Monday, September 13, 2010

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford

Rating:
Characters: 20/20
Plot: 19/20
Originality: 19/20
Writing: 20/20
Recommendation: 19/20
Overall: 97/100 or A
Source: Publisher
The Sullivan sisters have a big problem. On Christmas Day their rich and imperious grandmother gathers the family and announces that she will soon die . . .and has cut the entire family out of her will. Since she is the source of almost all their income, this means they will soon be penniless.
Someone in the family has offended her deeply. If that person comes forward with a confession of her (or his) crime, submitted in writing to her lawyer by New Year's Day, she will reinstate the family in her will. Or at least consider it.
And so the confessions begin....

I loved the characters. Each one of them seemed so realistic and familiar. Norrie remind me so much of myself. We are both goal oriented and polite. I found the romance between Robbie and Norrie to be sweet, even if he was an older guy. Brooks Overbeck was a horrible match for Norrie and I am glad that she didn't fall for him. Jane was cynical and funny every moment. I loved the entries into her blog (which you can actually read here). The secrets that she exposed about her family kept on making me laugh. Sassy was cute and whimsical. It was so odd that she though she was immortal and could be hit by cars. Sassy reminded me a lot of my little sister. All of the sisters had a genuine relationship between siblings. Takey was also a cute younger sibling. St. John and Sully were both awesome protective brothers and remind me of my own brother. Ginger and Daddy-O kept on making me laugh with their eccentric and random behavior. Almighty was also so spirited and funny for an old lady, even though she didn't seem that way. The plot was very character driven, which I loved in this premise. Each letter read as it's own story and even though there was some overlapping, I found each voice to bring on a fresh and distinct feel to each part of the story. I also liked how Standiford made the confessions freeing to the characters and made me believe in it. It felt to be a very original book. I loved Standiford's prose and how she built the characters up with what seemed to be a small detail, but turned out to be very important. I would highly recommend this book to fans of Standiford's previous novel How To Say Goodbye In Robot or Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. It is also a good read for anyone that has a sister.

4 comments:

  1. I love this review, Sarah! Thank you so much.

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  2. I haven't heard of this book before, but it sounds pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. I've never heard of this book, but the cover and your review make me wanna read it :)

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  4. I love the concept for this book a lot. Glad to see you liked it! :)

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