The Mill River Redemption by Darcie Chan
| The Mill River Redemption by Darcie Chan | |
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| Category: Women's Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Morris
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| Summary: Two sisters can only agree on one thing - that being apart from each other is far better than being together - but if they want to survive this story, they may have to work together. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 416 | Date: August 2014 |
| Publisher: Sphere | |
| ISBN: 978-0751557282` | |
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Rose and Emily are sisters who co-exist rather than interact. In the past, a devastating event drove them apart, and now they both have their own lives, far away from sleepy Mill River, Vermont, where they grew up. When their mother Josie dies, they are brought back together first in their mourning and then in their frustration at a message from beyond the grave: their mother is determined to achieve in death what she couldn't while still alive, a sisterly reconciliation. She has left her estate to the girls, but in order to access the funds they will need to cooperate and coordinate efforts to unearth the clues she has left them. With neither in a position to walk away from the potential gold mine, they have to put aside their differences, if only for the summer.
Many of the characters who first popped up in The Mill River Recluse are back for round two, and it's nice to see some familiar faces such as Aunt Ivy, Father O'Brien, Kyle and Claudia. The sisters may be new in town, but they quickly find their feet with their new neighbours, who of course all have their opinions on what Josie has done.
This book is easy to read and has a delightful way of skipping from the past to the present, showing us the girls' childhood and teenage years against their adult landscape, and of course it's a way to bring Josie back to life too since she otherwise would feature little in the story. There are various reveals during the story, many kept quite secret until the last minute, such as the reason the sisters don't talk, something I worked out only a few chapters before it was confirmed.
There was one thing I thought a little absurd, which happened at the hospital. When I was summarizing the story in a nutshell for the Boy, my voice may have got a bit high and squeaky at that point as it was so unexpected I could barely continue reading. I've had to dock a star for that as it seemed a stretch too far and I thought it let the story down quite a bit, removing some credibility. While it's only in the most predictable of books that you see every twist and turn coming, ultimately even if they come out of the blue they should make sense to the reader and seem sensible to the story, and I'm not sure that one did.
Otherwise this is a stellar read that will entertain fans of the earlier work. The same approach is employed – sub plots and side stories featuring the same characters but not entirely related to the main premise – and this adds variety and colour to the story, plus moments of suspense as the story drifts off in a different direction just as you were starting to put the pieces together.
Thanks go to the publishers for supplying this book.
The Kinsella Sisters by Kate Thompson has more sisterly love.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Mill River Redemption by Darcie Chan at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Mill River Redemption by Darcie Chan at Amazon.com.
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