The Family You Make

A Novel

by Jill Shalvis

Readers who enjoy an involving story with characters that have some complexity should give this women’s fiction title a look. I very much enjoyed it.

Ms. Shalvis drew this reader in immediately. The first chapter of the book evoked strong feelings in me. Levi and Jane are stuck in a gondola (way high up) during a major weather event. I was almost literally trembling for them even though I knew that an author would not kill her main characters at the beginning of a novel. Still, I felt the cold, the shaking of the car, the fear of death and the relief when feet were again on the ground (just where I like mine to be!)

From this opening the author goes on to create a story with people about whom I cared. A few of them are:

Jane:…