Absolutely loved this book, and having the audiobook to read along with was perfect. The performance is excellent and I would highly recommend this book, in physical or audiobook format to anyone looking for an engaging and riveting read.

4.5 Stars!

"Tracey Lange's We Are the Brennans explores the staying power of shame—and the redemptive power of love—in an Irish Catholic family torn apart by secrets."

Synopsis:
When Sunday Brennan wakes up in a LA hospital after a drunk driving accident she caused, her brother forces her to return home to her family in New York to heal. This isn't easy since Sunday left her family, and fiance, five years ago with no explanation. Her close-knit family has a ton of questions when she returns. As Sunday settles back in and helps run their family pub, she realizes she can't keep running from the past, and perhaps she has to explain the secrets she's been keeping to be able to move forward with her life.

Thoughts:
This is a story of a family's shame and secrets and what that can do to tearing each other apart. It's also a story about coming clean and how the truth can "set you free." I loved the family bond in this story, how they rallied around each other and would do anything to protect their loved ones, as well as their beloved family pub.
I enjoyed that this book was broken into chapters narrated by multiple different characters. This can get super confusing, but it was really well done in this book.
There were just the right amount of plot twists that this family drama kept my attention from the start. I cannot believe this was a DEBUT book by Tracey Lange, because WOW.

Thank you #NetGalley, #CeledonBooks, and #MacMillinAudio for the ALC of this gorgeous book!

Thank you to Netgalley and McMillan Audio for this advance listener copy.

I loved this book! I loved everything about it. In We are the Brennans, we are introduced to the Brennan family, father Mickey, son's Denny, Jackie and Shane, daughter Sunday and honorary family member and Sunday's former fiance Kale. The Brennans are an Irish Catholic family with a number of intersecting secrets.

Sunday moves from New York to California for a job prospect, leaving behind her family and her fiance. Flash forward five years, when, following a drunk driving accident she is forced to return to everything she left behind, finding in the process that people have moved on without her. As the story progresses we see the bonds of their family and the lengths they would go to in order to protect each other.

Throughout the course of the book, secrets begin to unravel, revealing a single act was the root cause of so many secrets. All of this culminating into a very satisfying conclusion.

A very emphatic 5 stars for this book! The narrator was fantastic. I will definitely give this one a reread. I've already ordered the physical copy.

This was a decent book, but I just don't think it's my favorite genre. I don't read family dramas much. The middle of the book was the best part but the ending wasn't as interesting. I did love the narrator of the audiobook though! I've listened to other books she's narrated and loved getting to hear her again!

This starts with Sunday, the only Brennan daughter getting into a car accident in LA. This alerts the rest of the Brennan family, and soon Sunday is on her way back to New York...where she hasn't been for 5 years. Now all the Brennans are reunited and ready to dig up the past.

Lange does a beautiful job of letting us get to know each of the Brennans. They are all complex characters and together, they create a very dynamic family. I was immediately invested in this family, and sucked into this story.

I loved the writing style. I really enjoyed that the story moved from character to character. And the last line of each chapter becomes the first line of the next chapter, as the character changes- an interesting way to move the story along. I am really fascinated by the dynamics of big families- especially if they are also working together.

Although there were a few things I did not like about the book- the ending being one of them, I still really appreciate the detailed character development and family dynamics.

As far as the audio version...I really enjoyed the narrator and it was an easy listen. The narrator didn't change up her voice for each character but it was well done and easy to follow.

Thank you to Celadon Books for allowing me to participate as a reader in an early review and Little Free Library book drop for this book! I am super stingy with my FIVE STAR ratings but I LOVED THIS BOOK. The audiobook was so well done and the narrator was perfect.

Also, I really want to be in the Brennan Family, I need to be the sister Sunday never had, I love the character Sunday, and I finished the book in less than 36 hours. THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED IN A WHILE. I also have decided I need to open an Irish Pub or maybe just have a brother like Denny who owns a pub. (Well, maybe not exactly like Denny.)

I recommend this book to each and every one of you! Go Read It Today!

