REVIEW: Rachael John’s ‘The Patterson Girls’

 

The Patterson Girls
Rachael Johns

How can four sisters build the futures they so desperately want, when the past is reaching out to claim them?

When the Patterson daughters return home to Meadow Brook to be with their father after their mother’s death, they bring with them a world of complication and trouble.

The eldest sister, obstetrician Madeleine, would rather be anywhere but her hometown, violinist Abigail has fled from her stellar career, while teacher Lucinda is struggling to have the children she and her husband so desperately want. The black sheep of the family, Charlie, feels her life as a barista and exercise instructor doesn’t measure up to that of her gifted and successful sisters.

Dealing with their bereft father who is determined to sell the family motel, their loves old and new and a series of troublesome decisions doesn’t make life any easier, but when they go through their mother’s possessions and uncover the shocking secret of an old family curse, they begin to question everything they thought they knew.

A warm and wise novel about secrets revealed, finding your soulmate and the unique bond between sisters.

Amazon

 

 

What AusRom Today thought:

Four sisters, a plethora of well-kept secrets, and a family curse—what could possibly go wrong?!

Coming from a family of four sisters with a family curse in play, I have to be honest and say I was crazily excited when I heard that Rachael Johns had chosen that very premise as the plot for The Patterson Girls.

The Patterson Girls is an emotional read that quite literally encompasses the entire emotional spectrum. Johns presents each character flawlessly. Each character is painted vividly—their physical appearance, their emotional landscape, their quirks and their pitfalls. It’s overwhelmingly refreshing to feel so connected to the characters, and she does that with all four lead characters.

Another aspect that I really found endearing was how perfectly Johns presents sisterhood. Anyone with sisters knows that it’s quite possibly the trickiest relationship you’ll ever navigate and certainly some stories gloss over the complexities of this. But not Rachael Johns. Oh no, she peels back all the niceties, all the facades that sisters often operate under and shows it like it is—the good, the bad, the ugly. It’s all there. We see the ups and downs, the laughter and tears, the fights and… well…more fights (as sisters do!) but essentially what we see is the unquestionable loyalty that exists between sisters.

The Patterson Girls is Rachael Johns at her absolute finest and may very well be the book of 2015.

– J’aimee Brooker, AusRom Today

 

 

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