I read this for a challenge. Otherwise, I wouldn't have finished it.
I liked the family aspect and little Tat. She was adorable. The narrator, Ed Sala, did a wonderful job with the material he was given. He was very engaging and helped keep my interest at least somewhat attached.
The story was hard to follow because of all the jumps through time in this family's life journey—from the parents' first meeting to the children's growing up to the present with the grandchild. These many time frames (several within each generation) made it nearly impossible to follow the details.
There was a lot of junk I'd never want a teenager or younger (or even myself) to have to read (and that added absolutely nothing to the plot): expletives, nudity, profanity, pre-marital sex (by several characters, one of whom was thirteen), crudity, and evolution. There was at least one mention of tobacco products.
I thought the premise sounded interesting, but overall, the story fell far short of the expectations I had from that blurb, even knowing it was general market. Surprisingly, there was a bit of a faith thread, but that felt so out of place with the boatload of junk that was thrust into the story.
Besides needing this book for a challenge, what kept me reading was the mystery angle. That part was written very well. Little tidbits of clues and answers kept coming at just the right moments to keep me interested enough to keep on keeping on with this one. The mystery being so well done is the reason I didn't one-star this book.
