all these things i’ve done

Gabrielle Zevin

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux

Tentative Publishing Date: 06 September 2011

Format: ARC – print
Series: Birthright #1

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. –Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Anya Balanchine is the daughter to one of New York’s crime bosses.  She is also sixteen.  Her father was shot, her mother died in a car accident.  Her older brother, Leo, was wounded in said car accident.  That leaves her to care for her Leo, her dying grandmother and guardian, Nana and younger sister, Natty.   While doing this, Anya aka Annie is trying to have a normal teenage experience and keep her family together until she turns eighteen.  

There are lots of obstacles in the way for Annie.  She meets and falls for Win.  This is most troubling because she is forced to choose between him and what her family needs.  There is also the fact that the rest of her extended family is still involved in the illegal chocolate business.

When I started reading this book, I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did.  It is a captivating story that really makes you want to read more.  I was enthralled by the romance that was happening between Annie and Win, but also the obstacles that were trying to keep them apart.  I cannot wait for the next book in the Birthright trilogy.

In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city's most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.'s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidentally poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she's to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight--at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family.

*Win’s character.  He is not what you would expect a District Attorney’s son to be.  The references to today when this story takes place in the future. 

*The way they make little things like OMG seem archaic.  

*The way that keeping her family together is the most important thing to Annie.

*Mrs. Cobrawick.  There is this stigma amongst those who deal with juvenile delinquents.  Mrs. Cobrawick fits this to a T.  She only cares about perception and wants to further her at the expense of others. 

*The way Annie’s last name defines who she is.  She cannot escape this prejudice, even though she has nothing to do with the Balanchine family business.