When Iris learns her husband wants a divorce, she goes into brain shutdown. Her life is falling apart, she can't get anything right with her kids, and she has to get ready to go participate in her perfect sister's wedding. She decides to head for New Hampshire early and leaves her husband with the children.
When she gets home, she finds that a lot has changed. Her sister, Leah, has turned the family's small farm stand into a thriving business. There is a hunky local who is rehabbing an antique barn on the property that Iris knew in high school. Her sister arrives with her fiance and Iris suspects that all is not as it seems.
This was a great story about a woman who has lost control of her own life and rediscovers the strength of her inner self. Her rocky relationships with her mom, sister and husband won't get better until she examines her own role in those relationships. When she can look honestly at those situations she can look at a possible new one. An enjoyable read about families and getting a do-over in life. This is a new author for me and I'm hoping to see more from her.
I absolutely loved this book! When Portia Cuthcart's marriage goes kaput, she takes refuge in the NYC apartment her aunt had left her. Portia had given up a lot for her marriage and her husband paid her back by cheating. Now Portia is reinventing herself and discovering a lost gift she inherited from her grandmother. Portia can whip up a meal that meets the emotional needs of a person who has yet to walk through the door. This "knowing" has caused tragedy in Portia's life so she forced it down and did her best to forget it. Now, Portia is open to the gift although she still has reservations.
Portia meets Gabriel Kane, a gazillionaire who owns the other two apartments in her aunt's building. The minute she meets him, her life changes and she feels the knowing. Gabriel has two daughters who are reeling from their mother's death and being moved to the city. Portia is poor and damaged and Gabriel is rich and damaged. They are perfect for each other!
I enjoyed reading this story and how the characters slowly interact together. Portia and her sisters work through family issues and come together to make a plan for the future. Portia finds herself getting more involved with Gabriel and his family even as she realizes it could hurt her again if things fall apart. Gabriel doesn't do love but he finds himself unable to resist Portia and all she represents. All the while there are secrets that if exposed will rip apart the fragile existence all of the characters are living. Everything is perfectly woven together in this book, good and bad, so that you just can't stop reading for even one minute. Just sit down and start reading and go til you finish, you won't regret it.
On a side note, I am totally enamored with the glass jars on the cover too!
Reading a book by Dorothea Benton Frank is like sitting on your comfy couch, wearing your jammies and sipping a glass of good wine. It just feels good! in the Hurricane Sisters, we meet three generations of women all of whom are going through a crisis of one kind or another and who feels that they are the only one who is keeping it together. Liz is dealing with her semi-crazy mother, a daughter who won't listen to her and seems to be slipping away and a marriage that is not quite right for reason's she isn't totally sure of. Matriarch Maisie is living in sin with a younger man (sixties compared to her eighty), worried about her daughter and granddaughter all the while feeling put upon by their restrictions. Lastly, Ashley is living in her parent's beach house with her best friend and considering possibly illegal parties to make some money. At the same time she has met the man who might be the one except for some niggling doubts about his true character.As in all of DBF's books. there is a rich back story that plays out in present time because of the effects the past has on every things that happens. There is a strong theme of domestic violence that slithers under the entire story and comes out in a real shocker in the end for all three women.I loved this book and all of the twists and turns and glimpses of the everyday lives of a family of interesting folk. And there is llama drama! Great summer read that I couldn't put down until I got to the end.
