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The Ones Who Matter Most
From the acclaimed author of Splinters of Light and Pack Up the Moon comes a beautiful novel about two very different women who are about to get a second chance at creating a family...
After her husband dies unexpectedly, Abby Roberts comes across something wedding photographs of him with another woman, along with pictures of a baby boy. Shocked, Abby does something utterly She embarks on a journey to discover the family her husband apparently left behind.
Money has always been tight for single mom Fern Reyes, and never tighter than now. But this month, in place of a child-support check, her ex's pretty, privileged wife appears on her doorstep with far too many questions. Unfortunately, her young son is so taken with Abby that Fern doesn’t have the heart to send her away.
What begins as one woman’s search for truth becomes a deep bond forged between the unlikeliest of people, and the discovery that there are many ways to make a family—as long as you take care...
CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED
After her husband dies unexpectedly, Abby Roberts comes across something wedding photographs of him with another woman, along with pictures of a baby boy. Shocked, Abby does something utterly She embarks on a journey to discover the family her husband apparently left behind.
Money has always been tight for single mom Fern Reyes, and never tighter than now. But this month, in place of a child-support check, her ex's pretty, privileged wife appears on her doorstep with far too many questions. Unfortunately, her young son is so taken with Abby that Fern doesn’t have the heart to send her away.
What begins as one woman’s search for truth becomes a deep bond forged between the unlikeliest of people, and the discovery that there are many ways to make a family—as long as you take care...
CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED
432 pages, Paperback
First published April 5, 2016
11 people are currently reading
543 people want to read
About the author
Rachael Herron
54 books898 followersUnofficial bio: Rachael eats way too many Cadbury Creme eggs, no matter time of year it is. She lives with a menagerie, and battles dog hair on a full-time basis. She's a Knitter with a capital-K, and she reads WAY more than she'd ever even think about exercising.
Official bio: Rachael Herron (RH Herron) is the internationally bestselling author of more than two dozen books, including thriller, mainstream fiction, feminist romance, memoir, and nonfiction about writing. She received her MFA in writing from Mills College, Oakland, and she teaches writing extension workshops at both UC Berkeley and Stanford. She is a proud member of the NaNoWriMo Writer’s Board. She’s a New Zealand citizen as well as an American.
Find her at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rachael.Herr...
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rachaelherron
Instagram: http://instagram.com/rachaelherron
Blog: http://rachaelherron.com/blog
Official bio: Rachael Herron (RH Herron) is the internationally bestselling author of more than two dozen books, including thriller, mainstream fiction, feminist romance, memoir, and nonfiction about writing. She received her MFA in writing from Mills College, Oakland, and she teaches writing extension workshops at both UC Berkeley and Stanford. She is a proud member of the NaNoWriMo Writer’s Board. She’s a New Zealand citizen as well as an American.
Find her at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rachael.Herr...
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rachaelherron
Instagram: http://instagram.com/rachaelherron
Blog: http://rachaelherron.com/blog
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
March 25, 2016
This is yet another lovely book by Rachael Herron. Emotional awkwardness that leaves you wondering at the end. The story isn't complete but the book is. I understood all these characters. They are real people to me as I've met these people in my own life. Touching and loving with a huge dish of confusion thrown in. Real emotions that real people can understand.
April 12, 2016
What I love most about Rachael Herron's books (and I love a lot about them, have read every single one thankyouverymuch) is the undeniable generosity and empathy she has for her characters. They live, they breathe, they love, they fuck up, and it's all utterly real and compelling on the page. The Ones Who Matter Most explores friendship, family, and loss in exactly this spirit of clear-eyed compassion that I've come to expect from Herron. It's lovely, satisfying reading.
February 26, 2018
Sigh. I loved this.
The best book I’ve read from Rachael Herron. I loved the characters. I loved their lives and their troubles and their angst and their love. A SUPERB read.
The best book I’ve read from Rachael Herron. I loved the characters. I loved their lives and their troubles and their angst and their love. A SUPERB read.
April 11, 2016
Abby Roberts is beyond infuriated when she discovers that her husband, Scott, had a vasectomy after she had three miscarriages. After uttering four words to him, he slams into the bathroom when Abby hears a crash and then silence. Ten minutes later, Scott is dead, the victim of a massive heart attack. The feelings that race through Abby’s heart and head in the days that follow defy description.
