Released: August 9, 2011
Thomas Nelson
ISBN13: 9780849946448
2.5/5 Stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
An intimate family memoir written by a mother on the adoption process.
Following the invisible thread of connection between people who are seemingly intended to become family, journalist Jennifer Grant shares the deeply personal, often humorous story of adopting a fifteen-month-old girl from Guatemala when she was already the mother of three very young children.
Her family's journey is captured in stories that will encourage not only adoptive families but those who are curious about adoption or whose lives have been indirectly touched by it. Love You More explores universal themes such as parenthood, marriage, miscarriage, infertility, connection, destiny, true self, failure and stumbling, and redemption.
Those of you who have been following my blog for a while, know that I occasionally review Christian living and Christian fiction books as well.
I requested Love You More to review because adoption is something I've been interested in for a long time, and hope to be involved with personally in the future. And this book sounded like it would be such a touching read.
And parts of it were beautiful, and utterly moving but as a whole, I was disappointed with the book.
I appreciated Jennifer Grant's honesty in writing, as she fully acknowledges that adoption is difficult and that it is not for everyone. She continually emphasizes the idea that adoption is for people who are passionate about it and excited by the idea of it.
But when it came to the actual storytelling, it felt like something was lacking. The beginning chapters seemed to jump around a fair amount chronologically, which made it difficult to follow the order of events and took away from the natural reading flow of the book.
And similarily, those earlier chapters contained significant amounts of background information and stories. I was expecting more details about the actual adoption process and the aftermath of adopting Mia, rather than a (rather slow) build up that seemed to be filled with disconnected stories.
In that aspect, I was disappointed. The ending did contain more details about the process and how Mia and Grant's family adapted to living together, and those were my favourites parts by far. But there just didn't seem to be enough of them.
Copy received from BookSneeze in exchange for my honest review; no other compensation was received.
2 comments:
I also read this book, and I wanted to respond to your comments. I didn't think the beginning "jumped around." She states at the beginning of the book that she adopted a child, but then takes you back to the beginning of that process.
You said you wanted more details about "the actual adoption process" but really, adoption begins way before the paperwork starts getting filled out. That, I think, was the author's point.
She writes about how they slowly built their family culture--valuing each child, parenting as a team, integrating their faith with their daily living. She talks about how they prepared their children for adopting their little sister, involved them in the process. These are the small but absolutely essential steps that a family must take before they ever begin the adoption process.
I think Love You More is great resource for anyone contemplating becoming a parent, whether via adoption or birth.
It's a well-told, beautifully-written story of what it really means to be a family.
Hi Keri, thanks for you rcomment!
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it! The part I was referring to that jumped around only took place at the beginning when she discussed the time period before she started the official adoption process. Primarily when Grant was retelling stories of her young adulthood and when she had her own children.
And yes, I completely agree with you that adoption starts well before the paperwork. What I disliked about the book was what I found to be a lack of balance between a description of the period before the official process and the official process itself and aftermath.
I think it's worth a read for a few of its gems that I mentioned in my review for people interested in adoption- I don't regret reading it simply for those insights that were appreciated. But like I said in my review, I was disappointed by it overall.
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