Stevie‘s review of Can I Give My Stepkids Back? by Aurelie Tramier
Contemporary Women’s Fiction published by Hodder & Stoughton 25 Feb 21
It’s been a while since I read anything in translation, partly because I’ve not been getting through as many books as usual over the past 12 months. The opening to the blurb for this one caught my eye, however, and my interest increased when I realised that not only was it set in Paris, but it was by a French author. So while some of the tropes and topics are familiar, the setting – especially seen through the eyes of a local – is anything but. As it turned out, the author also put quite a different spin on the background to the story as well as on the main characters’ motivations.
Morgan manages a nursery (of the childcare, rather than the plant-care variety) in Paris, but dreams of owning a boarding kennels in the country. She lives alone, except for a beagle called Snoopy, and gives every impression of being happy with her life, even though the nursery staff suspect that she doesn’t like children all that much. Meanwhile, Morgan’s younger sister – their parents’ apparent favourite – is happily married with two young children, and seems to have a very different set of priorities to Morgan. Everyone’s lives are turned upside down by a fatal car crash, following which Morgan is named guardian of her now-orphaned niece and nephew in preference to either set of grandparents.
Although she knows little about caring for school-age children, and her flat is by no means equipped for new residents of that variety, Morgan tries her best to make the transition into a new family comfortable for everyone. Her mother is disapproving, and her father takes his wife’s side, but Morgan is determined that she can offer more stability than they can, and sets out to prove it. The kids are initially unsure about Morgan, but slowly warm to her unorthodox attitudes and start to take an interest in her life and those of the people they encounter together.
Told from the alternating points of view of Morgan and the older of the children, this book had a cast of delightful side characters, particularly the gruff-seeming vet who treats Snoopy’s paw, and the undertaker who always plays (loudly!) music that Morgan considers inappropriate for a hearse. There are references to past child abuse, which colours some characters’ interactions with each other, and also several contrasting stories of adoption from the points of view of birth parents, adoptive parents, and the adopted children. Overall, though, this is very much a feel-good story with some moments of out-and-out hilarity. I want to find translations of the author’s other books now.
Grade: B
Summary:
As a childcare centre director, Morgan has to deal with kids every day but would much rather run her own boarding kennel. Snoopy-Morgan’s beagle-s indeed the only living being she has considered family these past few years. When her sister and brother-in-law die in a terrible car crash, she has no choice but to adopt their two children.
The unexpected addition to her household is clearly unlikely to get her closer to her canine goals. And as if this wasn’t enough, she seems to be getting it all wrong with her “stepkids”, ordering bedding her new son Elliot finds terribly childish, and forgetting to bake a cake for school on Lea’s birthday. Grandma Catherine is convinced she’d do a much better job…
When Snoopy sprains his leg, the kids are swept off their feet by the handsome single vet who’s nursing him back to health. They’re convinced he and Morgan would be a match made in heaven. Now they only need to convince Morgan…
Read an excerpt.
