Fast paced and full of family drama.

Sunday Brennan left her life and moved to California. Five years later, she lives in a bad neighborhood, is waitressing at a diner, and ends up wrecking her car after a night of drinking. The police contact her eldest brother and he flies out to find that Sunday's life is not what she had intimated. He convinced her to come home. She not only has to face her family, but her former fiancé, Kale, who is now a married father. Secrets are revealed as everyone learns why Sunday ran away.

I love a good family drama. Whether written or on screen. I loved Brothers & Sisters and Parenthood. I have one sister, but whenever I watch/read about large families, I am envious. They come with a lot of drama, but they also come with a lot of love. So this story was right up my alley.

This is a debut novel for Tracey Lange, so I had no idea what to expect. I was hooked from the first page (which is rare for me) and I could not put it down. So much is happening to so many people all at the same time. Sometimes I hate that- I feel the story line is spread too thin over too many people. Not with this one. Everything is brilliantly intertwined. While I did figure out several secrets well before they were revealed, I could not wait to see what happened with the Brennan family!

This story is told by many different POVs. At least 6 or 7. Though it is mainly told through Sunday, Kale, Denny, and Jackie.

I listened to the audiobook. Despite being told from several different POVs, only one narrator is used. That said, she did a good job. Clear, well paced. I was never confused about which character's POV I was reading.

I received a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

We Are The Brennans is a complex debut novel about incredibly dysfunctional family, told from multiple perspectives starting with the car wreck of a sister who hasn’t had contact with her family in a year and ends up coming back home to recover and help with the family business. The advanced listening copy audiobook I received from the publisher was very well produced and I enjoyed the narrators acting. It was also surprisingly easy to follow along with the multiple POVs because the characters are all so different....but in general the book just didn’t work for me personally.

I never really got into the story, and it never grasped my interest, and I found myself not caring enough to find out what happened at the end. I don’t know. It’s getting a lot of good reviews so I’m an outlier for sure, but I just didn’t love it and wanted it to be something different. I think I’m tired of the whole dysfunctional family thing, it’s a little overdone in fiction right now imo.

2.5 ⭐️

We Are the Brennans is the story of Sunday Brennan's rediscovery of herself and her family's history. Sunday, after waking up with no real memory of a disastrous accident she caused, decides that it's time for her to return home to her family in New York. At 29 years old, her main goal is to return and rebuild her life from scratch, even if it means subjecting herself to coming home to the town and people (including her family and ex-partner) that she abandoned 5 years prior. After her return, Sunday begins to realize how much she needs her family, and just how much they need her. The family pub is in danger of closing, and it can only remain open if the Brennans confront the generational secrets and potential mistakes and work together, as a family, to push towards success.

I liked this book a lot actually. Coming from a small, tight-knit family, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to relate to the larger, seemingly boisterous, family dynamic in this book. I couldn't be more wrong. I could feel the love radiating from all of the characters. Watching them navigate their emotions and learn how to be around each other again was both painful and motivational. I think that having all of the different narrators was interesting, but there were definitely times where I stressed out, trying to figure out who was who. I don't think this would be an issue reading this as a physical copy, but I accidentally got distracted on a few occasions, which left me lost. Luckily, I was only lost on who the narrator was, and not what was happening in the plot.

This book is definitely worth the read. It is a stunning debut, where family is the focus. I think that if you are searching for a book to give you a wide array of emotions, this is the one for you.

Overall rating: 4/5

We Are the Brennans will be available for purchase on August 3rd. Be sure to add it to your Goodreads shelf. Also, be sure to check out Tracey Lange’s website!
I was lucky enough to be able to listen to this Advanced Reader's Copy through my partnership with NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital after a drunk driving accident. Sunday’s brother Denny shows up at the hospital begging her to come back to New York to help with the family. While home Sunday realizes there are many secrets that she needs to help solve with her family. This books was such a quick and easy read. I want to say thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillian audio for this advanced audiobook!!

“We Are the Brennans” is a delightful family drama. The story is based on a Irish Catholic family living in New York. The narration done by Barrie Kreinik was fabulous.

