4.5 Stars

I just loved this story so much! I shed tears, both sad and happy, The Sometimes Sisters brought out all the feels!

Dana, Harper, and Tawny are the “Sometimes Sisters” who had gathered for a month during each summer at their Granny Annie’s lakeside resort. Dana is the oldest, a bastard child of their father he refused to acknowledge, but Granny Annie wouldn’t stand for her son’s behavior and accepted her as the true granddaughter she is. Harper and Tawny were the legitimate daughters, but didn’t mean they weren’t abandoned by a parent too. These girls only got along sometimes, and there’s been a lot of years since that’s happened. Each one of the sisters has a sad tale and a sort of a chip on their shoulders, but they’ll need to get over it to work together after their Granny’s death. It’s Granny Annie’s dying wish to make it so, and Uncle Zed has been tasked to transforming these women to the “always sisters” instead of “sometimes sisters”.

At the death of their Granny, all three sisters gather at the Lakeside Resort, to mourn her passing and take over running the place with Uncle Zed, Granny Annie’s best friend, and their as-good-as grandpa. We gradually discover why each need this place to call home as the story progresses. I loved watching these women heal and draw close, while their Granny whispers encouragement or snap-out-of-it statements in their heads. I had to laugh at some of her sayings! Uncle Zed is quite the peacemaker, too, and I just loved him to pieces! My heart broke for his loss at the beginning of the story, but I was glad he got to stick around and witness these sisters putting aside their differences and becoming a real, solid family.

The setting is exactly the kind of place I’d love to spend the summer, a beautiful lakeside resort with old-fashioned cabins, a little snack, bait and tackle store, and a café serving all the good home-cooked favorites! This place sounded like a dream escape to me!

This is more of a women’s fiction story, but there are romances for each of the girls, including Brooke, Dana’s daughter. Even though they were side stories and not the complete focus, each of them was sweet and lovely, and a welcome addition! There’s also a back story, a touching one, about Granny Annie and Uncle Zed that I suspected, and then was revealed in the end. Like I said, tears, both happy and sad were shed with this heartwarming, lovely story!

I adored this book. I have always wanted a sister and this book only made me want one more than ever. The story is woven together beautifully. It was a lovely read rom start to finish. I want an Uncle Zed!! Three sisters who have little in common, didn't really like or respect each other and hadn't seen each other in a long time are beckoned home by their loving kind Uncle Zed after the death of their incredible Granny Annie. He has strict instructions from Granny for each of the girls. It is through the thoughtfulness of Annie and Zed and a very mature funny young niece that the sisters all discover who they are both separately and together. The "resort" sounds amazing and even though I have no interest in fishing, I would love to visit this very special place. For anyone looking for a feel good, but not at all mushy book this is the one for you. I now have to check out more titles by this author. I recommend that you all do the same.

I'll admit it took me a little while to get into this story. So many new characters and back stories that I was a little lost. It soon all fell into place and I was sobbing by the end. Three sisters came together after their Grannie died, running the resort and learning to love each other. After a death, secrets are learned, bittersweet tales are told from a letter. Life was different for their Gran, actually racial hatred is still around. 'Love knows no colour', beautiful line, great story.

The Sometimes Sisters by Carolyn Brown is a bittersweet story of family, forgiveness, trust and renewal. It has sweet romance but for me the relationship between the three sister is the focus of the novel. However, I did enjoy Uncle Zed with his connection to Annie, the late grandmother of the three now grown and alienated sisters.

Bickering, grudges, secrets and lack of forgiveness gives these three sisters and one daughter a turbulent beginning before understanding and forgiveness can lead to smoother times. Beautifully written with sensitivity and compassion.

Voluntary review of an ARC. Truly a beautiful story. Well written with such a depth of character development, you feel you've always known Dana, Harper, Tawny, and Brook, three sisters and one daughter with sibling rivalries and devastating secrets. Alternately heart warming and heart breaking. Sometimes-sisters become true friends and find their happy ever afters. I really enjoyed the conversations between Uncle Zed and Granny Annie after she had passed. I loved this book and highly recommend it.

Three sisters each different in personality, but so similar when they reunite after nine years apart they all come back for the same reason and each one carrying their own personal demon.

As children they were close, Dana, Tawny, and Harper, looked forward to the summers when they were able to spend a month together at Granny Annie's place. Now as adults they can barely tolerate a few minutes in a room together unwilling to share what's happened to them in the past nine years that ripped them apart and caused each one such heavy burdens to bear.

Dana, the oldest of the three, always struggled with her parentage. Even though she was born out of wedlock she never felt unloved. Granny Annie made up for where her father failed and then when Dana conceived her own daughter, Brooke, she fell right into the circle she herself grew up in, yet her sisters looked up to her and felt that Dana had her life together. The grass is always greener on the other side.

Harper was a wild teen and made a huge mistake when she was just sixteen years old. Her mother sent her away in shame and that decision to not stand up for herself or the choices she made has haunted her for the past nine years.

