Can't-Wait Wednesday: Relative Strangers - Paula Garner

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I can't wait for Relative Strangers by Paula Garner!

Relative Strangers
Paula Garner

Series: n/a
Release Date: April 10, 2018

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Waited on by: Sam

Goodreads

Why is there a gap in Jules’s baby album? A wry and poignant coming-of-age novel about finding the truth in lies, salvaging hope in heartbreak, and making peace with missing pieces.

Eighteen-year-old Jules has always wished for a close-knit family. She never knew her father, and her ex-addict mother has always seemed more interested in artistic endeavors than in bonding with her only daughter. Jules’s life and future look as flat and unchanging as her small Illinois town. Then a simple quest to find a baby picture for the senior yearbook leads to an earth-shattering discovery: for most of the first two years of her life, Jules lived in foster care. Reeling from feelings of betrayal and with only the flimsiest of clues, Jules sets out to learn the truth about her past. What she finds is a wonderful family who loved her as their own and hoped to adopt her — including a now-adult foster brother who is overjoyed to see his sister again. But as her feelings for him spiral into a devastating, catastrophic crush — and the divide between Jules and her mother widens — Jules finds herself on the brink of losing everything.

I have so much love for Phantom Limbs! This was one of my top 2016 reads, and when I saw we were getting another Paula Garner book, I may have reacted like this:

Relative Stangers sounds like it will deliver a similar type of experience for me. The synopsis eludes to a shocking discovery, joy, and pain. I am also sensing that there may be a delicious amount of drama in this one too. Let's look at what we know:

• Dad is MIA
• Mom is self-absorbed and a former addict
• Jules feels trapped in her dead-end town
• She discovers she lived with another family when she was a baby
• She reunites with her foster-brother, and sort of falls for him

All I know is that Garner knows how to craft amazing characters, and I can't wait to meet Jules. 

Are you feeling it? I have already bought into the entire premise of this book, so bring it on!

What are you waiting on?

Let us know in the comments!