What I do know is that I have let my life pass me by without truly taking into consideration what it’s like to live in a foreign body. Maybe, I’ve only been pretending to be one. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches.

This is how children change…and then change the world. This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated. This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them. I’m going to keep this review pretty, no need for my mess! Instead they need your emotions to bleed into life. Often times great books don’t need their details displayed. I’m not going to go into details or specifics of this book, but I will tell you how it affected me. More importantly for this review, This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel, changed a piece of me that I never knew needed growth. Have you ever read a book that changes your outlook on life? Well, I have a time or two.

This is how it always is review