Inadvertently Harper's leaving affected the youngest sister, Tawny. Tawny suffered all the retribution of Harper's mistake along with any thought of what mistakes Tawny could make. Left out in the cold with no answers and no sisters to ask questions of Tawny felt abandoned and scorned.

These three sisters all have emotional baggage when they show up to help run Granny Annie's place, but to make the place run smoothly they will have to set aside their differences and learn to get along.

"We've all got parent baggage," Harper said.
"Yes, you do, but you don't have to carry it. It's your choice whether you have a funeral for that baggage or strap it to your shoulders."

I don't have sisters, but I craved having one when I was growing up. I know family can be taxing, even on good days so I credit Carolyn Brown for showing that families can stick together even when the apron strings have been cut and things aren't easy. Although with love and support even sometimes sisters can be a real family everyday.

This book follows the lives of three estranged sisters as they work their way back to family. An inheritance of a lakeside resort, a café, and a bait shop along with a grandmother’s dying wish reunites these three sisters as they strive to work through the years of hurt, bitterness, resentment and anger and find their way to love, forgiveness and family. We get a look into each sister’s past and the secrets she carried to help us understand the reason behind the choices they each made and what has led them to this current place in their life. The resort is a crossroad for each of them as they struggle with past memories and pain to find their way back to happiness, love and the true bond of sisterhood. Learning to work together brings them closer as friends first, then sisters as they navigate the new choices before them. As they each begin to come to terms with their past and find their own peace, each sister is presented with the opportunity for a new love and a future of happiness and possibility. This is a wonderful story full of bittersweet memories, sadness, happiness, laughter and definitely some tears. A heartwarming read that will keep you interested until the end and rooting for the sisters to find their happy ending. *I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book and am providing my honest review.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I love books about sisters and I loved the Southern setting. I never really connected with any of the main sister characters. I did however, love the character of Zed.
Thanks to NetGalley for this book to review.

Book Info
Paperback, 320 pages
Expected publication: February 27th 2018 by Montlake Romance (first published February 6th 2018)
ISBN 1503949206 (ISBN13: 9781503949201)
Other Editions (3)
Source:Netgalley EARC

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BOOK BLURB

A bittersweet inheritance reunites three estranged sisters in a novel of family, trust, and forgiveness from New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown.

When they were growing up, Dana, Harper, and Tawny thought of themselves as “sometimes sisters.” They connected only during the summer month they’d all spend at their grandmother’s rustic lakeside resort in north Texas. But secrets started building, and ten years have passed since they’ve all been together—in fact, they’ve rarely spoken, and it broke their grandmother’s heart.

Now she’s gone, leaving Annie’s Place to her granddaughters—twelve cabins, a small house, a café, a convenience store, and a lot of family memories. It’s where Dana, Harper, and Tawny once shared so many good times. They’ve returned, sharing only hidden regrets, a guarded mistrust, and haunting guilt. But now, in this healing summer place, the secrets that once drove them apart could bring them back together—especially when they discover that their grandmother may have been hiding something, too…

To overcome the past and find future happiness, these “sometimes sisters” have one more chance to realize they are always family.


My Thoughts


It seems that when the more time that passes the harder it becomes to find common ground and leave past grievances out of present interactions. Such is the case for the three Clancy sisters Dana, Harper and Tawny. Dana always felt like since their father never acknowledged her that half sisters Harper and Tawny had a much better family life growing up than hers.

Funny thing was Harper and Tawny felt the same about Dana.

Finally there came a time when the tenuous ties the girls felt for each other fell apart, ten years pass and now all that tension comes to a boil as they finally hash out those long held feelings that had grown all out of proportion.

As children there was no better summer vacation than Granny Annie's North Texas home for Dana, Harper and Tawny Clancy.

The three women, who once called themselves Sometimes Sisters, have all returned to fulfill their beloved grandmothers last wish upon her death. Older, warier and not altogether sure that living together once again to run the businesses they inherited would completely tear them apart or finally bring them together forever.

A chance for old hurts to heal and new beginnings to become reality this book is all about family ties that bind tighter than we believe. Even when those same ties are stretched thin for many years they never totally break apart as the sisters and reader find out to mutual satisfaction.


[EArc from Netgalley]


On every book read as soon as it is done and written up for review it is posted on Goodreads and Netgalley, once released then posted on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles as well

Thank you NetGalley, Montlake Romance, and Carolyn Brown for the ARC to review. This book was awesome. I have not read any books by Carolyn Brown, but I will add her to my list of authors to read. What a storyteller. I was hooked from the first page and could hardly put it down. The characters were all so vivid and came to life while reading the book. The sisters all had their own secrets to deal with, as well as their strained relationship, however, it was inevitable after they were thrown together, that they would come together, share their secrets and learn that they were a forever sisters and not sometimes sisters. Uncle Zed was there to guide them. I knew that he was sick but his death devastated me. I cried like a baby reading the end of this story. I have not had that kind of reaction to a book in a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

This is good old fashioned "women's fiction" written by a storyteller who knows how to pull at your heart strings. Dana, Tawny, and Harper are sisters who never really related to each other but they were deeply loved by their grandmother Annie. She's dead now and they are dealing with all their secrets, helped along by Annie's partner Zed. Each of them has something in their background they are ashamed of or wish they had not done and only by communicating with each other can they become whole. Dana's daughter Brook is along for the ride and she provides some leavening. You can guess where a lot of this is going but for me it was an entirely entertaining read on a rainy day. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

It's a touching heartfelt story.. I just loved this book because how it held me captive! the three women called themselves the sometimes sister's had returned to fulfill their beloved grandmother last wish upon her death! They have a second chance! Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early! Carolyn brown is such A great author! Hope you get Feb. 27th your copy!

