Book ~ "Somewhere Out There" (2016) Amy Hatvany

From Goodreads ~ What happens when two sisters who were torn apart when their young mother abandoned them - and grew up in tragically different circumstances - reunite thirty-five years later to find her?

Natalie Clark knew never to ask her sensitive adoptive mother questions about her past. She doesn’t even know her birth mother’s name - only that the young woman signed parental rights over to the state when Natalie was a baby. Now Natalie’s own daughter must complete a family tree project for school and Natalie is determined to unearth the truth about her roots.

Brooke Walker doesn’t have a family. At least, that’s what she tells herself after being separated from her mother and her little sister at age four. Having grown up in a state facility and countless foster homes, Brooke survives the only way she knows how, by relying on herself. So when she discovers she’s pregnant, Brooke faces a heart-wrenching decision: give up her baby or raise the child completely on her own. Scared and confused, she feels lost until a surprise encounter gives her hope for the future.

This book is the story of three women.  At fifteen, Jennifer got pregnant and moved in with her boyfriend.  That didn't work out and her mother wouldn't let her move back home so Jennifer became homeless.  Jennifer did what she had to do to make money to support herself and her daughter, Brooke ... one of those things resulted in her getting pregnant with Natalie.  She gets arrested and is forced to sign away her parental rights to her daughters, aged four and six months, to the state.

Thirty-five years later, Natalie is married to a lawyer, is running a successful catering company and has two young children.  She's always known she was adopted but it's been a touchy subject with her mother.  When she discovers that she has an older sister, she decides to find out more about her background and starts digging.

Unlike Natalie, Brooke had spent her childhood in and out of foster homes and finally living in a state facility until she was 18.  She is working in a cocktail bar.  She discovers she's pregnant and since this may be her last chance to have a baby, she decides to go through with it even though she'll be a single mother.  She vows to be a better mother than her mother was.

This is the third book I've read by this author and I enjoyed it.  I liked the writing style.  It is written from the perspectives of Jennifer, Natalie and Brooke ... each chapter is focused on one of them (their name is at the beginning of the chapter so you know who's head you are in).  When it is written from Natalie and Brooke's point of view, it is in the third person; it is written in the first person when it is Jennifer's point of view.  It was an interesting style and I liked it.  Through flashbacks, we learn their stories ... I think the author did a good job in capturing their personalities given what they have each been through.  As a head's up, there is swearing.