The Making Of Us by Lisa Jewell

Ever since I first read “The Truth About Melody Browne” I became hooked with every book that Lisa Jewell has written. So when I was sent “The Making Of Us”, I couldn’t put the book down and it has literally been stuck to my side for the last couple of days.

In a hospice in Bury St Edwards, a man by the name of Daniel is slowly dying. His best friend Maggie sits with him and listens to him as he regales stories of his youth and tells her about the four children that he fathered but has never met. Two girls and two boys, he calls them a legacy. A legacy he would like to meet. So he asks Maggie to help him fulfil his last dying wish.

Meanwhile Lydia, Dean and Robyn don’t know each other yet but they all wonder where their lives are going. Lydia still bears the scares of her traumatic childhood and although she is wealthy and successful, she still feels there is something missing from her life. Dean is a young man, who doesn’t know what he is doing with his life, suddenly a single father, he now has a little girl that he doesn’t know if he wants and then there is Robyn, who is training to be a doctor, just like her father. The man she never met. But when she falls in love with a man, that reminds her of herself, she realises that’s now time for her to open the letter her mother gave her on her 18th birthday. Suddenly nothing in life is as it seems, as the three people try to figure out who they are and where they are going on their life journey.

“The Making Of Us” is a wonderfully written story about the sensitive subject of sperm donations and its implications as the characters make contact with their father, so they can finally have a real idea of their true identity. With three hugely different but alike characters, I found the story a compelling read. I loved joining Dean, Lydia and Robyn on their adventure, I especially loved Dean, as the underdog of the story, I longed to reach out and hug them and tell him everything would be ok. But with the guidance of Lydia who settled beautifully into the role of the older sister, she took him under her wing and looked out for him.

Written wonderfully through the perspective of the different characters, made the story even more interesting as they all had their own private battles that was holding them back. With a delightfully illustrated cover of a classically beautiful woman looking out the window, I imagined this woman was Lydia with a picture of her family beside her. “The Making Of Us” is an emotional roller-coaster of a read that will have you reading into the small hours , a compelling story that will make you smile and cry, as three people try to figure who they really are and discover the real meaning of family.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”0099533693″ target=”_blank” ] The Making of Us on Amazon [/amazon_link] and other good bookshops.