Imagine her shock anew when she finds pictures that reveal Scott was once married to Fern and had a son, Mattie. So she does what very few women would have done; she sets out to Fern’s home. The initial reception is cool and awkward indeed, ending with an invitation to Fern and Mattie to attend Scotts funeral and cremation. Here begins a story fraught with ambivalence, suspicion, anger, neediness, rejection and acceptance.
Fern drives a public bus for a living but can barely pay her bills and now without Scott’s child support she’s in a desperate situation. She has overwhelmingly mixed feelings about Abby and surely doesn’t understand why Abby wants to get to know Mattie better. Mattie, however, gradually will warm up to Abby, but Fern is determined that Abby will never have her son’s total loyalty and devotion as much as she does.
The essence of this unusual story is the tormented journey both Abby and Fern must experience that is really more about grieving for Scott and the past and learning to trust again. Abby seems a more generous, forgiving character but she also is financially safe enough that she’s not as worn out with fear and apprehension about the future. Both women have been betrayed and still have feelings for Scott which they must work through. Eventually, the bond they forge is unbreakable and both become open to new possibilities with men and their place in the larger work world.
Rachel Herron does a superb job of crafting a tense, volatile story with just enough tenderness to keep both women from eternal bitterness, choosing instead to embrace trust. It’s about allowing relationships that normally would never develop to go where they must. Romance, mystery and hope will rule the day after one can let go of the past enough to bloom like those flowers and plants that Abby so naturally grows and nurtures into birth. Very nicely done, Rachel Herron!
Imagine her shock anew when she finds pictures that reveal Scott was once married to Fern and had a son, Mattie. So she does what very few women would have done; she sets out to Fern’s home. The initial reception is cool and awkward indeed, ending with an invitation to Fern and Mattie to attend Scotts funeral and cremation. Here begins a story fraught with ambivalence, suspicion, anger, neediness, rejection and acceptance.
Fern drives a public bus for a living but can barely pay her bills and now without Scott’s child support she’s in a desperate situation. She has overwhelmingly mixed feelings about Abby and surely doesn’t understand why Abby wants to get to know Mattie better. Mattie, however, gradually will warm up to Abby, but Fern is determined that Abby will never have her son’s total loyalty and devotion as much as she does.
The essence of this unusual story is the tormented journey both Abby and Fern must experience that is really more about grieving for Scott and the past and learning to trust again. Abby seems a more generous, forgiving character but she also is financially safe enough that she’s not as worn out with fear and apprehension about the future. Both women have been betrayed and still have feelings for Scott which they must work through. Eventually, the bond they forge is unbreakable and both become open to new possibilities with men and their place in the larger work world.
Rachel Herron does a superb job of crafting a tense, volatile story with just enough tenderness to keep both women from eternal bitterness, choosing instead to embrace trust. It’s about allowing relationships that normally would never develop to go where they must. Romance, mystery and hope will rule the day after one can let go of the past enough to bloom like those flowers and plants that Abby so naturally grows and nurtures into birth. Very nicely done, Rachel Herron!
March 9, 2016
Abby is a new widow, with somewhat conflicted feelings. She had recently discovered that after her third miscarriage, Scott had had a vasectomy, while continuing to pretend they were seriously trying for a child. Feeling hurt and betrayed, she had just told him she wanted a divorce.
He walked away, went into the bathroom, and died of an aneurysm.
Fern is a struggling single mother of an eleven-year-old boy. Her husband, Matty's father, left her, simply left without a word, a couple of hours after Matty was born. She works as a bus driver, and scrimps to pay the mortgage on her home. Her ex's father, Wyatt, chose his grandson over his son, and he and his girlfriend Elva live with her and Matty, and pay rent, which helps make ends meet. The checks her ex has been sending also make a significant difference.
Fern's ex was Abby's husband, Scott.
Abby didn't know Fern and Matty existed; she finds out going through Scott's papers after his death. Scott had also told her that his father was dead.
And Abby feels guilty and angry that Scott left everything to her and nothing to his son and ex-wife, while Fern resents anything that even vaguely looks like charity.
Abby and Fern are in for a rocky ride over the next few months, coping with Scott's death, his lies, and their mutual discovery of each other. Abby still badly wants a family; Fern jealously guards the safety and privacy of her own little family.
This is an interesting, complicated, thoroughly modern family, finding its way to healing as both women are broken out of their comfort zones and forced to deal not only with each other, but with their separate insecurities. I found it very compelling.
Recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
He walked away, went into the bathroom, and died of an aneurysm.
