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The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secerts by Molly Fader
(Sweet Caroline)
It’s been 17 years since Lindy left her small town after a big fight with her sister Delia but when the police chief finds their mom wondering she asks that he calls Lindy. Lindy immediately heads for home.
Delia is struggling mom to a teenager and a 4 month old is harder than she could have ever imagined. Delia has been with Dan since they were just kids but they are struggling too.
To many people are keeping to many secrets and the longer Lindy is home the further things seem to unravel.
When Delia’s teenager daughter over hears a conversation between her parents she takes off. Before long everyone is in danger and they are running against time to save everyone.
This was a good one. I didn’t figure out the secret until 76%!
Thanks to Harlequin and NetGalley for the ARC.

This one had me hooked from the beginning. Lindy comes home to help with her ailing mother who has dementia and needs extra care. She has her good days but then there are those bad ones like the one where she was found on the street in her nightgown with a flare gun. This is what precipitated the return of the wild sister. Delia stayed home and had a baby when what she really wanted to do was travel the world. Now she is pregnant again and struggling to keep the family business going while her husband keeps the charter fishing business going, all while raising a precocious teenager who asks too many questions. These two sisters have been at odds for years but with so many secrets in the past that keep coming out with the passage of time will they find the way back together. Will this family find a way to become strong again when all the secrets are brought to light? I highly recommend this one!

This one was a DNF for me and I really did try to finish it I found myself a little bored and started to skim to the end. If you love family drama though, you may love this one.

This was a beautifully crafted story about mothers and daughters. Every character was relatable and someone I'd like to know and chat with in person! I was sad to see this one end.

What a beautifully written book with a calming message. THank you for the opportunity to read this book!

Oh goodness, THIS BOOK.

I absolutely loved Delia, Lindy, Brin, and Meredith's story. It was at turns heartwarming, heartbreaking, upsetting, and inspiring--sometimes all on the same chapter! We go through so much of the book knowing that the three older women have secrets--so many secrets, and we have a feeling that some of them are pretty major--but we don't find out the truth (especially one BIG truth) until almost the very end. To be honest, most of the guesses that I had never seemed quite right until the big reveal; at which point everything snapped into place like the pieces of a puzzle.

I managed not to gasp out loud--not even once!--but it was a close thing.

I've loved Molly Fader's writing as Molly O'Keefe and M. O'Keefe, but this book pretty much blew me away. All of the different POVs, all of their different stories, all of the secrets--she wove all four women's stories together just so beautifully that it has become clear I will sign up to read just about anything she has to offer, and do so with a smile...and probably a few tears. But a smile at the end for sure.

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

I don't know why I waited so long to read this book! I loved it after I got into it.

An event left the McAvoy sisters relationship torn apart. Now, they're trying to deal with a rebellious teen, their mother's medical issues, and mending their sisterhood. Can it be done? Romance is here and there is also an element of mystery since we don't know what happened that tore the sisters apart until well into the book. Then you have a twist. I certainly didn't see that coming!

This was a well written and thought out book. Molly Fader uses wry humor to get many points across and her writing style keeps me coming back. More please!

the McAvoy finally face the truth 17 years later when the family has been splintered. Their mother's stroke and resulting failing health bring the sisters back together again to face the future and the past.together.

Even though it’s obvious from the book’s title there are secrets, secrets I assumed had an impact on the main characters, the Lindy and Delia McAvoy we meet at the beginning of the book were not characters that drew me in. In fact, I didn’t really like either of them, but I leaned more favorably toward Lindy, the wild McAvoy sister. Delia was so devoid of humor and understanding, I found it very hard to be sympathetic towards her. I had a hard time getting into the book because I just didn’t care about either of them. The more I read, the more I saw the regrets Lindy carried and the sisters’ previous close relationship and my feelings did a complete 180. It took me a while to warm up to Delia, but I did, and once I did, I began to wish for a resolution to all the pain she was experiencing. I felt she really deserved a happy ending. The use of flashbacks was very effective in revealing the circumstances that lead both Delia and Lindy to the women they are. As pieces of the past are revealed, I was more and more intrigued. There were a couple of plot devices I felt were unnecessary, out of character, and only served to throw the reader (and a rebellious teenager) off the track of what had caused the rift between the McAvoy sisters. In the end, I loved being a part of the journey the McAvoy sisters took back to their community, their family, their dreams, and to each other.

