Reviewer: Samantha
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
Sometimes coming home for the holidays isn’t as easy as it seems….
It’s December 21, and the Yancey sisters have been called home. When the girls were young, holidays at their family farm meant a tinsel-garnished tree, the scent of simmering food, and laughter ringing through the house. But as the years unfolded, family bonds fractured, and the three sisters scattered and settled into separate lives. Until now. The Yancey sisters are coming to spend the holidays with their mother. They’re also coming to bury their father.
Claire, the youngest, a free spirit who journeyed to California, returns first. Then comes Julia, the eldest, a college professor with a teenage son of her own. And finally there’s Maya, the middle child, who works so hard to be the perfect mother and wife.
During the sisters’ week together, old conflicts surface, new secrets emerge, and the limits and definitions of family are tested. And as the longest night of the year slips by and brightening days beckon, the sisters will have to answer one question: When you’re a sister, aren’t you a sister forever?
Review:
I have been quite lucky with my books lately, as they all have been such page turners. The Sister Season continued that trend, and this book delivers an emotional read that left my tearing up, shaking my head, but also smiling through it all. The Yancey’s are one dysfunctional family, I don’t think anyone can argue with that. Years of abuse on all four women – Elise and her three daughters – leaves no one sad when their father passes away. But the family comes together around Christmas time for his funeral and for a final good-bye. All the sisters are in the middle of their own drama – some worse than the others – but it makes for a terrific and fast-paced read. I thought this book was very honest. Family isn’t easy. Being a mother or sister or wife isn’t easy. Their problems were thrust out there – bare and raw and at times hard to wrap my mind around, hard to understand why certain decisions were being made. I read this book in one day because I had to find out how the story ended, had to see if the sisters could stick together, and had to find out the truth about Robert’s death, which is a bit of a mystery since the beginning. Highly recommend.