Fern is a struggling single mother of an eleven-year-old boy. Her husband, Matty's father, left her, simply left without a word, a couple of hours after Matty was born. She works as a bus driver, and scrimps to pay the mortgage on her home. Her ex's father, Wyatt, chose his grandson over his son, and he and his girlfriend Elva live with her and Matty, and pay rent, which helps make ends meet. The checks her ex has been sending also make a significant difference.
Fern's ex was Abby's husband, Scott.
Abby didn't know Fern and Matty existed; she finds out going through Scott's papers after his death. Scott had also told her that his father was dead.
And Abby feels guilty and angry that Scott left everything to her and nothing to his son and ex-wife, while Fern resents anything that even vaguely looks like charity.
Abby and Fern are in for a rocky ride over the next few months, coping with Scott's death, his lies, and their mutual discovery of each other. Abby still badly wants a family; Fern jealously guards the safety and privacy of her own little family.
This is an interesting, complicated, thoroughly modern family, finding its way to healing as both women are broken out of their comfort zones and forced to deal not only with each other, but with their separate insecurities. I found it very compelling.
Recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
April 25, 2016
"The Ones Who Matter Most" is the story of Abby who wants freedom from her husband. When he dies suddenly, Abby realizes how much she didn't know about him and how much he had hidden. He had an entire family that Abby knew nothing about. Fern and Matias were abandoned and have always been jealous of the other woman: Abby. When Abby forcible inserts herself into their lives, they are shaken. This is a story of family and secrets. Sometimes family is not the ones we are born with but the ones we make.
Those in this book are put into some unthinkable circumstances. I loved both of the women main characters in this book: Abby and Fern. They are both very different. Abby is sort of a shrinking violet who doesn't have a lot of confidence. Fern is incredibly strong. These women will create a lot of friction between them. I loved how we see them change throughout the book. It was so interesting to see them go from butting heads to finding peace.
I was so intrigued by the story of these two families. The author does a really good job of giving us a lot of good detail about the characters without an information dump. I loved getting to know these characters. They will definitely stick with me for a really long time! I got so sucked into their story and could not wait to see how it all ended!
Those in this book are put into some unthinkable circumstances. I loved both of the women main characters in this book: Abby and Fern. They are both very different. Abby is sort of a shrinking violet who doesn't have a lot of confidence. Fern is incredibly strong. These women will create a lot of friction between them. I loved how we see them change throughout the book. It was so interesting to see them go from butting heads to finding peace.
I was so intrigued by the story of these two families. The author does a really good job of giving us a lot of good detail about the characters without an information dump. I loved getting to know these characters. They will definitely stick with me for a really long time! I got so sucked into their story and could not wait to see how it all ended!
June 7, 2016
In the hands of a lesser storyteller, Fern and Abby would be sterotypes whose love for the same man would be a cliche. What Rachael Herron does with the story of Abby and Fern is to show us conflicted, edgy characters who might never have met had Scott not died right after Abby told him she wanted a divorce. No, he had not been cheating on Abby - at least, not in the usual way. By having a vasectomy in secret, and refusing to adopt, he had cheated her of the child she desperately desired.
Abby's grief is burdened with additional shock when she goes through her husband's papers and learns that he had been married before, to Fern, and they had a son whom he has been supporting.
She and Fern do not meet cute. In fact, the reader despairs for both women - the struggling mother whose eccentric extended family (including Scott's father!) depends on her, and the grieving, lonely widow. Caught in the middle is Matty, whose talent and need for a stable family helps to break down the barriers between the women.
I loved the the blended family that Fern struggles to protect, and I loved Abby's basic generosity. Better yet - the plot includes knitting! Always a winner for me. I'd love to meet these characters again. Highly recommended. Thank you for the ARC, Goodreads!
Abby's grief is burdened with additional shock when she goes through her husband's papers and learns that he had been married before, to Fern, and they had a son whom he has been supporting.
She and Fern do not meet cute. In fact, the reader despairs for both women - the struggling mother whose eccentric extended family (including Scott's father!) depends on her, and the grieving, lonely widow. Caught in the middle is Matty, whose talent and need for a stable family helps to break down the barriers between the women.
I loved the the blended family that Fern struggles to protect, and I loved Abby's basic generosity. Better yet - the plot includes knitting! Always a winner for me. I'd love to meet these characters again. Highly recommended. Thank you for the ARC, Goodreads!
