Interview: Author ‘Loretta Nyhan’ Talks Her New Novel The Other Family

I was a reader before I was a writer, devouring everything I could get my hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes and the instructions booklet for building the Barbie dream house. Later, my obsession with reading evolved into an absolute need to write. After college, I wrote for national trade magazines, taught writing to college freshmen, and eventually found the guts to try fiction.

I love late bloomers. Most of my novels center on women finding their true selves. Digging In and All The Good Parts were called “Middle Age, Coming-of-Age books” by my editor. I love that description! The Other Family focuses on the similar issues.

Home Front Girls, my novel cowritten with Suzanne Hayes, debuted from Harlequin Mira in June 2013 and was re-released in September, 2019. Our second book, Empire Girls, hit the shelves in 2014. My solo work includes The Witch Collector, Parts I & II, paranormal thrillers for HarperTeen. I love all things witchy–Stevie Nicks is my gal!

I can’t live without green tea and dark chocolate. When I’m not writing, I’m knitting, baking, and doing all kinds of things my high school self would have found hilarious. I live with my wonderfully blended, Brady-Bunch family in the Chicago area.

Check out her website here, Facebook and Twitter. The book is in stores on April 1st. You can listen below to the interview.

With a dissolving marriage, strained finances, and her life in flux, Ally Anderson longs for normal. Her greatest concerns, though, are the health problems of her young daughter, Kylie. Symptoms point to a compromised immune system, but every doctor they’ve seen has a different theory. Then comes hope for some clarity.

It’s possible that Kylie’s illness is genetic, but Ally is adopted. A DNA test opens up an entirely new path. And where it leads is a surprise: to an aunt Ally never knew existed. She’s a little wild, very welcoming, and ready to share more of the family history than Ally ever imagined.

Coping with a skeptical soon-to-be-ex husband, weathering the cautions of her own resistant mother, and getting maddeningly close to the healing Kylie needs, Ally is determined to regain control of her life. This is her chance to embrace uncertainty and the beauty of family—both the one she was born into and the one she chose.