Absolutely adored Tracey Lange's debut novel. "We Are the Brennans."

Sunday Brennan left her family behind 5 years ago, and as far as her family knew, she never looked back. But out of the blue, her brother Denny gets a call from a cop saying his sister is in the hospital after a drunk driving accident. After agreeing to go home, Sunday realizes that her family is not as stable as she thought, and that it's not so easy to outrun the past.

Lange's novel had me from the first chapter and help my attention throughout the entire story. Lange tells the story of a big, messy family so well. Each chapter is told by a different character, and the perspectives are blended seamlessly. Additionally, I found the characters to be relatable, intriguing, and so easy to root for.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced audiobook of this wonderful story. Barrie Kreinik was a fabulous narrator as well!

This was Lange's debut novel and It was an excellent read. I really enjoyed how the story was built up and the twists and turns kept me on my toes. I also enjoyed the characters, their dynamics and dysfunction was so well currated. I also loved how the story was told in multiple points of view, it really worked well, and flowed nicely. I would highly recommend this book if you are a fan of dysfunctional family reads and books told in multiple points of view

In the novel we follow Sunday Brennan who had been living in LA after fleaing her family and high school sweetheart 5 years earlier without explanation. When an accident occurs and Sunday needs to return to her family in NY. Sunday really needs her family and doesn't realize how much they needed her until she returned. Their family pub is on the brink of financial ruin. Will the family finally come together and confront all that's been left unsaid?

**Book Review** Thank you @NetGalley & @Macmillan.audio for allowing me to preview We Are the Brennans.

It is a wonderful family drama driven by interesting characters. Each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective and begins with the words from the previous chapter. What I enjoyed about this book is that it is constantly moving forward. There is not a lot of repetition that you see when you read books that alternate characters. I also liked that each chapter felt like you learned some valuable information that played a role in the story. You didn’t get a lot of fluff info.

Everyone in the family has a secret and each of those secrets plays a role in the family problem at hand. Sunday is the only girl in an Irish family with three brothers and a dad to look out for. They all run a pub together with Sunday’s ex-boyfriend.

When Sunday returns home after leaving five years ago without much explanation, her family has lots of questions. However they are very happy she is home. They need her as much as she needs them. But the secrets from the past begin to threaten the family business as well as the family home. Sunday must confront her past in order to help her family move forward together.

The story is somewhat predictable but I enjoyed it. I give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars and I recommend this book to readers who enjoy family dramas. This book will be available August 3.

I don’t want to share too much of the plot because I went in blind and felt that worked really well, but here is my quick synopsis: an Irish Catholic family that was torn apart by secrets and shame is reunited and secrets are exposed.

These characters are all deeply flawed and make some terrible decisions, yet you find yourself rooting for all of them. This book is beautifully written and I was captivated by the family from the very first chapter. I loved the multiple points of view so I could really understand what was going on in everyone’s minds. I thought it was incredibly creative that the last piece of dialogue of each chapter was the start of the next chapter. There is a ton of drama, but also a lot of love. This is a book I’ll be recommending for a while!

I switched between book and audiobook on this one and loved both versions equally. The narration was excellent, especially for one narrator to be doing so many characters and points of view.

Thank you to Celadon Books, MacMillan audio and NetGalley for the advanced copies!

I had been excited for this one for awhile, and while it was not exactly what I was expecting, it was definitely a good listen! It takes a bit to really get to know the titular family fully, but by the end you definitely get a clear picture of who they are. There are several twists in this novel, right to the very end, and some of them were easy to see coming, while others were much less so. This is a somewhat unique story and an enjoyable listen that I would recommend.

This book has been getting SOO much love and I have only good things to say about it too. If you enjoy a good family drama full of secrets and complicated relationships this is definitely the book for you. The Brennans are a big Irish Catholic New York family who own a bar and are all struggling in their own ways. When the only daughter Sunday gets a DUI in LA and ends up coming home after a five year absence, long buried secrets and resentments get brought to the surface. The Brennans kept me entertained and I was really rooting for Sunday and her childhood sweetheart/family friend Cale. I also appreciated that the character of Shane, the youngest Brennan with a intellectual disability, was treated so sensitively and well-loved by most of the family (his mother struggles with his diagnosis and accepting his limitations). Highly recommended for fans of books like Ask again, yes, The nest or The most fun we ever had. Much thanks to NetGalley, Celedon Books and Macmillan audio for my advance review copies.

