Take What You Can

Val and Milly met while studying abroad in France, quickly bonding as the only Black students in their program. They spent their twenties living together in New York before life pulled them in different directions, with Val eventually moving back to North Carolina. Years later, a twist of fate finds them both pregnant with daughters at the same time. Milly, now a successful influencer married to a restaurateur, convinces Val and her husband, a professor, to return to Brooklyn so they can raise their girls together.

Of course, things are never quite that simple. An open marriage is one of those subjects that's difficult to explain over the phone, and that secret, along with the growing tension between what some incomes can afford and others cannot, simmers beneath the surface. As old resentments and unanswered questions resurface, the mystery of what happened to the elusive third member of their trio, Helene, years ago begins to loom larger.

This was a propulsive read that explores motherhood when you have no mother to guide you, the complicated dynamics of friendship, and what it truly means to be a chosen family, even when things get messy. Naima Coster writes with such insight into the ways we love, disappoint, and hold on to one another. Wow, wow, wow—run and get a copy!