Laura isn't with her mother in hospice when she dies. Her last words to Laura was that her hair looks bad. Laura is a journalist. Laura is married to jon and has kids. At first jon is too busy drinking when Laura needs comforting. I liked Laura's personality but not what was going on in her life.

We Are Family by Nicola Gill

Two sisters, Laura and Jess, lose their mother to cancer and in keeping with their difficult relationship they disagree on just about everything. A series of challenges in their careers, relationships and families shows them that they are much closer and more precious to each other than they had realised.

This book was a fabulous read. The characters were all so well-drawn - the sisters themselves, the work colleagues and school mums, the children and even the dead parents. I absolutely loved the story and it dealt with lots of serious issues in a very realistic but entertaining way. In particular I thought it was such a refreshing take on the complexity of grief.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for an ARC of this book.

We are Family is an interesting exploration of family, sisterhood and loss. It took a while to get into this book but there’s no denying Gill’s writing is engaging.

This was a lovely family dynamics drama that was an easy read. The main story being the relationship between Laura and her sister Jess who has a seemingly perfect life. Two sisters with different lives who haven’t always had the best relationship, but who come together after several tough events in both of their lives.

I really enjoyed this book and the every day family dynamics, but I did feel like the first half was slightly dragged out and could have been a lot shorter. Laura was a likeable main character who I found myself agreeing with throughout and really rooting for.

Overall a sweet easy read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance copy.

Thank you Net Galley for this ARC. We are Family is a novel about the complex relationships of two sisters. I found it fascinating and relatable. Nice character building!

What is the book about?

It’s a story of two sister,s Laura who always felt insignificant compared to her perfect sister , Jess who have to deal with grief after their mother passes away. AS they heal they realize that they need each other because family is important.

What I loved about the book?

The plot and the characters because it was so relatable I particularly liked Laura as she was more relatable to me

We are family follows the relationship of two sisters (Laura and Jess) after their mother's death.

Laura has always felt like she lives in her sister's shadow and that her mother favoured Jess over her. She isn't sure how she feels after her loss and life begins to get on top of her. Jess is there for Laura but everything she does irritates her.

I really enjoyed this book and how it showed the journey the two sisters went on to rebuild their friendship. I felt compassion for Laura but I also warmed to Jess' character.

So much happens in this story that it feels like quite a whirlwind at times. It was poignant to read about the difficulties that families face - especially after the loss of a family member. I felt that the ending was abrupt. I was almost at the end and there were so many loose ends to tie up. How was that going to be possible in the few remaining pages? The ends were all tied but I could have read a longer version and sat with the characters for longer.
Thanks to the publishers and Net Galley for the ARC for review.

You can't choose your family,... but you can let them in.

We Are Family is an honest, witty and warm read. I loved it!

The characters are relatable and I really felt like I went on the journey with them, I laughed and cried along the way! Nicola Gill portrays grief, family dynamics and just life in general in a refreshingly honest and funny way.

We Are Family is the entertaining and thought-provoking story of two sisters, Jessica and Laura, who just lost their mum, many years after losing their dad.
Laura, the main character, is struggling to stay on top of her life. Jess seems to have everything under control. Laura feels intimidated by Jess's apparent perfection, but Jess has struggles of her own and she's keeping a secret.
A thoroughly entertaining read!

Thanks to Avon Books UK for the ARC.

The writing style was sort of similar to Sophie Kinsella, but I found it hard to care for the characters, Laura in particular. Although granted, her flaws maybe made her more realistic. The sisters' relationship was the most interesting part of the book, but unfortunately it dragged a lot in the beginning and then felt rushed at the end.

This was a decent enough read. It's a story of two sisters that have always been pitted against each other by their late mother and how they're dealing with the grief of her passing, even if that grief isn't necessarily 'perfect' in Laura's case. The sisters had a difficult relationship with their mother, particularly the protagonist Laura who was always seen as 'the lesser' of the two, and because of this, the sisters have a strained relationship themselves.

