Review: The Almost Sisters

The Almost Sisters

by Joshilyn Jackson

Why I chose this book? I enjoyed Someone Else's Love Story by the same author

When I read this book? July 2017

Who should read this book? Fans of southern fiction, mystery, Joshilyn Jackson and more!

Source: TLC Book Tours

My Rating:   ✰✰✰✰½     4½ Stars

Here is a synopsis of The Almost Sisters from TLC Book Tours

• Hardcover: 352 pages

• Publisher: William Morrow (July 11, 2017)

With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of gods in Alabama pens a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality—the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.

Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs’ weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.

It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She’s having a baby boy—an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight year-old’s life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel’s marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she’s been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.

Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother’s affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she’s pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she’s got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie’s been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family’s freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.

My Review

Wow! This book was not what I expected! And I mean that in the best possible way! I’d read and enjoyed previous books by Joshilyn Jackson, so as soon as I saw she had a new one, I was interested. And I expected to be entertained, so that wasn’t a surprise. What DID surprise me was how much depth the story had! I mean, if you only want to read it as a quick summer read, you can do that and enjoy it, and it won’t take you more than a couple of sittings to finish it!

But there is so much more going on in this book if you want to dig deeper. There is the story of 2 little old ladies who are best friends and protective of one another. There is the mystery of the bones in the long hidden trunk in the attic. There is the broken marriage and the teenage girl dealing with paternal abandonement. There is an unexpected pregnancy after a one-night stand complete with biracial child. And the story even has Batman! Book clubs are going to love this one!

I really connected with the characters and cared what happened to them, especially Wattie and Birchie, the two little old ladies, and Leia and Batman. I also love the cover! It kept me guessing awhile though about the sisters on the cover. Are they the little old ladies in the youth, or Leia and her step-sister Rachel?

This will be a fun summer selection for books clubs with a plot that you can move through quickly to finish in a sitting or two, but enough depth to lead to interesting discussions!

Visit the publisher’s website to read an excerpt or download a reader’s guide. You can view a book trailer below.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Josilyn Jackson

Joshilyn Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels, including gods in Alabama and A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages. A former actor, Jackson is also an award-winning audiobook narrator. She lives in Decatur, Georgia, with her husband and their two children.

Connect with her through her website, Facebook, or Twitter.

This book review is included in a tour by TLC Book Tours. I was provided a copy for review purposes.

Joshilyn’s Tour Stops

• Tuesday, July 11th: Book by Book
• Wednesday, July 12th: Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World
• Thursday, July 13th: bookchickdi
• Friday, July 14th: Time 2 Read
• Monday, July 17th: Tina Says…
• Tuesday, July 18th: StephTheBookworm
• Wednesday, July 19th: BookNAround
• Thursday, July 20th: The Book Diva’s Reads
• Friday, July 21st: Bibliotica
• Monday, July 24th: A Chick Who Reads
• Tuesday, July 25th: Leigh Kramer
• Wednesday, July 26th: Always With a Book
• Thursday, July 27th: Ms. Nose in a Book
• Thursday, July 27th: Wining Wife
• Friday, July 28th: SJ2B House Of Books
• Monday, July 31st: she treads softly

Review: Someone Else's Love Story

Someone Else’s Love Story

by Joshilyn Jackson

Why did you choose this book? the synopsis made me want to know more

When did you read this book? November 2013

Who should read this book?

Source: TLC Book Tours

Here is a synopsis of Someone Else’s Love Story from TLC Book Tours

I fell in love with William Ashe at gunpoint, in a Circle K

For single mom Shandi Pierce, life is a juggling act. She’s finishing college; raising her delightful three-year-old genius son, Nathan, aka Natty Bumppo; and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced Christian mother and Jewish father. She’s got enough to deal with before she gets caught in the middle of a stickup in a gas station mini-mart and falls in love with a great wall of a man named William Ashe, who steps between the armed robber and her son to shield the child from danger.

Shandi doesn’t know that her blond god has his own baggage. When he looked down the barrel of the gun in the gas station he believed it was destiny: it’s been exactly one year since a tragic act of physics shattered his universe. But William doesn’t define destiny the way other people do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in science and numbers, destiny to him is about choice.