April 8, 2016
The Ones Who Matter Most is a perfect book club book. There is so much I want to discuss here.
The characters relationship is interesting. Fern is raising a child on her own and then poof the boy’s father’s new wife appears in their life. Abby, the ex’s new wife, and Matty, the son, start a relationship with Fern’s knowledge. It is a weird triangle that works well for everyone. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. There was no way a relationship like that would work, except it did. Their friendship made sense in a weird unique kind of way.
The storyline was amazing. I started the book, I read the words as fast as I could, and I just couldn’t stop turning the pages. The Ones Who Matter Most is phenomenal. It is a complicated blended family story. The characters are pushed to make things work for the happiness of a child. The child pulls the adults together and makes them act like adults. Rachael Herron has always written amazing stories and this one is no exception. I definitely recommend checking it out.
The characters relationship is interesting. Fern is raising a child on her own and then poof the boy’s father’s new wife appears in their life. Abby, the ex’s new wife, and Matty, the son, start a relationship with Fern’s knowledge. It is a weird triangle that works well for everyone. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. There was no way a relationship like that would work, except it did. Their friendship made sense in a weird unique kind of way.
The storyline was amazing. I started the book, I read the words as fast as I could, and I just couldn’t stop turning the pages. The Ones Who Matter Most is phenomenal. It is a complicated blended family story. The characters are pushed to make things work for the happiness of a child. The child pulls the adults together and makes them act like adults. Rachael Herron has always written amazing stories and this one is no exception. I definitely recommend checking it out.
August 4, 2016
Took this book along with me on a business trip which gave me lots of airport and airplane time to read. I finished the book before the last flight segment. The only hard part was keeping my tears in check while on the airplane. I hate to make a spectacle of myself in public. I really liked this book. The characters really rang true. The relationships seemed plausible. The kids acted like kids and the adults acted like adults. The families acted like families. And that's what the book was really about, where you find and how you create your family. For one woman, due to her background and her losses, she put up strong boundaries around the family she had. She had more than enough love for her family, but not enough to let anyone else in (or so she thought). The other woman so desperately wanted a family of her own that she came to equate lack of immediate relatives to some deficiency in her character. How these two women come together and how they become family is a really great journey and a great book.
July 30, 2016
In this novel, yet again, Rachael Herron has written about characters who are so three-dimensional that the reader is left bereft when the novel ends--I wanted to get to know them even more, to follow them further along their journeys! She is the queen of character, is what I'm trying to say. The characters are flawed, sometimes angry and ugly in their feelings, sometimes generous, compassionate and beautiful. You know, the way humans are. The story gripped me, and I felt such anguish and hope throughout. This book is about love, family, and trust, and I am so grateful it exists!
February 6, 2016
Yes, read the book in one day. It was a great read, well written and really made me think about some things in my life! What more could you ask from a book. Check out some of her other books as well.
August 9, 2017
I really enjoyed this book. I adore the "found family" trope, especially when the characters are all as wonderful as these characters are. It's a very sweet, heart-warming story, and although I wish the epilogue had dealt more with , I suppose the ambiguous ending allows me to come up with my own ending, and I choose the happy one. :)
I can't wait to try another of this writer's works!
I can't wait to try another of this writer's works!
September 20, 2022
Abby Roberts, after suffering three miscarriages, discovers that her husband went and got a vasectomy in secret. She asks him for a divorce, and he dies of a massive heart attack minutes later. His deception continues as she finds pictures of him with a secret wife and baby when she is cleaning out his desk. Her unexpected reaction to the situation leaves her with a found family and a new life she never expected. This was a touching story about flawed people that was relatable and very enjoyable.
March 12, 2018
I received a copy of this for free through Goodreads First Reads
This was a really good story. I only gave it 4 stars because Abby being totally neurotic took me out of the story sometimes. It could be a bit overwhelming. Overall really good though.
This was a really good story. I only gave it 4 stars because Abby being totally neurotic took me out of the story sometimes. It could be a bit overwhelming. Overall really good though.
January 22, 2019
Great book and premise. Would have rated 5 stars, however couldn't get the niggling thought that none of these people realized Social Security would have been available for the child. The story, however, was quite compelling.
I received this book free from Goodreads First Reads.
I received this book free from Goodreads First Reads.
May 30, 2017
couldn't finish
March 21, 2019
It was just ok. It wasn't very captivating and the ending left you hanging.
