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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
This book is fine, but it doesn’t stand very strong against the other two books in the series. I’m not saying skip it if you are a Asian Mallery fan, just that I was expecting more.
With the final Blackberry Island book, Evening Stars, we’re given a beautifully compelling exploration of the family dynamic between Nina, her mother and her sister. All of them are forced to take a look at themselves and how they deal with those around them – their past, their present and what they want for their future. It’s vivid, compelling, heartfelt and complex. Another beautifully crafted and genuine look at people’s faults and strengths, real in its difficulties but uplifting too.
Full review available at http://romanticreadsandsuch.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/book-review-evening-stars/
Full review available at http://romanticreadsandsuch.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/book-review-evening-stars/
Not awful, but not great. A lot of the character development happened, like.... overnight. I can understand one character having a sudden epiphany, but not all of them. :-p
*Astronomy - Read a book with a star in the title or on the cover*
*Astronomy - Read a book with a star in the title or on the cover*
I previously read and loved Barefoot Season (Blackberry Island) and Three Sisters (Blackberry Island) which are books one and two in the Blackberry Island series. I have tried to get into the Fool's Gold series but like this one better since it seems to have more depth than that series.
With this latest installment Ms. Mallery focuses on two sisters, Nina and Averill. Nina was introduced in the prior novel, "Three Sisters" as a nurse who was about to go to work with Andi (the pediatrician).
In this novel we find Nina frustrated with her current life since her mother and her partner are constantly needing her to step in and be the adult to keep them from being taken advantage of while they run their antique shop on Blackberry Island. Averil who is younger and lives in CA feels like something is missing from her life and though she loves her husband returns home to see if she can get a handle on why she is not happy. Though both sisters love each other they tend to end up fighting constantly. With Nina having to deal with her ex boyfriend coming back to town and a younger man who used to have a crush on her years ago resurfaces at the same time she finds herself fighting to stay in control.
Overall I really loved this novel. We get some welcome appearances by Andi, Boston, and Deanna from the last book but we don't really get much time to catch up with that trio. We do get several steamy sex scenes throughout the novel. Also Nina's voice was written very strong and I had nothing but sympathy for her throughout this entire novel.
Probably the weakest link in this story is the character of Averil. I honestly felt like she still at the end did not get what her behavior and actions to date were part of the problem with her and her sister and also her husband. And I didn't care for their mother at all. Some of her behavior in this story was just unthinkable and I have no idea how either daughter even managed to put up with her through the years. Though I liked the ending I didn't think that the mother "deserved" such a happy ending.
I think to make this a stronger novel it should have just stayed focused on Nina instead of switching the third person narrative between her and Averil. Also one thing that Susan Mallery always seems to put in her novels that is starting to make me laugh (probably not the reaction she wants) is that every time the hero and heroine make love she talks about the heroine seeing into the hero's "soul" when he reaches his peak so to speak. Now I don't know everything but I do know that is not possible. It's a minor thing but every time she puts that in her novels I do crack up.
I would still recommend to long-time fans who want to catch up with the characters on Blackberry Island.
With this latest installment Ms. Mallery focuses on two sisters, Nina and Averill. Nina was introduced in the prior novel, "Three Sisters" as a nurse who was about to go to work with Andi (the pediatrician).
In this novel we find Nina frustrated with her current life since her mother and her partner are constantly needing her to step in and be the adult to keep them from being taken advantage of while they run their antique shop on Blackberry Island. Averil who is younger and lives in CA feels like something is missing from her life and though she loves her husband returns home to see if she can get a handle on why she is not happy. Though both sisters love each other they tend to end up fighting constantly. With Nina having to deal with her ex boyfriend coming back to town and a younger man who used to have a crush on her years ago resurfaces at the same time she finds herself fighting to stay in control.
Overall I really loved this novel. We get some welcome appearances by Andi, Boston, and Deanna from the last book but we don't really get much time to catch up with that trio. We do get several steamy sex scenes throughout the novel. Also Nina's voice was written very strong and I had nothing but sympathy for her throughout this entire novel.
Probably the weakest link in this story is the character of Averil. I honestly felt like she still at the end did not get what her behavior and actions to date were part of the problem with her and her sister and also her husband. And I didn't care for their mother at all. Some of her behavior in this story was just unthinkable and I have no idea how either daughter even managed to put up with her through the years. Though I liked the ending I didn't think that the mother "deserved" such a happy ending.
