The Connellys of County Down

Lange's debut We Are the Brennans is one of my favorite juicy, big-hearted family novels. This family drama is about the three adult children in the Connelly family. In the opening pages, Tara is released from prison after serving 18 months on a drug charge and goes home to see her siblings: her brother, a single dad who is still struggling with lingering symptoms from a brain injury sustained many moons ago, and sister, the Type A firstborn who always has things under control but who is struggling at the moment, not that she’ll admit that to her siblings. I love stories of complicated families, and was also pleasantly surprised to discover this novel features a book within a book: the title references the ongoing story the mother of the now-grown Connolly children once told them at bedtime.