The blurb sold it as something akin to Phoebe Waller-Bridge's excellent Fleabag TV series, but apart from the sister relationship, it wasn't very Fleabaggy. It was mostly just sad, and I didn't think the characters managed to walk the thin line between somewhat sympathetic and unlikable very well. I found myself annoyed with Laura throughout almost all of this, as she had a nasty habit of reading insults into every uttered sentence. Almost all of the conflict with her sister stems from this habit, and it honestly wasn't funny. It was just really frustrating. I wanted to shake Laura whenever she did this or when she couldn't say no to people who were obviously using her and then sniped at her sister that tried to help her at every turn. The sister - Jess - I never really got a proper feel for. We only see her through Laura's eyes, and although Laura's view of her changes throughout the book, it still didn't manage to give Jess much of a personality. Aside from a non-sexual affair (that isn't in any way explored), Jess was just the perfect person Laura resented her for being. I hate to bring up Fleabag again, but I missed the kind of sister relationship it had, where both were imperfect and funny characters in their own way.

The last conflict between the sisters - the biggest in a way - was resolved in absolutely no time at all, and off-screen even. The ending felt rushed because of that and the rest of the book definitely hadn't felt that way. In fact, it felt too long. But after I had struggled slightly with the first 40% percent of the book, I found myself really interested in the sisters and their story, so I was a little saddened that there wasn't more to the ending. Apart from that, pretty good writing. I'd pick up Nicola Gill again.

e-ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A great read! Really loved the characters ! Enjoyed reading the book! I couldn't put the book down. I read it at one go. I really love family drama and this was so good!

Great Easy Read... 🍷

Laura and Jess are siblings who are like chalk and cheese. Jess hates being late, seems to have the ideal 'perfect housewife's life', Laura not often on time, overall life quite different.

Mum Evie sadly passed away, with this and a whole lot of family dramas, both Laura and Jess going through emotional highs and lows... Although there are family issues, ultimately, they are family.

Great easy read, it takes you from present time to reminiscing back when they were children. Not too much humour as more serious subjects touched on, but overall great read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.
This is another one of those “this is my first time reading this author books” and I was not disappointed. Jess and Laura are sisters, but you wouldn’t know it. They are polar opposites, Jess with the picture perfect life, perfect family and perfect blog and then Laura, a former “hippy chick” stuck in a job she doesn’t care for and a relationship that’s not going anywhere. When their mother dies they come together to confront past, deal with the loss of their mother and the cracks in their relationship. While there is a lot of toxic relationship culture in the book you can absolutely see that not everything is as perfect as it seems. The only downside for me was that as a reader I didn’t get the closure of the last big surprise at the end, it felt rushed, like she had to wrap it up quick and all those loose ends were tied without finishing the bow (so to speak). Overall it was a quick read, and something I might recommend to those who are dealing with less than perfect families.

I think this book is a truly excellent example of fiction for women that doesn't pander. It never feels like it's spoon-feeding you, and the characters are evocatively drawn and fully fledged. I loved the relationship between Laura and Jess, as an only child myself I almost always feel disconnected from sibling relationships in books, finding them either impossible to relate to or too idealized, but this felt like the perfect mix of realism and idealism. Nicola Gill is a fabulous author and I will happily devour any more her books I can get my hands on, this was my first introduction to her work after hearing great things and I can see why she's beloved. I laughed, I cried, I saw myself and the people I love in these women, and I will absolutely be re-reading this book. It's lovely and really special, if at some times bittersweet.

Very grateful to NetGalley, Avon Books UK, and Nicola Gill for this advance copy. I loved every moment.

Really good read. Would recommend to friends and family. I could sympathise with characters (important for any fiction novel!) and looked forward to picking it up and reading the next few chapters! Interesting plot line and a good ending. Will look out for more novels by the author. Thank you.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Avon Books UK for approving my request for this ARC.

