The Whole Thing Together

Volume Thirty Three in the Books That Matter Series

Ray and Sasha have never met but they live in the same house--the same room to be exact. Ray's mom, Lila, used to be married to Sasha's dad, Robert, but that was before they were born, before Lila and Robert married other people. Now the two families are kept apart by the bitter divorce that connects Ray and Sasha to their three half sisters: Emma (the perfectionist), Quinn (everyone's favorite), and Mattie (the beauty). Even their second house in Long Island is kept divided with both families alternating weeks in the summer to live in it, including Ray and Sasha staying in the same room on their separate weeks there. The two families never mix.

But all this separation is about to change when Emma announces her plans to marry her boyfriend, Jamie, next  summer. The two families will have to mix for one wedding so Quinn and Mattie decide to throw an engagement party on August 9--a trial run for the actual wedding. Will this be the thing to bring the two families together or the disaster everyone fears? One thing is for sure, August 9 will be a day none of them will ever forget.

Author Ann Brashares weaves a masterful third person tale into the eye of a storm known as divorce, covering all points of view from the innocent victims who are kept as two separate families due to the bitter resentment of the people who are supposed to be the adults. The Whole Thing Together is a young adult novel that is as beautiful as it is devastating. It is truly a book that matters.