This one took quite a bit for me to get into. Though how it came down loaded from netgalley didn't help either. The book covers a few topics but it's not till near the end before everything makes sense. Over all I did enjoy the story and it wouldn't be a normal one I would read.

Canadian author Molly Fader has set her most recent novel, a contemporary family drama, on the shores of Lake Erie, but in Pennsylvania instead of the beaches we’re most familiar with in south Niagara. This novel features four McAvoy women – matriarch Meredith, sisters Delia and Lindy, and Brin, Delia’s daughter – as they’re brought together out of necessity as Meredith’s health is failing.

Lindy left their beachside town seventeen years prior and never looked back – except for an odd mention of a Christmas visit that didn’t seem to fit well into the narrative – while Delia got stuck. The former is a well-known, and talented, bar tender in the city, while the latter is trying to raise her family and battle demons from the past that she’s never fully faced. The story is centred on their lives, with effective chapters from Meredith and Brin sprinkled throughout, and the secrets and feelings they’ve all kept bottled up over the years.

Fader’s novel has a little bit of everything, which should satisfy almost every type of reader. The family drama will tug at the heartstrings, while the long-buried secrets hint at a mystery that will likely always remain unsolved.

The drama will keep readers interested and invested in the outcome of the McAvoys’ lives as Fader writes an absorbing story of four very different women held together by the bonds of family.

It’s been another super-busy work month, but I have three books going and Molly Fader’s McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets is the first I finished. Thanks to a compelling last third, I left the others idling on the nightstand. In the course of reading Fader’s novel, I decided I will no longer scoff at women’s fiction. No, I haven’t been converted to its smarmy, inward-looking, self-absorbed protagonists, or its not-without-my-daughter obsession with mother-child relationships, of no interest to me whatsoever — merely that, in the hands of a beloved writer, even a genre pandering to privileged women, can be redeemed and — gasp, enjoyed and celebrated. Molly Fader is, as you may know, one of my most beloved romance writers, Molly O’Keefe, whom I’ve been reading since she wrote categories! One of my favourite and I think most masterful contemporary romance series, Crooked Creek Ranch, was penned by O’Keefe (if you haven’t read it, address this stat). There was enough of the O’Keefe edge and intensity of emotion that I found in the romances to make me happy-reader-sigh through The McAvoy Sisters. And enough love interest to make me yearn for more … but I’ll take it. 😉

Set in an Ohio fishing town along the shores of Lake Erie, The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets tells the story of three generations of women, the eponymous sisters, Delia and Lindy; their mother, Meredith; and Delia’s teen-age daughter, Brin. The male protagonists, with diminished roles when compared with Fader’s romances, are partly what make the novel attractive to romance readers: they’re stalwart, handsome, capable, sexy, and possessed of that mysterious je-ne-sais-quoi of the masculine other. The conflict, however, was firmly set among the four women and the dudes’ roles were supportive at best, their “screen-time” set at minimum.

The long-simmering McAvoy conflict comes to the surface when love interest #1, police Chief Garrett Singh, contacts the wild McAvoy sister, Lindy, living in Cleveland, at the request of her mother, Meredith. Chief Singh found Meredith, suffering from stroke-induced dementia, wandering the lake shores. Lindy arrives in Port Lorraine and sisters and mothers are reunited. McAvoy sister #2, Delia, with a new-born baby, Ephie, rebellious teen Brin, caregiver to her mother, is a woman on the edge. Moreover, something is very wrong between Delia and husband Dan. Brin is in trouble at school and eventually doing community service with Chief Singh. Meredith has good and very bad days and Delia struggles to keep the family business, the McAvoy fish and bait store, going. Looming over the women’s conflicts is a gothic wreck of a house, the Fulbright House, the local “gentry’s” mansion and sight of something frightening and shameful to the McAvoy women. The course of the novel is the slow unveiling of the McAvoy sisters secret (long-guessed by this reader, but that’s not the point of Fader’s novel) till a crescendo of confrontation occurs among the four women and reckoning with the past.

