A Lyrical, Layered Debut That Stays With You

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“A Family Matter” is the kind of novel that quietly breaks your heart and then gently helps you put it back together. Even from the blurb, it’s clear this debut offers something special: a multigenerational story rich with emotional depth, tough choices, and the long shadows cast by secrets.

Set across four decades, the novel explores the reverberating consequences of a love that dared not speak its name, a marriage bound by legal and social expectations, and a daughter unknowingly shaped by it all. The dual timelines—1982 and 2022—promise a compelling interplay between past and present, showing how personal truths, when hidden, can quietly alter the course of many lives.

With echoes of Elin Hilderbrand’s emotional resonance but a voice all its own, this book appears to offer both quiet intimacy and powerful social commentary. Themes of identity, illness, forgiveness, and the enduring complexity of family make it sound like the kind of story that stays with you long after the final page.

If the writing lives up to the story's emotional promise, this debut won’t just be memorable—it’ll be unforgettable.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I started out reading the book intrigued. I loved the dual time line. Although as the story progressed there was a lot missing this story and the ending felt rushed. Heron found out some disturbing news and can’t bear to reveal it to his daughter as of yet- along with another big reveal from their past, what happened to her mom and the real reason she left. Maggie is just living her regular life- in touch with her dad. When she finds out his diagnosis, and stumbles upon some papers in a box that he gave her to go through - everything changes.

This was a terrific debut!
I picked this book up late yesterday morning, and finished it late last night. Of course, I did a couple of other things in between, but yes, this book compelled me to my comfy couch and blanky throughout the long rainy Sunday.

Lynch has perfectly captured the fraught dynamics of a family in the midst of ordinary life, along with moments of startling change. With perfect ease, Lynch juggles two timelines as the characters progress toward their inevitable intersection. What seems like yesterday to me, 1982, was far from the ideal I remember for many others, and the truth is shocking and deeply troubling, given the world we live in now. I don't think I've ever really understood the phrase, "I hope the past stays in the past" more than I have when I finished this book. This book is personal, not political, though the author puts the events in historical context throughout the book, and again in notes at the end. There is a strong message here, but this is not a moralistic or "message" type book. It is, at the very least, a well-written, incredibly moving, and compelling book. It is an eye-opening account of the pain and isolation so many suffered because their love did not follow the "accepted" path, and how the private was made public to ensure their silence.

"A Family Matter" is Complicated and Messy....

A wife and mother makes an irresistible connection...
The husband and father draws a line in the sand...
The young daughter is caught in the silence...
Two timelines: 1982 and 2022, with forty years of living in between...

Claire Lynch’s writing is lovely, thoughtful, and soft, but mostly, it is quiet, just like all the secrets Heron kept from Maggie, his daughter, through her years of growing up, and afterward. As this story intensifies, and the weight of what has happened is eventually discovered, it will crush you.

I am always in awe of an author who writes a book, this one at only 240 pages, that is as rich as much longer ones. This story is brief, yet complete. It is a beautifully written debut novel, both heartbreaking and uplifting, and as I reflect on it and this family, my eyes begin to well up as the emotions of reading it linger with me.

And then there's that ending...

5⭐

Thank you to Scribner and Claire Lynch for the gifted DRC through NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

The DRC was paired with the Audible audiobook narrated by Miranda Raison, whose voicing and recounting of the story further enriched my experience.

Poignant and achingly told.
While reading, I felt this beautiful story in every fiber of my being.

With great thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for this e-ARC!

An illicit and socially unacceptable affair cause Dawn’s motherhood skills and influence into question for her daughter, Hazel who is too young to know why her Mom is not there anymore. When her Dad becomes ill the secrets and lies of the past come tumbling out for all and each must reconcile the past in order to move forward. Disturbing, tragic and reflective story that I enjoyed.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this look through family and queerness in the UK in the 80s! I don't see a lot of that and it was great to read right after Atmosphere. I do wish the end had just a FEW more pages to wrap things up, but a great, quick read all around.

I read A Family Matter in one sitting and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Told in two separate storylines, Lynch tells an “unputdownable” story about first loves, second chances, choices, and what it means to be good and/or right. The book is broken up into short chapters and while it is a fast read, it packs an emotional punch. Highly recommend for those that enjoy character-driven, emotional family dramas.

The author’s note is not to be missed. I was left thinking about how much things have changed and also by how much they haven’t. This will be one of my favorite reads of 2025.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for this ARC.

“A Family Affair” is a timely glimpse into how queer parenting is still considered “shameful” under the eye of the law. This is an equally heartbreaking and moving account of a daughter learning about why her mother left their family. I won’t say any further, but it is just gobsmacking.

