MARCH 2020 - AudioFile
Narrator Tanya Eby quickly has listeners caught up in the lives of three cousins on Blackberry Island, off the coast of Washington. Sophie has to relocate her cat toy company back home after a fire. Kristine wants to open a bakery despite her husband's protests. And 20-year-old Heather longs to escape from her mother, Amber. Eby gives each of the women a distinctive voice, especially Amber, who is overbearing and whiny. Amber feels entitled, and Eby uses a strident tone for her. Eby ably expresses Sophie’s frustration as she tries to be less controlling and tries to learn to trust her employees. Eby also has listeners feeling Heather’s despair in trying to deal with her mother. Listeners will enjoy the journey that each character takes to get to her happy ending. S.B © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
11/18/2019
In this poignant small-town charmer, Mallery (The Summer of Sunshine and Margot) beautifully illustrates the power of female friendship and the importance of reaching for one’s dreams. After the Los Angeles office of Sophie Lane’s cat products company goes up in flames, she moves her small business back home to Blackberry Island, Wash., where her cousins, Kristine and Amber, also live. Kristine, a stay-at-home mom of three sons, dreams of expanding her weekend business of selling cookies into a full-scale bakery but her husband disapproves. Amber’s 20-year-old daughter, Heather, nurses ambitions of leaving for business school, but is trapped on the island by her codependent mom who relies on Heather for emotional and financial support. Mallery alternates perspective between Sophie, Kristine, and Heather as each woman works to balance her familial and romantic relationships with her career goals. Surrounded by a first-rate cast of supporting characters—most notably Dugan, a hunky tai chi instructor with a secret, who falls for Sophie—Mallery’s women are achingly real. This irresistible, heartfelt story will appeal to romance readers and women’s fiction fans alike. Agent: Annelise Robey, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
"Mallery beautifully illustrates the power of female friendship and the importance of reaching for one's dreams...Mallery's women are achingly real. This irresistible, heartfelt story will appeal to romance readers and women's fiction fans alike.-Publishers Weekly