There are several reasons why I enjoyed The McAvoy Sisters. First, the characters are beautifully drawn, believable, intense, and distinctly NOT middle-class. Delia runs the family shop; Lindy is a mixologist, successful, but a glorified bartender; Dan takes out fishing parties and fishes for the shop. Port Lorraine is a small town eaten up by the shadow of Fulbright privilege. What I liked about these women’s fic trappings is they weren’t lugubrious. There was pain and revealed secrets and strained relationships to ease, but there was no taking-myself-too-seriously-navel-gazing ho-humdom. I attribute this to Fader bringing the O’Keefe romance edge to women’s fic, to her sure hand steering us to an HEA (not HFN for this girl, thank goodness) and Fader’s zippy, snappy, moving and funny turns of phrase. A few examples will compel you to read her book, if my lauding doesn’t:

“Time folded like a fan and Delia was struck — anew — by how much Brin looked like Lindy.”

“Lindy made really bad decisions about men. She liked them talented, jealous and borderline unstable. It was a flaw. One of many.”

“That was the rule for a woman with too much experience putting her chin up and getting on with things.” [LOOK, FOLKS, ROMANCE CHIN IN WF!!]

“That was their marriage these days: silences and sighs.”

“That has always been Lindy’s effect. She was gasoline on fire.”

“The McAvoy sisters also had Mom’s grief like a long dark shadow in the house, keeping the corners cold and silent.”

The closest I’ve come to enjoying a women’s fiction novel as much as I did Fader’s McAvoy Sisters was last year, when I read (and named as one of my year’s faves) Barbara O’Neal’s The Art of Inheriting Secrets. The books have the secrets theme in common and the generational revelations come thick and fast in both and both are wonderful, love-infused, and sheer delight to read, devoid of the genre’s heavy-handedness, without sacrificing emotion and connection and the ever-elusive to all genres but one, HEA. I loved what Fader did with her women’s fic and I’ll follow her to the next. For now, with Miss Austen, we say The McAvoy Sisters possess “a mind lively and at ease,” Emma.

Molly Fader’s The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets is published by Graydon House, an arm of Harlequin Books. It was released on July 16 and may be found at your preferred vendor. Please note I received an e-galley from Graydon House, via Netgalley.

A smooth reading story of Meredith, Delia, Lindy, Brin and of secrets in the past that are eventually revelaed in the present. Well,paced, well written story. The secret is slowly, very slowly revealed as these four characters acknowledge what happened. There is a surprise ending.

I enjoyed this book. It’s a bit slow paced and many points of view, it’s worth reading. I did cry towards the end, about what really caused the rift in the family. This book is more on family drama than a romance. I did like how much Garrett always had a crush on Lindy, and that she finally gives him a chance.

The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets piqued my interest when I first requested it – family secrets are always an interesting read – but then it languished. Wasn’t quite what I wanted to pick up - until last weekend, I did. This is another “Why did I wait so long????” titles. It was excellent!

This family is dysfunctional and has a lot of healing to do. BUT…. they’re also still bound by incredible bonds of love. It’s a tale of shattered dreams, forgiveness, and healing and the ties that bind us through good and bad. Perhaps not entirely unique in its plotline – I had strong inklings of what happened in the past and where we were headed in the present, but there was just enough mystery to leave me waiting for the reveal. As a parent, it hit home. As a sister, it hit home. As a daughter, it hit home.

I would recommend for those who are fans of women’s fiction along the lines of Susan Wiggs, Luanne Rice, or Robyn Carr. It’s layered with nuances of family relationships and community. A great immersive read!

My thanks to the publisher, Harlequin – Graydon House, for providing an advanced copy to read (even if I did procrastinate! It was worth it.) A complimentary copy was granted to me via NetGalley. As always, opinions are my own.

