I am a huge fan of Melissa Foster, I do not think I have read anything written by her that I haven't loved and this is no exception. The story-line had me gripped from the start and did not let go even when I finished the book I wanted to find out what happened next.
The main characters are Danica, a therapist who is the smart sister of the family and her parents seem to have great expectations of her, with this she doesn't really do what she wants and plays things pretty safe. Her clients are mainly people who are addicted to sex and she tries to help them think more of themselves rather than give in on the first night.

Her younger sister Kaylee is the polar opposite to Danica, lives for the moment, jumps from one man to the next and doesn't really care about much else other than partying, getting drunk and sleeping with one man or another.
Then we have Blake, a womanizer/player, pretty much the male equivalent of Kaylee.

We also have Blake's best friend and business partner who has an serious accident and dies leaving a lot of mess behind including a family that thinks he has been having an affair.
Danica is on the Big Sister program where she is Big Sister to Michelle, a young girl who lives with her Grandmother as her mother left her to go into rehab for a drinking problem.

This is a fantastic book, there is so much going on that there is never a dull moment throughout, mainly Danica and Blake's lives. The romance, the grief, the sadness and the joy this book has a bit of everything and will keep you wanting more.
( )

I really enjoyed this book. I haven't read a lot of Melissa Foster's books yet but I have enjoyed the ones that I have read so I was pretty excited to give this one a try. I found it really easy to slip into this story and really enjoyed getting to watch Danica and Blake get to know each other. I found this book to be a very easy listen.

Danica is a therapist and she has always been the responsible one. She is really conservative with just about everything in her life from what she wears to how she behaves. Blake owns a ski shop with his best friend. He is also known as a player. He has no trouble finding women to keep him company and he seems to have company quite often. When tragedy strikes and his world is turned upside down, Blake finds that he wants more out of life.

I really liked the characters in this book. Danica and Blake were both great and I loved the fact that they grew a lot over the course of the story. I really felt like I was on a journey with both of them and they were very different people at the end of the book than they were at the beginning. I thought that they had wonderful chemistry with each other and I thought that they made a great pair. I thought that the secondary characters were equally well done and I am really excited to read their stories in future installments in the series.

I thought that B.J. Harrison did a fantastic job with the narration. This was the first time that I have had the opportunity to listen to this narrator and I found him very easy to listen to. I thought that he did a great job with all of the character voices and I thought that he was able to add a lot of emotion into his reading. I think that his narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story.

I would recommend this book to fans of contemporary romance. I thought that this was a wonderfully emotional romance that was filled with wonderful characters. I look forward to reading more of Melissa Foster's work soon.

I received a copy of this audiobook from the author/publicist. ( )

3.5 stars.

Melissa Foster's Sisters in Love is a journey of self discovery for the three main characters, Danica Snow, her sister Kaylie and Blake Carter. While there is a romantic element to the novel, it is more of a secondary story arc.

In the beginning of Sisters in Love, I was not sure if I was going to like any of the primary characters. Danica comes across as judgmental and her assessments of her sister and Blake are honest but a little harsh. Kaylie comes across as immature and rather flaky. My first impressions of Blake were mixed and I liked him the most.

Luckily, about a quarter of the way into the novel, I began to reassess my opinions. As more of the characters' back stories were revealed, I had a better understanding of their thought processes, actions and reactions to certain situations.

Blake's story gave me a different viewpoint of his attitude towards women and his inability to commit to a relationship. Of the three, Blake is the most introspective and self-aware. His efforts to change are very sincere and while he sometimes briefly falls back into old habits, his transformation begins immediately. Blake is a stand up guy who wants to do the right thing and despite his discomfort and inexperience, he provides a tremendous amount of emotional support for his deceased friend's family.

