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THE SWEENEY SISTERS by Lian Dolan

THE SWEENEY SISTERS

by Lian Dolan

Pub Date: April 28th, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-290904-6
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

The Sweeney sisters gather in Southport, Connecticut, for the funeral of their father, Bill Sweeney, a brilliant writer. An unexpected guest at his wake, however, will shift the foundations of their lives.

Not yet lucky in love, all three sisters have nonetheless landed on their feet. Liza, the eldest, has lived a safe, comfortable life in her hometown, married to boring Whit Jones after Gray Cunningham broke her heart. But she’s created a successful career with her Sweeney Jones Gallery, selling work by local artisans, including Maggie, the middle Sweeney daughter, who has put years of wild living behind her. Tricia, the youngest, ended up in New York City, working for a prestigious law firm after her graduation from Yale. When their father’s lawyer reveals that a newly discovered half sister may lay claim to part of Bill’s estate, the sisters realize that the woman at the funeral was no stranger. In fact, she was their childhood neighbor Serena Tucker, whose mother turns out to have had an affair with Bill, which Serena learned about after having taken a DNA test. Dolan (Elizabeth the First Wife, 2013, etc.) uses her experience in podcasting with her own sisters (Satellite Sisters and The Chaos Chronicles) to craft believable women characters who worry about real problems and use wry humor to push through dark moments. Faced with irrefutable DNA evidence, the sisters gently remind each other not to blame Serena, yet they brim with questions: Why did Bill pair up with Birdie Tucker, Serena’s stiff, country-club fixture of a mother? Was their parents’ marriage troubled? And why didn’t Serena come forward sooner? Is she hoping to cash in on her famous father’s death? Or is she going to put her journalism career to work and write a tell-all memoir? Struggling to remember her own childhood from a new perspective, Serena is anxious about fitting in with the tight trio of redheads. As the sisters get to know each other, they begin to restructure their family to include not only each other, but also new partners.

A warmhearted portrait of love embracing true hearts.