WE ARE THE BRENNANS is being compared to ASK AGAIN YES and I found it to be a very apt comp. It starts off with Sunday Brennan slamming her car into a wall after an ill advised drunk driving incident. Her oldest brother comes to LA to be with her and she’s forced to move home, tail between her legs. No only does she have to own up to the drunk driving and the fact that her life in LA hasn’t been what people think it’s been- she has to answer for leaving her family high and dry 5 years ago with no explanation.

When she gets back, she immediately assumes her role within the family as a fixer. Turns out, she isn’t the only family member with secrets and things really come to a head when an enemy from their past re-emerges. I thought this was full of heart and well plotted. I loved the family dynamics and watching them stand up for each other, regardless of what they’ve done to each other in the past. There’s also a storyline that explores “the one that got away” that I appreciated. It was good! I think if you like character driven family drama heavy on exploring sibling dynamics, this could be for you!

I love the Brennans! You couldn’t help but want to root for them throughout the book. This family drama follows the Brennans, an Irish Catholic family that have many secrets that they want to conceal.

This family is deeply flawed and extremely lovable. The characters were well thought out, and I loved getting perspectives from all of the entire family throughout the novel. The transitions between POV were absolute perfection, picking up where one character left off on the same timeline. So unique and well done!

This one reminded me of Ask Again, Yes which was another family drama I loved last year!

A must read if you love family drama, secrets, and a good character-driven plot!

Thank you to @netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a honest review ✨

We Are the Brennans follows Denny, eldest brother of the wealthy Brennan family and bar owner, and Sunday, the seemingly perfect sister who abandoned the family five years ago and the rest of their family. Denny goes to LA to take care of Sunday after she drives drunk and crashes her car one night. He urges Sunday to come home, and she agrees. Her return to New York uproots the Brennans, and family secrets both past and present come to light.

With such a large cast of characters, you'd think I'd find one I liked. In truth, I found it really hard to root for anyone despite having a similar family-first kind of family myself. The problem is these characters just aren't very relatable. I don't belong to a rich family. I don't own a bar. I didn't keep secrets from my whole family. The more this novel wore on, the less I liked these characters. Some of them were even so cliched it was painful.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this audio ARC. The narrator Barrie Kreinik did a great job. I loved her Irish accents. Even though the male voices, namely Denny and Kale, sounded so similar at times, I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Sunday Brennan has moved out to California, leaving her family and fiance behind in New York with little explanation. After five years away, a drunk driving accident prompts her to return home and try to rebuild her life. There, she is forced to confront and unravel the secrets of her family’s livelihood, relationships, and most importantly, the reason for her mysterious departure.

The audiobook narration is excellent, well-paced and with distinct voices for each character that evoke their personalities and make the story easy to follow. It’s a deep dive into the Brennan family, sometimes veering into very mundane territory; however, I didn’t mind this. Because each of the characters felt so real, even the seemingly unimportant events of daily life were, at the very least, comforting and pleasant to read.

I appreciated the way that Sunday’s big secret was tied into the financial challenges that her family faced with the pub. This prevented the book from feeling discombobulated and raised the stakes. Additionally, I was genuinely surprised by her secret when it came out about halfway through the book, as it was not (exactly) what I predicted. At first, I felt like it was revealed too soon, but the pacing ended up being appropriate so that the characters could sort out how to approach the main problem.

I also loved how there was still one final reveal in the last few minutes of the book. I wasn’t expecting to get an answer to the question of who killed Billy, but that made for a satisfying conclusion that I truly did not see coming.

The themes of this book are clear and compelling - the staying power of family connections, confronting secrets and mistakes as their consequences become inevitable, and moving forward in the aftermath of life-altering events. Ultimately, I loved this realistic portrait of a tight-knit, loving, but simultaneously messy and highly imperfect family.

I had the pleasure of both listening to an ALC of We Are the Brennans and a physical copy to read at the same time.  I like the fact that no matter where I was, I had a copy of the book with me.  That’s probably why I finished it in one day! 

I have Irish in my genes, so I like anything Irish!   The title of the book is what piqued my interest first, and then the story is what kept me turning pages. 

If you like character-driven family sagas, told by various character’s POV, you'll be in heaven with this story.  Lange really knows how to build her characters and the narrator, Barrie Kreinik, did a phenomenal job at portraying each family member’s characteristics and personalities so that you were clear on who was who throughout the whole book.  I especially loved the Irish accents he used and I felt the narrator really brought the characters to life!!  There were times that I actually felt like I was at the family pub with the rest of the Brennan clan.

