We start with two sisters who seem to be as disparate as they can be.  One stayed in her home town, the other left as soon as she could.  One followed in the footsteps of her family, though it meant disconnecting from her mother, aunt, and sister, and aligning with her late husband’s family, while the other went as far away as she could (while still being in the same country), and made a name for herself as a tidy/organized influencer.

The book resolved well, but it seemed really lazy.

Amanda, the sister who remained in the hometown, is the woebegone widow who has two children who seem to be about at the disgust and eye-rolling stage of teenage years (not a lot of depth here), who doesn’t really stray outside her box.  She had dreams, but she never went for them.  She still has dreams, but not a lot of self-esteem or drive.  She’s interested in the cook at her mother’s restaurant, but is she really?  What exactly is her desire here?  To build up both restaurants using a TV reality contest, for which she’s done little to no research, and has no understanding of how shows like this are put together, or how they manufacture drama.  In this day and age, I find it incredibly difficult to believe that she has no idea that this drama is beefed up by the producers and host of the show.

Mae, the sister who left town and never really looked back, also has two children toddler and early school age, and a husband with exceptionally different desires than her.  For a while, I thought maybe a conflict between the two of them would be some kind of relationship issue (infidelity, perhaps), but thankfully, the book wasn’t as predictable as I expected in that way.  She’s obsessive with tidiness, resulting in tossing things she doesn’t deem necessary while her husband and kids feel the lose of sentimental things as a betrayal.  She, as you’d expect, lost it a bit when she finds out that she no longer has a job, which drives her to “help” with the reality show.  She has more awareness of how reality shows work, and seems to be more open eyed going into the event.

There could be a wide array of reasons why, but I pretty much disliked both of the main characters from the start.  Mae was incredibly difficult to identify with, even once we find out that the motivations for her relentless tidiness comes from her mother’s illnesses – I’m not saying it wasn’t justified, but there seemed to be a complete lack of empathy for all of her supposed loved ones, including her kids, her husband, and her sister.  Her sister lost her husband, and there seemed to be little to no sympathy.  Amanda was portrayed as a simpering idiot throughout the first 2/3rds of the book, especially as she opens her mouth and gives a perfect stranger far too much insight into her family without really knowing how that information would be used.  Not only that, but I was really frustrated with her lack of confidence – there’s only so much I can sympathize there (maybe a problem Mae also had, but given the backgrounds we had for both of them, it didn’t seem like Mae was in contact with Amanda enough to get fed up).

The resolution of the book was a tidy little Happily Ever After, but it required a bunch of things coming together at just the right time.  Light, fluffy read, yes.  But annoying, nonetheless.  (Might have gone up a half star if a recipe had been shared…)