Review: ‘The Ones Who Matter Most’ touches on love, loss and meaning of family

This is my second Rachael Herron book, and I'm becoming quite the fan. I really enjoyed the first book of Herron's I read, 'Splinters Of Light,' covering the delicate topic of early-onset Alzheimers.

'The Ones Who Matter Most' probably will be a favorite for me this year. Herron takes a story with an interesting plot and engages the reader nearly from the first page. This tale of friendship didn't happen easily, but the end will have you grabbing a Kleenex and wishing you could have friends such as Abby and Fern.

After her doctor lets it slip that her husband got a vasectomy behind her back, Abby decides to divorce. She feels betrayed after months of trying to have a baby with no results. When Scott returns home from work, Abby tells him their marriage is over. He seems to be unaffected and goes upstairs to get ready for bed. Abby finds her husband dead on the floor.

In the ensuing days and weeks, she tries to understand her grief and despair over a husband she no longer wanted. She tries to grasp the idea of a lonely life ahead for her. With both her parents gone and a sister who died before she was even born, she truly has no family. Even though she has plenty of friends and her mom's best friend, Kathleen, as an amazing mother figure, she feels alone. While going through her deceased husband's desk, she finds a box full of photos of a woman and child she does not know. Her search reveals something so shocking about her husband that she must find the woman and child to know the whole truth.

Fern has been doing everything she can to get by while raising her son, Matty, and taking care of Elva and her father-in-law, Wyatt. Her salary as a city bus driver barely covers their expenses, and she is one disaster away from losing everything she has worked so hard to establish. Then Abby shows up on her doorstep, and Fern's life is turned upside down. Fern is a stubborn, independent, Hispanic single mother who isn't about to let a rich, skinny white girl into her family's life.

Herron creates conversations and characters so vividly you can picture them in your mind while reading. There is a vast difference between the community Fern lives in and Abby's much more posh lifestyle. Their complete separation of class and culture makes it nearly impossible for them to see each other as anything but the enemy. But as fate intervenes and walls crumble, Fern sees that keeping Abby out of their lives isn't in any of their best interests. Forces beyond her control show her the definition of family isn't as narrow as she originally thought.

I haven't read a story where I felt this engaged and invested in some time. I found myself truly frustrated over some of the character's choices and emotional over others. I was a little put off by Herron's racy details and felt they were unnecessary, but it seems explicit descriptions are the trend for today's readers.

Herron creates multidimensional characters that struggle, have fears, make bad decisions, have regrets and forgive. They love hard and are hard to love. Both Abby and Fern are successful, strong and independent in many ways, while weak and needy in others. Their friendship builds and crashes and rebuilds over the chapters, and what develops is truly something I didn't predict. Even the secondary characters of Matty, Wyatt, and Fern's brother, Diego, give depth to the story with compelling and honest reactions to Abby and Fern's choices. Herron's novel cultivates a friendship between two very unlikely sources. It's messy and awkward and scary, but it will change your view of what it truly means to be part of a family.