October 22, 2019
Heartwarming and hopeful story of love. I really enjoyed reading this book.
December 18, 2019
Lovely book!
April 30, 2020
I've been reading light romances during the shelter in place order. I like Rachael Herron's books because I can easily relate to the characters and they are fun. Perfect pandemic getaway.
June 3, 2021
Beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful, gripping. Rachel Herron does good book. Mt second (I’ve also read “Pack up the Moon”) and definitely not my last.
Loved it!
Loved it!
November 4, 2021
This is a lovely story. It is definitely "Women's Lit" which I don't read a lot of, but it is a great change of pace from "Thrillers". I plan to read other books by Rachael Herron.
January 2, 2022
Family often comes in unexpected ways. This charming book explores the twists and turns life can take to give a few people the family each has wished for.
April 1, 2022
Not sure how I ran across Herron's books but so glad I found this one. The characters seem real, it flows well and I just wanted to sit and read till I got it finished.
February 7, 2023
The usual R H magic! Families fracture and then coalesce into a functional mosaic.
October 29, 2024
Nice story about family (and their struggles) but very predictable. The characters didn’t really draw me in, they all seemed to keep me at bay, just like their characters in the book.
May 6, 2016
This is my second Rachael Herron book and I'm becoming quite the fan. The first book of Herron’s I read, SPLINTERS OF LIGHT, was one I really enjoyed, covering the delicate topic of Early Onset Alzheimers.
THE ONES WHO MATTER MOST will likely be a favorite of 2016 for me. Herron takes a story with an interesting plot and engages the reader from nearly the first page. This tale of friendship didn’t happen easily but the end result will have you grabbing a Kleenex and wishing you could have friends like Abby and Fern.
After her doctor lets it slip that her husband got a vasectomy behind her back, Abby decides it is time to get a divorce. Abby feels betrayed after months of trying to have a baby with no results. When Scott returns home from work, Abby tells him their marriage is over. He seems to be unaffected and goes upstairs to get ready for bed. What Abby finds instead, is her husband lying dead on the floor. In the ensuing days and weeks, Abby tries to understand her grief and despair over a husband she no longer wanted. She tries to grasp the idea of a lonely life ahead for her. With both her parents gone and a sister who died before she was even born, she truly has no family. Even though she has plenty of friends and her mom’s best friend, Kathleen, as an amazing mother figure, she feels alone. While going through her deceased husband’s desk, she finds a box full of photos of a woman and child she does not know. Her search reveals something so shocking about her husband that she must find the woman and child to know the whole truth.
Fern has been doing everything she can to get by while raising her son, Matty, and taking care of Elva and her father-in-law, Wyatt. Her salary as a city bus driver barely covers their expenses and she is one disaster away from losing everything she has worked so hard to establish. Then Abby shows up on her doorstep and Fern's life is turned upside down. Fern is a stubborn, independent, Hispanic single mother who isn't about to let a rich, skinny, white girl into her family's life. Herron creates conversations and characters so vividly that you can picture them in your mind while reading. There is a vast difference in the community that Fern lives in and Abby’s much more posh lifestyle. Their complete separation of class and culture makes it nearly impossible for them to see each other as anything but the enemy. But, as fate intervenes and walls crumble, Fern sees that keeping Abby out of their life isn’t in any of their best interests. Forces beyond her control show her that the definition of family isn't as narrow as she originally thought.
I haven’t read a story where I felt this engaged and invested in some time. I found myself truly frustrated over the character’s choices and emotional over others. I was a little put off by Herron’s racy details and felt they were unnecessary, but it seems that the explicit descriptions are the trend for today’s readers.
As you can imagine, Herron creates multi-dimensional characters that struggle, have fears, make bad decisions, have regrets, and forgive. They love hard and are hard to love. Both Abby and Fern are successful, strong, and independent in many ways, while weak and needy in others. Their friendship builds and crashes and rebuilds over the chapters and what develops is truly something I didn't predict. Even the secondary characters of Matty, Wyatt, and Fern’s brother, Diego, give depth to the story with compelling and honest reactions to Abby and Fern's choices. Herron's novel cultivates a friendship between two very unlikely sources. It’s messy and awkward and scary, but it will change your view of what it truly means to be part of a family.
Favorite Quote:
"It ached so much, opening like this.
Her chest creaked with it, and it was hard to remember the combination
to open the locks she'd put around her heart."
