Evening Stars

January 6, 2014
Mallery’s third novel (after Three Sisters) set on fictional Blackberry Island, Wash., explores the boundaries of love and loyalty for a quirky mom, her lesbian partner, and her two adult daughters. Flighty, immature Bonnie Wentworth runs the Blackberry Preserves antique store, which barely stays afloat between Bonnie’s buying trips, leaving oldest daughter Nina to assume the “mom” role for her sister, Avery, and for Bonnie too. A crisis in Avery’s marriage forces the sisters, and Bonnie and her partner, Bertie, to re-examine their responsibilities to one another and themselves, while an ugly cast-off painting changes all of their lives. The men in the sisters’ lives—Nina’s first love, Dylan, and young admirer, Kyle, and Avery’s abandoned husband Kevin—along with an unbelievably well-trained stray dog, Penny, are amazingly accommodating during an often dark and difficult tug-of-love between the women as they tame their fears, take responsibility—and hit Antiques Roadshow pay dirt. “I’m going to go for my dreams and see what happens,” Nina decides. And that’s the joy for all of us who were rooting on the sidelines. Agent: Annelise Robey, Jane Rotrosen.