When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend.

They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral.

Hoover’s ( November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.Īt first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. Best-selling romance author Mallery delves into light women’s fiction with this third Blackberry Island novel, maintaining her romantic charm and smooth voice yet embracing the freedom of a broader storyline with ease and a bit more depth.Ī light, engaging family-coming-of-age story that flows gracefully into a handful of happy endings, though with a few more twists, turns and universal conflicts than a strict romance. But before she can fix her own life, she might have to stop trying to manage everyone else’s. Two men from her past come back, and suddenly she has to decide what she truly wants, since all her old dreams are rising like ghosts and teasing her with possibilities. Finding a new, trustworthy employee for the store seems to create a new dynamic, as some of the junk turns out to be worth a second look-and so do the people in Nina's life. Meanwhile, Nina juggles her career as a nurse with trying to keep the antiques shop viable her mother keeps spending money without putting in the work to keep it running. Now Averil is back, leaving a journalism career and a husband who loves her, and Nina is frustrated by her sister's ambivalence about a life Nina considers perfect.

Her mother owns an antiques store full of junk and has never been a person anyone could depend on Nina's been cleaning up after her since she was a kid. Nearly 30, Nina has spent her life on Blackberry Island, making sacrifices so her sister Averil could escape their small town even while her own dreams drifted out of reach. Two sisters are taking stock of their lives amid emotional insecurity when an unexpected treasure gives them the chance to have everything they want-if only they can figure out what that is.

Evening stars by susan mallery