"We adored Come Away with Me and are ready for more of Brown's powerful, heartfelt prose. She's the female Nicholas Sparks."-Redbook
"Brown delivers an emotional punch in The Choices We Make. This is a good, old-fashioned tear-jerker of a book." -The Toronto Star
"The Choices We Make presents gut-wrenching questions about friendship and loyalty, when a parent's responsibility starts, and how to make life and death decisions that mean choosing between people we love.... The Choices We Make should appeal to readers who relish Nicholas Sparks' sentimental stories combined with the kind of weighty issues often raised by Jodi Picoult."-New York Journal of Books
"An involving story suffused with emotion but grounded in reality. Have tissues at hand for this one."-Booklist
"A compelling premise with a plot that intensifies satisfyingly in the second half, this book is a good bet for readers who don't shy away from difficult moral questions." -Kirkus Reviews
"Brown's second novel is as emotionally charged as her first. The author has an amazing ability to inject humanity into her characters so that they feel like real people struggling and rejoicing. Be prepared to shed a few tears when you travel this road alongside these people."-RT Book Reviews, 4 stars
"I was already emotionally invested in this beautifully written story of love and loss when an unexpected turn of events knocked the wind right out of me. Heart-wrenching yet hopeful, Come Away with Me had me smiling through my tears."
-Tracey Garvis Graves, New York Times bestselling author of On the Island
"One woman's journey through grief becomes the journey of a lifetime in Karma Brown's adventurous, heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful novel. This emotional love story will stick with you long after you've turned the final page."
-Colleen Oakley, author of Before I Go on Come Away with Me
"Come Away with Me tells the heartbreaking yet hopeful tale of a life lost and a life reclaimed. Fans of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love will flock to this novel.... Karma Brown is a talented new voice in women's fiction."
-Lori Nelson Spielman, author of The Life List
"Karma Brown has written a book that will make you feel like you've traveled the world without leaving your seat. Come Away with Me is full of lush locations, memorable characters, and a turn of events that is nothing short of jaw-dropping. Brown's work is as smart as it is effortless to read."
-Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do
2016-05-04
In a novel exploring the fragile ties of friendship, love, and family, Brown (Come Away With Me, 2015) takes on the loaded subject of surrogate motherhood between a pair of best friends—and the unforeseen turmoil and tragedy that result. Hannah and Kate have been linked at the hip since fifth grade, and they possess the sort of easy intimacy—a constant daily connection—that some only find with family members or spouses and some find, well, never at all. Both in their mid-30s and happily ensconced in Bay Area homes with sweet, doting husbands, just one thing mars their otherwise idyllic-seeming friendship: the fact that Hannah and her husband, Ben, have been frantically trying to conceive for years, while Kate and husband David are already parents to two young daughters. Hannah wants to become a mother so badly, the subject of other people's babies can transform her into a seething pit of envy and pain. After a fresh round of fertility tests in which her doctor essentially tells Hannah to start looking into other options, she's understandably shattered. She has an off-putting aversion to adoption, which Brown doesn't really bother to explain, so Hannah immediately begins mulling over hiring a surrogate. When Kate steps up to the plate instead, offering not only to carry the baby, but her own eggs as well, Hannah and Ben find little reason to say no, and they excitedly begin the process. Kate quickly gets pregnant using Ben's sperm (it's a boy!), and everything moves along promisingly—until a series of dramatic health crises befall Kate, threatening to derail, well, everything. Lawyers become involved, as do protesters, and the four friends' bonds are tested to a degree no one would wish on a distant enemy. A compelling premise with a plot that intensifies satisfyingly in the second half, this book is a good bet for readers who don't shy away from difficult moral questions swirling around a sometimes-sappy center.
