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BETWEEN SISTERS
BY KRISTIN
HANNAH
REVIEWED BY
LINDA WICKLUND
 Between
Sisters is another engaging and beautifully
written novel about a family with an assortment of
troubles and few joys along the way. Ms. Hannah if
you'll remember also wrote two other books worth
reading. "The Nightingale" and "The Great Alone"
which are vividly descriptive and heartfelt.
This is the story of two sisters who couldn't be
more different. Meghann Dontess, the older sister
is an high-powered divorce attorney in Seattle
with a failed marriage and a distain for intimacy
in it's wake. While her younger sister, Claire
lives a very different life as a single Mother in
a small town in the Pacific Northwest helping her
Dad run a low budget resort.
The painful memory that haunts the two sisters
goes back to when they were 16 and 9 and Meghann
had to make the painful choice to leave her sister
with Claire's biological father, who they had
never met, when they were abandoned by their
Mother. "Now all these years later, their lives
were connected by the thinnest of strands." It
turned them into "polite strangers who shared a
blood type and an ugly childhood."
There is also another mysterious and sad
side-story about a man, Joe Wyatt, who is on the
run from his former life. You wonder what he has
to do with this story until the author brings him
home to the same small town in the Pacific
Northwest.
As the story progresses Claire and her long-time
friends decide on a night on the town. She's on
the dance floor with her friends when Bobby Austin
takes the stage. He says, "This song is for The
One. The one I've been lookin'for all my life."
Claire had never been in love until that minute!
She was thirty-five years old and she knew he was
The One.
It's at this point that Meg has a life threatening
experience which changes the course of her life.
During the same period of time, Claire calls to
tell her she's marrying Bobby Jack Austin after
knowing him for all of ten days. Meg says "I need
to meet him now. I'll be there tomorrow night."
The rest of the story unfolds as Meg volunteers to
plan the wedding and works to make it the most
special day of Claire's life in spite of her
serious reservations about her choice of husbands.
While staying with her sister Meg meets the
mysterious stranger, Joe, and the two stories
intersect. They have absolutely nothing in common
except their loneliness and longing to connect
with another human being.
There's so much more to the story, but I always
think it's better to discover most of the tale on
your own. As in real life, there are highs like an
audition for Bobby in Nashville to perhaps realize
his dream. Then lows like Meghann returning to
Seattle and her lonely, melancholy thoughts of
Joe. Finally, when Claire and Bobby are at there
happiest, Meg gets a call from Claire who has just
returned from Nashville. Claire is in her car and
screams, "I can't remember how to get home."
As always, I hope you enjoy the story of two
sisters who rediscover their love and bond that
they shared as children. Ms. Hannah has such a
gift of writing about families and their
relationships in a very tender, moving way.
Happy reading!
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