Our Beautiful Mess: A Novel

Our Beautiful Mess by Adele Parks tells the story of a family who runs into a bit of trouble. The story is told from the points of view of Connie, the mother, Fran, the daughter, Zac, Fran’s boyfriend, and John, Zac’s biological father. The whole story is a bit messy. Fran becomes pregnant at 21 years old, and she and Zac must figure out how to navigate a pregnancy when they are not financially stable. Zac has a huge secret, which later puts the whole family in danger. To top it all off, Zac finds his biological father, John, who turns out to be Connie’s ex-lover, with whom she cheated on her husband, Luke. There are a few other twists in the book that might make readers a bit uncomfortable, but all-in-all it’s really just one big mess. All of the characters are very unstable and make some very bad decisions. They’re all quite immature, including the adults. Although I enjoyed the story, it seemed to drag a bit on, and I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen in the end. I would shelve this as an “okay” read.