Evening Stars: A Heartfelt Small Town Contemporary Romance of Sisters and Second Chances (Blackberry Island Book 3)

This is the 3rd book in a series, but it works well as a stand alone read. The series is based on a location. Blackberry Island is in the far north west of the United states. It is a small island populated by generally kind hearted people. And those people know everything about everyone else.Nina is a nurse at a pediatric practice. She is the eldest daughter in her family. Her mother is someone who never actually took responsibility for her two daughters. Actually she never took responsibility for anything. When Nina was only 9 years old, Bonnie would go on buying trips for her antique shop. Nina was left in charge.Bonnie is in a lesbian relationship with Bertie. The two women are very happy and Bertie does try to encourage Bonnie to be a grown up. It seldom works. In fact, Bonnie is one of the most self involved characters I have ever seen.Nina’s younger sister is Averil. She is married, lives in California with her husband and writes articles for a teen magazine. She decides to come home to find out what is wrong with her life. She feels dissatisfied but she is not sure why.Nina has a surprise in her life – in fact 2 surprises. Dylan, her first love returns to the island. Nina starts remembering their history. Dylan is now a physician. And Dylan seems to want to encourage memories but he does not declare his intentions.Nina was a babysitter for Kyle’s little sister when he was 12 years old and Nina was 16. Kyle was in love with Nina and he has returned to find her and see whether they can have a relationship. Actually he is not as interested in a relationship as he is interested in sex with Nina. Kyle is a fighter pilot for the US Navy, with ambitions to become one of the Blue Angels.In short, Nina’s life is complicated.This book is about her life and the lives of her family and friends. This book is about family relationships and tensions and love. This book is about human beings who have flaws and are wonderful all at the same time.Ms Mallery is one of my favorite authors. She writes about people who are nice and interesting and funny and very human. She writes about life. Granted these lives are more exciting than mine, but it is fun to press my face against the window and get a look at those lives.This is a terrific book.

This is a book a out two sisters that set out to find themselves on BlackBerry Island and discover what they truly want to do with their lives. Nina was left taking care of her sister at a very young age because their mom used to leave them alone for weeks at a time in search of antiques and she had no choice in the matter. She was twelve years old and much too young for this responsibility and as they got older she continued being the caregiver with a mom that never wanted to grow up. She loses her true love Dylan because she did not think she could leave and go away to school with him to become a doctor so he broke up with her and left. Years later he comes back regretting the decision that he made and sets out to win her back slowly. This is very romantic how their love story unfolds and worth reading about Ninas journey. Averils and Kevin's love story is sweet as she takes time to find herself and him never giving up on her. She discovers that she was not taking responsibility for her life and needed a little growing up to do before they started their life with kids. This was a very touching love story.

Good read

The final in the Blackberry Island Trilogy. All three have been released. The main character, Nina, has been taking care of her family all of her life and wants a life of her own. She can't seem to catch her footing. Susan wrote this story with a lot of twists, never knowing which direction Nina would take. You root for both men and yet for neither. There are so many multi-faceted characters that are lovable and yet just want to ring their necks. Mom needs a timeout in the corner for a while...long while. Sister needs to grow up and Nina needs to face her own fears. And it makes for a perfect story. Great writing, never left me wondering what happened and kept me interested from start to finish. Read it and another book from the series in one day. LOVED THE SERIES!!!!! Susan Mallery can pick up a pen and magical stories seem to appear before the readers eyes. (Yes I know it takes more than that) She has a gift for story weaving. Five Stars Well earned.