CW: miscarriage, alcohol abuse, sexual assault

4.5 stars for this amazing novel of family. It's a little reminiscent of something Courtney Sullivan would write, but I'm a huge fan of hers as well so this novel was right up my alley.
So many mistakes and misunderstanding went into this story. You can almost picture the Brennans and their pub and all the issues going into this work of fiction that you almost forget it is actually fiction.
Even the ending is unexpected. And not entirely wrapped up in a nice little package. Like life, it's messy and the Brennans will have to deal with it together. Like always.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early e-audio version of this novel.*

I want to be a Brennan. There. I said it. I just loved this book about a close-knit family with secrets in their closets.

After Sunday gets in a terrible accident in LA, she comes home to reunite with her family and face the experiences that made her runaway five years ago.

There is a reason this book made our best Vacations reads of 2021 list. It’s just so good!

I enjoyed this book about family drama and family dynamics. It was interesting to learn about Sunday’s past and all the family secrets. The character development was captivating and the plot was entertaining.

Sunday Brennan, a twenty-nine year old woman, abandons her friends and family in New York and runs away from her problems to California. Once she wakes up in a hospital after a car accident, her brother convinces her to move back home. Will the demons of her past still haunt her or will she learn how to work through it all with the help of her family?

Coming from a big Irish Catholic family myself (I know I’m American, but Irish because of our last name and, hey, we like to drink), I honestly was a bit hesitant to read this one 😅. But all worries quickly dissipated once I was drawn into the story. I ended up adoring the Brennan family, they all seemed pretty headstrong but so lovable. There were a lot of secrets, lots of drama, and even some thrills towards the end. It’s true what you’ll hear about this one: you’ll miss the characters. And the way Tracey Lange weaved the chapters from one to the next was captivating and fun. Such a great debut from her.

I switched from the book to audiobook throughout and loved the narrator on audio! Sometimes a narrator can do too crazy of man character voices, but this narrator was so good with every character. She even nailed an Irish accent!

Don’t forget to get this one when it comes out on Aug. 3rd. Thank you to @celadonbooks @macmillan.audio for the eARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I was really drawn to the beautiful cover of this book and was so pleased to find its contents were just as beautiful. This is a story of family, secrets and discovering just how important family really is, particularly when faced with problems. It follows multiple points of view, but ultimately revolves around Sunday Brennan, and an event that happened about 5 years ago. Like all families, there are secrets, misunderstandings, and missed opportunities that eventually must be dealt with in turn. Overall, it was an exemplary story of a family that prove they are there for each other through it all.
The narrator for the audiobook was excellent! She really brought the characters to life.

We Are the Brennan's is a complicated family drama, centering around a large Irish family. The Brennan's are full of devastating secrets & lies, but they are also full of love and loyalty. I wasn't sure what to expect coming into this one, but I did enjoy it. The pace was a bit slow for my liking, but this was an impressive debut novel and really well written. Dysfunctional family? CHECK. I really liked how the story was told in multiple POVs and how we got to know so much about the different members of the family. Each chapter begining starts with the last sentence of the previous chapter, but from a different character which was interesting to see how people viewed the sane situations differently.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for sending me this Audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Book:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Narration: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was given an ARC of the audiobook for We Are the Brennans. Thanks @celadonbooks and @netgalley And you guys, the narration in this book. SO GOOD. @barriebarriepix did such an amazing job. I think I enjoyed the story more because I listened to it instead of reading it on the page. The accents were nuanced and natural. The pace was perfect. The tone had me really feeling the emotions of the characters.

This book examines how a seemingly small choice can change your whole life and even have effects for generations after. I loved how the author wrote her transitions in this book. Not just transitions from chapter to chapter, which was really cool, but also between last and present.

I HIGHLY recommend We Are The Brennans! I felt like I, too, was a Brennan, privy to all the family’s secrets. @tracey_lange debut novel left me wanting more from her! You can find it on shelves August 3, but you can add it to your @amazon wishlist today!

3.5 stars for a family drama with very likable characters. I really liked the Brennan family and the lengths they would go for one another but it felt a little down the middle of the road for me. Not sure it’ll stick with me.

