To Know You Book Review

SUMMARY:  Julia Whittaker's rocky past yielded two daughters, both given up for adoption as infants.  Now she must find them to try to save her son.
     Julia and Matt Whittaker's son has beaten the odds for thirteen years only to have the odds - and his liver- crash precipitously.  The only hope for his survival is a "living liver" transplant, but the transplant list is long and Dillon's time is short.  His two older half-sisters, born eighteen months apart to two different fathers, offer his only hope for survival.
     But can Julia ask a young woman - someone she surrendered to strangers long ago and has never spoken with - to make such a sacrifice to save a brother she's never known?  Can she muster the courage to journey back into a shame-filled season of her life, face her choices and their consequences, and find any hope of healing?
     And what if she discovers in her own daughters' lives that a history of foolish choices threatens to repeat itself?
     Julia knows she's probably embarking on a fool's errand - searching for the daughters she abandoned only now that she needs something from them.  But love compels Julia to take this journey.  Can grace and forgiveness compel her daughters to join her?
     In To Know You, Shannon Ethridge and Kathryn Mackel explore how the past creates the present ... and how even the most shattered lives can be redeemed.

REVIEW:  This book is very interesting.  The idea of having to go to the daughters you gave up at birth and ask them to help the child you kept is a hard decision to make but one Julia and her husband decide to do.  I like how the authors did not gloss over the difficult parts but shows the readers that we all have choices and, sometimes, we have to face difficult consequences.  Some parts were harder to read than most because of the emotions involved and the choices that were made when you knew they were the wrong ones.
     When I first started reading this book, I had some difficulty following at times because of all the different characters involved with their own story lines and background information.  But, as I continued reading, following everything became a little easier.  The ending was not what I expected but I loved it.  One of the problems that occurred during a visit to one of the girls' fathers seemed to be "wrapped up" too neatly as an afterthought.  That said, this was a great book and I am definitely interested in reading the next book.

This book was provided by Litfuse Publicity Group for review without compensation.

Shannon Ethridge is a best-selling author, international speaker, and certified life coach with a master's degree in counseling/human relations from Liberty University.  She has spoken to college students and adults since 1989 and is the author of twenty books, including the million-copy best-selling Every Woman's Battle series.  She is a frequent guest on TV and radio programs, and she mentors aspiring writers and speakers through her online B.L.A.S.T Program (Building Leaders, Authors, Speakers & Teachers).

Kathy Mackel is the acclaimed author of Can of Worms and other novels for middle readers from Putnam, HarperCollins, and Dial.  Her latest book, Boost, tackles the thorny issue of steroids and girls' sports.  Writing as Kathryn Mackel, she is the author of the YA fantasy series The Birthright Books and of supernatural thrillers including the Christy finalist The Hidden.  She was the credited screenwriter for Disney's Can of Worms and for Hangman's Curse, and has worked for Disney, Fox, and Showtime.