The Lemon Sisters by Jill Shalvis – a Review

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Description:
When Brooke’s older sister, Mindy, shows up at her door with her three kids in tow, she barely recognizes her sibling who looks like she’s on the verge of a total breakdown. While adventurous, wanderlust Brooke was always the problem child, eager to slip free of Wildstone and its small-town constraints, Mindy was the golden child, who never had a hair out of place or a GPA below 4.0. The Mindy that arrives at Brooke’s apartment however, is a far cry from the ever-perfect doctor’s wife.

Brooke’s further stunned when Mindy asks to trade places with her for a few days so she can pick up her pieces and put herself back together. What Mindy doesn’t realize is that Brooke is just as broken. Her sister needs her though, so Brooke takes the kids and returns to Wildstone.

But how does one go home after seven years away and what feels like a lifetime of secrets? It doesn’t take long for Brooke to come face-to-face with her past, in the form of one tall, dark, sexy mistake. But Garrett’s no longer interested, or so he says. Only his words don’t match his actions, leaving Brooke feeling things she long ago shoved deep.

The sisters begin to wonder if the childhood taunts were true, are they lemons in life? In love? True or not, they know one thing—you can’t run far enough to outpace your demons. And when long-dead secrets surface, they’ll have to overcome their differences and learn that sometimes the one person who can help you the most is the one you never thought to ask.

Review:

The Lemon Sisters by Jill Shalvis is the 3^rd book in her Wildstone series.  I have read all the books in this series, and not only enjoyed them all, but if you have not read the previous books, The Lemon Sisters reads great as a standalone.   Once again, I love reading Jill Shalvis’s books, as she is one of the best at romances. The Lemon Sisters is about a family that has become broken, with secrets and heartache trying to heal and mend.

We meet Brooke Lemon, our heroine, who lives and works in LA.  After a late night, Brooke is woken up very early with banging on the door of her apartment.  To her shock, her visitor is her sister, Mindy, whom she has not seen in a few years; on top of that, Mindy has brought her three kids.  Brooke will find out that Mindy is at wits end, totally exhausted and just about having a nervous breakdown. To give her sister a break to rest, she offers to take the three kids back to Wildstone (which she has not been for 7 years) and take care of the kids for a few days, while Mindy will stay at Brooke’s place and rest and calm down.

When back at Wildstone, Brooke is determined to right some wrongs when she left years before.  Brooke had come off a major accident by a helicopter crash, and continues to have nightmares about it; which causes her PTSD in attempting to work as a photographer for onsite work, since she will not fly or do high heights. One of those that she wants to make amends is with Garrett Montgomery, her boyfriend at the time; whom she walked away from and left him with no explanation. 

Garrett lives next door to Mindy’s house, and is very good friends with the family; almost immediately they come face to face with each other.  Brooke has not forgotten Garrett, and can sense her feelings for him are still there.  But Brooke hides how she is still broken, and does not want to resume anything with Garrett; she just wants to explain to him why she left.  While Mindy is enjoying her freedom living in Brooke’s fancy place, and her coworkers, Brooke is running around taking care of her kids.  The kids were wild and fun.  Garrett goes out of his way to help Brooke with everything, at the same time hiding his true feelings; as he does not want to get hurt again. 

While Brooke and Garrett slowly deal with the past and the present, Mindy returns home after a week, and despite her break, is still having issues dealing with her everyday life.  Linc, her husband, is a workaholic, but he still loves Mindy. It will be Brooke, who can’t fix her own life, who will talk to Linc to find more time to help Mindy.  Personally, I was not really a fan of Mindy, though I understood her being buried with three active children, and other pressures, causing her to fall apart.  I felt that Mindy was a bit selfish staying away and leaving Brooke longer than anticipated, as well as assuming her husband was having an affair, which he wasn’t; Linc to me was pretty great.  The story for both couples would take work and willingness to change things.   Will Linc be able to change his work life to help Mindy?  Will Mindy learn to stop micromanaging and trust her family?  Will Brooke come to terms with her issues of the past and move forward with confidence?  Will Garrett allow himself to love Brooke again?

What follows is a heartwarming story about family and loves in different many ways. It is about getting beyond the hardships and allowing themselves to heal; to open up and move on and give themselves another chance to make amends.  I will say that I absolutely loved how the story ends.  The Lemon Sisters was very well written by Jill Shalvis.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

Find the first chapter Excerpt here –> 
https://www.jillshalvis.com/excerpts/the-lemon-sisters

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis writes warm, funny, sexy contemporary romances and women’s fiction. An Amazon, BN & iBooks bestseller, she’s also a two-time RITA winner and has more than 10 million copies of her books sold worldwide.

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