Book Review: "The Weird Sisters" by Eleanor Brown

Summary from BN.com: There is no problem that a library card can't solve. The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much. But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected.

This is one of those books that I don't feel worthy to write a review about. I absolutely loved this book. Right from the beginning I was immediately sucked into the story. Any book about sisters and reading gets an automatic 5 star in my book. Coming from a family of three girls who all love reading, I felt drawn to this family like a moth to the light. I may not have loved everything that these sisters did but I loved reading about them, learning about them, and discovering more how their lives had an effect on everyone they came in contact with.

The story is deeply engaging and right from the beginning I felt as if I was connected with the characters. I both felt sympathized and got angry with all three women and their decisions. Even though we don't meet Cordy until a bit later on in the book, I felt as if I already knew her through Bean and Rosalie's views. Each sister holds a sad story but eventually overcomes it and finds a better and new outcome in life for herself.

The best part of the story for me was the obvious love of books. One of my favorite scenes in the book was when Bean is trying to explain to an ex boyfriend why she has time for reading. She talks about how she doesn't sit for hours in front a TV mindlessly watching. She always has a book on her so that way when she's at line in the store or in a waiting room she can just pull out her book and start reading. I just absolutely love how the whole family loves books. Another favorite part of the book was the different reading styles of the three sisters. From reading out front in everyone to avoiding everyone because of reading to hiding your reading from everyone, the three girls still know how to enjoy a good book. In this retrospect, they sound just like my family. Three sisters who have been known to lose themselves into a good read.

The only thing that threw me off about the book was the unknown narrator. I'm not sure if I missed if the narrator was revealed or if it's left to the reader to decide who it is by the end of the story. It just confused me in the beginning of the book because the narrator speaks in first person and uses words such as "our father, our mother" yet all of the girls are spoken about in third person. I don't find it annoying or a distraction to the story because you get used to it after a while. It was just different way of writing for me.

This is a wonderful debut novel and I look forward to reading more from Brown. If you love a sister story, Shakespeare or reading in general, this will be a perfect read for you. HIGHLY recommended.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown is published by Amy Einhorn Books (2011)

This ARC was provided for a tour with TLC Book Tours