I think to make this a stronger novel it should have just stayed focused on Nina instead of switching the third person narrative between her and Averil. Also one thing that Susan Mallery always seems to put in her novels that is starting to make me laugh (probably not the reaction she wants) is that every time the hero and heroine make love she talks about the heroine seeing into the hero's "soul" when he reaches his peak so to speak. Now I don't know everything but I do know that is not possible. It's a minor thing but every time she puts that in her novels I do crack up.
I would still recommend to long-time fans who want to catch up with the characters on Blackberry Island.
This book is the equivalent to watching a few episodes of a shonda rhimes show - which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
The third book in this series can easily be read as a stand alone book. The book has some overlap of characters but nothing that would make it hard to understand if you hadn’t read the first two. This book is full of quirky characters and is an easy, light read.
It was nice to finish out the series and see the complexity of Nina's character after meeting her in the second book. It wasn't as captivating as the first two books in the series, but a nice, easy read.
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
Once again- Terrible parents create drama for their adult children. But also once again- these soap operas are all I can concentrate on.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
As the inaugural poster on the WHY ROMANCE MATTERS web site last year, Susan Mallery stated: "I am a feminist. I read and write romance. Those two statements do not contradict one another." The ending of Mallery's latest, Evening Stars, provides strong evidence that Mallery's claims are not contradictory. But much of what comes before had me wondering.
Nina has spent much of her teen and adult life taking care of her family. Her needy, attention-seeking, flighty mother has always refused to take adult responsibility for either her children or her business (an antique store), and Nina, who had once had aspirations of becoming a doctor, has had to act as the grownup of the family for as long as she can remember. Now a thirty-year-old nurse in a pediatrician's office, Nina only begins to wonder how she's "lost her way" after both her high school sweetheart and the younger boy who once had a major crush on her return to Blackberry Island.
Nina is filled with doubts, particularly about her appearance, and thinks (although rarely openly talk about) how jealous she is of other women's looks, especially those of her younger pampered sister, Averil. When no men were in the picture, Nina didn't much care about her appearance. But now that she has not one but possibly two men interested in her, her feelings are far different: "How just like a man to make her worry about her appearance," she thinks, as if it is the man, rather than her own thoughts about how to make herself attractive to a guy, that are causing her to worry. When she's about to have sex after a long drought, she thinks "Her thighs were flabby, her tummy too fat and her breasts hadn't been perky in at least three years....she wanted to have sex with Kyle.... If only she could use a better body to get there." In an intriguing passage, Nina notes with nostalgia that "I never get asked for ID anymore." Kyle responds: "I don't get the age thing. You are what you are. Who cares about the number?" Nina says "So speaks a man who has never read a fashion magazine." Does the narrative want us to realize that the body norms that so plague Nina have been constructed by the fashion industry, to make women feel insecure so they'll purchase more products? Or are we supposed to agree with Nina, and buy into the norms, and the insecurities and self-denigration to which they inevitably lead? I'd like to believe it's the former, but with Nina's younger sister Averil working for a girls' magazine, I have to wonder...
Both Nina and the narrative itself often casts other women as competition for male attention (for example, when former 12-year-old crush but now-hunky fighter pilot Kyle takes Nina out to dinner and whispers in her ear, "The hostess shot her a death stare"), not the most feminist of moves. Interestingly, though, most of the character arc revolves not around Nina's relationships with men, but her dysfunctional relationships with women: with her childish mother, and with her younger sister, who has never learned to be an adult because Nina has always taken on that role.
And Nina often mouths stereotypes about women and men: "I'm a girl," she says, reaching for the can of diet soda instead of the regular; "you're such a guy," she comments when Kyle brags "bigger is better" (in reference to landing his plane on aircraft carriers), and again when he lowers the roof of his convertible despite it being only 60 degrees out. I'm not one to argue that there are no differences between men and women, but the ones Nina remarks upon seem far more socially than biologically constructed...
On the feminism plus side, Nina does recognize "No, a man wasn't the way out. She had to find her own happiness." Nina wonders what would have happened if she'd been available when her first love returned to the island after college, but then chides herself: "Of course a case could be made she was handing over too much power to Dylan. She could have made her own life-changing decisions if she'd wanted." Yes, and this is the ultimate message of the text: women have the ability to choose.
Nina's feckless mother is a lesbian, which could have been ugly, if her fecklessness was presented as a result of her sexual orientation. But it's not. Nina's mom isn't the most likable character, but it's not because she's a lesbian. Her partner, Bertie, is presented in largely positive ways. A clear step forward, to have a lesbian couple in a mainstream romance, and to depict them in nuanced, rather than essentialized, ways.