This is a story about the siblings of an Irish family.  Like any family, they have their flaws, but this family also has some pasts secrets that begin to unfold and keeps the storyline moving forward.  When Sunday Brennan, one of the Brennan siblings, runs into trouble in Los Angeles, she seeks out her family for comfort and security.  She swallows her pride and moves back home to New York.  That’s what families are for and Sunday quickly finds out that her family needed her as much as she needed them. 

When the family almost loses the pub due to financial ruin, the secrets of their past start to unfold.  Will the family join together or will the secrets eventually tear them apart?  

I recommend this book if you are looking for a little mystery, a whole lotta family bonding and forgiveness.

Family drama, crime mystery, secrets from the past, an Irish Pub... "We Are The Brennans" has it all.

Sunday Brennan has been living in Los Angeles for 5 years when she makes a big mistake. She finds herself in the hospital, alone and lost. Big brother Denny, still her emergency contact person, convinces her to return to her childhood home in New York to pick up the pieces of her life, but it's not that simple.

Sunday abandoned her 3 brothers, her father, an ex-fiance, and her old life 5 years ago... and she will have to answer to her unexplained absence. While determined to put the past behind her, secrets from the Brennan Family past make that difficult. Sunday must face her shame, her silence, and her loved ones head on to save the family's pub... and the relationships entwined in the business.

I was riveted from the first minute. I enjoy a family drama and appreciated the relatable twist and turns that lead Sunday and her brothers to this spot. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has a story of shame. At what point do these burdens become too much for not only yourself but your close confidants? When is it "time" to share your past traumas? Are there times that releasing these feelings can lead to good?

The Brennans know.

A victim is not to blame.

A victim is not to blame.

A victim is not to blame.

I love a family saga. I enjoy books where perspective trades between family members (like ALL ADULTS HERE). I'm part Irish and I grew up in a heavily Catholic town. I thought WE ARE THE BRENNANS would be very much for me.

But I'm mostly just left angry for a fictional character, Sunday, whose family reacted so inappropriately to her assault that I'm having trouble coming up with the words to criticize it. I read an ALC and a print arc; I sincerely hope the line, "It's not that Sunday was blameless" was edited out prior to publication. That sentence went on to detail reasons why she is to blame for her own assault. She is absolutely not to blame -- the assaulter is to blame. Further, the speaker, Kale, is a man who's "loved" her his entire adult life. I cannot fathom that someone who in part blames her for what happened to her also is so "in love" with her that he needs out of his marriage to someone else.

Sunday's mother told her it was her "own fault" as well. Given her characterization, that doesn't surprise me. But I am upset that these sorts of victim blaming statements appear in this book and are not strongly rebutted. Where is the friend, the cousin, the neighbor there to say, "No, the person who hurt you is the person responsible for hurting you. You did not ask to be hurt." Instead we have someone who commits murder to... what? Make him pay?

So your options, as an assault survivor, are to keep it bottled up for years (being judged all the while for not being close to your family). Or, tell those closest to you, just to have them blame you at least a little bit, and kill the guy on your behalf. Regardless of what you wanted.

That aside, I really didn't buy the Sunday/Kale love connection -- the way it was written, it seemed she went through puberty and he all of a sudden wanted her (right down to the she "needed none of the makeup other girls wore" trope). I felt bad for his wife and was glad she at least got a divorce in the end.

Overall, this book was easy to get into. It was a fast read. But I just can't give a book peddling victim blaming more than 2 stars.

The audio production was OK, but the narrator sounded a bit terse at times (when I didn't think the plot called for that delivery). I liked reading the text better.

We Are The Brennans by Tracey Lange is about a large, upper middle class Irish-American family living in a New York suburb. The book begins with the lone Brennan daughter, Sunday, moving back to her family home after living in Los Angeles for five years. We’re quickly brought into the world of the sometimes raucous and opinionated Brennan family, who own a family bar. The Brennan children, 3 sons and 1 sister, are adults leading their own lives. The characters are distinct from one another and somewhat flawed. Despite frustrations with some of the characters, the story really sucked me in and I felt compelled to keep reading.