I was really on the fence about Danica for most of the novel. I sympathized with her feelings of being cast as the "smart, responsible" one by her family. However I had a difficult time understanding how a therapist (and twenty-nine year old woman) could not figure out how to take charge of her own life. Her reflections about sister Kaylie are hypercritical and her disapproval of Kaylie's lifestyle is quite apparent. Fortunately, as Danica begins to re-evaluate her life, she better understands Kaylie and offers her valuable and life-altering advice.

The one area that really highlights Danica's positive traits is her relationship with her "little sister" Michelle. Their interactions showed Danica's vulnerabilities and made her a much more sympathetic character. The warm and caring side of her personality is brilliantly showcased and helps to smooth over Danica's sharper edges.

The relationship between Danica and Blake was a little uncomfortable for me since Danica is Blake's therapist for much of the novel. There is a strong sexual attraction between them right from their first meeting and I questioned their decision to continue their professional relationship. Their romance feels rushed since they do not act on their feelings until very late in the story. While I definitely felt their passion for each other, I never really had a sense of an emotional connection between them.

Despite a few qualms about certain aspects of the novel, I enjoyed Sisters in Love. The personal growth of the main characters is believable and I liked the progress each of them makes in their lives. Despite the fact they deal with some serious issues, the story is fairly light and easy to read. I am very curious to see what Melissa Foster has planned next for the sisters and I am looking forward to Sisters in Bloom, the next novel in the Snow Sisters/Love in Bloom series. ( )

The characters in this book just didn't engage me. I'm not 100% sure why, but they felt very much like built "characters" and not people who would genuinely exist. I finished it, but I won't be in a hurry to find the rest of the series. ( )

4 "The Responsible Sister and Her Ethical Dilemma" Stars for the story and narration!

Lovers of women's fiction will not want to miss the debut of this sister based series that combines the stories of multiple lives to bring us a heart warming tale of blood and non-blood based sister love and the others who shape their lives. I particularly connected with the main character, and enjoyed seeing how she worked tirelessly to help those around her, making me especially happy to see her experience success in resolving her own quandaries in the end. Additionally, the narration by experienced narrator BJ Harrison made listening to this tale easy to follow.

Danica Snow who is the responsible sister, a therapist no less, was made to help others. Not only does she take a lead role in ensuring her promiscuous sister is safe and trying to better her life by leading a more straight and narrow life, but she also volunteers as a big sister for a young lady, who though she is lucky to have the love and care of her grandmother, lacks a mother or big sister role model. Amidst this already full life, Danica Snow must struggle with letting herself be a bit more free and with an unexpected attraction that leads to an ethical quandary.

Blake Carter likes to dull the pain of his life in women. Never staying too long with one he used to be content living life day by day and leaving the committed relationship life to his business partner and best friend. However, when his best friend, an expert skier, dies unexpectedly on the slopes, Blake's life is left in a tale spin that leads him to therapist Danica's coach. Quite coincidentally it was his late best friend who gave him her number, but what really throws him for a loop is that they have already met, and that first meeting didn't go over quite so well. Can Danica really be Blake's answer to a new life under such an inauspicious beginning? Moreover, when they both start experiencing an attraction to one another, will it be possible to continue as either patient and doctor or something more given that the therapist ethics code very clearly would prohibit any personal relationship between them?

BJ Harrison is easy to listen to and does a good job of reading this story. Although he doesn't provide a lot of differentiation between his male and female characters, I generally had no trouble following this story. While I have to admit that I at first was a little skeptical about a male narrator narrating a womens' fiction title-- as Mr. Harrison's narration style reminded me of the narrators that I have listened to in many romantic suspense titles (think Nora Roberts and the like)--he ultimately won me over and I was able to peacefully settle in to listening to story from his rendition.

All in all, Sisters in Love drew me in and made me feel invested in these various characters' dilemmas. I think this title is particularly suited for women's fiction listeners as the romance is somewhat secondary to the resolution of the various characters' individual battles. Having been introduced to these colorful characters, I'm now eagerly awaiting Kaylie's story (Danica's promiscuous sister) in Sisters in Bloom.

Source: Review copy provided for review purposes. ( )