Title: Evening Stars
Series: Blackberry Island Series bk 3
Author: Susan Mallery
Genre: Romance
Blurb: New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery returns to Blackberry Island with the poignant tale of two sisters on the verge of claiming their dreams.
Small-town nurse Nina Wentworth has made a career out of being a caretaker. More “Mom” than their mother ever was, she sacrificed medical school—and her first love—so her sister could break free. Which is why she isn’t exactly thrilled to see Averil back on Blackberry Island, especially when Nina’s life has suddenly become…complicated.
Nina unexpectedly finds herself juggling two men—her high school sweetheart and a younger maverick pilot who also wants to claim her heart. But as fun as all this romance is, Nina has real life to deal with. Averil doesn’t seem to want the great guy she’s married to, and doesn’t seem to be making headway writing her first book; their mom is living life just as recklessly as she always has; and Nina’s starting to realize that the control she once had is slipping out of her fingers. Her hopes of getting off the island seem to be stretching further away…until her mother makes a discovery that could change everything forever.
But before Nina and Averil can reach for the stars, they have to decide what they want. Will Averil stay? Will Nina leave? And what about the men who claim to love them? Does love heal, or will finding their happy ending mean giving up all they’ve ever wanted?
I was not expecting all this angst in this book, but, it oddly intrigued me. This book is for all the women who ever felt like that it is too late to achieve your dreams. Well guess what, it’s not and +Susan Mallery tells us a story about why that is!
Nina Wentworth is a small town nurse who also has a life time job of being the responsible one. Having to be a mom to her mother and to her sister, Nina was not able to be child, she always had to be the grown up around the house.
Feeling trapped with no way out, her life becomes even more complicated when her high school sweetheart comes back to the island to stay. After breaking her heart all those years ago, Nina did not see Dylan again until he rescues her from having to walk home in the pouring rain.
With Dylan being back on the island, it brought up memories and feelings that Nina would have liked to have kept hidden. To make matter even more confusing, on another rainy day, another man from her past rescues her, this time from falling off the roof.
Kyle is the brother of a baby girl Nina used to baby sit and since he was twelve he used to call Nina his dream girl. Not forgetting her after all these years, Kyle, now a Maverick pilot, comes back to Blackberry island to look up his first love.
Not needing the extra worries especially when Nina’s baby sister(who Nina gave up her being a doctor dream for), Averil, comes back to the island, leaving her husband and her life behind. Nina has to juggle two men, her sister, her mother and her mother’s partner Bertie, the antique store that her mother owns, her job as a nurse and also find time to figure out what it is she wants for her life. I know, a lot to juggle, but Nina is used to it.
These two sisters have to go through a self discovering journey to figure out what they really want for themselves and it does not help that their mother digs up something that can change their lives forever and can free Nina of her responsibility, the question is; does she want to be free?
+Susan Mallery has written a wonderful book about self discovery and how self discovery will not be easy, but it would be worth it. With that being said, this is not my type of book. I did not really connect with the characters even though Nina and I have a lot of things in common when it comes to responsibility.
I don’t know what it was, but something felt like it was missing and for the life of me I cannot say what it was. In the beginning, I thought the point of view would have been Nina and Dylan not Nina and Averil. It was fascinating to see how these two women grew up in the same living conditions but are completely different.
The angst in this story was a little off putting but oddly enough, it fit in quite nicely and made the story more believable.
Thoughts: Not my type of book but I enjoyed it anyway
Grade: C
Read this awhile ago, but enjoyed it very much.