Thank you @NetGalley, @MacmillanAudio, @CeladonBooks and @TracyLange for the advance audiobook for my honest review.

We Are the Brennans falls into the category of 'dysfunctional family drama'- which we all seek to feel a little better about our own lot. But The Brennan family is different- when push comes to shove, they chose to band together and support their own despite their mistakes. I left this title feeling hopeful and reassured- maybe family is more than our dysfunctions and mistakes. 5 stars!

Thrusting us right into the story via a drunk driving accident We Are the Brennans started off interestingly enough, but in the end it turned out to be a different book than I anticipated.
Overall I am rather torn on whether or not I liked the book.
The writing itself was done well, stylistically. True to its title, the story is told from the view points of the different Brennans (and one who longs to be). I very much enjoyed how at the end of a chapter the narrator and POV switched to another person present in the previous scene. That felt very unique and not like something I have encountered much (if at all) before.
This unfortunately is where the uniqueness ended, however. The plot felt very been there, done that and like something I have read about or watched on TV time and time again. I was waiting for a shocking turn of events, an outrageous twist, but it didn't come. It seemed almost as if I was reading a draft manuscript rather than the full novel. The characters didn't seem fully developed, nor were they particularly likeable (not that that is a requirement for a good book, but you need to give me something, or someone to root for!) and really there was no action, suspense or tension to drive the story forward.
I finished the book and I don't regret is, mostly because the ARC that NetGalley and Macmillan Audio provided me with, was an audio book with fantastic narration. Barrie Kreinik really did a superb job bringing the story to life and making it an enjoyable listen.
In the end I gave it 3 stars, which makes me an outlier amongst the plethora of 5 star reviews, but it just didn't work for me. While We Are the Brennans is not a book I will necessarily recommend to my friends, I would definitely give Tracey Lange another chance in the future, as I did enjoy her general style.

I was excited to listen to this family saga featuring a big Irish family. Many of my friends are large Irish-American clans. We Are the Brennans started off strong and drew me into the drama. My problem with the book is that I could not connect with any of the characters. The storyline seemed to drag in the middle. It was well-written but not for me.

We Are the Brennans takes a deep dive into a flawed Irish family harboring old secrets that resurface in the most surprising of ways.

When Sunday Brennan returns to her family home in New York following a drunken car accident, her family and ex-fiancé are shocked, but thrilled. Gone for five years, Sunday had packed up and moved to California rather abruptly, without concrete answers and leaving her family reeling. Recently returned, Sunday begins physically healing while helping her brother and ex-fiancé with the accounting for their family pub, which is on the brink of financial ruin. As the story develops, we realize just how closely the characters are interwoven and how the aftershock of some mistakes can be felt even decades later.

The author gives us a glimpse into each character’s perspective, allowing the reader to better understand the intricacies between family members, friends, and romantic partners. While each character is deeply flawed, this story also shows the lengths the characters will go to to protect their family as their secrets begin to bubble over.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

Solid story of a large Irish catholic family and their poor decisions. Sunday, the only daughter and estranged from everyone, comes home to heal after a drunk driving accident. The family has to come to grips with the reason Sunday moved away and their current financial issues.

Each chapter is told from different characters points of view. Well written but a bit too much victim blaming.

Excellent narration.

I really enjoyed this story! The book is very well written. I enjoyed how the story is told from several different points of view.

A saga of a novel reflective of the Irish families and the protectiveness they feel within the roots of the family. After 29 year old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital following the crash of her car into a barricade she is forced to return home to her family in NY. She needs them, but until she returns home, she doesn’t realize that they need her too, with the family’s Irish Pub on the brink of Financial ruin. Sunday left suddenly for Los Angeles five years ago without any explanation to anyone—not her family or her long-time boyfriend—so her return stirs up a lot of questions and emotions. And as she settles back into her family, she realizes that they’re struggling just as badly as she has been all these years, and it's not too long before she falls into the all-too-familiar role of caretaker. But she really doesn't seem to mind. A lack of communication and some questionable decision making are front and center throughout this book, told from multiple POVs. That said, the deep bonds of the Brennan family are also evident and despite not agreeing with some of their choices, I was rooting for most of the characters by the end of the story.

