If you are a fan of the movie Knives Out, here is a book you’ll immediately want to add to your TBR. While it doesn’t have the whodunit aspect, it’s a character study on everyone who related to the Sweeney patriarch and what’s to unfold as his family finds out about his passing.
The Sweeney Sisters came at a most interesting time. I had just started reading this as I found out my grandfather had passed from COVID-19. The premise of the story is three sisters who come together after the death of their father.
So now I was actually, physically, literally relating the story while I read it. With the one difference being we were not together in person to grieve his death, like Liza, Maggie, and Tricia. I was afraid when I started that I would have a difficult time keeping the characters separated in my mind, but the author did a fabulous job of fleshing them out, with different dreams, quirks, and personalities.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not a sad book, per se. There are bittersweet elements of remembering family events and going through heirlooms and memories, but there is also surprises, giggles, and the joy of finding yourself and finding love amidst the heartache.
Read this with your sisters and your sisters-in-law. Read it with your friends with some wine and cheese. You’ll all appreciate the nuances of the characters and what one summer does to create hope.
My thanks to Wunderkind PR and William Morrow for the early copy.
About Lian Dolan
Lian Dolan is a writer and talker. She’s the author of two Los Angeles Times best-selling novels, Helen of Pasadena and Elizabeth the First Wife published by Prospect Park Books. She’s a regular humor columnist for Pasadena Magazine and has previously written monthly columns for O, The Oprah Magazine and Working Mother Magazine. She’s also written for TV, radio and websites.
Lian is the producer and host of Satellite Sisters, the award-winning talk show she created with her four real sisters. On Satellite Sisters, she’s interviewed everyone from Nora Ephron to Madeleine Albright to Big Bird. Satellite Sisters began life as a syndicated radio show and is now a top-rated podcast for women. The recent book by the Satellite Sisters, You’re the Best: A Celebration of Friendship, is popular with book clubs.
A popular speaker who combines humor and heart, Lian has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CBS Sunday Morning and The Today Show and many local TV stations. She’s been a featured speaker at the LA Times Festival of Books, the Santa Barbara Celebrity Authors Lunch, the Literary Guild of Orange County Festival of Women Authors and dozens of other events at libraries, book stores, schools and women’s organizations across the country. In 2020, she’ll be on the faculty of the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop.