*Book source ~ A review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Fourteen-year-old Rachel Harris lives with her Professor dad and hippie mom in a NYC apartment until the day her mom runs off to Spain with the super, George Vasquez. Rachel’s mediocre life is turned upside down and she decides she needs to belong to a different family. A perfect family. She chooses the Butlers, but is any family ever perfect?
Very well-written this tale told from Rachel’s POV kept me interested and turning the pages if only to see what train wreck was around the corner. Rachel’s mom is definitely a flake and her dad is an alcoholic, but at least he holds down a job as a Math Professor at a local private school for the rich and privileged. However, how he handles Elizabeth’s defection earns my disgust. He has a kid who needs him and he’s totally selfish. Life after Elizabeth is up and down for Rachel so she decides she’s going to become a Butler since her classmates, Olive and Edwin Butler, seem to be the model of family perfection. She tries, but never comes close to succeeding in her quest. By the end she and her dad have survived and appear to have learned a thing or two about how to be a family even if it is just the two of them. All-in-all an enjoyable read.
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