Series: Heaven’s Cove #6 (Standalone)
Publication Date: 19th Oct 2023
Genre: Small Town Women’s Fiction
3.7 Stars
One Liner: A bit heavier than previous books, yet heartwarming
Grandma Jessie finds a way to bring together the estranged sisters, her granddaughters, Caitlin and Isla. She leaves them a puzzle to solve after her death.
Caitlin and her stepdaughter Maisie come to Heaven’s Cove to settle the property issues (aka Rose Cottage) and go back to London.
Isla lives in the house, caring for her grandma when Caitlin left around fifteen years ago. Over the years, the gap between the sisters widens to a point where neither knows what to do.
Can the two find a way to sort out their personal issues and rekindle their relationship? Did Grandma Jessie succeed in her plan of uniting the sisters?
The story comes in the third-person POV of Isla, Caitlin, and Maisie.
My Thoughts:
We are back in Heaven’s Cove for another installment. Since the books are standalone, you can read them without reading the others. Though previous characters make brief appearances, only Rose has a slightly longer role (that is, she gets to speak in 3 short scenes). The setting, as always, makes its presence felt.
The book focuses on estranged sisters Caitlin and Isla and their lives. As expected, both are dealing with different kinds of mess. Caitlin is aware of how things stand, while Isla is happy in her denial state.
The three-POV narration works well for the plot. We get a deeper insight into the characters, which helps us understand them better. Maisie begins as a surly and annoying teen (15yo), but soon, I can see her vulnerability. Her POV turned out to be a favorite by the end.
Caitlin and Isla are different, which highlights their roles and their past. Halfway through, we can see what shaped their current personalities, though Isla turned out to be a least favorite (unexpected since I thought I’d empathize the most with her).
The riddle and ancestry tracing part is interesting and the highlight of the book. I like how all three find clues (even if Maisie is uninterested) and piece everything together.
While the blurb mentions Ben and his potential romance with Isla, it is not as much as I expected. In fact, for the majority of the story, Isla is in a relationship with her arse of a boyfriend. Everyone could see he was a jerk except our darling girl. And by the time she did, I just wanted to be done with it. I was more invested in Caitlin and Maisie’s story.
I did like the exploration of different relationships and their impact on people. Be it Caitlin’s suffocation of becoming a caretaker at a young age or Isla’s dependence on her sister and transition into a caretaker for their gran, which leaves her open to emotional manipulation.
I’d have loved it more if things got better a little sooner instead of everything happening in the last quarter of the book. This would have given readers more time to see Isla stand up for herself and mend her relationship with Caitlin, which is the core premise.
We have an epilogue with HFN and projected HEA. This works for the plot, though I wish Isla’s track was better handled (as you can see, my major complaint is only with that part). Despite being on an emotional and heavy side, the book manages to be a heartwarming read.
To summarize, The Sisters at the Last House Before the Sea is a tale of family, relationships, second chances, sacrifice, and love. It’s not the best in the series but a good addition, nevertheless.
Thank you, NetGalley and Bookouture, for the eARC.
#NetGalley #TheSistersattheLastHouseBeforetheSea
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