In Like Family by Erin O. White, a tight-knit circle of three couples in the upstate town of Radclyffe, New York, face the hidden cracks in their seemingly harmonious lives. What begins with the sudden death of a man known only vaguely to the group forces them to confront long-buried secrets: a couple raising children, a couple navigating middle age, and a pair of friends bound by unconventional family ties. The novel explores how friendship, love, and loyalty become intertwined as the characters reckon with desires and dreams they had left behind.

Erin O. White paints a rich portrait of how modern family can be chosen, messy, and deeply real. As hurts surface and old assumptions are challenged, the bonds among the friends shift—proof that family isn’t only defined by birth, but by the people who keep showing up. In the end, the story shows that the families we build, like the community of friends at the core of Like Family, are just as powerful as those into which we’re born¹.