The Search for Us

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I did not expect to cry reading this book but it's just so beautifully written and you get so attached to the characters—it's hard not to get emotionally drawn into the story.

Let's start with the fact that this book at first glance may seem like a romance novel based on the cover but once you read that synopsis, you realize it's not and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! This story follows Samira and Henry, half-siblings that find each other through a DNA test in the hopes of locating their biological father. There is a heavy focus on culture, identity, and family; and what I really enjoyed was reading almost this coming-of-age with a heavy focus on the familial relationships, bonds, and sacrifices. Both Samira and Henry are making individual sacrifices to their families and it was absolutely poetic seeing how they overcome them. I enjoyed reading a story packed with so much Iranian culture; the language, the food, the family dynamics—it was all threaded into the story really well.

Miss Susan Azim Boyer does the dual perspective so well!! Samira and Henry both have A LOT going on in their lives and they both have their own struggles making both of the perspectives so interesting to read.

This story expertly weaves together the individual siblings stories into one; all of them converging with the sheer fact that they want to fill the hole that their father left and with a premise like that...cmon I am obviously going to cry.