True Colors

True Colors
By Kristin Hannah

The heart of this book is a story of three sisters and their relationships with each other. I don’t categorize this as a romance in the classic sense. However, the core of the book revolves around love – sisterly love, romantic love, unrequited love, careless love, passionate and obsessive love, parental love (or lack thereof) – so I thought I’d review it here.
The book is highly character driven. It follows Winona, Aurora and Vivi-Ann through four decades from childhood to adulthood. The reader gets to know Winona and Vivi-Ann very well. Winona is a highly successful lawyer who is much less confident in her personal life and struggles with a jealousy of Vivi-Ann. Vivi-Ann is a vivacious beauty who feels everything deeply and is unswervingly loyal to those she loves. Aurora seems a weak character who mainly serves two purposes – as a fashion plate to show the passage of time and as a mostly neutral peace-maker between the other two sisters. The interactions they have with their father and their lovers dominates the plot and drives the relationship the sisters have with each other.
I read this book for a discussion group. I’d never read anything by Kristin Hannah but was looking forward to it because I knew many people like her. I always think that a good book is one you get lost in. You forget you are reading and just experience the story. This one was okay but nothing I had trouble putting down when I needed to. I found parts of it very good and parts of it forced and contrived.
I didn’t care for the ending. I thought the first scene was just corny (it would have worked in a Harlequin romance) and the second just seemed unworthy of the emotional growth this sister had made. No spoilers though for those who want to see for themselves. Several in my book group disagreed with me, so let me know what YOU think!
~ Michele