Abandoned by Booklikes

Well this is hard. I loved this series and this latest book was a flop with me. I think the main issue that the sisters by choice only works for two of the characters. One of the characters in this story learned nothing and got rewarded for it. The character development was lacking and the dialogue was so off in some places. 

"Sisters by Choice" follows business owner Sophie Lane, her cousin Kristine, and their second cousin (I think that's what she is) Heather. Sophie returns to Blackberry Island after a fire destroys her business trying to start again. Kristine a stay at home mom has bigger dreams for herself, but a husband who doesn't support her. Heather wants to leave the island and her emotionally and physically (at times) abusive mother behind for college. This book follows the three women as they try to get back on track.

So the book at times didn't seem all linked in. We know the three women interact, but mostly it is Sophie and Kristine. Heather does interact with Sophie a lot more than she does Kristine. And I did like all of the scenes with Sophie and Kristine and needed more of that. That said, the three women needed more development.

Sophie is just blind to her faults to the point I got sick of reading about them. I started to get annoyed by her and her "quirks". I also did loath people (Kristine) acting as if her getting married was the only thing she really needed in her life. Gah. At least Mallery stuck with Sophie staying single with no kids throughout. I hate when romance writers do that well the love of a good man changed her. I personally don't want to get married or have kids. Idris Elba can show up here divorced and buck naked and that's not going to change what I want. I just didn't like her love interest (he was smug and talked down to her I thought) and hated how she was just used to prop up another character who didn't need/deserve it.

Kristine was the only story-line I was invested in. Her husband is a sexist. Heck, her one son was on the way to being one. I liked the look at how some people view stay at home moms. I didn't think the ending was realistic to her story-line. 

Heather was an enabler. Her mother and her have a mutual destructive relationship. I felt bad for her at first, but as others said, she needed to get away and move on. I just thought her story-line was boring after a while.

The other characters don't really do much in this. I wish that previous characters had shown up or been mentioned. I loved this series because Blackberry Island sounded magical and fun and we don't get much of the characters interacting with the setting at all I thought. 

The ending was a whatever to me. A secondary character who is the worst gets rewarded and it annoyed the life out of me.