We Are the Brennans
Fiction
Celadon Books
August 3, 2021
Advance reader copy
288
Free from publisher
When twenty-nine-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital, bruised and battered after a drunk driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. But it's not easy. She deserted them all—and her high school sweetheart—five years before with little explanation, and they've got questions.
Sunday is determined to rebuild her life back on the east coast, even if it does mean tiptoeing around resentful brothers and an ex-fiancé. The longer she stays, however, the more she realizes they need her just as much as she needs them. When a dangerous man from her past brings her family's pub business to the brink of financial ruin, the only way to protect them is to upend all their secrets—secrets that have damaged the family for generations and will threaten everything they know about their lives. In the aftermath, the Brennan family is forced to confront painful mistakes—and ultimately find a way forward, together.
This book was compared to Ask Again Yes, and while I don't usually take much stock in those (think of the myriad misses with Gone Girl wannabes), I think in this case I can definitely see it. Both books deal with families, and the fallout of secrets within them. In the case of this book, the big question is why Sunday Brennan ran away from her family five years ago, and has had minimal contact since? Now she's back to help her brothers with their families' Irish pub, and Sunday isn't the only one with a secret. I loved the family drama in this book, and the characters were well written and seemed authentic. The youngest sibling has a disability, and I always appreciate a book that can be inclusive like that. Of course the Irish pub was fun to read about, especially given the behind the scenes look we have of the day to day running operations, and the fact that it was located in a place where I worked for a time. I thought the family dynamic was well portrayed, everyone was flawed, but they didn't want to talk to each other about their problems. The chapters were well set up, each one narrated by one of the characters. As a chapter ended, the person interacting with the narrator, takes up the next chapter, leading to the perfect segue between them, and providing a seamless reading experience. I definitely found myself rooting for this family, even though lots of communications mistakes are made along the way.
Just an enjoyable family drama, set amidst the running of a pub in New York. This one has relatable characters, and the hope that things work out for all in the end.