Now, William and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head-on, making choices that will reveal unexpected truths about love, life, and the world they think they know.

Someone Else’s Love Story is Joshilyn Jackson’s funny, charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and truths, faith and forgiveness; about falling in love and learning that things aren’t always what they seem—or what we hope they will be. It’s a story about discovering what we want and ultimately finding what we need.

My Review 

I first picked up this book because I liked the cover. The synopsis seems interesting and I wanted to know more. To be honest, if I’d rated this book halfway through, it would not have rated highly. It was interesting, but nothing to rave about. But that all changed as I continued reading.

Shandi is a young, single mom whose parents are divorced. Her mom is a Baptist and her dad is a Jew and she is not sure what she believes. Her young son, Natty, is very bright, and her step-mother, who normally does not get along at all with Shandi, offers to allow her to live in their condo (a 2nd home) so that Natty can attend preschool in Atlanta, where he can get a better education than in the small town where she lives with her mother.

On the day of her move, she and her friend, Walcott, stop in a convenience store, where she notices William, a blond god. William has his own issues, as it is the anniversary of a tragic accident that robbed him of his family. Suddenly, a young robber, Stevie, enters the store and takes them all hostage. Shandi immediately falls in love with Wiliam.

Interestingly, the real action all takes place at the gas station, early on in the story. Normally you would think with all the ‘action’ the book would be exciting. But in this case, I could sense that there was a real story I wanted to get to, and I just wanted teh gas station scene to end so we could move on. And moving on was well worth it! There was a big twist towards the end when everything came together and suddenly that title really clicked with me! To say more might be a spoiler, so I will just say that I definitely recommend this one. I enjoyed it very much!

Joshilyn Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, including gods in Alabama and A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages. A former actor, Jackson is also an award-winning audiobook narrator. She lives in Decatur, Georgia, with her husband and their two children.

Find out more about Joshilyn at her website, connect with her onFacebook, and follow her on Twitter.

My Rating:  ★★★★   4 Stars

This book review is included in a tour by TLC Book Tours. I received a copy of the book in return for an honest review, which you can read above.

Joshilyn’s Tour Stops

Tuesday, November 19th: BookNAround

Wednesday, November 20th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Tuesday, November 26th: The Blog of Lit Wits

Thursday, November 28th: Mom in Love With Fiction

Monday, December 2nd: Drey’s Library

Wednesday, December 4th: Broken Teepee

Thursday, December 5th: Peeking Between the Pages

Monday, December 9th: guiltless reading

Tuesday, December 10th: Book-alicious Mama

Wednesday, December 11th: A Novel Review

Thursday, December 12th: Time 2 Read

Monday, December 16th: The Lost Entwife

Tuesday, December 17th: BoundbyWords

Wednesday, December 18th: Alison’s Book Marks

Thursday, December 19th: she treads softly

Friday, December 20th: Book Snob

Saturday, December 21st: Tina’s Book Reviews

Monday, December 23rd: Books à la Mode

Friday, December 27th: Sweet Southern Home

TBD: Tina’s Book Reviews

TBD: Into the Hall of Books

Teaser Tuesday: Someone Else's Love Story

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

        

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week I am teasing Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson. Here’s a synopsis from Goodreads.

At twenty-one, Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Natty, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced Catholic mother and Jewish father. She’s got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up in a gas station mini-mart and falling in love with a great wall of a man named William Ashe, who willingly steps between the armed robber and her son.

Shandi doesn’t know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It’s been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his universe. But William doesn’t define destiny the way other people do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in science and numbers, destiny to him is about choice.

Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, in a funny, charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and truths, faith and forgiveness,; about a virgin birth, a sacrifice, and a resurrection; about falling in love, and learning that things aren’t always what they seem—or what we hope they will be. It’s a novel about discovering what we want and ultimately finding what we need.

Here’s my teaser!

William knows that science and magic are the same thing; magic is only science that hasn’t been explained yet. Tonight he has made chemisty into magic for her.

Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson, pg 105