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Juliet Hutchinson may be tired, overweight, and perennially bankrupt, but she's making it.  Barely.  She lives in a dingy council flat, subsists on cheap convenience food, and can't always be home at night due to her dead-end job.  Still, Juliet pours what little energy she has into the care of her 10-year-old son, Zac.  It's not a glamorous life, but at least Zac knows that he's loved, that his mom would do anything for him.  What he doesn't realize is that she's been lying to him his whole life.  She's done it to protect his fragile ego—and her own.  After all, it's easier on Juliet's non-existent self-esteem to forget that Liam Jones—Zac's father and the only man she's ever loved—walked out on them when Zac was only two weeks old.

Even though Zac has a doting grandpa who does "dad" things with him, the boy can't help but wonder about the father he's never known.  His mum and her parents insist Liam is a waste of space and they're better off without him.  But if Zac's dad is such a loser, why did his mother love him so much? And, if Zac has half Liam's DNA, does that mean Zac will grow up to be a bad person, too?  The only way to get answers is to find Liam.  If his father's not a bad person, maybe Zac can even get his parents back together so his mum can be happy again.

With Zac's Find Dad mission, he unwittingly opens a can of worms that will crack open the secrets, pains, and hard truths that have defined his family's lives for the past decade.  As each of them is forced to face the things they've done, the lies they've told, and the assumptions they've made, they may finally be able to find healing, forgiveness, and peace.

Little Big Love by Katy Regan is a sweet, but heart-wrenching novel about a vulnerable boy and his search for answers.  It tells a warm, hopeful story, one that is, nonetheless, realistic and peopled with complex, flawed human beings.  Both engaging and engrossing, Little Big Love is an enjoyable read about redemption, forgiveness, and the kind of truths that set men (even little big ones) free.  I laughed, I cried, I loved it.

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for strong language and some violence

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of Little Big Love from the generous folks at Penguin Random House.  Thank you!