Sisters Found is the first Joan Johnston book I’ve ever read. It was published almost 20 years ago in 2002.
From both the book blurb as well as the cover, I thought this book would be much more about three sisters who are triplets but were separated and adopted out as babies. While that’s definitely an element in the book, it’s not the only focus. The book begins by introducing one of the sisters, Hope Butler, who is around 21 years old. For the last four years or so, she’s been in love with Jake Whitelaw, a man who owns a neighboring ranch to the one her father manages in Texas. Problem is, the man is practically twice her age and has gotten engaged to a local school teacher nearer his age. To make things more complicated, Jake’s adopted brother Rabb is in love with Jake’s fiancé and it’s his feeling that she and Jake are just going through the motions rather really being in love.
To add to the cast, we are introduced to Hope’s identical “twin” sister Faith. Faith is a gentler, less outgoing version of her vivacious sister. She’s also already in relationship with a young man as the story begins. Since Faith has a disability — she’s missing a hand — she has always been reticent in pursuing relationships. However, Randy has proven his devotion and love for Faith and they are quite serious. Faith is also committed to helping her sister in her pursuit of Jake, since she also feels that Jake is more interested in Hope than he’s letting on.
We get about two-thirds of the way into book before we are finally introduced to the third sister, Charity Burnette. Surprise! Hope and Faith are not twins but are triplets. Charity, who has been mostly raised by a single mother, is in a relationship with Kane Longstreet. Kane is related to Jake and Rabb and so is in town to attend Jake’s wedding, accompanied by Charity. The last part of the book focuses on working out all the relationship complications involving four couples, in addition to the shock of the three sisters meeting each other and confronting why and how they were separated as babies.
Having been written in 2002, I did expect there to be an old school feel to Sisters Found and there definitely was. The interactions — especially between Hope and Jake — felt like it could have been in a romance written ten or more years earlier. While that doesn’t have to be a negative thing, in this case, I have to admit, I was rolling my eyes. Jake constantly calls Hope “little girl” which, I understand, is a way for him to discourage her and keep his distance, but considering that he *was* attracted to her, it was kind of ultimately self-defeating and I couldn’t get it out of my head. A further thing that seemed not only old school but less acceptable these days involved all the couples’ sexual relationships and I mean *all of them*. In each instance, the hero does not wear a condom and the author insists upon describing how the heroes are spilling their seeds into the heroines. Seriously. This very old school description that I might have read in a romance from the 1980s, just made me think about pregnancy and STDs when I should’ve been swept away by the lovemaking.
Two other things that bothered me had less to do with the story seeming an unfortunate blast from the past than it did the plot and structure of the story itself. For instance, there were literally four couples whose romances we were following in his one story and, in each case, the couples already knew each other and, in two cases, were already committed to each other. Not only did that rob each couple of their own in-depth story, but it robs the reader of experiencing a romance from start to finish. Now, that doesn’t mean there can’t be a featured romance as well as one that takes more of a back seat in the same story. That’s often the structure of a romance. But *four* romances, all of which involved couples who are already introduced, if not half in love? That was a bit of a bummer. Finally, there was a plot point, which I will not go into for the sake of not spoiling the story that really didn’t make sense to me. It was fundamental to why the three girls were separated as babies and, I felt, should’ve been either changed or addressed better. Based on all these concerns I had about this story, I would give the book a C or C-.