The Wilder Sisters
A Novel
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Wilder sisters fall in love with men when they least expect it—and most need it. Rose, the older, more practical one, is a widow who lives in New Mexico and has two ungrateful kids, a bored dog, and a horse with a bad back. Lily, the younger, more daring sister, lives in Southern California, where she has put her career before everything else—including love. Lily and Rose flee to their parents' ranch, for some emotional detox. But the two haven't spoken in five long years, and spending time togther is the last thing they'd planned on. Nor had either anticipated being so actively pusued by lovestruck men. Readers will be in their corner all the way as they rediscover the bonds of sisterhood and slowly open their hearts to love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mapson's (Hank & Chloe; Loving Chloe) knack for creating indelible female characters has not faltered in her fifth novel, in which she introduces the two Wilder sisters and their search for romance and self-discovery. At 40, Rose Wilder has never left Floralee, N.Mex., where she grew up on her parents' breeding ranch some miles out of town. Now she works as assistant to veterinarian Austin Donovan and tries to cope with her feckless adult children and the bitter disillusionment still lingering two years after the death of her cheating husband. Her younger sibling, Lily, is a headstrong, single career woman living in Southern California, whose experience with love has been a relentless series of shallow men. The sisters haven't spoken in five years, but they reconnect while on vacation at their parents' ranch, each woman seeking refuge from the disappointments and confusions of her life. Rose and Austin are dancing around their mutual attraction, but Austin is also morbidly attracted to the bottle and to torturous memories of his ex-wife. Lily rekindles her high-school romance with Tres Quintero, but his new writing career and demanding stepdaughter pose challenges to her hopes for true love. Meanwhile, their mother, Poppy, and father, Chance, offer advice and take part in their daughters' dramas while running El Rancho Costa Plente and worrying over family mainstay and ranch manager Shep Hallford, on his deathbed. Soon the sisters start to heal their sibling resentments and rivalry, even as each makes significant, heart-tugging life changes. As in all of Mapson's novels, the natural beauty of New Mexico is a vivid part of the story, and the small-town setting is authentic. The protagonists are engaging, rounded and real--and the various dogs and horses that figure in the plot are also individually distinct. If the male characters are as usual blind to emotional insights until it's almost too late, many readers will overlook this failing and hope to see the Wilder sisters' saga continue. If nothing else, their parents' story merits a book of its own.
