JOANNE (joann) - , reviewed on 10/16/2018 + 412 more book reviews

The Richardsons live in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland and a very "planned and ordered" neighborhood. Colors, lawns, roads, etc are all perfectly done. Elena (Mom) is the ultimate embodiment of everything that Shaker Heights entails. She is a journalist and her four children, Trip, Lexie, Moody & Izzy attend the local schools, which are "perfect".
Enter Mia and Pearl Warren. They are the newest tenants of Elena's two family house in the area, just not as close to their home as is comfortable.
Mia & Pearl have been a wandering pair. Mia is an artist and goes with the creative flow. Pearl is an intelligent free spirit.
The Richardson children become friendly with Pearl and really fall in love with her and her more free-spirited personality. Then they get to know Mia, and learn to love her just as much.
Then a friend of Elena's adopts an Oriental child who was abandoned at a fire station. This is when the riff between the Richardson's and the Warren's begins to unfold.

This is a good, soft story. You are inclined to feel comfortable with all characters. Celeste Ng certainly makes you feel all sides of this story and all the ways that the characters are feeling.

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