The Sister Effect by Susan Mallery

This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration.

The Sister Effect

Summary: Beloved bestselling author Susan Mallery brings readers an emotional, witty, and heartfelt story that explores the nuances of a broken family’s complex emotions as they strive to become whole in this uplifting story of human frailty and resilience.

Finley McGowan is determined that the niece she’s raising will always feel loved and wanted. Unlike how she felt after her mom left to pursue a dream of stardom, and when the grandfather who was left to raise them abandoned her and her sister, Sloane, when they needed him most. Finley reacted to her chaotic childhood by walking the straight and narrow—nose down, work hard, follow the rules.

Sloane went the other way.

Now Sloane is back, as beautiful and as damaged as ever…and she wants a relationship with her daughter. She says she’s changed, but Finley’s heart has been burned once too often for her to trust easily. But is her reluctance to forgive really about Sloane or worry over losing what she loves the most? With the help of a man who knows all too well how messy families can be, Finley will learn there’s joy in surrendering and peace in letting go.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

Susan Mallery books are good books to read. I enjoy the stories between sisters or friends (sometimes sisters and friends!)

Susan Mallery writes about life situations that feel very real because they are real ( husbands leaving wives for new girlfriends, families feuding, women finding themselves after not making themself a priority for so long) but I’ve noticed with her last couple of books that she’s had a character in each book that is rigid or Disney stepmother terrible like and I am here to say that Finley was the rigid character in this book.

I’m not making fun of Finley because she did have reasons to be rigid, but she went a tad too far. The dialogue was a bit too rinse and repeat in her reasons (which were valid, but I didn’t need to hear them 1k times- that may be a teensy exaggeration)

What I liked:

The cover. Susan’s covers are the kind of covers I naturally gravitate towards and they are the kind of covers I like my bookshelves to be filled with 🙂

The dynamic between Finley and Sloane. Books about sisters fascinate me because a sister is someone you can love to pieces who can also tear your heart out with a look. And between these 2 sisters is A LOT of things to unpack.

The side plot with the brother characters. In the Susan Mallery books I’ve read, men have played a role in the book ( ex-lovers, ex-husbands, so on and so forth) but this is the first I recall where the men characters have a juicy side plot of their own.

Bottom line: I enjoyed this book and will read more books by her, but if you ask me in a year what this book is about, it’s probably going to take a minute for me to remember the plot points.

*This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*