THE ONES WHO MATTER MOST will likely be a favorite of 2016 for me. Herron takes a story with an interesting plot and engages the reader from nearly the first page. This tale of friendship didn’t happen easily but the end result will have you grabbing a Kleenex and wishing you could have friends like Abby and Fern.
After her doctor lets it slip that her husband got a vasectomy behind her back, Abby decides it is time to get a divorce. Abby feels betrayed after months of trying to have a baby with no results. When Scott returns home from work, Abby tells him their marriage is over. He seems to be unaffected and goes upstairs to get ready for bed. What Abby finds instead, is her husband lying dead on the floor. In the ensuing days and weeks, Abby tries to understand her grief and despair over a husband she no longer wanted. She tries to grasp the idea of a lonely life ahead for her. With both her parents gone and a sister who died before she was even born, she truly has no family. Even though she has plenty of friends and her mom’s best friend, Kathleen, as an amazing mother figure, she feels alone. While going through her deceased husband’s desk, she finds a box full of photos of a woman and child she does not know. Her search reveals something so shocking about her husband that she must find the woman and child to know the whole truth.
Fern has been doing everything she can to get by while raising her son, Matty, and taking care of Elva and her father-in-law, Wyatt. Her salary as a city bus driver barely covers their expenses and she is one disaster away from losing everything she has worked so hard to establish. Then Abby shows up on her doorstep and Fern's life is turned upside down. Fern is a stubborn, independent, Hispanic single mother who isn't about to let a rich, skinny, white girl into her family's life. Herron creates conversations and characters so vividly that you can picture them in your mind while reading. There is a vast difference in the community that Fern lives in and Abby’s much more posh lifestyle. Their complete separation of class and culture makes it nearly impossible for them to see each other as anything but the enemy. But, as fate intervenes and walls crumble, Fern sees that keeping Abby out of their life isn’t in any of their best interests. Forces beyond her control show her that the definition of family isn't as narrow as she originally thought.
I haven’t read a story where I felt this engaged and invested in some time. I found myself truly frustrated over the character’s choices and emotional over others. I was a little put off by Herron’s racy details and felt they were unnecessary, but it seems that the explicit descriptions are the trend for today’s readers.
As you can imagine, Herron creates multi-dimensional characters that struggle, have fears, make bad decisions, have regrets, and forgive. They love hard and are hard to love. Both Abby and Fern are successful, strong, and independent in many ways, while weak and needy in others. Their friendship builds and crashes and rebuilds over the chapters and what develops is truly something I didn't predict. Even the secondary characters of Matty, Wyatt, and Fern’s brother, Diego, give depth to the story with compelling and honest reactions to Abby and Fern's choices. Herron's novel cultivates a friendship between two very unlikely sources. It’s messy and awkward and scary, but it will change your view of what it truly means to be part of a family.
Favorite Quote:
"It ached so much, opening like this.
Her chest creaked with it, and it was hard to remember the combination
to open the locks she'd put around her heart."
April 23, 2016
Previously reviewed on The Good, The Bad, and The Unread:
I have a sneaky love for books about women who are flung together by the actions of a man who wronged them, but then go on to work together and forge a new unit. I also like books that show how it is possible to choose your family as well as your friends, no matter that popular sayings might tell us otherwise. This book achieves both.
Abby is planning to leave her husband. Not because he’s feckless or conventionally unfaithful – to her knowledge – but because he’s lied to her about the issue closest to her heart. Abby has always wanted a family, preferably by biological means, but having miscarried several times, she’s prepared to opt for adoption. When he tries to talk her out of that plan, she decides to see if another pregnancy will be luckier than her previous ones – only to discover that he’s had a vasectomy without telling her. Abby confronts her husband; he storms out – and then drops dead from a heart attack.
Abby finds herself grieving for the man she was about to turn her back on, but when she starts clearing out his desk she discovers that he’d been married before, and has been paying child support for a son Abby never knew existed. Determined to clear up the mystery of yet another lie, Abby tracks down the woman, Fern, her son, Matty, and the father-in-law she’d always been told had died years before – plus a whole host of other people who aren’t quite family but might become one to her.
Abby and Fern come from very different backgrounds to each other, but I found it hard at times to connect to either of them. We’re told at various points how much Fern earns, and how much Abby is prepared to pay for various jobs she needs done – and also the amount of life insurance due to come to her – but none of the figures equated to anything I understand about what stuff costs. I just couldn’t seem to make the currency or background conversions in my head. Which is a shame, because other than that, I really enjoyed the story.