Truthfully, I requested this book after seeing it all over bookstagram and felt like I was missing out. I initially had no interest in this book (not really my favorite genre), but I ended up loving it. This book was a bit of everything: mystery, romance, coming of age, and family drama. One thing that stuck out to me was the fact that each chapter started with the last piece of dialogue from the previous chapter (that was so unique to me). While initially it is somewhat hard to keep track of all of the characters, I thoroughly enjoyed the complexities of their relationships.

Finished this guy the other day and really enjoyed it. Have you ever run from something instead of just dealing with it? I think this is something we can all relate to in one way or another. The story in itself was refreshing and I just couldn't stop listening.

Thank you @netgalley for the arc and I absolutely loved this in audio

Loved it! The relationships between the members of this family are real and heartfelt. The twist at the end wasn't entirely unexpected but didn't detract from the way everything was resolved. Highly recommend!

Tracey Lange’s powerful debut novel about the weight shame can put on a family and how secrets can tear a family apart is one of the best things I’ve read this year.
The Brennan family, Irish-Catholics with a lot of baggage, has many secrets to keep. Sunday fled to Los Angeles 5 years earlier and has kept her distance from her siblings ever since. But when she wrecks her car while driving drunk, she returns home to New York, where she’ll have to face her past and the love she left behind.
I loved every single one of these flawed characters. Driven by shame, resentment, and pride, the Brennans’ hold their secrets close to the chest. But as their circumstances change, they rely on their love for each other to solve their issues.
I particularly loved Sunday’s relationship with Shane. She played more of a mother-figure to him than their own deeply prideful mother ever did.
Lange draws the difficulty of forgiveness to the foreground. Everyone has made mistakes, and some characters find it easier to forgive than others. Some hold grudges that ultimately lead to their downfall.
The writing is powerful, beautiful, and heartbreaking. Lange has a way of drawing you into her world. Readers will grieve, worry, and laugh along with the Brennans’ on their journey to redemption.
If you enjoy family dramas filled with love, pain, and redemption, Tracey Lange’s debut novel is a must-read.

I received a copy of this audiobook for free via NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

What a deep, emotional story the author has written for us. Sunday Brennan up and walked away from her family five years ago. Now, with her no where else to go she returns home and must face her past. The family who, though they love her is not altogether happy to have her home, Kale, her fiancé who she left with behind with no explanation and is now more a part of her family than she is and all of the mess that goes along with her reappearance. Every person has their own issues to work out with Sunday. It’s an emotional listen (audiobook version) while they’re all trying to reconcile the past, their relationships and heal their messy mostly broken selves. I was drawn in quickly and listened pretty much straight through all the time wanting it all to work out. You’ll thank yourself for gifting yourself this audiobook. The narration is fabulous.

From my blog: Always With a Book

A book about an Irish Catholic family that is full of dysfunction and family drama…sign me up!!! And it’s likened to Mary Beth Keane’s Ask Again, Yes, a book I loved – I knew I was in for a treat and I could not have loved this one more. This is definitely going to be on my anticipated reads for August, even though I already read it because I want everyone to know about it…it is that good!!!

There is just something about family dramas and secrets that call to me and this one pulled me in right away. I come from a big family and we have our share of drama – what family doesn’t – so I always love seeing how an author tackles it. And this one, which may I just mention is a debut and totally knocked my socks off, gave me all the feels.

This is such an emotional roller coaster that had me loving some characters, and wanting to punch others in the face! I love forming those strong attachments to characters that I felt here with the Brennan clan and loved that there is a sense of suspense throughout as we wait to learn just what happened all those years ago and wonder if it is connected to what is going on now. There is such a sense of family and how if you mess with one, you mess with them all mentality to this book…and again, coming from a large family, I can totally relate to that.

The writing is so engaging and my favorite part is how the last line of each chapter was carried over to be the first line of the next chapter. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this technique before, but I absolutely loved it.

I cannot recommend this book enough! It’s the perfect book for summer reading and I think it would be a great book club pick – I even recommended it to my own!


Audio thoughts: This was so great on audio. Barrie Kreinik did such a fantastic job with the characters, giving each one their own unique voice. Because I was so invested in the story, I ended up listening to it in one day – I just couldn’t put it down!