Another Piece of My Heart

January 2, 2012
In New York Times bestseller Green’s latest (after Promises to Keep), Andi faces the difficult decision of remaining in a marriage that is being ripped apart by husband Ethan’s rebellious teen daughter, Emily. Though the wedding happened five years ago, Emily hasn’t accepted her father’s remarrying and repeatedly starts fights at home that have brought Andi to the breaking point. Emily’s rage is further fueled by drinking, drugs, and reckless casual sex, so her pregnancy comes less as a surprise than as the final straw for this floundering family. Andi’s love for Ethan and his younger daughter, Sophia, coupled with her desire for a big family and her identity as a mother, have kept Andi in the marriage, but each day Emily tears away another piece of Andi’s heart. Andi can’t break through her own upbringing and generational ties to understand what’s behind Emily’s backlashes and bad choices. Though Andi and Emily are both highly self-involved, making it difficult to like either of them, Green finds honesty in their alternating voices. 250,000 first printing. Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, WME.

January 15, 2012
Married Bay Area woman tries to overcome a fraught relationship with her troubled teenage stepdaughter. Mr. Right can come with big-time baggage, and that is certainly the case for interior designer Andi. Already in her late 30s when she meets and falls for divorced dad Ethan, Andi wants nothing more than to start a family of her own with him. A doting father to his two young daughters, Sophia and Emily, Ethan shares custody of them with his ex-wife Janice, a bitter, unreliable alcoholic. Sophia, ten year's old when the story begins, adores her cool new stepmom, but 17-year-old goth princess Emily is a different story. A master of manipulation and histrionics, Emily sees Andi as a major threat in a battle for Ethan's love. She manages to twist her overly permissive dad around her little finger--to Andi's dismay--and acts out by experimenting with drugs and sex. Struggling with fertility issues, Andi is secretly thrilled, though, when Emily is revealed to be 7 months pregnant from one of her random hookups. Hoping that Emily will give the child to her and Ethan, she is then crushed when Ethan insists Emily give it up for adoption. Emily has other plans, of course, and gives birth to a healthy boy, Callum. But motherhood turns out to be more than she can handle, and she runs off to Portland. Andi is left to raise Cal as her own for three happy years, knowing in the back of her mind that Emily might someday return. Away from home, Emily gets a job on an organic farm and manages to clean up her act. She also repairs her relationship with Janice, who has stopped drinking, and reconnects with her childhood pal Michael, who has grown into quite a hunk. The two of them decide to move back to Mill Valley, with Emily insisting to an ecstatic Ethan and a skeptical Andi that she only wants to be a part of Cal's life. But does she mean it, and has she really changed? Green (Promises to Keep, 2010, etc.) ramps up the emotional stakes by presenting both Andi and Emily's points of view, even as her prose is a bit on the dull and repetitive side. Topical family melodrama.

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Starred review from December 1, 2011

In her latest, Green (Promises To Keep; Dune Road) takes a clear-eyed look at our idealized notions of love, family, and motherhood. Marriage-minded Andi, at the age of 37, finally meets the man of her dreams. Ethan is divorced with two daughters, but Andi is thrilled to become part of Emily and Sophia's lives. Through her own immaturities and insecurities, Emily works hard to drive a wedge between her stepmother and father, causing resentments within the family. Matters intensify when the teenaged Emily becomes pregnant, and Andi realizes that the chances of having her own child are dwindling as Ethan's desire wanes. How can Andi put her own wishes and dreams aside while enduring Emily's vitriol? VERDICT Green is at her finest with this compelling novel. Deeper, more complicated, and more ambitious than her previous books, it will keep readers on edge as they wait to see how these tense family dynamics play out. [250,000-copy first printing; library marketing; see Prepub Alert, 9/23/11.]--Anne M. Miskewitch, Chicago P.L.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2011
An angry teen pushes her family to the breaking point in ever-popular Green's (Promises to Keep, 2010) new novel. Emily is enraged when her father, Ethan, decides to marry beautiful, sophisticated Andi. Even though Ethan has been divorced from her alcoholic mother, Janice, for years, Emily can't get over her anger, or her loathing of Andi. Andi makes every effort to befriend Emily, but the teen continues to find ways to blame Andi for her problems and come between Ethan and Andi. After five years with Ethan, Andi's patience is running thin, and she's beginning to wonder if sustaining the marriage is really best for her. When Emily's reckless actions come back to haunt her, Andi sees a chance to help her stepdaughter and give her marriage with Ethan a fresh start. When Ethan rejects her plan, however, Andi must make a choice: stay and feel resentful, or throw in the towel for good. Told with her trademark sensitivity and insight, Green's latest offers everything readers expect from her: a moving story peopled with nuanced, sympathetic characters. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A 250,000 first print run, national tour, and major broadcast and online publicity will make this best-selling Green's most visible book yet.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)