It’s been a few months since I last picked up a book by Melanie Harlow and I love that she’s still writing the stories for all of the Swayer sisters. It’s been interesting getting to know them all personally and from when you first read about all the sisters in the first book, you honestly can see the huge difference between them once you go through each other their books. They have all grown as characters and I think that Melanie has done a great job at bringing their characters to life. I honestly, couldn’t say if I had a favourite out of all of the sisters, I know that we still have April’s book to come, so it’ll be interesting to see how that book goes…. This book was about Sylvia and it was such an interesting feeling trying to grasp her character because in the first two books she’s essentially made out to be a perfectionist/ snob (don’t get me wrong, she’s a lovely character, but that was the kind of vibe I got from her in the first two books), but in this one you get to see the real her and it’s a lot different than what was originally portrayed of her. I think that at times she had the right idea of what was best because at the end of the day she has two kids…. But then at the same time I found myself wanting to actually shout at her because some of the things that happened I just found to be too farfetched. Don’t get me wrong, Melanie did a really good job at writing this book and giving us the insight to Sylvia that we all wanted, but no book is perfect.
One of the things that I just thought was silly was the fact that okay, yes they were all uprooting their life and starting fresh but it’s clear her two children were struggling with her daughter wearing heavy amounts of make-up and her son sneaking junk food, but even still she should of just went and confronted them about it all…. Yet instead, she decided to just let them carry on, if anything it seemed that most of the time she was just trying to be their friends, and whilst it’s great to have that connection, when there’s an issue come to light or there’s a huge change it’s best to do what you can to find out why things are happening. I also felt that due to Sylvia not doing that and just trying to be their friends, it was why both children felt the need to keep their feelings and thoughts to themselves. Yes, in some cases it may be healthy but at the same time when going through your family breaking up, it’s not something that will be fixed overnight, that will take weeks/ months even. But instead of addressing the issues, it’s like Sylvia kind of ran from them. There was a few other small details that stood out, but nothing as much as this one. Other than that, I do think that Sylvia did grow as a character and that in the end she was quite enjoyable to be around.
One of the things that I just thought was silly was the fact that okay, yes they were all uprooting their life and starting fresh but it’s clear her two children were struggling with her daughter wearing heavy amounts of make-up and her son sneaking junk food, but even still she should of just went and confronted them about it all…. Yet instead, she decided to just let them carry on, if anything it seemed that most of the time she was just trying to be their friends, and whilst it’s great to have that connection, when there’s an issue come to light or there’s a huge change it’s best to do what you can to find out why things are happening. I also felt that due to Sylvia not doing that and just trying to be their friends, it was why both children felt the need to keep their feelings and thoughts to themselves. Yes, in some cases it may be healthy but at the same time when going through your family breaking up, it’s not something that will be fixed overnight, that will take weeks/ months even. But instead of addressing the issues, it’s like Sylvia kind of ran from them. There was a few other small details that stood out, but nothing as much as this one. Other than that, I do think that Sylvia did grow as a character and that in the end she was quite enjoyable to be around.