The characters are very well drawn, and their troubles – other than those involving actual sums of money – feel very real to me. I like the way people around Abby and Fern are drawn into their lives or force their way in against others’ better judgement. And Matty’s science project and his description of how everything came together are utterly delightful.
An author I’ll be keeping an eye out for in future.
I have a sneaky love for books about women who are flung together by the actions of a man who wronged them, but then go on to work together and forge a new unit. I also like books that show how it is possible to choose your family as well as your friends, no matter that popular sayings might tell us otherwise. This book achieves both.
Abby is planning to leave her husband. Not because he’s feckless or conventionally unfaithful – to her knowledge – but because he’s lied to her about the issue closest to her heart. Abby has always wanted a family, preferably by biological means, but having miscarried several times, she’s prepared to opt for adoption. When he tries to talk her out of that plan, she decides to see if another pregnancy will be luckier than her previous ones – only to discover that he’s had a vasectomy without telling her. Abby confronts her husband; he storms out – and then drops dead from a heart attack.
Abby finds herself grieving for the man she was about to turn her back on, but when she starts clearing out his desk she discovers that he’d been married before, and has been paying child support for a son Abby never knew existed. Determined to clear up the mystery of yet another lie, Abby tracks down the woman, Fern, her son, Matty, and the father-in-law she’d always been told had died years before – plus a whole host of other people who aren’t quite family but might become one to her.
Abby and Fern come from very different backgrounds to each other, but I found it hard at times to connect to either of them. We’re told at various points how much Fern earns, and how much Abby is prepared to pay for various jobs she needs done – and also the amount of life insurance due to come to her – but none of the figures equated to anything I understand about what stuff costs. I just couldn’t seem to make the currency or background conversions in my head. Which is a shame, because other than that, I really enjoyed the story.
The characters are very well drawn, and their troubles – other than those involving actual sums of money – feel very real to me. I like the way people around Abby and Fern are drawn into their lives or force their way in against others’ better judgement. And Matty’s science project and his description of how everything came together are utterly delightful.
An author I’ll be keeping an eye out for in future.
May 16, 2016
4.5 stars
Ah, yes. The secret family plotline. Always interesting to see how characters get themselves into these situations and how it affects those around them. Not surprisingly, it usually affects them PROFOUNDLY.
This can definitely be said for Abby Roberts. Not only does her husband up and die right in their bathroom, but he also has some very bony skeletons hanging in his closet. And poor, innocent Abby gets the brunt of his deception.
For whatever reason, Abby is purging stuff from the house before her husband, Scott, is even in the ground. To me, this seemed like a way-too-convenient way for her to find his dirt. But that’s fine and forgivable. What’s not forgivable is Scott’s abandonment of his first family and the fact that he kept them a secret from Abby. Abby feels compelled to find these people and while I’m not sure that would be the first thing on my agenda mere days after my husband passed, I can see how she’d be curious.
When she meets Fern (Scott’s ex-wife) and Matty (Scott’s son with Fern), Abby is immediately drawn to them and wants to make them her own. Desperate? For sure. But again, Abby has such an innocent side to her that her freaky stalkerism is slightly understandable.
Fern, on the other hand, is a hard core, no-one-leaves, no-one-gets-in kind of woman. She’s fiercely protective of her family and works her tail off providing for them. I could relate to her in this way and was happy when she opened herself up to Abby and Gregory. Although a very bumpy ride to get her there, it was a nice plotline of character growth.
Speaking of character growth: Ms. Herron did an outstanding job developing every one of the characters in this book, right down to the grumpy science teacher and Tulip the dog. I applaud her for that because in a book that could have been too “trope-y” in plot, it was the characters that really made this story sparkle. She also did a great job with scene descriptions and it was easy to put myself right in the room, or yard, or onto the bus with these “people.”
This is the first book of Rachael Herron’s that I’ve read, but it won’t be my last. I love her voice, and she nailed almost all of the dialogue. There were a few situations that were a little cliché or a little too convenient, but overall, the story had an excellent progression and was a well-balanced and highly enjoyable Women’s Fiction read. The Ones Who Matter Most easily gets 4.5 stars!
Ah, yes. The secret family plotline. Always interesting to see how characters get themselves into these situations and how it affects those around them. Not surprisingly, it usually affects them PROFOUNDLY.
