A quiet, powerful read that stayed with me long after I finished the final page.
This is one of the most character-driven novels I’ve read in a while. If you’re drawn to introspective stories with emotional depth, this one’s worth picking up. Claire Lynch’s writing is lyrical and elegant.

The story moves between two timelines:
📍 1982 – we get to know Dawn and Hazel as they explore a quiet, forbidden connection.
📍 2022 – in the present day, Hazel is hit with a shocking truth about her parents that changes everything.

This is a short read that you could finish in a day. However, even though not a ton happens in the plot, this book really hits emotionally and I was wishing it was longer!

This book was absolutely heartbreaking and unforgettable. I loved it and highly recommend it. It is a short read but, despite that, it has a lot to say. The characters are well developed and the story is compelling. The contrast between the present and 40 years ago and attitudes about gay people that have changed so much in that time are highlighted it is a thought provoking book for sure.

A Family Affair is such a beautiful story. Thank you NetGalley and Scribner Books for the chance to read this via gifted eARC. All thoughts are my own and honest.

This is Claire Lynch’s debut novel and I enjoyed it so much. I saw one review that called it both heartbreaking and hopeful and I agree with that sentiment. I think knowing how the custody case would work out for Dawn made for a more suspenseful reading experience for me. Her situation infuriated me because I could see how much she loved Maggie and wanted to be her mom, as I believe any woman who wants to be a mom should have the chance in whatever way that looks like for her.

We’ve come so far in such short time, but at the same time (especially now), we still have a ways to go. I highly recommend picking this one up (and it’s the Read With Jenna June pick)!

"An exquisite and revelatory debut novel about the devastating consequences of one woman’s affair."

1982 Dawn meets Hazel and instantly falls in love with her. But she has responsibilities at home. Obligations to her husband Heron and their young daughter Maggie, whom she loves with all her heart.

2022 Heron receives a devastating diagnosis and can't bear to bring it up to Maggie as it will also unearth secrets he has kept from her for forty years.

Honestly, I was on the fence for a while about reading this at the invitation of the publisher. I am so glad I decided to read it. It is a worthwhile exploration of love and loss, injustice, and custody battles. We have come a long way in our treatment of lesbian couples where women are more frequently granted custody of their children. This is an illuminating and poignant read that is both heartbreaking and hopeful. I loved the story of this family and found this to be a great read. The characters are fully fleshed out and you understand all their points of view whether or not you agree with their choices. If you enjoy thought-provoking family sagas, this is one to add to your TBR!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Scribner, and Claire Lynch for an advance reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

#AFamilyMatter #ClaireLynch #Scribner #NetGalley #ReadWithJenna #DebutAuthor #FamilySaga #BestBooks #ARCreview #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #booklover #bookstagram #bookclub #LGBTQ

"Sometimes, especially in the early years, the two of them would be invited to Christmas dinner at someone else’s house. A gathering of waifs and strays, other families like theirs who had been cracked open by death or divorce. Maggie hated those Christmases, they weren’t a distraction at all, but an underlining. Bringing all the spare people together made it even clearer who was missing." p111

Final Review

I read this one twice. Not because it was a great book, but because it has great elements and I felt at the end of my first read that I missed some things. I normally don't give a book a second read immediately, but I was really curious here.

Unfortunately, I wound up just as vague on the plot at the end of the second read. I liked this story the most for its theme work. But a book needs details to ground the reader in the story world, and this book needs more. At less than 200 pages, I would say this one needs at least 50 more pages of them. I struggle to connect to books that lack detail and utilize a lot of summary and dialogue.

I still recommend this one to fans of feminist themes, experimental form, and summary-and-dialog books. If you liked Margot's Got Money Troubles, you might like A FAMILY MATTER.

Thank you to the author Claire Lynch, publishers Scribner Books, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of A FAMILY MATTER. All views are mine.

I recently finished "A Family Matter" by Claire Lynch and would rate it 4 out of 5 stars. This quick read captivated me with its engaging storyline, seamlessly weaving dual timelines that added depth and intrigue. The narrative revolves around a heartfelt family reunion, highlighting themes of resilience and the enduring bonds that tie us together.

Claire Lynch masterfully develops her characters, making their struggles and triumphs relatable and poignant. The dual timelines provided a rich backdrop, allowing the past and present to intertwine beautifully, revealing family secrets and emotional growth along the way.

This is the story of the marriage of Dawn and Heron. They have one child, Maggie. Dawn falls in love with someone else and this breaks up the marriage. Heron uses the law to get full custody of Maggie and prevent Dawn from seeing her. What would you do? The story is full of secrets that have not been told in 40 years. Now everything has changed and the secrets will see the light of day. What will Maggie think and do?

This is a deeply moving story. What we thought was right in the 1980s, may not longer be considered right. It is a story that will make you think of families trying to do what is right for their children. There is always collateral damage. The book is short and I would recommend reading it.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #ClaireLynch and #Scribner for a copy of this book.
#AFamilyMatter

This was quieter but emotionally rich. It follows a family unraveling after a long-held secret comes to light, and what I appreciated most was how grounded it felt. The story doesn’t go for shock value—it lets the pain and love of these characters breathe. Claire Lynch writes with warmth and clarity, and even when I didn’t like certain choices, I understood them. This isn’t a page-turner in the traditional sense, but it stayed with me.

