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A review by writerrhiannon
The Sweeney Sisters by Lian Dolan
5.0
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Three Sweeney sisters (preppy art dealer and mother Liza; hippy, carefree artist Maggie; and lawyer and serious runner Tricia) gather to settle their recently deceased father’s estate and are faced with some surprises: financial discrepancies, a missing memoir…and a surprise half-sister! I’ll admit at first I thought this would be a sugar coated and silly “comedy of errors” story with a whole “the more the merrier” theme. Thank goodness it was not. It was messy, realistic, and smart! Author Lian Dolan included lots of information about intellectual property, real estate law, and other details that may have been glossed over in lighter novels. Her addition of these details along with her fully formed individual characters gave the story substance. In addition to the 3 + 1 Sweeney sisters, this story has lots of great love ‘em and hate ‘em secondary characters (too many to name here) and one character that is somewhere in the middle. Their father, William Sweeney wrote a coming of age novel that was so widely acclaimed that it was included in many high school and college curriculums. He also wrote a novel about the Vietnam war, a book about his poet wife’s cancer and his subsequent depression, an article about Derek Jeter for The New Yorker, and many other male-centric pieces. Dolan did a wonderful job creating this beloved but flawed man and showing the circle of his thoughts and actions toward his family and their feelings toward him both during his life and after his death.
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Three Sweeney sisters (preppy art dealer and mother Liza; hippy, carefree artist Maggie; and lawyer and serious runner Tricia) gather to settle their recently deceased father’s estate and are faced with some surprises: financial discrepancies, a missing memoir…and a surprise half-sister! I’ll admit at first I thought this would be a sugar coated and silly “comedy of errors” story with a whole “the more the merrier” theme. Thank goodness it was not. It was messy, realistic, and smart! Author Lian Dolan included lots of information about intellectual property, real estate law, and other details that may have been glossed over in lighter novels. Her addition of these details along with her fully formed individual characters gave the story substance. In addition to the 3 + 1 Sweeney sisters, this story has lots of great love ‘em and hate ‘em secondary characters (too many to name here) and one character that is somewhere in the middle. Their father, William Sweeney wrote a coming of age novel that was so widely acclaimed that it was included in many high school and college curriculums. He also wrote a novel about the Vietnam war, a book about his poet wife’s cancer and his subsequent depression, an article about Derek Jeter for The New Yorker, and many other male-centric pieces. Dolan did a wonderful job creating this beloved but flawed man and showing the circle of his thoughts and actions toward his family and their feelings toward him both during his life and after his death.
Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest