Sisters by Choice

In this poignant small-town charmer, Mallery (The Summer of Sunshine and Margot) beautifully illustrates the power of female friendship and the importance of reaching for one’s dreams. After the Los Angeles office of Sophie Lane’s cat products company goes up in flames, she moves her small business back home to Blackberry Island, Wash., where her cousins, Kristine and Amber, also live. Kristine, a stay-at-home mom of three sons, dreams of expanding her weekend business of selling cookies into a full-scale bakery but her husband disapproves. Amber’s 20-year-old daughter, Heather, nurses ambitions of leaving for business school, but is trapped on the island by her codependent mom who relies on Heather for emotional and financial support. Mallery alternates perspective between Sophie, Kristine, and Heather as each woman works to balance her familial and romantic relationships with her career goals. Surrounded by a first-rate cast of supporting characters—most notably Dugan, a hunky tai chi instructor with a secret, who falls for Sophie—Mallery’s women are achingly real. This irresistible, heartfelt story will appeal to romance readers and women’s fiction fans alike. [em]Agent: Annelise Robey, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Feb.) [/em]