Carolyn Brown is one of my favorite authors. I enjoy both her Women's Fiction stories and her Western Romance stories. I can honestly say that I have never read a book by this author that I didn't totally enjoy. And I have read most of them. I still have a few to catch up on. This book, The Sometimes Sisters, is a comforting, heartwarming read. I laughed, I cried and by the end my heart felt full with the sentiments and emotions of a family coming together.

Carolyn Brown is an exceptionally good writer. The storyline in this book was easy to follow and compelling. The conflict was well defined and the resolution more than satisfying. The characters are very realistic and it was easy to love them and root for their happiness. I always end up feeling so fulfilled and happy at the end of Carolyn Brown's books. Her stories are my "go-to" place when I want to read a heartwarming story that ends with a sense of happiness, comfort and peace.

I highly recommend this book.

The pace was a little slow for me but it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the story. This was my first Carolyn Brown book and I'll definitely be seeking out her other works.

Grab your Kleenex ladies and settle in because The Sometimes Sisters by Carolyn Brown will have you laughing and have your crying. It is the heart warming story of three sometimes sisters who find a way to become family with the help of a dead grandmother and an old friend. Settle in and let me tell you a little about this amazing story.

The Sometimes Sisters is a story about 3 sister who inherit a little lakeside resort after the death of their beloved grandmother. The sisters use to spend every summer there when they were growing up, but as they got older they drifted apart. Each sister has a secret that they are afraid to share with each other. It will take the help of their grandmother's oldest friend, Uncle Zed, and the love and understanding of each of them to open up and go from Sometimes Sisters, to life long friends.

What I loved about this story is that as they began to have each others backs, as they began to open up to each other, they were able to open their hearts and find love, friendship and a place of belonging that they were never able to find before. Uncle Zed was there for each of them, showing encouragement, love and support. Of course, there is sadness along with the happiness as the sisters learn to open up, but in the end, each sister finds her way, and each sister finds love.

This is an amazing feel good story that will make you wish you were a part of this amazing family.

Brown weaves a very believable tale of three "Sometimes Sisters" that is very believable without becoming too maudlin. She juxtaposes the present in with a heartbreaking tales from the past. The book touches on race relations in the South and that still prevail today. With the number of characters Brown is working with, the story flows well and it seems that all of them receive equal treatment. Well done!

This was a really lovely book, it was one of those 'just one more page' books for me. It just flowed from one sister to the other and all their issues, which slowly resolved themselves.

The three sisters are Dana, Harper and Tawny, and they share the same father. Dana is the oldest and has a 14 year old daughter Brooke, then Harper and Tawny, who are sisters. They only used to see each other for the summer at Annie's Place, a lakeside cabin resort they have just inherited from their grandmother who has only just passed away, and called themselves the sometimes sisters, the title of the book.

Annie has left them the 12 cabins, a house, a cafe and a convenience store alongside a lake in her will, on the proviso that they all work there, alongside Zed, Annie's 'best friend' for over 50 years. Zed is really the glue holding them all together at first. He and Annie discussed everything before she died and they obviously had a plan to bring the sisters back together.

Over the course of the book the sisters slowly get to know each other again. They are initially very antagonistic towards one another and argue constantly, but as time passes they find out they are actually getting on again as long held secrets and guilty feelings are slowly revealed.

Really lovely book about the ties that bind families. Quite sad in places, but also very uplifting and happy too as the sisters started bonding again. I really loved Brooke, she was such an old head on young shoulders, she sorted the sisters out when they were arguing on more than one occasion. I do love a Carolyn Brown book, she just has a knack of drawing you right into the story immediately and escaping for a while. Highly recommended.

I received this book "The Sometimes Sisters" from Netgalley for my honest review.
I enjoyed reading this book, it was a good story. It was interesting to see how the characters would be developed and just what their story was. Some of the book was predictable but that was ok with me. I wish that we saw more of Granny Annie before she died. I liked that each person in the book had a story of their own that came together nicely once they were at the lake. You have to love Uncle Zed and his wisdom. This was a nice easy read with an attractive cover.

Sometime Sisters by Carolyn Brown

Great setting for sisters to reunite. Although much like other estranged sisters stories this book does add  another level of caring and compassion with the addition of a much loved grandmother, recently deceased, and her life long love Uncle Zed.  Some say it takes a village to raise a child. The 14 year old child in this book helps raise the maturity level of her aunts and mother.  I think all the women in this book are capable and strong but seem to become better people in character after meeting the special man that comes into each of their lives. What's up with that?