I loved this book. The characters, the setting (London & Nigeria), the fast pace...all of it, I liked! ( )

Lara was adopted at the young age of 3 by a mother who was a former pop star and a father who wanted nothing more then a baby of his own. At the age of 30 when her biological mother tries to enter the picture it turns Lara's whole world upside down.

I really liked the premise of this story, any books that have to do with adoption always attract my attention, and this one was no exception. Unfortantely for me I had a hard time connecting with Lara and the story in general, and found myself bored with the story for the most part, too many situations dragged on in my opinion and there wasn't enough to keep me invested fully in the story. I can say that I felt for Lara's situation as well as her adoptive parents and biological mother, but I guess the story just fell a bit flat for me.

This book wasn't horrible by any means, and I did like it overall, just didn't blow me away, or make me want to go back to reading it after I had put it down between readings. It took me a while to get through. I have heard amazing things about Lola Jaye though and do have another title of hers sitting on my bookshelf, so maybe that one will be a better fit for me. ( )

Being Lara is the story of Lara Reid, who was adopted from Nigeria at age 3 by a white couple. Growing up she always felt different. Her birth mother shows up unexpectedly to her thirtieth birthday party, which sends Lara into a tailspin. She's forced to confront the abandonment and identity issues she's been trying to repress all these years.

I'd like to get two big problems I had with this book out of the way. First - the cover. That is not a picture of a Nigerian girl. I don't even think she's a black girl period. She might bi-racial but the main character is not. Lara is born from native Nigerian parents. I think it's sad that the publisher didn't put a dark skinned black girl on the cover - where they worried that they wouldn't sell as many books?

Second, there is a huge continuity error in the section about Lara's thirtieth birthday party. Lara makes a huge deal about taking a taxi to her party from her apartment. Then when Lara leaves the party, she leaves in her own car. How she gets to and from the party is actually relevant to the plot so it was a jarring error; I'm not sure how that got past an editor.

Okay, now on to the actual book review. I chose this book because my husband and I (both white) are in the process of adopting an African American little girl which makes me very interested in reading stories about transracial adoption. This book definitely taught me what not to do! Lara's parents didn't handle her being adopted or of a different race than them very well at all in my opinion. They didn't really acknowledge that she was adopted until she was eight years old and they never attempted to acquaint her with the culture and country she was born in. It's no wonder she had issues.

This book alternates between the stories of Lara, her adoptive mom Trish, and her birth mom Yomi. Learning Trish and Yomi's back stories helped me understand where their characters were coming from in the present day storyline dealing with Lara as an adult. Yomi's story also taught me about life in Nigeria and some of their customs and food.

I felt that Lara's issues were treated too simplistically in some ways. I felt like Lara should have struggled more and delved deeper into herself when her birth mother came to town. Things moved along rather quickly to be realistic.

Even though this review has some negative points, I did enjoy this book and I feel like I did learn more about transracial adoption from reading it. ( )

I love this author and was excited to read this new book because I loved her other one (By the Time You Read This.) This book started off a little slow for me but once I got into it, it was a good read.

Lara Reid feels like an outsider around the kids at school once the kids realize she is a different race than her parents. After many tries, her parents finally give her a box of information that tells where she came from but that is all they do. They don't explain and she still has many questions. For her 10th birthday, she asks for her real mom to come to the party. Her adoptive father promises he will deliver but the hard truth is that he has lied to Lara because he can't bear of the fact of losing her. Fast forward to her 30th birthday where she has a special present that arrives and now she has to decide whether she wants all the information she has been searching for most of her life. ( )

I really liked this book. I liked the story and the characters. For some reason, though, it was a really slow read for me. I'm not sure why. I was interested in where the story was going and I definitely wanted to know what happened in the end, but something about the characters didnt draw me in. I think that, in the way that the main character held herself back from everyone in the whole story, something was held back in the telling of the story that prevented me from really connecting to it. Definitely worth reading, though. A good book club book! ( )