Grace Campisi is a thirty-six-year-old attorney in New York. She loves her job, even though it requires her to work well over forty hours per week. Vying for a partnership position in the firm, she does not mind working the hours and making sacrifices in her personal life. Grace dates an investment banker named Doug, but the relationship is not serious and Grace does not have strong feelings for Doug. However, Grace has neither any other dating prospects nor friends, so she does not mind spending time with Doug, who admittedly is good in bed.

Grace’s younger sister, Perry, is the polar opposite of Grace, a live-for-the-moment kind of girl who rarely has a game plan in life. Unfortunately, Perry has made some bad choices in life; one of them is that she winds up pregnant with the father nowhere in sight. Perry ends up on Grace’s doorstep and cajoles Grace into letting her move in. Honestly, how can Grace not let her nine-months pregnant sister move in? The sisters agree that after Perry has the baby, she will get a job and find child care – with the ultimate goal of her getting a place of her own as soon as possible.

Perry gives birth to a healthy, beautiful baby girl she names Emily. Emily seems to be a good baby but Perry is not adjusting well to motherhood. Grace frequently returns home from work to find Emily crying and Perry sleeping, completely oblivious to her daughter’s needs. The situation seems hopeless, but Grace does everything she can to try to help Perry and see that Emily is properly cared for.

Just when something has to give, Grace is faced with a huge surprise. She arrives at her office to find that Perry has dropped off Emily in her baby carrier with a note: Perry cannot handle motherhood, and she is sorry. So now Grace has Emily on her hands and Perry is nowhere to be found. Grace’s life begins to change radically as she tries to juggle work and being a single mom. She asks herself, will Perry come back? Should she put Emily up for adoption? Further, her work is being affected, and Grace is turned down for the partnership. At this point, though, Grace has fallen in love with Emily and begins to rearrange her priorities in life.

Which End Is Up? is a wonderful story about family, love, and making tough choices in another’s time of need. The story ended up being deeper than I anticipated, and I enjoyed the suspenseful aspect to the novel, as well as the ending. I highly recommend this book to fans of women’s fiction.