Publisher: Berkley Books
Pub. Date: June 6,2017
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: Print ARC from pub
Rating: 2
Blurb:
The New York Times bestselling author of Falling presents a warm, wise, and wonderfully vivid novel about a mother who asks her three estranged daughters to come home to help her end her life.
Ronni Sunshine left London for Hollywood to become a beautiful, charismatic star of the silver screen. But at home, she was a narcissistic, disinterested mother who alienated her three daughters.
As soon as possible, tomboy Nell fled her mother's overbearing presence to work on a farm and find her own way in the world as a single mother. The target of her mother s criticism, Meredith never felt good enough, thin enough, pretty enough. Her life took her to London and into the arms of a man whom she may not even love. And Lizzy, the youngest, more like Ronni than any of them, seemed to have it easy, using her drive and ambition to build a culinary career to rival her mother's fame, while her marriage crumbled around her.
But now the Sunshine Girls are together again, called home by Ronni, who has learned that she has a serious disease and needs her daughters to fulfill her final wishes. And though Nell, Meredith, and Lizzy are all going through crises of their own, their mother s illness draws them together to confront old jealousies and secret fears and they discover that blood might be thicker than water after all.
Review:
I keep going back and forth on this one. On one hand I liked it and it kept me interested enough. Then on the other hand, I wasn't sad to see the book end or to say goodbye to the characters. I had a tough time liking them. The mother, what you see is what you get - we already know that she is a horrible person from the time we first see her. The daughters were iffy to me. The one I may have liked the most was Meredith and even then, it was very little. I felt terrible for her and how she never felt good enough. I didn't like Lizzy at all, and Nell was just there. I didn't dislike her but I didn't like her either.
There was a point in the book where I thought that I could maybe see myself enjoying where the story was headed. Then, I would just lose interest. I like Jane Green and I think her writing has always been superb. The Sunshine Sisters just didn't work for me though. As much as I wish I could have loved the book, it just never made me want to invest further in the story or it's characters. It's a very drama filled plot and the end is good. So if you're even just a little bit curious despite what I had to say, I would definitely suggest giving it a try.
*Thank you to the publisher for providing a a copy for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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About the Author:
Jane Green's eighteenth novel, Falling, is soon to be released with Berkley/Penguin; she is the author of sixteen previous New York Times Bestselling novels, and known as one of the world's leading authors in women's fiction, with over ten million books in print, and translations in over 25 languages.
Previous novels have included The Beach House, Second Chance, Jemima J, and Tempting Fate.
She joined the ABC News team to write their first enhanced digital book— about the history of Royal marriages, then joined ABC News as a live correspondent covering Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton.
A former journalist in the UK, she has had her own radio show on BBC Radio London, and is a regular contributor on radio and TV, including as well as regularly appearing on television shows including Good Morning America, The Martha Stewart show, and The Today Show.
Together with writing books and blogs, she contributes to various publications, both online and print, including anthologies and novellas, and features for The Huffington Post, The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan and Self. She has taught at writers conferences, and does regular keynote speaking, and has a weekly column in The Lady magazine, England’s longest running weekly magazine.
A graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York, Green is bringing out her first cookbook: Good Taste , with Berkley in October 2016.
She is a storyteller for The Moth radio hour on NPR,
and lives in Westport, Connecticut with her husband and their blended family. When she is not writing, cooking, gardening, filling her house with friends and herding chickens, she is usually thanking the Lord for caffeine-filled energy drinks.
A cancer survivor, she continues to raise awareness for Malignant Melanoma, Hashimoto's Disease, and Lyme Disease.
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