The Lawson Sisters opens with older sister Liz facing the prospect of losing Willowbrook, the horse stud that she and her sister Kayla inherited from their parents. Set mostly in the NSW Hunter Valley, this is a dual timeline story with the earlier timeline providing readers with the backstory of the sisters’ rift thanks to glimpses of their childhood leading up to the deaths of their parents fifteen years earlier.
Author Janet Gover has created two sisters who couldn’t be more different if they tried. Liz is very much the farmer, struggling to run the family horse stud in drought conditions and with virtually no income. Younger sister Kayla has made a life for herself as a successful wedding planner in Sydney. While she still owns half the property her interest in it at the opening of the story is minimal as she is up to her ears in weddings and brides.
This story is not just about repairing the relationship between Liz and Kayla, nor about how they go about rescuing Willowbrook. It is also a love story involving some of my favourite tropes. Mitch Saunders was a childhood friend, falling in love with Liz as a teenager, only to have something cause a massive estrangement. With Mitch now owning the property next door to Willowbrook, there’s animosity aplenty on Liz’s part, but of course this is also a second chance at love story and I enjoyed watching the way these two slowly grew back together thanks more to Mitch’s efforts than Liz’s.
I loved the rural setting, which showcases so much that is good about country life, whether it is the clean fresh air or the brilliant night sky or perhaps the fact that you might chat to your neighbour if you run into them in town. I also loved the characters, all of whom were well rounded. This story drew me in and had me turning the pages as fast as I can to see how it would unfold. Overall it was an immensely entertaining and engaging read.

To give you an idea on why I was surprised in the location for this book, I’ve only ever known the Hunter Valley to be a place for wineries and breweries. Having it as the prime location for a horse breeding set story was a bit of a shock for me.

Although I know some of the locations by name, and I’ve visited some, I’m not familiar enough with the region to know how accurate the descriptions were. Since the author spent time in the region while writing it, I’d assume they are on point.

Some people have marked this story as a romance, yet I feel it fits under women’s fiction a bit better. Purely because it felt like the majority of the story focussed on the sister’s relationship, their grief and their family stud farm.

The focus on the emotional growth and development of all the characters (Liz, Kayla and Mitch) is amazing. By having little snippets of the past shown it allowed me to add a little bit of knowledge and context to how the characters are feeling today as I went. They were also timed perfectly and only showed the tiny bit that would add value.

My only problem was figuring out who’s point of view, and when, I was reading at any given point in time. It only took me a page or so to figure it out, but it still tripped me up and took me longer, and more brain power, than I would’ve liked.

If it had character names and say a year at the start of each chapter, I think that would’ve really helped keep me fully involved in the story rather than trying to figure out who, and when, I was following. This would’ve been especially important the first time since I wasn’t expecting to be thrown into the past, so it took me a few pages to figure out I was reading about the past, not a dream or something.

I really enjoyed the story of Liz and Kayla Lawson and their fight to save their family property left to them when their parents died 15 years earlier. Lots of themes covered and a bit of romance to ! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. I will look out for books by Janet Gover in the future .

This is the first book I have read from this author and it won’t be the last, it is a beautiful story, compelling, moving and emotional and one that was very hard to put down once I picked it up. I loved the setting The Hunter Valley, is a beautiful place and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Elizabeth and Kayla Lawson and seeing them find their way again.

Lizzie and Kayla are living a fabulous life on a horse stud, Willowbrook at Scone in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales with their parents and many beautiful horses, and life is good, that is until tragedy takes their parents away and Liz must take over running Willowbrook and Kayla is sent to boarding school.

Liz never stops working she has made promises to her father that she must keep and guilt is a hard task master to cope with, the horses and the homestead are her life always, showing and training the horses is a lot of work but times are tough and Willowbrook is struggling financially and Liz is forced to contact her sister Kayla to ask for help.

