An entertaining read about the trials of 3 sisters living 3 very different lives. How they end up reconnecting and supporting each other after years of taking different paths and holding different attitudes to life. ( )

This is quite a readable book, about an Irish family with three very different sisters, all around forty. They're rather caricatured: one ultra-successful highly intelligent lawyer who likes to be in control, one harassed mother of triplets plus a toddler, and one ex-model who married a millionaire and spends her time shopping and getting beauty treatments. Oh, and a token tree-hugging brother.

Then crises hit them all in different ways and they discover just how important their relationships with each other are. Again it's rather stereotyped; for instance, the sister who likes to be in control finds herself in a situation where she can no longer control her life. And, because it's that kind of book, it's fairly certain that everything will work out fine in the end.

All of which would be fine, and - other things being equal - I would award it four stars despite the stereotypes. It was, for the most part, well written, changing viewpoint each chapter, gradually builing up the story. There are some quite likeable minor characters, and the triplets are so utterly dreadful that they provide a bit of light relief.

But unfortunately a lot of the conversations were unrealistic, peppered with 'she sighed' and 'he noted' and 'she grinned' and other annoying words that jarred. I was also mystified why, every few pages, people 'roared laughing' (I assume an Irish phrase meaning 'roared with laughter') when situations were mildly amusing or ironic and a smile would have been more appropriate.

Worse, I found the youngest sister totally unbelievable when her crisis hit, behaving like a spoilt self-centred brat. Up to that point she had been shallow but likeable; her character change did not work, nor did her eventual acceptance of the situation. I found the level of bad language unpleasantly high, too.

Still, it raises some interesting issues about single parenthood and the importance of having aims in life, and despite the annoying conversational style, it's a very readable book.
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