The Lemon Sisters

For a writer who doesn’t have a sister, she portrayed sisters well. You love them, hate them, fight with them, fight for them! This is a great book, I laughed, I cried. Jill Shalvis is one of my “pre-order” authors, I love her romantic comedies. This is one of her best, more women’s fiction than romance (but romance & laughs, too). I think book clubs everywhere will be reading this one. Hope Princess Millie gets her tiara back.

Jill Shalvis’s books are like watching old family movies set in modern times. They are funny, remind you of the good times, and capture snippets of a families history. Mindy & Brooke are the Lemon sisters. They are very different but have a close relationship as children and young adults. Both are OCD in completely different ways. Sister relationships are always hard to explain. Shalvis does an excellent job of navigating the Lemon sister’s story. Sometimes they are best friends and share everything. Other times they can’t stand each other and keep secrets. Mindy and Brooke go through both types of sisterhood and wonder how their relationship will be in the future. Along with the sister relationship, marriage, friendship, and dating relationships are interwoven in this wonderfully written book.

I devoured this book. Sat down after a long exhausting day of work, expecting to fall asleep a few pages in. 6 hours later, I had finished it and fell in love with these characters!! Garrett and Brooke totally stole my heart. These two fought through their issues, and developed a true relationship. My heart broke for both of them, especially the challenges they had faced. A secondary story was going on throughout this, and I loved it. Except 99% of the time I wanted to strangle Mindy. She completely rubbed me the wrong way throughout a lot of the book. I won’t post spoilers, but my word!! If I could have reached through my kindle and smacked her upside the head, I totally would have. This story touched on so many issues that many of us go through, and is definitely the main reason I got sucked it. Everyone was so relatable, or you could place a character with someone in your life. This is definitely a must read!

My first read by Jill Shalvis and boy it didn’t disappoint. It was a wonderful romance. It felt real and everyday. I could easily relate to all the characters. From the first page to the last, I smiled, laughed, empathized, rooted, and loved. The Lemon Sisters, Brooke and Mindy, were tuck as thieves when they were young, but as adults, they drifted apart but by Brooke’s doing. But when Mindy needed Brooke, Brooke stepped in and decided besides helping her sister it was also time to address her past and make amends with everyone, including the love of her life, Garrett Montgomery, whom she left seven years ago and broke both their hearts. Brooke steps into Mindy’s life for a few days while Brooke gets her head back on. Brooke’s niece and nephews(Millie, Mason and Maddox) are adorable but also a handful. But Brooke falls in love with them and she is definitely going to help Mindy and her husband, Linc with their marriage. But to Brooke’s surprise, Garrett happens to be their next door neighbor, who is also Linc’s best friend and also remodeling their house. I guess Brooke will have to deal with her past sooner rather than later. The banter between Brooke and Garrett is full of sexual tension and emotional feelings. They are each broken but their bond is a forever type of bond if they can only get past their feelings of love lost and thrown away. Reconnecting is both painful and glorious for Brooke and Garrett but because of their past, sorting feelings and giving forgiveness is hard and complicated. But this author does a slow burn with these two characters that felt very true and satisfying. Besides Brooke and Garrett, Mindy and Linc’s relationship is also front and center and the troubles that affect them are what a lot of couple go through in marriage, busy careers and kids. And their kids, don’t get me started about how much pizazz they added to this story. The Lemon Sisters are in crisis but they are also still in their own crisis with each other. The dynamics of this story never gets tangled. While there are a few different plots going on in the story, they are all nicely intertwined and it never gets messy or sloppy. There is humor infused in the story as well as moments that are heartfelt and emotional. While everyone does get a HEA, it doesn’t just happen automatically. Hard work, compromise, communication, forgiveness, hope and love must all work together. This story was easy to read, the drama was everyday life and the emotions were very heartfelt. This story was also sexy without intimate detail. I loved how the author brought this family together and showed “that family is family no matter what happens”. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing, the storytelling and definitely want to read more from this author. I highly recommend for all romance lovers.

This book is full of past hurts, remorse, and recovery. Brooke and Mindy are the Lemon sisters who have not seen each other for years. Mindy shows up on Brooke’s doorstep needing help. Thus begins this story filled with multiple conflicts between Mindy and Brooke, Mindy and spouse Linc, and Brooke and old friend Garrett. Through all the relationship turmoil there are laugh out loud moments, forgiveness and healing. I enjoyed this book so much I read it twice. Jill Shalvis will make you laugh and make you cry and through it all she delivers an outstanding book. Kudos to the author for this 5 star read.

I wasn’t sure about the Lemon sisters and their “quirks” but they sure did grow on me. Anyone who’s been married for awhile goes through highs and lows, Mindy and Linc were no different. Just living the day to day life of raising children, working, and still trying to be a loving and attentive spouse is hard, without the speculation and assumptions that couples jump to inside their heads. And, of course, Brooke and Garrett’s past had to be dealt with, avoidance, especially on Brooke’s part, doesn’t make feelings and circumstances go away. And, of course, on top of all of that, the sisters had to do some work on their relationship. There might not have been a lot of “action” and suspense but there sure wasn’t a dull or boring moment in this book!

Exactly what I needed this weekend. ❤️ I've been more than a little stressed this school year and after having a rough week I snuggled in with The Lemon Sisters. As always Jill Shalvis knows how to bring out all of the feels. While I have enjoyed all the books in the Wildstone series this one is my favorite (so far!). Brooke and Mindy are sisters and both are at a crossroads. Brooke is struggling after an accident and Mindy is struggling with her marriage. It was refreshing to read a romance that features an already married couple. I was surprisingly drawn to Mindy's story (I'm not married so I expected to be more drawn to Brooke) and found myself getting heavily invested in her marriage (and with her cute kids). That's not to say that Brooke's story was lacking, because it wasn't. There were some tears shed over Brooke and Garrett and their story. I really liked how things unfolded there, getting it in bits and pieces vs. the whole backstory at once. Brooke has quite a few secrets and you can feel how that is eating away at her. When the dam finally bursts it's a sense of a relief both for her, and the reader. In addition to working out things in their own lives Brooke and Mindy need to work on their sister relationship as well. They pulled apart over the years and while they're both there for each other, they're not exactly sure how best to do that at first. One of Shalvis's strengths is having strong relationships outside of the romantic interests and it really shines in The Lemon Sisters. If you love heartfelt romance with strong relationships I highly suggest The Lemon Sisters.

This is such a heartwarming feel good story. I honestly loved it! It's the story of two sisters, Brooke and Mindy, who are no longer close and are in very different places, in their lives as well as geographically. It's about how sometimes things we leave unsaid can really complicate things unnecessarily. It's also about their relationships with the men in their lives. For Brooke that is Garrett, the man she left behind many years before and now that she is back in Wildstone, feelings have been rekindled. For Mindy, it is her husband Linc, who is a doctor which unfortunately despite the love leaves him little time for his family. Linc and Mindy also have three children who can be quite the handful but steal the show many times throughout this story and had me laughing out loud so much. Chock full of humor, love, forgiveness, compromise and just all around goodness, this book truly stole my heart. And bonus, there is not only one happy ending, there are two!!

Jill Shalvis never disappoints! We are back to Wildstone for Brooke and Mindy's story. When Mindy shows up at Brooke's place in LA a frazzled mess Brooke steps in the help her sister out. While helping Mindy get her life back on track Brooke realizes she needs to fix a few things in her life. I loved reading Garrett & Brooke's story as well as Mindy and Linc figuring things out add into that their 3 adorable kids! I couldn't put this book down!!