Review scheduled to be published on my blog, Life, Love, Laughter... Linds on Saturday, October 12, 2019.

I thoroughly enjoyed the dynamics of this family of women and how they related to one another. The secret revealed caught me off guard and the ending even more so. A good story for book clubs.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! One of my favorite books of the summer. Molly Fader was always meant to write this kind of beautiful female friendship fiction.

Dear Fellow Reader,

Could summer be flying by any faster? It seems like it has barely gotten warm and all the back to school ads are up. Granted, it was a late spring and summer didn’t seem like it was ever going to come but still, I am not ready to move into fall quite yet. And I love fall If I hear anything about pumpkins, I might just scream.

So, let’s talk about another beach read. Do you have sisters? Do you have disagreements? Well, that is the heart of the next book.

The MacAvoy sistersThe McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets by Molly Fader examines the relationship between two sisters. These sisters chose very different paths and have not been close. Lindy comes home after 17 years to find that in some ways time has stood still and not necessary in a good way. She finds that her mother is not doing well and that her sister, Delia, needs help that she doesn’t want from Lindy.

Delia feels that Lindy abandoned her and her mother and she just wants her to leave again. Even though Delia is drowning in her responsibilities. She could never depend on Lindy. After all, Lindy left once and she will do it again. Delia has a teenage daughter who has gone from a wonderful child to a secretive teen who wants nothing to do with her mother. She also has a newborn. And her mother is not well, and the family business is a lot to run by herself.

Lindy comes back and Delia’s daughter thinks Lindy is great. And Lindy reveals some family secrets, which makes her irresistible. When all the secrets come out, will the sisters bond grow or splinter even more.

I think that the suspense in the book builds well and that you never have one of those moments where you wonder why a character did something and feel that it was not explained. I liked the book. It is a good family story.

I was given a copy of this book in return for my review.

Just don’t talk to me about pumpkins yet.

Thanks for reading!

This book is beautifully written with compassion for characters that are doing the best they can. As the story unfolds you find out what their relationships are missing. It is only when they face the past that they can move forward with a bright future. I was questioning how it would end until the very last chapter.

I did struggle reading the book because the author is too good at explaining the relationship between aging, sick parents and children who are turned into caregivers. The raw emotion of it struck close to home. I wanted to put the book down, but the story had already intrigued me and I couldn’t let it go. And I am glad I didn’t.

I am thankful for the electronic copy of this book I received from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw that she was releasing a mainstream fiction book, I knew I needed it. I used to read a lot of mainstream fic and slowly shifted over to romance and prefer romance 90% of the time. But I will follow a favorite author almost anywhere.

McAvoy Sisters did not disappoint. The story centers around sisters who have a secret and are forced to reconnect. The “wild” one, Lindy returns home when her mother falls ill. Delia, the “responsible” one never left home, begrudgingly runs the family store, and has a family that is falling apart along with her marriage that is holding on by a thread. The sisters deal with their secrets and repair their relationship.

(CW: grief, postpartum depression, aging & ailing parent, sexual assault)

The story is told from multiple POVS- Lindy, Delia, Meredith (their mother) and Brin (Delia’s daughter). Lots of POVs sometimes is not my favorite and took some adjustment but it worked. All the McAvoy women have an important voice here.

Lindy and Delia don’t know how to communicate. It is a trait they learned from their mother. Delia has since carried on the tradition and doesn’t know how to communicate with her daughter. At times I wanted to shake them all, but also I understood them.

Here are the notes to myself and I think it summarizes the book very well:

Delia- Postpartum depression, she’s very sad, and doesn’t know where/how to start to make changes

Lindy- the wild one, protective

Brin- scared, confused, feels left out

Meredith- scared, lost, and lost time

Four flawed women finding a truth and rebuilding their family.

This story was deeply emotional, I could not put it down and it had me crying at 1am. If you are drawn to Molly’s stories for the deeply emotional stories that she tells, I strongly recommend this book. There are light romantic elements and it worked with this story.