Evening Stars (Blackberry Island)
*Starred Review* The winds of change blow along the West Coast in Mallery’s (Three Sisters, 2013) latest Blackberry Island story. First, the older brother of a girl for whom she babysat turns up unexpectedly in nurse Nina Wentworth’s life. Then Nina’s former fiancé, now a doctor, also shows up in the Washington State island community, and both men want friendship and maybe more. Navy pilot Kyle, who had a crush on Nina, says she’s still his fantasy, while Dr. Dylan Harrington tries to win Nina back as a friend. Meanwhile, Nina’s younger sister leaves her husband in Southern California to return home as she tries to find herself. In the midst of this chaos, Nina’s lesbian mother and her partner return from their antique-hunting trip with a multimillion-dollar painting. Since Nina has always been the levelheaded one who took care of the family, she’s expected not only to figure out what to do with the painting but also to unravel her and her sister’s tangled love lives. Mallery pulls out all the stops in this highly enjoyable and insightful, funny, and poignant look at self-sacrifice and romantic entanglement. --Pat Henshaw