one. I felt it started off strong, pulled me in fast and I was excited to read it. It initially felt like a Jodie Picoult type story; reading an emotional story line while learning about something new and interesting. Then it became predictable and overly dramatic. I expected drama based on the plot but I felt there was excess drama beyond the main story line. I am still glad I read it and I would look at other books from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.

These characters really felt like actual humans that you would be friends with; they were real people. I loved how we really got to know the characters throughout the story and learned pieces of their pasts that helped contribute to who they became today.

This story really makes you think about family dynamics. What makes a family? Is a family any less of a family because they don’t all share the same DNA? Is it less of a family if there are two dads raising children? Is it less of a family if you have one child and can’t have more… Are you less of a family if your family members originated with different religions? It really makes you think about the many ways families come into existence and how very different each one was.

He Gets That From Me by Jacqueline Friedland is a beautifully touching read. It tugs at your heart strings and makes you think about how you would handle the situation. It leaves you feeling broken and hopeful at the same time; which only a special book can do. I would definitely read more from this author. Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this Arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is a book of love, nature vs nurture, and a mothers love. It starts as a need a young mother has for extra money to reach her dreams, it leads to a long lost child and his needs, and sacrificing your own needs for the needs of another. When Maggie provides surrogacy for a gay couple in NY, she had no idea what she was really giving up. The couple from NY have lived their best life for a decade before their world threatens to burst. Kai has his own turmoil having a brother he's grown up with and a biological brother.

There is so much drama in this book, I don't want to give anything away as a spoiler. I highly recommend this book and you'll be surprised by who actually manipulates the situation and gives up the most in order to protect the ones they love. Enjoy!

He Gets That From Me is a dual perspective novel in the point of view of two families. It takes place in a few different places in time.

First we have Maggie. She is a young mom of a toddler who dreams of going to college. She takes an opportunity to carry a baby for a gay couple, Chip and Donovan. Maggie carries the babies (twins) for Chip and Donovan, delivers them and then carries on with her life with her husband and son. The money she got for carrying the babies gives her the opportunity to go to school as she always dreamed.

Then we follow Donovan, who several years in the future has done one of those ancestry-DNA-family-tree things and has just found out that one of their twins, Kai, is not biologically related to anyone in their family. How is that possible if Kai and Teddy are twins? It is a thing apparently. Kai is the biological son of Maggie and her husband, Nick. Does that mean that Kai should move in with Maggie and Nick since he is their biological son? Or should he stay with Chip and Donovan, since they are his parents who have raised him?

It was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at times. I quite liked this and read it quickly as I was eager to see what the fate of these two families would be.

I don’t want to give the story away but this was a can’t put it down awesome read. Highly recommend. Loved this author’s last book and loved this one.

He Gets That from Me
A Novel
by Jacqueline Friedland
I LOVED this story. It was one of the best this year. I was so tangled up in the Dads and the love for boys. Perfect to the last page.

He Gets That From Me is heartbreaking...Just heartbreaking. Jacqueline Friedland’s beautifully written novel is compelling and intense. Each character is so fully described that you understand why they make certain choices. Some characters are unlikeable but Hoffman gives enough of their history to make you have some sympathy for them. From the blurb I knew what I would be reading about and knew it wouldn't be a straight forward tale. He Gets That From Me is a surrogacy story, but it is the characters that are the focus of the book. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of Friedland's characterizations.

The difference between the two families, and who are really the parents, is the main theme. Friedland sees it in many layers, not black and white. And in the end...none of it matters. The characters are reduced to pure, desperate emotion. This is an amazing story that made me feel all the feels. All the stars.

Absolutely fascinating story! I couldn’t stop reading it… The author portrayed both sides of the dilemma equally well so that I could understand both points of you… Although I had my opinion about how it should end! No spoilers here, just that I was totally satisfied with the ending. Well written with characters who are believable, and excellent dialogue.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A modern day twist on the Solomon story, what happens when a child has two legitimate sets of parents, one bio and one that thought they were bio? Explores the meaning of best interest of the child with nuance and subtlety and with a mix of other timely issues such as surrogacy, lgbt families, and late in life blossoming.
Appreciate the Jewish content as well as representation that matters. Surprising ending.

Just an update that a review of this book will appear in the September/October issue of Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews. If you need more information or a copy, you can request a copy of the review, after the publication date, through this link:
https://jewishlibraries.org/book-review-request/

or email adult titles section co- editors: Rebecca Jefferson at rjefferson@ufl.edu, Daniel Scheide at dascheide@gmail.com or me Sally Stieglitz (Editor in Chief) at generaleditor@jewishlibraries.org or sstieglitz@lilrc.org

I really enjoyed this book , my first by the author i was hooked from the start, however the ending was awful far to sudden.

Thank you to NetGalley and SparkPress for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This story is told in dual POV, one being Maggie’s perspective and the other being Donavan’s. Initially the story jumps between when Maggie starts the process of becoming a surrogate and the events that unfold ten years later, though the story quickly catches up so that both POVs take place in the same time frame. I loved the joint perspectives and the time jumping, it allows you to understand the characters and connect with them as you learn about everything they’ve been through to get where they are. Every character felt so real to me and it really made me question what I would do if I was in their situation.
I felt so many emotions while reading this, it was such a beautiful story and definitely one that will stick with you even after the last page is turned.

