Thank you so much to Kensington Books and Between the Chapters Book Club for the galley copy of Familia: A Riveting and Unforgettable Novel of Sisterhood by Lauren E. Rico. This was unputdownable and I was so frustrated when I had to stop to do one of the many seasonal to-dos on my list! This is a fascinating family story that unravels through the point of view of various characters, traveling back and forth in time. 

Gabby DiMarco lives in NYC and works as a fact checker for a popular magazine. To her, the facts are always right until the results of a genealogy test she took as part of a research article for work, call all the facts about her life into question. 

When Isabella Ruiz gets a notification from the online genealogy web site that she is a match for a woman known as Gabby, Isabella knows in her heart this is her sister who went missing 25 years ago from the streets of San Juan. But Gabby isn’t ready to believe this–this would mean that her wonderful life with her now deceased parents was a lie. Gabby agrees to come to Puerto Rico, insisting that there’s a mistake and the two women set out to find the truth. 

The story unfolds with many twists and turns that had me quickly turning pages, wanting to race to the end, but forcing myself to slow down because each character was so well drawn and fascinating in their own right. While I wanted to know the truth, I also did not want to miss any details. I love so much that I could see the humanity in each character–that I could see each one as a whole person, flaws and all. The descriptions of the island made for an immersive reading experience. This is available December 26, 2023 and I highly recommend this five star read. This would be an excellent choice for book clubs as well.