Kayla makes a very good life for herself as a wedding planner in a the city far away from her sister and Willowbrook, visiting home or even chatting to Liz does not really happen, but when Liz calls and needs her help Liz goes home for a visit and puts a plan into place to help add some much need money to the homestead, being home makes her feel good, but working with Liz is not easy.

Kayla makes Liz remember the past even more and the secret is hurting more, especially seeing as how Mitch is now living next door, so many things have happened over the years, is it now time to tell Kayla the truth and will Kayla finally remember the day her parents were taken away?

I cannot highly recommend this book enough, beautifully written it is a must read, getting to know Liz and Kayla was fabulous there were tears and smiles as the girls finally find their way to happiness, Mitch was such a hero in my eyes, always there for Liz, I hope I have done this book justice it is so good, thank you Janet Gover for an awesome read, I look forward to many more stories from you.

Estranged sisters, a tragic past, a family homestead to be saved - this is a beautiful story of making mistakes, loss, love and healing set in the Hunter Valley region. I loved Liz, Kayla and Mitch. I loved the way each sister had a point of view and the past was gently woven into the present story line. The homestead was a wonderful character of its own. Loved it and would highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this novel set in the Hunter Valley and I feel it is essentially a family drama.
Liz has been running the family horse stud called ‘Willowbrook’ for the past 15 years singlehandedly. When she was 18yrs old her parents were killed in a car accident and her younger sister Kayla, who was 11 at the time and also in the car survived but Liz sent her away to boarding school as she felt that she couldn’t look after Kayla too.
The sisters were once close but Kayla has always resented Liz for sending away but she still loves her.
With a business degree behind her and a successful wedding planning, Kayla has seen her sister sparodically over the years but Liz is now calling on her help to save the family property from going under.
Liz is a very angry and prickly character and even though its hard not to be extremely frustrated with her, I can understand how she became that way consumed with guilt, until she pushed everyone away from her. But her love for the horses and property is obvious.
Personally, I think Kayla is a saint to stand by her after being estranged for a number of years.
There are some chapters interspersed which are set in the past leading up to the accident. These weren’t well headed in the ARC I read but once I realised what was happening, I found it easy to follow and switch time frames.
A very easy and enjoyable read that I recommend.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

The Lawson Sisters is part rural romance, part family drama. Liz runs the family horse stud near Scone in New South Wales whilst her younger sister, Kayla, lives and works in Sydney as a wedding planner. When the farm gets into financial trouble, they decide to earn some extra cash by hosting weddings at the farm and thus the two sisters have to work and live together for the first time in many years.

The sisters' rift began when their parents were killed in a car accident. Kayla was in the car at the time and has no memory of the accident at all. Liz does not help by refusing to talk about anything surrounding the accident or the difficult years following, and taking offense for just about everything Kayla does and says.

Actually, I didn’t find Liz a very likeable person unfortunately. Besides the issues she and Kayla need to sort out, she also needs to sort out her relationship with her neighbour and former boyfriend, Mitch. The conflict which keeps Mitch and Liz apart is a bit weak and its resolution obvious, and one which could have been sorted within a few minutes instead of about 12 years. Also I thought Mitch and Liz’s chemistry was a bit underdone. I didn't have that burning desire for them to get together as I should have really. Kayla’s chemistry with her love interest is also pretty non-existent and this storyline was pretty obvious too.

If you’re into horses, I think you’d love this book. It’s pretty well written on this level. I am petrified of horses and would not go near one if you paid me but I still read all these parts and, on a whole, enjoyed the rural aspect of the book. Weddings are also featured and I must admit I switched off for most of the time here. That's probably just me though because weddings and wedding planners etc seem to be a popular inclusion in romance books!

I will admit I thought the book was too long. I enjoyed it more in the beginning but then started to think it was dragging, especially the flashbacks which, as I said, all seemed to be rather obvious plot-wise.

If you’re into chook lit and want to read a clean romance in an authentic Aussie setting, however, I’d say this wouldn’t be a bad choice. As I said, it's well written but just not my thing. 3 out of 5