Evening Stars by Susan MalleryMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the third book in the Blackberry Island trilogy. The story focuses on Nina Wentworth, who was also in book two.
Nina works for Andi's pediatric office as her nurse. The book focuses on how Nina has always been a caretaker for her family. Nina's mother is flighty to say the least, so Nina's always taken on responsibilities for their family. She helps keep their family antique shop, Blackberry Preserves, afloat even though the shop barely makes any money.
Nina's sister Averil is having trouble moving forward in her life. Averil and her husband cannot agree on starting a family and Averil has been saying she is going to begin writing a book, but has stalled on it. Her husband Kevin just wants their life to move forward and Averil isn't sure what she wants. Her solution is to take a break from her life and go back home to Blackberry Island to think things through. Her husband isn't overjoyed by her solution, but is patient with her.
Nina hires a new part-time employee for the antique shop after the employee her mother hired steals from them. Cindy, the new hire, turns out to be a great addition to the shop and helps them become more profitable. Through most of the book Nina and Averil's mother Bonnie, is off on a road trip with her life partner Bertie, looking for merchandise for the shop.
Nina deals with the return of her former high school boyfriend Dylan returning to the island. She also is the attraction of a younger man named Kyle whom she babysat his sister when she was younger and he reveals he always had a crush on her. In her eyes she views Kyle as a fun fling and Dylan as a friend to lean on during stressful times with her family.
Although this wasn't a terrible book, it definitely wasn't my favorite in this series. I did not like how Nina's character was made out to be so responsible for everything in her mother and sister's lives. The fact that Bonnie's life partner Bertie did not step up and make Bonnie take more responsibility in her life angered me. It was also upsetting that Nina felt she had to be the one to be in charge of so much in her family at such a young age. As for Averil, her character just seemed selfish and lost to me. In a lot of ways Averil was more like her mother and Nina was the total opposite. My favorite parts of the book were Nina juggling her relationships between Kyle and Dylan. I felt the writing towards the end of the book was more intriguing than the writing throughout the story as a whole.
This video from author Susan Mallery, wonderfully describes where she got her inspiration for the book 'Evening Stars.'
I love her description "every good quality inside of us has a dark side. If you take any good quality too far it becomes the opposite of an asset. It becomes a detriment to you and it can start to destroy your life. If you take care of others too much you lose yourself."
I hope you enjoy this clip as much as I did!
About the Author