And Nina does get to engage in fun, no-strings-tied sex without being punished or slut-shamed (although she does end up feeling guilty when her partner ends up developing feelings for her that she cannot reciprocate).
And, as noted above, the book's ending clearly endorses the idea that women need much more than a good man in order to find fulfillment.
So—definite mixed feelings, here. A character, and a narrative, that wants to be feminist, but that perhaps doesn't realize all the anti-feminist ideas which it takes for granted.
ARC Courtesy of NetGalley
Nina has spent much of her teen and adult life taking care of her family. Her needy, attention-seeking, flighty mother has always refused to take adult responsibility for either her children or her business (an antique store), and Nina, who had once had aspirations of becoming a doctor, has had to act as the grownup of the family for as long as she can remember. Now a thirty-year-old nurse in a pediatrician's office, Nina only begins to wonder how she's "lost her way" after both her high school sweetheart and the younger boy who once had a major crush on her return to Blackberry Island.
Nina is filled with doubts, particularly about her appearance, and thinks (although rarely openly talk about) how jealous she is of other women's looks, especially those of her younger pampered sister, Averil. When no men were in the picture, Nina didn't much care about her appearance. But now that she has not one but possibly two men interested in her, her feelings are far different: "How just like a man to make her worry about her appearance," she thinks, as if it is the man, rather than her own thoughts about how to make herself attractive to a guy, that are causing her to worry. When she's about to have sex after a long drought, she thinks "Her thighs were flabby, her tummy too fat and her breasts hadn't been perky in at least three years....she wanted to have sex with Kyle.... If only she could use a better body to get there." In an intriguing passage, Nina notes with nostalgia that "I never get asked for ID anymore." Kyle responds: "I don't get the age thing. You are what you are. Who cares about the number?" Nina says "So speaks a man who has never read a fashion magazine." Does the narrative want us to realize that the body norms that so plague Nina have been constructed by the fashion industry, to make women feel insecure so they'll purchase more products? Or are we supposed to agree with Nina, and buy into the norms, and the insecurities and self-denigration to which they inevitably lead? I'd like to believe it's the former, but with Nina's younger sister Averil working for a girls' magazine, I have to wonder...
Both Nina and the narrative itself often casts other women as competition for male attention (for example, when former 12-year-old crush but now-hunky fighter pilot Kyle takes Nina out to dinner and whispers in her ear, "The hostess shot her a death stare"), not the most feminist of moves. Interestingly, though, most of the character arc revolves not around Nina's relationships with men, but her dysfunctional relationships with women: with her childish mother, and with her younger sister, who has never learned to be an adult because Nina has always taken on that role.
And Nina often mouths stereotypes about women and men: "I'm a girl," she says, reaching for the can of diet soda instead of the regular; "you're such a guy," she comments when Kyle brags "bigger is better" (in reference to landing his plane on aircraft carriers), and again when he lowers the roof of his convertible despite it being only 60 degrees out. I'm not one to argue that there are no differences between men and women, but the ones Nina remarks upon seem far more socially than biologically constructed...
On the feminism plus side, Nina does recognize "No, a man wasn't the way out. She had to find her own happiness." Nina wonders what would have happened if she'd been available when her first love returned to the island after college, but then chides herself: "Of course a case could be made she was handing over too much power to Dylan. She could have made her own life-changing decisions if she'd wanted." Yes, and this is the ultimate message of the text: women have the ability to choose.
Nina's feckless mother is a lesbian, which could have been ugly, if her fecklessness was presented as a result of her sexual orientation. But it's not. Nina's mom isn't the most likable character, but it's not because she's a lesbian. Her partner, Bertie, is presented in largely positive ways. A clear step forward, to have a lesbian couple in a mainstream romance, and to depict them in nuanced, rather than essentialized, ways.
And Nina does get to engage in fun, no-strings-tied sex without being punished or slut-shamed (although she does end up feeling guilty when her partner ends up developing feelings for her that she cannot reciprocate).
And, as noted above, the book's ending clearly endorses the idea that women need much more than a good man in order to find fulfillment.
So—definite mixed feelings, here. A character, and a narrative, that wants to be feminist, but that perhaps doesn't realize all the anti-feminist ideas which it takes for granted.
ARC Courtesy of NetGalley