Author: Naya Nikki
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: InkSpell Publishing (May 21st, 2012)
Get it: InkSpell Publishing
Goodreads Synopsis
Max West is a widower raising Phoebe, his four-year-old daughter. Phoebe has to live with the fact that the day she was born is also the day of her mother's death. As her fifth year without her mother approaches, Phoebe finds solace in her godmother, Amy Riley, and her daughter, Grace Crawford, another single parent family.
Amy Riley is a successful fashion designer who spends most of her days raising her four-year-old daughter, Grace, while her wayward boyfriend is traveling the world making the next best film. As the fifth year without her best friend looms, she finds comfort in her ex-boyfriend, Max, and his daughter, Phoebe.
These two “broken” families have a tough week to face as the dreaded day approaches. However, through their past, present and debatable future will their choices affect the outcome both parents clearly want and are simply denying? Or will Phoebe and Grace lose the only “whole” family they have ever known?
REVIEW
After the death of Max's wife, Anna, the day that his daughter was born, his life begins to start spiraling out of control. He isn't sure how he can raise their daughter alone and he misses his wife. But he wasn't really alone; Max had his best friend Amy helping him whether he realized it at the time or not.
Amy knew, more than anything, that she wanted to be a mother, and when her one-time best friend Anna died, she turned to her boyfriend, who was rarely ever home, for comfort. When she found out she was going to be a mother, it was the happiest day of her life. Unfortunately for Amy, Jack didn't feel the same way. For Jack, what was most important to him was following his dreams.
From the moment that Anna died, the tragedy brought Max and Amy closer together for the sake of both of their children. For whatever reasons though, neither one of them would admit how they really felt about the other. For Amy, it was primarily because she wanted what was best for her daughter, even if that was a father that rarely spent time with Grace and was thousands of miles away most of the time. She thought, for Grace's sake, that she needed to try to make things work with Jack.
Everything was going pretty well for both Max and Amy until Jack unexpected shows back up in their lives. When Jack realizes that Amy and Grace have feelings for Max beyond just simple friendship, he puts into motion efforts to win Amy over.
Familiar Ties is such a sweet, heart-warming story. I found myself reading it into the early morning hours in an attempt to get to the end quicker to find out what happens. The story goes back and forth between present and past events but are easy to follow along with. Just when I thought that a past event wouldn't be touched on, it was. I felt like most everything that you could want to know about Max and Amy's history together was told. About the only thing that I find myself still wondering about is what exactly happened to Anna. You know that Anna died on the day of Phoebe's birth, but it's never specifically stated that she died giving birth. They knew that Anna was at risk with the pregnancy but unless I just don't remember, I can't recall what exactly happened to her.
I found myself laughing out loud at times and crying at other times. I really enjoyed the interaction with the kids, and I could see an innocent child saying things like what you'll find in this book.
I have to say that even when things weren't going so well for Max or Amy, I envied their lives. The friendships they have, the loving family. I enjoyed being in their world for all the longer it took me to read the book. I can certainly see myself reading Familiar Ties again at some point.
Although there were some issues, overall it was a well written story, and I look forward to reading more from Naya Nikki.
** I received an eARC copy of the book from InkSpell Publishing for review.**
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