The book flips back and forth from current to past to reveal the entire story as we as the protectiveness of the family.. I enjoyed the book and would rate it at about 3.5 rounding up to 4. The book is a bit sow at times and as it is a good story it does lack a bit of pizazz. I enjoyed it and would look for another book from this author as it is the first book from them and is a wonderful accomplishment.

Thank you to the author., Netgalley and the publisher for ARC for review.

Than you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this audiobook.

First of all, I thoroughly enjoyed the narration of this narrator, Barrie Kreinik. Considering that this book is told from varying points of view of several of the characters, she did an excellent job of portraying the emotions and characteristics of the family members. She was able to really bring the characters alive. She did a great job with the Irish accent. I plan to look up other books she has narrated.

This is a great family saga that I found very engaging and looked forward each day to listen to. Although the characters were flawed, they were very realistic. The family dynamic seemed very true to an Irish family. The story flowed easily between past and present, filling in the gaps of things that happened in the past to make the characters who they are. This is the author's debut novel and I look forward to following her career in the future.

Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital after a drunk driving accident. Her older brother Denny is her emergency contact and he is on his way from New York. He manages to convince her to come back to New York to recover, despite Sunday not having been home since she left 5 years ago. Surrounded by her 3 brothers, her father, and her ex-boyfriend, Sunday tries to figure out how to rebuild her life, while also understanding the problems and dynamics of her family since she's been gone.

This is told in the alternate POVs of the various Brennans and Sunday's ex Kale, most times picking up right where the previous chapter ended, which I really liked. The Brennans face outside forces, but their family bonds are still tight, even when they are at odds with each other. I liked this family - except for the dead mother OMG! - and how they interacted with each other were realistic.

Narrator Barrie Kreinik was especially easy to listen to and while I'm certainly no expert, I thought her Irish accent (especially for Belfast Billy) was well done. The pacing was perfect.

Available August 3, 2021.

I received this audiobook from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.

We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange is full of family drama. The book begins with Sunny Brennan being involved in a drunk driving crash. She ends up in the hospital and wakes with her brother Denny at her bedside. Sunny moves back home to the east coast with Denny to put her life back together. Her family is struggling to keep their Irish Pub out of deep financial problems. Sunny also faces her high school sweetheart Kale and works to repair that relationship since she left. This family is full of flaws but is refreshing because it represents a genuine family experience.

Overall this was an enjoyable book. I would recommend it. All the chapters flow together seamlessly, and the reader gets to observe the events of the book through different characters, which is interesting.

Thank you, Macmillan Audio, for this complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review. I still am not a fan of NetGalley's audio quality for audiobooks.

Seeing this referenced as being similar to Ask Again, Yes should have been a red flag for me. I wasn't a fan of that one (it was just slow). But I wanted to give family dramas another shot. I got about 1/3 of the way through and realized I wasn't in it. I didn't care what was happening or what would happen. I should have known.

I received a copy of the audiobook from NetGalley - as far as the audio, it’s fantastic. The narrator is fantastic and does well with different voices for the different characters. If an audiobook doesn’t have a full cast, a narrator capable of voices is amazing - especially for a book like this that has different characters narrating different chapters.

As for the story, I come from a large Irish Catholic Family myself and this book resonates with that so much. Family first, hide everything that isn’t positive, food, beer, church weddings - it’s sort of nostalgic.

The story starts when Sunday Brennan gets into a car accident in California and her brother in New York is notified as her emergency contact. He convinces her to return home with him, at least until she heals from her accident. When they get home, everything she missed hits her in the face and old feelings resurface.

This is a story about family. The things that’ll tear you apart if you let it. Things that build a family - blood or not. Things that make a family stronger.

I loved this book. It was fantastic. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I listened to the audiobook of We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange. It was narrated by Barrie Kreinik who I have had the pleasure of listening to several times before. Her narration was brilliant once again. Tracey Lange’s talent shone bright in her debut book. Having shared the fact that she had grown up in a large Irish family herself with plenty of their own secrets, her debut novel borrowed from her experiences and produced a book that was both captivating and believable. It was most definitely character driven but had a complex plot that held my attention from the very beginning until the very end.

