Review: 'The Sisters Club' by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (2015)

Four women have little in common other than where they live and the joyous complications of having sisters. Cindy waits for her own life to begin as she sees her sister going in and out of hospitals. Lise has made the boldest move of her life, even as her sister spends every day putting herself at risk to improve the lives of others. Diana is an ocean apart from her sister, but worries that her marriage is the relationship separated by the most distance. Sylvia has lost her twin sister to breast cancer, a disease that runs in the family, and fears that she will die without having ever really lived.
When Diana places an ad in the local newsletter, Cindy, Lise, and Sylvia show up thinking they are joining a book club, but what they discover is something far deeper and more profound than any of them ever imagined.
Today I’ve got a review of another book that has been a part of my review pile for way too long already *hides underneath her desk* I was actually looking for a promising read to take with me on summer holiday when I stumbled upon Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s novel ‘The Sisters Club’, which was released in August 2015 by Diversion Books. I immediately liked the sound of the story and the idea of a ‘sisters club’ sounded really fun and interesting. Next to that, it’s always great to discover new authors and I hadn’t read any of Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s works before. Unfortunately, I never managed to actually read the novel during my summer holiday, but it was at the top of my TBR-list and I was excited to finally sit down with it and check it out a few weeks ago.
Diana is starting a new part of her life after her move from England to the USA to live with her new husband. While she loves him very much, she can’t help but miss her own family and friends. To feel less alone, she decides to start a ‘sisters club’, a place for women to bond and talk to each other, and she places an advertisement in a local newsletter. This is the start of an interesting friendship for Diana and the three women who respond to the ad: Cindy, who has a dead-end job in a lingerie shop and a controlling boyfriend; chef Sylvia who has lost her beloved twin sister to breast cancer; and Lise, a creative writing professor who wants nothing more than to write and release her own novel. The club is the start of a new friendship between all of them; a friendship that comes with ups and downs and big changes for all of them.
I really loved the main plotline of ‘The Sisters Club’; the idea of four completely different women being brought together by an advertisement for a book club which is the start of a new friendship for all of them. The story is told from the points of view of all four female characters: Diana (who just moved from the UK to the USA to be with her new husband but is struggling with a lot of things), Cindy (who is figuring out what she wants with her life, including her boring job and controlling boyfriend), Lise (a writing professor who wants to finally sit down and write her own novel), and Sylvia (who is afraid to live her life after her twin sister’s death). All four characters had something completely different to bring to the book, which was great, and really resulted in a well-paced, fascinating and captivating story. 
The novel includes several completely different characters, which I think results in the reader being able to find at least one or two characters to whom they can relate in one way or another. The book is quite fast-paced and there is some real character development, and I personally loved joining the four female characters for the ride. Based on the blurb and title, I did expect the book to focus a bit more on the characters’ relationships with their sisters, but even though the book was a bit different from what I expected, it didn’t disappoint me; not at all. Overall, ‘The Sisters Club’ is a captivating and engaging read about the ups and downs of life and being able to share it all with your friends; a read I’d recommend to any women’s fiction fan!

Rating:8,5/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.