To Know You - Shannon Ethridge, Kathryn Mackel

Julia Whittaker lives a good life running a boutique wedding planning business with her husband Matt.  Even as they share their success, however, not all is well.  Their son, Dillon, has suffered from a liver disease that requires a transplant, and time is running out to find a donor.  Every person in their lives that has been willing to be tested has not been a match, and their options are almost out.  Except for the option of locating Julia's two daughters who were born out of wedlock within 18 months of each other to different fathers and each given up for adoption before Dillon was born.  Can Julia face the risk of seeking out her daughters for her son's sake?  Will they be willing to even meet with her, much less hear her out and be willing to be tested for a surgery to help a brother they've never known?  What about their new families and all of the twists and turns that this will cause in relationships with siblings, adoptive parents, birth parents and more?

While I've read several books where a previous child given up for adoption turns up out of nowhere to wreak havoc on a "stable" marriage, this was a turn on the adoption story that I'd not read before.  Julia had been upfront with her husband about her past, and he knew that there were daughters, and the men who'd fathered them, in Julia's past life.  Her love for Dillon, her fear of his dying, but the risk of opening herself up to these daughters she'd loved enough to let go of was an interesting storyline that worked pretty well.  How do you get someone to agree to something this big when you've had no relationship established in the past?  How quickly can you find common ground to relate to each other on when every day could be the last day to make the decision?  Although some things happened perhaps a little too quickly for real life (would anyone just jump on a private jet with the "mom" you'd just met, to fly across the country?), for the most part, people's reactions and emotions were realistic.  There were a lot of tangled knots to work through, and they were handled fairly thoroughly.  There was a side plot with Julia's second daughter that I wasn't entirely sure needed to be in the storyline, but it did draw the characters together and further their relationships.  It felt like it was there for the shock value, though, and may be tough for some readers to handle.

I give this book 3.5 stars.  I wish that I'd read it before Veil of Secrets, but even still, it was enjoyable and I didn't feel like I knew *too* much of what was going to happen.

You can find To Know You HERE.
You can find Shannon Ethridge's site HERE.
You can find Kathryn Mackel's site HERE.

I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher, in exchange for my honest review.