Lara Reid is relatively happy with her life – job she loves, caring boyfriend, parents who love her. On her 30th birthday, a decades-old wish is granted when her birth mother Yomi appears, but Lara finds it’s a wish she no longer desires and her whole life is thrown into disarray. She pulls away from everyone – Tyler, her boyfriend who is getting too close, Pat and Barry, her adoptive parents, and especially Yomi, the birth mother she’s yearned for but stopped expecting.
As a child Lara felt like an alien with nothing in common with her parents, including skin color. Time and again she’s disappointed that her birth mum doesn’t come visit, until her 10th birthday when her dad, meaning well but a bit misguided, tells Lara that the “Lady” is coming to visit. This unwittingly sets a precedent that cascades through Lara’s life as she waits for her birth mum to come. She develops OCD behaviors and is unable to grow close to the men she dates, confiding only in her best friend, who grew up in foster homes.
Being Lara moves back and forth in time, following Lara, both as a child and an adult, as she tries to figure out who she is; Yomi’s life in Nigeria, where she’s forced into marriage then gives up her daughter for reasons that are not clear until the end of the book, and Pat, who tastes fame with a hit single and finds herself involved with the orphanage that is Lara’s home for the first few years of her life.
Lara struggles with Yomi’s presence in her life, but becomes close with Yomi’s mother, who’s traveled to England with her to meet the granddaughter she only recently learned existed. At the same time Lara is dealing with her birth mother, Pat decides to patch things up with her own mother, estranged for many years.
Yomi’s appearance pushes Lara to confront her abandonment issues, causing her to open up and let those who love her in. I enjoy watching characters grow, and Lara’s progression, along with descriptions of life in Nigeria in the 70s and 80s, makes Being Lara a book I recommend.
Please leave a comment if you’d like to win (U.S. only). We’ll announce the winner in our giveaway column on May 2. This giveaway is closed.
The winner of These Girls is #20 Anita Yancey.
Don’t miss a thing: Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed or video reviews on YouTube. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.
Sounds like a good read. Please enterme.
I would enjoy reading this. Thanks.
seknobloch(at)gmail(dot)com
Many thanks for this lovely giveaway.
Sounds like a sad but good book.
A sad, but hopeful, book. Thanks for giveaway.
Wow…this story seems much like my own life with my biological father in some ways.
I would love to read this story and compare. 🙂
This book really sounds good.
I like the mixing of the time periods and
childhood/adulthood!
Many thanks, Cindi
The first thing that attracted me to this book was the title. My son had a girlfriend once named Lara and I thought that was such a pretty name! Love to read this. Thank!
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net
Would like to read, still trying to understand OCD.
What a wonderful sounding book to read.
That mother-daughter relationship is always so confusing. Add the feeling of abandonment and — oh boy — there’s a lot to work with. Sounds like a very interesting book.
Thanks for the giveaway of this book. SOund intersting
Sounds like a good book.
This book sounds so good, please enter me!
I would love to read this. It sounds like such an interesting book!
This sounds like a very interesting story. One that I would love to read.
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
Linda, you won! Please reply to this email with your mailing address and we’ll pass it on.
sounds really good.
This looks like a great book!
Would like to win.
I know my wife would enjoy reading this great book.
This sounds fascinating! I’d love a copy.
As the mom of an adopted son who met his birth mother at 20, I always enjoy books about reunions.
Sounds wonderful…would love to win!
thanks for the chance to read this story 🙂
Sounds like an interesting read
Would love to win! Thanks for the giveaway!
i’m adopted and this sounds really nice! thanks for the chance!