They're fixing up their childhood home. It's going to get messy.
When Willow Lake asks her daughters for help renovating the family home, each has a reason to hesitate about returning to Maplewood . . .
For quiet and bookish Emmy going back to the town that ridiculed her fills her with dread.
The youngest Noelle is perfectly comfortable in herself now, but once wanted to fit in so badly that she walked away from her first love. A first love who still lives in Maplewood.
And outspoken Rae is painfully aware of how much the townspeople hurt her little sisters growing up. She didn't protect them then, but there's no way she'll let history repeat itself.
The sisters agree to go home and make the best of it. After all if they've changed over the years, it's possible the townspeople have too . . . isn't it?
Review: I was so into this book as soon as I picked it up but I was disciplined and spread out the Joy of reading it over several days rather than eating it up in one sitting! If you love books that have a message of being yourself, embracing your individuality and of course Girl Power, then you're going to like this one.
The book revolves around three sisters, Rae, Emmy and Noelle. Each of them have things in their past that haunt them, but have made them what they are today and each of them have insecurities about both of those things. Rae is an opera singer, such a cool career and she has an amazing husband (who I may have had a little bit of a crush on) but she still has some ideals about living as a rebellious teenage when she returns to their family home. She also has some hang ups about being the mother hen of the siblings and so it was great to see her working her way through both of those things.
Emmy is an amazing scientist and a pioneer for women in her field. She was bullied as a child because of her intelligence and the glasses that went with it and she is a little scared to come back out of her comfort zone where people embrace her intelligence rather than bully her for it. I think she is the sister that I identified with the most only I don't think I would be quite as brave as her in certain situations. Then we have Noelle who came out as a teenager and that didn't go down well in the village she lived in. She is now a top environmental lawyer and is also in a world where no one judges her the way her hometown did but she also has some skeletons in her closet back home that she must exorcise.
Another major part of this book is the fact that the sisters are doing up their childhood home so there are some fabulous home renovation scenes to enjoy, I really liked the feeling of cleaning things out and cleaning them up along with the sisters and regeneration is definitely a key message in this novel. There are some really fun scenes involving some amazing 90s nostalgia scattered throughout the novel which were just the best. The sisters teen nostalgia is just the same as mine and I loved experimentation with hair mascara, babysitters club books and of course fond memories of Dream Phone!
There are some great messages in this book about the way we judge others and certain prejudices that should be avoided at all costs but also message about the way we judge ourselves. I loved reading about the way the sisters stuck together throughout the novel even if they didn't always see eye to eye on some topics. I also loved the theme of girl power running throughout the novel and I would LOVE for there to be a sequel, I want to know what the Lake Girls are doing now!
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