Reviewed by Jocelyn Pearce for TeensReadToo.com

Mado and Patty are sisters. Now that their parents are gone, killed in a car crash on their way to the family's vacation home, they're the only family they've got. Still, though, they're very different people. LIFE AS IT COMES is about their life together after the accident.

Patty is her younger sister's legal guardian, and they're doing the best they can together. However, life is further complicated when Patty reveals that she is several months pregnant. If the social workers find out, they might put Mado into foster care, not expecting a twenty-year-old to be able to care for a baby and a teenager. But what can they do?

LIFE AS IT COMES is a lovely, sad, hopeful novel about life, loss, love, family, and growing up. The translation from the French is, as far as I can tell, done quite excellently; the writing style flows wonderfully and is completely absorbing. The very well-done relationships of the fully fleshed-out and interesting characters give the story remarkable depth.

This is one that will stay with readers long after the final page. ( )

This was a book I had read on the daily email list that I am on, and it seemed intriguing enough that I wanted to finish it. Two sisters are living alone after their parents were killed in an accident in France. The older sister is actually much more irresponsible and flighty, as is proved when she tells her younger sister that she is pregnant. However, there are a lot of lies, and it ends up that her sister is barely able to take care of herself. Having been through childbirth, the risk of giving birth in the mountains without phone reception gives me the chills. But the book makes it seem clean and fairly easy. The older sister, Patty, then abandons the newborn baby and her younger sister - barely 16! Because she doesn't feel capable of taking care of it. This is really the story of Mado's love for her sister, even through everything, and the little boy that Mado learns to love, even though he is not hers. An interesting book, if not exactly realistic. ( )

Eh...comme ci, comme ca (French for so-so!)

- Christian T.

Mado is 15, her sister, Patty is 20 and pregnant. Their parent died just months before going to the summer home where the girls will now spend a month of summer vacation finding out about love, responsibility, and their own inner strength. ( )