Sunday Brennan grew up in a town in Westchester County in New York. Her family were Irish Catholics and proud of their heritage. Sunday lived in a big home with her mother and father, older brothers Denny and Jackie and her youngest brother, Shaun, who was intellectually challenged. Her father’s construction company allowed her family to lead a very comfortable life. Sunday was the only daughter and as she got older her mother made sure that Sunday knew right from wrong and never made others question her choices. Appearances and good reputations were very important to her mother. When Sunday was in high school, she began dating her brother Denny’s best friend, Kale. Kale had practically grown up in the Brennan house. As Sunday and Kale matured, there was no denying that they were meant to be with each other. They slowly accepted their fate and fell deeply in love with each other but were determined to keep it a secret for the time being. Around this time, the Brennans family and Kale were planning a trip to Ireland. Sunday was excited about it and Kale was too but Sunday’s mother prevented Sunday from going. Her mother had recently been diagnosed with cancer and claimed she needed Sunday to stay home and help her get to her appointments and take care of her. After the family and Kale had left, Sunday started to feel lonely and resentful. One night she went to a pub with her cousin and made some very bad decisions. That night and the decisions she made changed Sunday’s life in ways she could never had expected. That harrowing night led Sunday to leave the people she loved with no plausible explanation and resettle in California.

Five years later, Sunday, now twenty-nine years old, found herself in a hospital room with bruises, a broken arm and injuries from a car accident. Driving while intoxicated, Sunday had crashed into a barricade and with little memory of what had happened woke up in a hospital room as she stared into her oldest brother Denny’s eyes. Somehow, with much coaxing, Denny was able to persuade Sunday to return home with him to New York. Sunday had not been home since her mother’s funeral. To Sunday’s relief, everyone welcomed her home with open and loving arms. Lots had changed though since Sunday had left all those years before. Denny and Kale had remained best friends and but were now business partners getting ready to open a second pub in Mamaroneck. Denny was harboring lots of secrets himself about the financial status of the new pub. A burst pipe had compromised the structure of the new pub and instead of communicating with Kale, his wife or anyone else, Denny assumed responsibility for fixing it single handedly. With no else’s knowledge, Denny secretively found a solution for getting the extra cash they needed to fix the pub’s structure and get it ready for the big opening It proved to be a very unconventional and dangerous way that would end up putting Denny’s and Kale’s friendship in jeopardy as well as Denny’s marriage. Kale was now married and had a young son. That was probably the hardest thing for Sunday to swallow and see. Then a man from Sunday’s past reappeared and threatened her family’s business with financial ruin. Could Sunday just sit by and let that happen or could she muster up all her courage and strength and confess to the secrets that she had harbored for all the years since she had disappeared years ago? Could she save her family from ruination and mend old wounds at the same time?

We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange was about an Irish Catholic family that was torn apart by secrets. It was told from the POV of the many diverse characters. The plot captured me and the characters kept me engaged. It was about family, secrets, trust, shame, appearances, second chances and healing. I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook and recommend it very highly. I rated this book with 4.5 very strong stars that I rounded up to 5. If you enjoy family dramas with a bit of romance thrown in, then I think you will enjoy reading or listening to We Are the Brennans. I can’t wait to see what Tracey Lange writes next.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio through Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

4.5 - A well written story following a family of Irish-American pub owners as they make mistakes, screw up, but ultimate find, and support eachother.

Not at all what I expected of this highly anticipated release, but in a great way! Lange has a unique way of writing scenes from multiple perspectives, and then coloring it in with character backstoey that really makes you feel what each person is going thru, and what has led them to the decisions they make.

Very solid read!

Thank you to Celadon Books and MacMillan Audio for an ARC and ALC of We Are the Brennans.

The Brennans are an Irish Catholic family and each member has their own secret. While trying to protect each other, those secrets begin to come to the surface, even those buried many years ago. Can the truth bring them closer together and save what they have all worked so hard for?

Told from multiple POV’s, this debut novel is wonderfully done. Tracey Lange seamlessly weaves the story together, which could get very tricky with the amount of POV’s presented. The audiobook was well done, also. I loved the Irish accent given to some characters.