Grade: 4.5 out of 5
How do you cope in a world without your mother?
When Barbara realizes time is running out, she writes letters to her four daughters, aware that they’ll be facing the trials and triumphs of life without her at their side. But how can she leave them when they still have so much growing up to do?
Take Lisa, in her midthirties but incapable of making a commitment; or Jennifer, trapped in a stale marriage and buttoned up so tight she could burst. Twentysomething Amanda, the traveler, has always distanced herself from the rest of the family; and then there’s Hannah, a teenage girl on the verge of womanhood about to be parted from the mother she adores.
But by drawing on the wisdom in Barbara’s letters, the girls might just find a way to cope with their loss. And in coming to terms with their bereavement, can they also set themselves free to enjoy their lives with all the passion and love each deserves?
This heartfelt novel by bestselling author Elizabeth Noble celebrates family, friends… and the glorious, endless possibilities of life.
Holly did a fantastic review of this book here and after reading her review, I wanted to read this one.
What a book, what a book. Emotional, sad and just really good. I’ve often wondered how I would react should I lose my mother, I’ve had some scares in the past where I was scared out of my mind but I’ve never actually gone through anything that these four sisters have gone through.
In the past couple of years I’ve grown really attached to my sisters. They truly are some of the best friends I’ve ever had in my life and these four sisters reminded me of us. All of them going through different things in their lives and all of them fighting, meddling and just loving the hell out of each other. Sisterhood isn’t always hearts and roses, there’s a lot of venting about each other, there’s a lot of secrets being told and there’s a lot of hugging each other when you’re down. There’s a lot of being there for each other through the good times and hugging you close through the bad times.
This book is full of those kind of sisterly love and I absolutely loved it.
The oldest, Lisa is a commitment phobe. When I first started reading the book, Lisa was my favorite…but then I met the other sisters. I don’t know who my favorite sister ended up being. I liked all of them. I rejoiced in their achievements and I felt for them in their grief. But back to Lisa, she’s got this fantastic man, who loves her, who wants to marry her and she’s got these issues that seriously test the foundation of her and Andy’s relationship.
Then there’s Jennifer, who’s stuck in a stalemate of a marriage. Both unhappy, both unwilling to fix it…both content to just drift further and further apart until it gets so bad that you wonder if they’re going to last.
Amanda is the middle child and she’s the one with the most to deal with. I really admired Amanda. I enjoyed her romance with Tintin (hehe) and I just really enjoyed getting to know her. She was the free spirit, the wanderer. Watching her deal with losing her mother, secrets and everything else made me really really like her.
Hannah is the youngest child and she’s the one that’s growing up. She’s at the stage in her life where she really needs a mother’s guidance and she doesn’t have it…well, she doesn’t have it from her mother but I really liked Hannah.
Each of them have some growing to do and we get to see it all come to pass through out this book. We’re along for the entire ride.
What I liked about this book was that we got to see what everyone was dealing with, we got to see everyone grieve for Barbara (the Mom) even Mark. I really loved Mark. I loved seeing his struggles and seeing him deal with losing his wife, dealing with his teenage daughter and then his grown step daughters who needed him just as much as he needed them.
Mistakes were made, stupid decisions came back to haunt them and through it all, they had each other and I really enjoyed reading about this family trying to move on with their lives after losing their Mother. It was an emotional read that’s for sure and one that I’m glad I read. Should you read this? Heck yes, this book was good. It was filled with the right amount of emotion, growing experiences and great characters to make this a really good read.
Mucho kudo’s to Elizabeth Noble on this one. I will definitely be reading more by her.
This book is available from Harper Collins. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
I got this one from the library last week ~ I’ve cracked it open, but haven’t really started reading it yet. It sounds good though…I just need to get my mojo back.
Oh, this so sounds like a book that would make me cry. It sounds great!!
This was such a good book. I loved it. I’m so glad you did, too, Ween.
It will definitely!
Wonderful book. Really well written and thought provoking. I shed quite a few tears, it was so moving and realistic.