And She Was by Jessica Verdi

Publisher: Scholastic
On Sale Date: March 27 2018
Pages: 368
Age Range: Young Adult

Dara is a teen who is a promising tennis player. She trains hard altough there is hardly any money for her training. When one day she is invited to take part in a tennis competition in Canada, she asks her mom for her birth certificate for her passport.
But when her mom refuses to give it to her in a very suspicious way, Dara starts to look for it herself and when she finds it after a little sleuthing, she stumbles upon something shocking. Two strangers are listed as her parents, and her mom's name Mellie is nowhere to be found, how can that be? When she confronts her mom, one big shocking secret is revealed. Mellie is now her mom, but once, she was her father; Mellie is a transgender that transitioned into being a woman when Dara's mother died. Because he was then a well known tennis player himself, he kissed his career goodbye.

Dara is so shocked that she runs away with her best friend on a road trip, as she now knows she has grandparents on her birth mother's  side somewhere. When she finally finds them, it seems that they have been looking for her all the time.The first weeks on her trip, Dara doesn't want any contact with Mellie because she feels betrayed, but then Mellie starts to send her emails explaining into detail how her life went before Dara was born and how everything led to her transition, and Dara start to understand her better, especially in the end when she finds out her understanding and nice grandparents wheren't so understanding and loving to Mellie in the past..

Wow, that was my first reaction on this book. I didn't read the synopsis so I didn't know what to expect. So I also totally didn't expect this book was about a girl with a transgender mom. What I liked about this was that it was so different then any average YA book. This topic really is original and new. The characters where just very realistic. 
I really liked Dara and Mellie and how she explained her transition. She just showed that she is just a normal person like everybody else, and not something weird. The story is written in a very light way with a funny undertone that makes you keep reading. I definately recommend this one as I truly enjoyed reading it!!