Would definitely recommend to readers who love literary fiction that reflects on how families shape (and sometimes warp) us.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

This is a beautiful and tragic story. The fully realized characters pull the reader into their lives and beat us up a little with their awful realities. But in a lovely way. Gorgeous. Sad. Hopeful.

Fantastic book. Spanning several decades, this book explores a family as it navigates challenges- especially those in the culture of the early 1980’s.

Claire Lynch’s A Family Matter is a quietly devastating and beautifully told story about a family split apart by prejudice, silence, and the painful choices adults are forced to make or make in error. Set in England, the novel follows the adult daughter of a single father who uncovers a long-buried secret: that her mother—who she believed absent by choice—was actually ordered by the courts in 1983 to remove herself entirely from her daughter's life due to her sexual orientation.

Lynch handles this emotionally fraught territory with subtlety and care. The narrative moves between past and present, slowly unspooling the truth as the protagonist grapples with her father's illness, her own experience of motherhood, and the question of whether she should seek out the woman she never knew she missed. The writing is restrained but emotionally resonant, capturing the quiet ache of lost time and the complicated love that persists even through separation.

There are somethings that are left unsaid in the novel, but this is both a strength and a weakness by toning the emotion down a bit, but at times the reader is left wondering. The emotional core of the novel is powerful and deeply affecting. Lynch does an excellent job portraying the social and legal forces that shaped queer lives in the 1980s—and the long aftershocks of those injustices. The author's note that stated, "In the 19080s in the United Kingdom, around 9o percent of lesbian mothers involved in divorce cases ... lost legal custody of their children," was a terrible and chilling statistic.

A Family Matter is a tender, thought-provoking novel about the costs of silence and the redemptive potential of truth.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on June 3, 2025.

This was a beautiful and heartbreaking story. This story goes back and forth between the 1980’s and the present. In the present Maggie is a mother watching over her two children and spending time with her father. In the past Dawn is a homemaker harboring a secret. The consequences of Dawn’s secret are far reaching and rip her family apart. I loved the way the two stories unfolded and how the past and present collided. Definitely read the author’s note at the end, that provides some depth and context to the story. A book that will stay with me for a while. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this but i was in the mood for a quick family drama, and this was surprisingly a great early pride month read! It’s a fairly short one-sitting read (i’d call it a novella even though its marketing is deceptive) that packs a punch. I feel like the summary doesn’t give too much away on purpose so i’ll leave it vague but this actually hits on a pretty interesting topic for its setting/time period that i wasn’t aware of. It’s an emotional read and Lynch manages to let the reader in on her characters enough to make an impact despite its short length.

This short read packs a punch about imperfect families, parental love, responsibility, sacrifice and an unforgiving patriarchal legal system.

It is an emotional and crushing read written to highlight the horrors of history and who gets to decide who makes up a family.

There are no numbered chapters instead they have titles and are divided into the relevant years of the book.

It is hard to imagine that a world in which the older protagonists lived actually existed. A world where married women had to obtain their husbands’ consent to subscribe to a magazine.

I like the author’s writing style- very direct and engaging. She approached this sensitive subject with grace and empathy.

If you love realistic fiction with timely topics then you will enjoy this.

This dual-timeline book follows the lives of Dawn, her husband Heron and their only child Maggie. When Maggie was still young, Dawn left, because she was in love with Hazel. Heron uses their "illicit" and "immoral" relationship as the basis to not only get full custody, but to cut Dawn out of Maggie's life completely. In the 2022 timeline Heron has just received a termial diagnosis, and knows that now is the time to finally tell Maggie things he should have told her long ago.

I can't say that I particularly enjoyed this one. It was depressing - both Dawn having her child ripped away from her like that, and the terminal diagnosis that Heron received and some of his actions afterwards. At least it was a short book, so it was a very quick read.

This is a tragic and beautiful story. That anyone had to suffer through this type of scenario saddens me, but I am glad that people are starting to talk about these types of issues. No parent should lose their child due to who they love. I am so glad that in this case Maggie can learn about her past before it’s too late. This book, while short, really holds a punch and I am so glad that this is something that readers will get to read about.
Thank you to Scribner and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

This was such a beautiful and moving look at a terrible circumstance that plagued women who questioned their sexuality or realized that they were not hetersexual.

I will be recommending this to everyone I know. This is such an important piece for anyone and everyone to read.

While we can be thankful that as a society this is no longer the normal circumstance, one has to wonder what, in thirty more years, we will look back on that's being done now with the same lens.

The tactful, tasteful and exquisite unveiling of this multi-layered and multifaceted story is a joy. Based on the social mores of the 1980s, which have changed by the 2020s, the breakdown of a marriage, the custodial battle for a much-loved child is handled with empathy and rendered from each character’s experience. A heart-breaking and powerful exploration of judgement, the judiciary, society, which offers hope – it is never too late to bond. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my feedback and review.

A Family Matter, by Claire Lynch, begins as the story of Maggie, a married mother of two and her aging father Heron to whom she is devoted. As the story unfolds and Heron is found to have terminal cancer, we learn through a series of flashbacks what happened to Maggie’s mother, and the impact it and the secrets kept from Maggie have influenced them all over the years. Lunch is a masterful storyteller and character developer who had me invested in and rooting for these flawed characters throughout the book. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more from this author. Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

I really wanted to like this book… but I didn’t. The synopsis sounded so interesting but I just could not get past the writing style.