Have you ever read a story that just gut-punched you? One that forced you to hold a mirror up to yourself and ask some hard questions?

Katie Ganshert delivers exactly that with No One Ever Asked. Hold on friends, because I have a lot to say about this one! In fact, this book is so relevant and so poignant, I’m giving away a copy to two readers.

In My Opinion

The thread that ties each of the three main characters together is one of integrating students from a failing school district—one that’s student majority is black—with the state’s top, predominantly white district. As you can guess, there is some backlash, racism, and heated conversations around this.

But this book goes so much deeper. This book is about broken families. Whether it be the family that seems to have it all together and suddenly falls apart, the family doing its best to hold itself together after a loss, or one that is finding its footing after an adjustment, Ganshert examines each of these familial relationships with intention. From rebellious teenagers, uncertainty in parenting skills, or finding your place in a new reality, the three women whose lives share the pages in No One Ever Asked are finding their way through their own struggles.

This book is about fixing our broken selves—our failing relationships, our guilt over past mistakes, our doubt in our present or future—before pointing the finger at others. It’s about teaching our children that appearance isn’t important, it’s what’s beneath skin color, physical traits, or disabilities that make one person different than the other. God rejoices in each of his children and He doesn’t make mistakes.

Long after that last word is read, after the book has been returned to the shelf, I hope echoes of this story bleed into my words, my reactions, and my attitude when it comes to other people. Kudos to Ganshert for tackling subjects too many people are perfectly content to ignore.

Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255. 

About the Book

Challenging perceptions of discrimination and prejudice, this emotionally resonant drama for readers of Lisa Wingate and Jodi Picoult explores three different women navigating challenges in a changing school district–and in their lives.

When an impoverished school district loses its accreditation and the affluent community of Crystal Ridge has no choice but to open their school doors, the lives of three very different women converge: Camille Gray–the wife of an executive, mother of three, long-standing PTA chairwoman and champion fundraiser–faced with a shocking discovery that threatens to tear her picture-perfect world apart at the seams. Jen Covington, the career nurse whose long, painful journey to motherhood finally resulted in adoption but she is struggling with a happily-ever-after so much harder than she anticipated. Twenty-two-year-old Anaya Jones–the first woman in her family to graduate college and a brand new teacher at Crystal Ridge’s top elementary school, unprepared for the powder-keg situation she’s stepped into. Tensions rise within and without, culminating in an unforeseen event that impacts them all. This story explores the implicit biases impacting American society, and asks the ultimate question: What does it mean to be human? Why are we so quick to put labels on each other and categorize people as “this” or “that”, when such complexity exists in each person?

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Giveaway

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