I just had a quick look at the reviews of this book and, as it's very highly rated, I’m obviously in the minority with my lack of love for it.
The book follows the stories of three sisters; twins Hannah and Beth, and Sophie. For one reason or another, the girls have all been avoiding long term relationships with men. And obviously, considering this is a romance, it’s no spoiler to say they each just needed to meet the right man who will overlook their assumed shortcomings.
Sophie’s story started out strongest. She indulges in an one-night stand with an old family friend and ends up pregnant. I love that trope. Thought it would never get old. But I might have been wrong because it got real old real quick here when Sophie's baby!daddy decided it was the 1950s. He demanded Sophie stop being a selfish (aka modern independent) woman and insisted she had to move in with him. Let's face it, no woman could possibly manage a nine month pregnancy and then a baby alone. *eye roll* Just when I thought I couldn't get more modern!girl mad, Sophie's family chimed in and agreed she had to move in with baby!daddy because he had more room in his house. What? Now, that's oh so wrong. Surely Morey could have come up with a better reason to force-live-together the couple.
Now, Hannah’s plot is maybe even less contemporary. She meets the perfect man but decides he wouldn’t want to stay with her for the long haul. This is simply because he's a bit older than her and anyone that age would surely only want a fertile woman who can bear him some babies. Um. What? Cue my hand flapping.
Beth's storyline also had potential. She is not quite ready to replace her first love who died in a car accident, so she carefully keeps all men at arm’s length. Then Harry comes into her life, just as a friend,she keeps telling herself. Now everyone can get behind the friends-to-lovers trope but it's one that only works if there's UST between the 'friends'. Beth and Harry had zero. Their romance was sweet but bland. I wasn't willing them to start ripping each other's clothes off.
In fact I found all three leads had a distinct lack of chemistry with their potential new boyfriends. Considering Morley’s huge catalogue of romances, I found this disappointing and surprising.
The South Australian regional setting was nice but Morey’s descriptive passages didn’t send me into raptures. I will hand it to her though, despite my general dislike for chook lit, I didn’t think there were any of the usual corny characters or cliched small town events that tend to be used in this genre that often grates on my nerves. I must say, the parts featuring joeys etc were very realistic because yes, I've looked after a joey, and it's a lot of work.
I struggled through the second half and admit to resorting to skimming now and then.
Morey had good intentions but nothing made me desperate to reach the characters' happy ever afters.
Very average. 2 1/2 out of 5