A Family Matter is a debut novel dealing with one mother’s decision in 1982- choosing between her young daughter or her newly found relationship with another woman. (In the 1980’s, most gay parents were not given custody of their children.) Dawn is married to Heron and is adjusting to her life as a mother. In 1982, two women together was not acceptable in the publics eye. The author flashes forward to 2022, when a relationship with two women is more widely accepted.
The story is told in these two-time lines, with the main narrators being Dawn, Heron and the daughter Maggie. These characters are what drives the story. How does a mother decide between her child and her lover? How does a father reconcile the fact that his wife left him and their daughter, not for another man, but for another woman? How does Maggie deal with her upbringing with only a father, not knowing the full extent of what happened to her mother since her father refuses to talk about it?
Things change when Heron, now in this late 60’s, is diagnosed with cancer. He is left with the decision as to whether or not to tell Maggie the full story of her mother and reveal what he has kept secret all these years.
The writing flows in this novel and it makes it easy to keep turning the pages to find out more. This is a very emotional read, dealing with current issues in real life- woman’s rights, lesbian moms.
I am looking forward to reading what the author Claire Lynch writes next.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner Books for bringing this book to my attention and for allowing me to read the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Published on June 3, 2025

this was a beautifully done novel and enjoyed getting into the time-period and the characters in this universe. Claire Lynch was able to weave a strong storyline and was glad it was so well written. I was invested in the characters and how they were used to tell the story. I'm excited to read more from Claire Lynch as this was really well written.

This book was so eye opening and such a unique and poignant story about what happened to families at this time in history. I am sooo reluctant to say too much about the plot because the events are revealed in such a beautiful way. It says so much in what it doesn’t say as well. There is a lot of implications and assumed emotions that allowed me to look at this book in such a deep way. This is a short book, less than 300 pages, which I appreciated so much. It was just released and I strongly recommend getting your hands on it!

Going back and forth on my feelings on this book… the subject made me furious because it really did happen, but felt the overall story lacked emotion and skipped parts that I really wanted more details on.

I had high hopes for this book but it was a little slow for me. It took a while just to finish. Maybe it is just me but it dragged on.

Wow. I loved this book. I enjoyed the richness & complexity of the characters in this beautiful and short novel. I liked the alternating timelines from 1983 & 2022 and the variety of perspectives. Overall it was heartbreaking and the story will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you Netgalley & Scribner for the advanced reader copy.

4.5 stars This was a great debut novel! Claire Lynch did a great job developing two timelines—one in 1982 and one in 2022—and bringing them together in a really satisfying way by the end. In 1982, Dawn is trying to figure out life as a new mom and wife. Jump to 2022, and her ex-husband Heron, now in his 60s, is facing a terminal diagnosis. He knows he needs to tell their daughter, Maggie, but he’s terrified that revealing the truth will also uncover the secrets he’s kept from her for years. Great character development. I was completely drawn into their lives and needed to know how everything would turn out. It’s a bittersweet story, but also full of hope. I definitely wanted more, since this story was only 240 pages. Can’t wait to see what Ms. Lynch does next. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

An absolutely gorgeous novel. I’m stunned that this is a debut.

Told in two timelines, this multigenerational family saga is short yet expansive. Maggie is our connection to both time periods - a toddler in the early 80s and a mother in our present timeline. In the 80s, Maggie’s mother Dawn fell in love with another woman at a time when that meant the world doubted her ability to be a mother. The reverberations can be felt through Dawn and Maggie’s lives.

I’d have read many more pages of this book, but at the same time, I thought it was an artfully done. I’ll be imagining what came next for Maggie’s family for a long time, though.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this beautiful book.

What a timely read for Pride month. Look how far ew've come, and yet so far to go. This is a story about what a family "should" look like, heartbreak, and ultimately of forgiveness. Dawn and Maggie have a mother/daughter relationship like no other I've seen in literature. Thank yu for sharing these characters with us Claire Lynch.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC. Reading A Family Matter by Claire Lynch takes you into Maggie's world- a young girl whose life is changed forever by the misguided perceptions and rules of the time. We see the results of choices that were made supposedly in her best interests. While this book celebrates the progress made in some parts of the world it should also serve as a warning for how precious our rights are.
My only critique is that I wanted to stay in this story longer- to glimpse into Maggie's future if only for a moment. I highly recommend A Family Matter and look forward to reading other work of this author.

As heartbreaking as this story was, I loved everything about this book!

The ending was perfect. The story was told with such care that I kept thinking about it when I was not reading it.

Loved!