Susan never disappoints me. I love her books. Nina and her family were very complicated as was her life. Every thing comes to a head when her sister Averil arrives back on Blackberry Island. Nina didn't know why she was there but she was worried about her sister and her life with her husband. Push comes to shove and Averil heads back home with a new perspective and her new pet. Her life and her love is strong again. Nina is saved from a fall off her roof by someone from her past. Not her old boyfriend but a boy whose sister she babysat for. The boy was 12 and he's now a fighter pilot with a plan to get Nina in his life. He is handsome and wants a fling. Nina hasn't had anyone in her life in awhile and thinks why not. Her old love Dylan comes back to work in his father's practice and stops to see Nina again. He doesn't know about Kyle. Then there's Bonnie, Nina's mother. who has never taken responsibility for anything. Her and her partner Bertie are on a buying trip for Blackberry Preserves, the antique store that she owns. While on the trip they make a purchase of a storage container and inside is this painting that is really ugly. Bonnie loves the frame, the picture not so much. Come to find out it is an original and worth lots of money. Nina puts it in the store vault but have to get it appraised and taken care of. Nina shows it to the world without telling her daughter then they fight about it. Nina can't understand why Nina is upset. The painting is moved to a Seattle bank vault and finally sold for LOTS of money. The girls get trust funds they can live on. Nina visits Averil and her husband and finds that her sister has completed her novel and even has a rejection letter. She's proud of her sister even though she can't understand why Averil is proud of the rejection letter. Then she finds out Averil and Kevin are pregnant. She so happy for them. She continued on her trip to medical school in Boston. She comes home one day and finds that Dylan is there. He has left his father's practice, wants to be with Nina and they plan on marrying. As I said a wonderful read. Loved it.

Once again Susan Mallery drew me in to a circle of family and friends that made me hate to have the story end. This is a character driven story about a dysfunctional family (aren’t we all?) and how the past shapes their present and future.Nina is struggling with her life being “not unhappy”. Growing up she had to take on the responsible role in her family looking after her younger sister and her own mother who refused to grow up. Years later she realizes she is feeling trapped and that her life is very small. Other characters help her face herself and what she really wants in life.This story is about love of family, exciting new love(lust), comfortable and forgiving old love, and the love of friends offering unconditional support. I liked that this book revisited characters from Blackberry Island. As always, books by Susan Mallery leave me satisfied and happy that I got to spend time with her story.

I love Susan Mallery's books. She explains everything so well. Get to love the characters and throws in d some twists. This book is about parents and their adult children learning how to let go, grow, and go after their dreams.

Yes there is a romance in this novel but it really is secondary to the story. I really wanted to read a 'curl your toes' romance and this did not do that for me. This book was about a dysfunctional family trying to get out of all the traps that make them dysfunctional. Nina is the main character who has always been the responsible one in the family. Her father has never really been in the picture and her mother is a flake who leaves the raising of Nina's little sister up to Nina. They all love each other but can't seem to break from the relationship patterns they have always followed.While these little family dramas are going on two men come into the picture. Kyle is the brother of a little girl Nina used to baby sit for. He is a gorgeous fighter pilot who always had a crush on Nina. He literally come out of nowhere. Nina is fixing the roof and starts to fall when out of nowhere Kyle is there to catch her. He says he's back in town and that she was always his dream girl. She thinks he's good-looking and sexy so what the heck she starts having a relationship with him.Then comes Dylan into the picture. He was her high school sweetheart. He broke up with her while he was away at college. They were both going to be doctors together. But Nina has to help her sister get through college because the irresponsible mother doesn't help financially. So Nina never fulfills her dreams. Now Dylan is back in town to work at his dads practice and he appears interested in getting back together with Nina.I really didn't care that much which guy she picked. Even though you could tell who it would be.So while I really found the family dynamics interesting in this book it wasn't really a romantic book for me. It focuses mostly on the family. And I usually like when the family is part of a story but i don't like when the romance is secondary at best. I mean she is having hot and heavy sex with Kyle and in the next scene she's kissing Dylan. And she goes from sex with one to sex with the other pretty quickly in the end.I know in today's world women can have sex or sexual thoughts with as many men as they want at one time but I really don't want that in a romance novel. I personally don't like it when a guy in a romance novel is playing two women either.The best thing in the book is the relationship between the mother and two daughters. You get to see things from both sisters perspectives. And nobody's really wrong. Except maybe the mother. This is why I gave the book 3 stars. If I was rating the romance I'd give it 1 star. Maybe having the two guys actively in her life until the very end of the book ruined the romance aspect for me!

Another very good book, the author is able to portray her view.I couldn't put this one down either.Loved it so much.

eine schöne Geschichte, wie immer bei Mallery. Die jeweilige Figur wird gut weiter entwickelt und es nimmt immer ein gutes Ende.

I really enjoyed following Nina's story it was heartfelt and we'll written by the incredible Susan mallery. I'm a huge fan

Susan Mallery, as always entertains with an easy read with engaging characters, a few tears and a lot of love.

A light story