Zebra, $6.99 ISBN 978-0-8217-8035-0
Contemporary Romance, 2008
My Sisters has a very nice cover. I believe you will definitely be able to tell from the cover art and the synopsis on the back cover that this story isn’t romance as much as it is women’s fiction, though. Despite the label on the spine, it’s easy to tell this book for what it is.
I was in a mood for some women’s fiction and I had a pretty good time with the author’s previous book for Zebra, so I had good feelings about this one when I sat down to read it. Alas, I would soon wonder whether there are too many characters here and not enough pages for the author to develop her story.
This is a familiar story if you have read enough of such stories before. We have three sisters who have over the years drifted apart due to their very different personalities. Margaret Lansing tries to escape her lackluster love life and stale routine by burying herself in her laboratory work. Rose Lansing believes – insists – that she has the perfect life and the perfect marriage. Quincy Lansing has never outgrown her need to get attention by pulling off acts of “rebellion” that no longer seem cute after high school. The three sisters finally come home – and have to deal with each other again – when their mother was killed in a car accident. As the days turn into weeks while they deal with the aftermath of the funeral, secrets will come out and old wounds will be reopened. Just in time for the reconciliation, of course.
The problem with this story is that there are way too many things going on at once and the author ends up skimming only the surface when it comes to her characters. As a result, everyone here is a recognizable stereotype with very little to make them stand out in any way. The issues and plot twists come off more like a laundry list of familiar tropes. By the time I finish this book, I still have not formed any emotional attachment to any of these characters. They merely go through the motions in playing out a very average and predictable sisterhood-forever story.
Perhaps if we have two sisters here instead of three, the author may have the opportunity to do more with her characters and their stories, I don’t know. As it is, My Sisters is a very predictable story that is unfortunately most forgettable at the end of the day.