I got this from Netgalley a couple of days ago and started reading it yesterday morning and was able to finish it by midnight. This book just sucked me in from the very beginning. I totally devoured it. I seriously could not put it down, and I just had to finish it right away!

He Gets That From Me has two storylines that weave in and out of the narrative: One is with Maggie Fischer, a young mother who helped out a gay couple as a surrogate in order to afford to go to college, and the other one are the Rigdales, the gay couple who are trying to build a family of their own. But nothing in life is black and white as ten years after the twins were born, the Rigdales and Maggie found out a shocking revelation about one of the twins.

This book just holds the readers’ attention from start to finish because of its well-conceived and deftly drawn characters. It was told through a dual POV — Maggie Fischer and Donovan Rigsdale, and I loved that their voices are so authentic, so vivid that it feels like I personally know them. Even though I couldn’t fully relate with Maggie, I could feel her pain and her anger towards her life and her situation. With Donovan, maybe I am biased because I am a gay man myself, but I feel like I could resonate with him more and that I understood more where he’s coming from. It’s really the emotional complexity and intensity of their situation that really pulled me in.

The writing puts me inside these characters so that I know them and feel them because Friedland wonderfully captures a little of the essence of that humanity in these situations they found themselves in. It navigates two families’ responses to such unintentional incidents along with the resolution that each party could think of in order to resolve it. It wasn’t very pretty that I could tell you, but there is much to be gleaned from it. It’s absolutely engaging with a brilliant structure too!

After finishing it, I sat back and reflected on what its central message was: what family truly means, how far you will go for your child, and that love (this is cheesy) will always lead that way no matter what.

I’d definitely recommend this book. It is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. There is so much to this book that a short review does not do any justice. I just have to say that this is by far the best book I’ve read so far this year – an absolute must-read!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for an AC of He Gets That From Me.

I really enjoyed the author's tone and writing style. She wrote about likable, relatable, sympathetic characters most people could relate to, whether you're a parent or not.

This is a story about family not determined by blood but by love and the bonds we forge together through experience.

I definitely understood Chip and Donnie's POV as well as Maggie, though I felt she was a little uptight. I never liked Nick from the moment he was introduced, I had a skeevy vibe about him, and I was pleased to see my instincts were right from the start.

I'm not sure how I felt about the sudden revelation when Maggie learns her mother had suffered a mental illness her whole life.

I felt this twist was thrown in just to add drama when the narrative was pretty full of it as it was.

Overall, this was a good read and I would recommend it.

This book was provided to me compliments of #NetGalley for my honest opinion.

This was a must read. A page turner thst I just tore right through. He Gets That from Me is on your summer read list.

Wow, did I read this one quickly - really a page turner! Surrogacy is a fascinating concept to me to begin with, then throw in it’s for a two men who are happily married and desperately wanting children, and THEN add a unique twist leading to an unimaginable dilemma. Friedland has a gift for creating very relatable and real characters, with specific personality traits and quirks which she slowly unwinds to explain their backstories and what makes them who they are. This story stretches the ever-widening boundaries of what it means to be a family. It took me a while to get into the rhythm of the alternating perspectives and the time hopping, but it smoothed out and I was able to get things straight in my mind. The epilogue at the end was a surprise which provided insight into the child at the heart of the dilemma. A great read! Thank you to #SparkBooks and #Netgalley for the eARC! #stephsalwaysreading#hegetsthatfromme#jacquelinefriedland

Imagine: a surrogate mom helping a gay couple.
Imagine: two dads finally having kids.
Imagine: finding out one of them isn’t yours.
What do you do? And what do you do when you find out one of them IS yours? How far are you prepared to go?

Donovan and Chip desperately want to have kids and when Maggie, the surrogate mom, delivers two healthy boys, Donovan and Chip are over the moon. Maggie always wanted to get back to college and now has the money to do so. But ten years later it becomes clear that Chip is Teddy’s dad but Donovan isn’t Kai’s.

He Gets That From Me is very easy readable, told in dual narrative (Maggie and Donovan), alternating between past and present. It’s engaging and thought provoking. The author gives an insight in Maggie’s and Donovan’s lives, including their own childhood. As a mom, I felt the rollercoaster of emotions, the dads, and biological parents, all shocked and doubting. But above all, my heart went out to those two sweet ten-year-olds, who initially knew nothing, so happy with their fathers, while their lives could just fall apart. Two boys, although not biologically related who shared the same womb and were, above all, brothers. This is a story about family, sacrifice, and unconditional love. And I loved the epilogue!

....Whew! I did not expect the emotional rollercoaster ride I was presented with in this book! I couldn't stop reading, even when my own anxiety had skyrocketed and I was thinking "I should take a breather" because I absolutely had to know how it ended. It's that good.
(Even the conclusion had me suck in a breath, wondering if this was going to be another coaster dip, but it ends well.)
Excellent read and filled with the level of family dramatics that soap operas could only DREAM to aspire to. Also ends as a good feels book about what it really means to be family.