We Are Family by Nicola Gill is about the strained relationship of two sisters. It explores how Laura and Jess reconcile with each other after their mother's death. This book focuses on the issues and the importance of family, so I requested it without a second thought. I like stories that are family oriented and this book did not disappoint me; I like its realistic plot, good narration, although the story slightly dragged.

The story is long and mundane, but I really like it because it was realistic. It focuses on the present time when Laura and Jess interact after their mother's death. It also contains a good amount of flashbacks, which give an insight into the reason for Laura's feelings towards her sister and mother. Other aspects that the plot focuses on are parenting issues, marital issues, digitization of companies etc. I particularly like how the book focuses on the theme of family and how it is explored through the feminine side of the family such as through sisters and mothers. The narrator provides an insight into a person struggles as a sister and as a mother to keep her relationships afloat. These aspects of the plot make the story relatable to the reader and make it easy for the reader to empathise with the characters, especially with their struggles as a family.

The narration is from a third person limited point of view. It solely covers Laura's side of the story and I did not mind it at all because it helps the reader understand why she does certain things and what she feels about the people around her. The other characters are solely seen through Laura's perspective so you would expect them to have very limited character development, but Gill has nicely built those characters so there is enough space for them to grow in Laura's story. This narration particularly allows the reader to understand why Laura is so distant from both her mother and her sister. Therefore, this point of view allowed for an efficient character development of Laura, which is important for the plot in order to understand why she is estranged from her mother and sister and what she has to get over in order to reconcile with Jess.

No matter how much the plot and its narration appealed to me, it still dragged. The mundanity and realistic nature of both elements appeased me a lot, but there were times it was just too much and I thought that that those parts deviated from the main action. This story could have been completed in less than four hundred pages because some things were unnecessary such as Jess' troller. If you're going to add a threatening troller, at least make it more dramatic; this problem quickly goes as it comes, so I feel that it was not needed. The slow development of the plot made this book a slow read for me, so this time, I do not blame myself for slow reading.

We Are Family by Nicola Gill is a heart warming book about how two sisters bond after years of being aloof. It has a sweet plot and a nice narration, which makes the story touch your heart so easily. Although, the plot drags a bit and it did not need to be overly mundane, it still is a good story. I recommend this story to brighten up anyone's dull quarantine days.

This is the story of Laura and Jess, two sisters who couldn’t be more opposite. Jess is the older sister with the perfect family, perfect life. Laura is the sister with a messier life. They lost their father when they were younger and most recently lost their mother so they find themselves together, having to deal with cleaning up their mother’s affairs. Their mother always favored Jess and never let a moment go by where she didn’t compare Laura to her. It always felt like a competition for Laura, one that she could never win. The book deals with grief and getting over the loss of parents - even when the loss has happened years ago. Slowly, the sisters begin to repair their relationship and realize they might be more alike than they thought.

I thought it was a great book and Nicola Gill does a great job of getting you to care about both sisters and you are invested from the beginning.

** Thanks to Avon Books and Netgalley for my advanced copy in exchange for this review.

This is a story of two sisters in the aftermath of their mother’s death. Jess is the overachiever whilst Laura seems to have lived in her shadow. I myself am also one of two children and could relate to feeling inferior to my older sibling but there weren’t really any other similarities between their sisterly relationship and my own so I struggled to connect to the pair.

I liked the flashback elements that provided context to their personalities and the relationship they share with one another. It was also interesting to see how grief affects them both with refreshing honesty from Laura’s point of view. I found myself relating to her more of the two as a fellow journalist but I found neither particularly likeable until the end, and also I found the “twist” and the issues in the story were predictable and resolved far too quickly

I enjoyed seeing Laura’s growth from allowing herself to be walked over to setting healthy boundaries and limits. Despite this I wasn’t overly invested in the characters and felt as if specific characters were overly sold as “you’re meant to dislike them” rather than subtly implying it or allowing you to form your own judgment.

There were lots of timely references like nods to Queer Eye which whilst appropriate now will feel a little forced later down the line. I expected to like this a lot more than I did.