It’s interesting how Catholic guilt and shame play a part in decisions made through the years by family members. Though, their mother passed away several years prior, she left a shadow on her family throughout the years, with her heavy expectations, criticism, and shame. So much was left unsaid or unresolved in the name of keeping quiet to spare the family of shame. Though I understand it’s pretty common in many families, I also found it so frustrating the burden placed on daughters and wives to take care of domestic chores and sacrifice for their families. I really enjoyed this book and loved being a fly on the wall in the Brennan household and how the family came together.

The audiobook is wonderfully narrated by Barrie Kreinik, who has a soothing voice with a wonderful lilt and she even used Irish dialects for some of the characters. Overall, a wonderful family drama that kept me enraptured throughout!

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing this audiobook ARC.

What a phenomenal debut novel.. The Brennans are a complicated family and this book unravels the secrets they keep. I will definitely be recommending this book to anyone who enjoys a deep family drama or literary fiction.

I was a little hesitant to start this book because normally contemporary books are not my cup of tea. But I think like most of us I've been seeing this book everywhere and so with all the good reviews I had to give it a shot and I'm glad I did. I find most of the time with contemporaries that it's lengthy and drawn out and rather boring but with this book, I was never not on the edge of my seat. I loved all the twists and turns and the family drama. And this family drama is different, it isn't exaggerated and unrealistic like it sometimes can be, where it almost gets on your nerves. The family tension in this book is realistic and you find yourself taking sides and feeling like you're a part of it. This book had a lot of family secrets and personal predicaments with each of the characters that I was completely engulfed in the story.

I love that this is more than just a contemporary book, I would also consider it to be a mystery book, but that comes more at the end. For most of the book, there is a mystery in Sunday's past. There are little hints dropped here and there throughout the book and I loved this detail because in the back of your mind you're waiting for this grand reveal.

I was a little dissatisfied with the ending because I personally didn't agree with the way some of the romantic relationships ended. But on the other hand, I also really like the ending because it kind of left on a cliffhanger. The ending was hinted at, but it never came right out and said it. I like these types of endings because it leaves you with a greater impression in your mind of the book.

One unique thing about this book that I really enjoyed was that the start of each chapter began with the words that the previous chapter left off on. If anyone is like me, before starting a new chapter I normally go back and read a little bit of the ending of the previous chapter just so in my mind I know where I'm at. But the author gave it to us already. And it isn't repetitive because when the chapters change it shifts perspectives and so we start each chapter hearing the thoughts of a different character than when it was previously told.

I also really like the narrator of this book. she was easy to follow along with and gave each character a distinctive voice that wasn't annoying. nothing overly special about the narrator and the narration of this book but it was easy to listen to and picture the story.

So, I would recommend this book and even though it isn't the best story I've ever read it is probably one of my favorites in the contemporary genre.

So many secrets and so much family drama. I love good family drama books, especially when they are well written and keep me in the story.

I was so wrapped up in the Brennans and what they had going on, I sat in my car, in my driveway, because I couldn't leave them in the place they were in. I needed to get the family to a good stopping point in the audio. Oh let me tell you about the audio, I thought the narrator did an excellent job.

I really enjoyed all the multiple POV's in the storyline. I felt as though I was getting all sides to the story.

I was really excited to listen to this one after I saw so many great reviews on it. Unfortunately this one was just a miss for me. The introduction had some promise and I was interested to see where the story went but it just never picked up for me.

I do have to say the narrator was really great and I did enjoy listening to the book. The story was just a bit flat for me. This is just my opinion but if you are into family dramas you will definitely like this one and so many people gave rave reviews on it so you may want to check it out.

This isn’t my usual genre and I was hesitant on whether I would like it or it would bore me. I listened to the audio version and it held my attention from the first chapter. I loved the different POVs for the chapters, I liked the family dynamics and found myself captivated by the story.

I have always been a fan of stories about dysfunctional families, and so I truly enjoyed this book. Told in multiple POVs allowed me to know more about the characters. It has many relatable and charming points and lots of drama and secrets; it is engaging and fascinating. I highly recommend it!