This can definitely be said for Abby Roberts. Not only does her husband up and die right in their bathroom, but he also has some very bony skeletons hanging in his closet. And poor, innocent Abby gets the brunt of his deception.
For whatever reason, Abby is purging stuff from the house before her husband, Scott, is even in the ground. To me, this seemed like a way-too-convenient way for her to find his dirt. But that’s fine and forgivable. What’s not forgivable is Scott’s abandonment of his first family and the fact that he kept them a secret from Abby. Abby feels compelled to find these people and while I’m not sure that would be the first thing on my agenda mere days after my husband passed, I can see how she’d be curious.
When she meets Fern (Scott’s ex-wife) and Matty (Scott’s son with Fern), Abby is immediately drawn to them and wants to make them her own. Desperate? For sure. But again, Abby has such an innocent side to her that her freaky stalkerism is slightly understandable.
Fern, on the other hand, is a hard core, no-one-leaves, no-one-gets-in kind of woman. She’s fiercely protective of her family and works her tail off providing for them. I could relate to her in this way and was happy when she opened herself up to Abby and Gregory. Although a very bumpy ride to get her there, it was a nice plotline of character growth.
Speaking of character growth: Ms. Herron did an outstanding job developing every one of the characters in this book, right down to the grumpy science teacher and Tulip the dog. I applaud her for that because in a book that could have been too “trope-y” in plot, it was the characters that really made this story sparkle. She also did a great job with scene descriptions and it was easy to put myself right in the room, or yard, or onto the bus with these “people.”
This is the first book of Rachael Herron’s that I’ve read, but it won’t be my last. I love her voice, and she nailed almost all of the dialogue. There were a few situations that were a little cliché or a little too convenient, but overall, the story had an excellent progression and was a well-balanced and highly enjoyable Women’s Fiction read. The Ones Who Matter Most easily gets 4.5 stars!
July 1, 2016
Originally reviewed at Novel Escapes
The plot in The Ones Who Matter Most held some surprises from the beginning with Abby’s relationship with her husband and I really liked the strength that Rachael Herron strove for in her characters from the start. Abby was a woman who knew her mind, she may have been slightly nervous but her heart was certainly telling her that her marriage was over- she just wasn’t expecting any of the things that happened next.
I immediately liked Abby, she was obviously intelligent and determined but she was also a little bit flaky on daily life and organisation and her quirks made me warm to her. By contrast it took me a touch longer to warm to Fern as her very nature was a bit stand-off’ish. As her story comes out through the novel you can see why she’s guarded and careful. The link between the two women, though somewhat obvious, was actually still a surprise to me! I loved the way the author had Abby discover the relationship between Fern and her husband and let each detail out slowly over time. There were so many layers to uncover about their past and then the many intricacies of their becoming friends themselves spread out through the rest of the plot.
Each relationship in this book was poignant. The sweet bond between Fern and her son, the fun-loving relationship between Matty’s grandfather and his partner and the way Fern cares for them both, the sibling bond between Fern and her brother… the list of beautiful ties goes on and Abby becomes another link in their solid chain. I loved the intricacies of the bonds created by Rachael Herron.
Thank you to Penguin Random House for our review copy. All opinions are our own.
The plot in The Ones Who Matter Most held some surprises from the beginning with Abby’s relationship with her husband and I really liked the strength that Rachael Herron strove for in her characters from the start. Abby was a woman who knew her mind, she may have been slightly nervous but her heart was certainly telling her that her marriage was over- she just wasn’t expecting any of the things that happened next.
I immediately liked Abby, she was obviously intelligent and determined but she was also a little bit flaky on daily life and organisation and her quirks made me warm to her. By contrast it took me a touch longer to warm to Fern as her very nature was a bit stand-off’ish. As her story comes out through the novel you can see why she’s guarded and careful. The link between the two women, though somewhat obvious, was actually still a surprise to me! I loved the way the author had Abby discover the relationship between Fern and her husband and let each detail out slowly over time. There were so many layers to uncover about their past and then the many intricacies of their becoming friends themselves spread out through the rest of the plot.
Each relationship in this book was poignant. The sweet bond between Fern and her son, the fun-loving relationship between Matty’s grandfather and his partner and the way Fern cares for them both, the sibling bond between Fern and her brother… the list of beautiful ties goes on and Abby becomes another link in their solid chain. I loved the intricacies of the bonds created by Rachael Herron.
Thank you to Penguin Random House for our review copy. All opinions are our own.
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