"The award-winning author of How to Be and American Housewife returns with a poignant story of estranged sisters, forced together by family tragedy, who soon learn that sisterhood knows no limits. Rachel and Drew Snow may be sisters, but their lives have followed completely different paths. Married to a wonderful man and is a mother to two strong-minded teens, Rachel hasn't returned to her childhood home since being kicked out by her strict father after an act of careless teenage rebellion. Drew, her younger sister, followed her passion for music but takes side jobs to make ends meet and longs for the stability that has always eluded her. Both sisters recall how close they were, but the distance between them seems more than they can bridge. When their deferential Japanese mother, Haruki, is diagnosed with dementia and gives Rachel power of attorney, Rachel's domineering father, Killian becomes enraged. In a rare moment of lucidity, Haruki asks Rachel for a book in her sewing room, and Rachel enlists her sister's help in the search. The book-which tells the tale of real-life female samurai Tomoe Gozen, an epic saga of love, loss, and conflict during twelfth-century Japan-reveals truths about Drew and Rachel's relationship that resonate across the centuries, connecting them in ways that turn their differences into assets"--
"Margaret Dilloway, critically-acclaimed and award-winning author of How To Be An American Housewife, returns with a poignant story of estranged sisters reunited when a mysterious request from their ailing mother reveals a long-buried family secret"--
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3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. I really enjoyed the realistic sisterly dynamics between Rachel and Drew and enjoyed watching their bumpy road towards renewed closeness. The flashbacks to 12th century Japan and the female warrior Tomoe were fascinating, but I thought that the lessons the sisters learned were a little too simplistic (e.g. Tomoe was brave, so I should be brave too). The romance for Drew was under-developed and unconvincing. But if you take out the love story and the flashbacks, you have at heart a story of mothers, daughters, and sisters, and the hurt and healing they can inflict on each other. I liked Dilloway's previous book, The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns more than this one, but overall I find her work to be above average, intelligent women's fiction.
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