Friday, September 17, 2010

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters Review

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release date: September 1, 2010
Source: Publisher
Other books by this author: How to Say Goodbye in Robot

The Sullivan sisters have a big problem. On Christmas Day their rich and imperious grandmother gathers the family and announces that she will soon die . . .and has cut the entire family out of her will. Since she is the source of almost all their income, this means they will soon be penniless.

Someone in the family has offended her deeply. If that person comes forward with a confession of her (or his) crime, submitted in writing to her lawyer by New Year's Day, she will reinstate the family in her will. Or at least consider it.

And so the confessions begin....

Review:

After reading and loving Natalie’s debut, How to Say Goodbye in Robot, I was dying to get my hands on her sophomore novel. Luckily it far exceeded my expectations and landed Natalie on my favorite authors list.

The plot was ingenious. I loved how it tied together the confessions of three sisters and every page introduced something new and interesting. After their grandmother threatens to cut out the entire Sullivan family from her will because one of them had highly offended her, the three girls (Jane, Sassy, and Norrie) write out their confessions to hand to their grandmother with hopes that she will forgive them and reinstate the family into her will. From the first page I was addicted, I had to know what the confessions were going to be and how everything would work out for the Sullivans.

Natalie’s writing style is unique and awesome. I love how she always knows the perfect word to describe someone and she crafted this novel perfectly. By the end I was dying to know how things would end!

Reading each of the three sister’s confessions was my favorite part. I got attached to Norrie, Jane, and Sassy right away and it was awesome watching how their stories weaved and connected by the end. Seeing each girls’ perspective on things was refreshing and I felt like I was a member of the Sullivan family by the end.

Norrie, Jane, and Sassy were highly original and fabulous main characters. Although they were sisters, their personalities were each very different and yet they had a fantastic relationship with each other and the rest of their family. They called their mother Ginger, their father Daddy-O, and their grandmother Almighty. Some parts of this novel were laugh out loud hilarious and still others made me grip the pages wanting to know what would happen.

I don’t want to spoil anything by going into details of the confessions, but all I can say is I loved every minute of Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters and the ending was definitely surprising.

Overall, this is one novel you cannot miss. It was spunky, original, and very well written. I can’t wait to see what Natalie writes next!

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars

13 comments:

  1. Great review! It sounds like a fun read. I love books about family and this one sounds perfect. Great to hear that all three of the sisters are great characters and I like the name Sassy. SO much fun.

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  2. Amazing blog. I found it through Lisa and Laura Write's blog. You review a ton of books here. Wow! I'm impressed. I have a blog too about YA books. It's pretty new and not nearly as developed as yours, but I'm trying to build a following. My blog is: idevourkidbooks.blogspot.com I'd love to have you follow me.
    Best, Lois

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  3. It's refreshing to see a contemporary YA without supernatural creatures or dark drama. I think my kids will have to read this one, also. The book sounds great. Thanks for the review.

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  4. You definitely have me intrigued, especially about those confessions. I'll have to put it on my wish list. It sounds like such a fun read.

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  5. Thanks for the review. I think my teen would like to read it!

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  6. This book looks so good. It's such an awesome premise and I'm glad to hear you liked it. :)

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  7. I'm so glad to see you enjoyed it so much. I laughed out loud so many times while reading How to say Goodbye in Robot, I'm sure it will be the same with this.

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  8. This sounds really entertaining...sort of like a sitcom in novel form.

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  9. Mary D
    zenrei57 (at) hotmail (dot) com

    I've heard so many good things about Natalie's books - haven't read any yet but am looking forward to them :)
    Very curious as to what the Sullivan Sisters have to *confess* lol

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  10. This one really sounds interesting. *wants to read it* I wonder what their confessions would be.

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  11. This book has been on my TBR pile for a couple of months. Can't wait to read it now because of your review!

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  12. This book sounds like a must-read, according to your review. Thanks for your honest review!

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