Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: A Family for Keeps 
SERIES: Stories Of Us #1
AUTHOR: Rheland Richmond
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 296 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 12, 2018
BLURB:
Tristan was devastated when his sister died. His only consolation was her newborn daughter. He promised to take care of her like she was his own, but he’s broken that promise.
After growing up in foster care, Nathaniel’s finally built the life he’s always wanted. Now one case of human error could tear it all apart.
An unthinkable mistake that could never be rectified. Two men. Absolute strangers until tragedy and unforeseen circumstances bind them together. They must now find a way to co-parent and make the best of a bad situation. With no shared history to help them and two little girls caught in the middle, they now have no choice but to make it work. What could possibly go wrong?
Can two men put their differences aside for the sake of their children? They both have difficult choices to make, or what they love most will be taken away.
Are there bonds stronger than blood?
REVIEW:
So, I ended up reading this series out of sequence. I had wanted to get the review for the second posted close to the release date, and knowing I would not have time to do reviews for both in that same week, decided to put this one off till I had an opening in my schedule. Luckily for me the two stories are only tangentially related and as a result my reading them out of order did not have any impact on my reading of the stories.
As a result I can also say that despite my (many) problems with this book, I did find that the author improved over the course of the two stories. The dialogue tends to be a lot more monology in this book, creating a sense of the characters talking at each other, instead of with. That does improve by the next book. So…yea for improvement! The dialogue itself is still rather wooden, though, with an annoying fondness for exclamation marks in place of scene building to show emotions in the characters.
As for the plot of the story. Oh boy. It is extremely basic. Tristan and Nathaniel’s kids get switched at the hospital days after their birth, and they don’t know until five years later when Nathaniel’s daughter get diagnosed with Adenoviral Hepatitis and it turns out that after testing him for a donor match Nathaniel is not her biological father. Nathaniel tracks down Tristan, who agrees to get tested since the girl is his sister’s daughter (his sister died shortly after her birth). The two then struggle to fit their two lives together since neither one of them wants to give up the child they have raised, but also want to stay in contact with their biological daughter/niece.
And I will admit that the premise sounds interesting. But it…oh dear lord, it was painfully boring. I am not someone who likes or wants kids. Having to sit thru page after page of these two guys rhapsodizing over their children, was so incredibly dull. I felt like I got cornered by a couple who wanted to show me pictures–all 8000 of them–of their children. It was an endless repetition of “my kid is so wonderful!” “my daughter is so smart!” “I will do anything for my smart, beautiful, amazing child and anyone who comes between them will pay!!!”
I cannot tell you how little I cared about any of that. The children didn’t feel in the least bit real. There was a sick, potentially to a life-threatening point, kid in this book and I can’t say I once felt anything for her. She was a prop to get these two guys together, that was it.
The two main characters were also way too similar. Case and point…I have now had to go back and switch the names in this review three times because I keep getting confused at who is who. I’m still only 75% positive that I actually have it correct. They are two rich white dudes. They talk the same. Think the same. Narrate the same. And for some reason, instead of sticking to a one-pov per chapter narration scheme, sometimes the author decides to switch in the middle of the chapter for like three paragraphs. Which, may I add, did absolutely nothing for the story. There was not one thing added or revealed in these pov switches that we did not already know, or could infer by the rest of the story. And even though they are mostly clearly labeled…I kept forgetting whose pov I was in. It was confusing and annoying.
Mostly, though, even with everything else, I can’t get away from the fact that I found the storytelling to be lacking. There wasn’t anything to hold my interest, or to evoke my empathy. What should have been rather easy, what with the sick kid, was completely fumbled. No one in this book felt like a character worth getting to know or care about. There was nothing behind the masks worth discovering. Only empty air. Of all the sins a book can commit, I have to say that being boring is one of the worst. And this book has that in spades.
RATING: 
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