Sisters by Choice follows the stories of three ambitious women, two cousins and one first cousin once removed, as they struggle with making their dreams a reality. Together on Blackberry Island in the Pacific Northwest, they learn from each other and grow– Sophie Lane, rebuilding her cat product company after a fire while dealing with her internal trust issues; Kristine, starting a new bakery while trying to save her marriage; and Heather, trying to move away from her abusive leech of a mother. Mixed in, you get a douse of romance as Sophie toys with the heart of local Tai Chi instructor Dugan with a mysterious past.
To start, I didn’t read any of the other Blackberry Island novels, but after this read, I doubt I will in the future. The writing was alright and the story was cute, but the characters were unrealistic and unlikable. To start with Amber, I got secondhand embarrassment anytime her character spoke. While narcissistic people like that do exist out there, the way the characters reacted to her was not consistent. Take Sophie. Mallery worked hard to give her that cold, business-only attitude, yet she felt bad for and rewarded Amber’s very fake outbursts. How could she do business if she couldn’t fire an employee caught stealing from her? Nevertheless, moving on. Kristine’s self-pitying, “whatever shall I do?” attitude was off-putting. Thankfully we got to see her grow throughout the book, but it was still frustrating for a good chunk of the book. Now for Heather, I don’t have much comment because I feel as though her character made sense in the light of her being an abuse victim. Dugan was a nice supporting character, but he felt generic. The same for Ruth. Although I’d like to believe someone has a really great MIL who can magically produce $15k, it felt very improbable. The story itself was enjoyable, but I’d have a hard time suggesting it to anyone simply due to how one and two dimensional the characters were.
Happy Reading,
-Beppa
*This is a republished post due to a domain change.*