A twist on a sibling tale with a newly discovered sister for the Sweeney sisters to come to terms with. The characters were likable and the premise was new and current with the discovery of a DNA match. Plus the fact that the new sister was next door all along added a good mystery as well
I thought it started out pretty strong, but lost steam and character development. I wanted to find out more about the original sisters and their mother. A nice quick read.

I loved this book. Now I’m going to tell you why. I know some readers like the end of a book to be tied up in a pink ribbon, in other words, happily ever after. I personally prefer what I like to call a ‘future potential’ ending that I can imagine how I would end the book. Well, the author has pleased the happily ever afters and me too.

This mixed ending is perfect for this book since it’s about mixed family relations. Liza is strong in organization but perhaps too strong, too rigid, too take charge while Maggie is totally free and disorganized and seemingly happy or maybe just haphazard. Tricia, she’s a high powered New York lawyer on her way up and sadly that’s all she seems to be.

An event occurs and, to be trite, their world is turned upside down and we’ll add inside out and suddenly everything these women believed has changed but the question is will it be for the better or far worse. Past history, as they remember it is about to be thrown back in their faces and it’s how they each handle it that makes this a good read.

The author has created a thorough depiction of these diverse personalities and how past history, which cannot be changed, must change them forever.

Thank you to Book Club Girls, Netgalley, William Morrow Harper Collins Publishers and Lian Dolan for this ebook ARC.

The Sweeney Sisters
Liza, Tricia & Maggie, the lively and lovely red-haired Sweeney sisters, reunite in their well-heeled seaside Connecticut hometown after their famous father’s death. William Sweeney was a prominent American novelist (a fictional Salinger/Updike/Cheever mashup). Charged with locating the manuscript of his valuable missing memoir, they uncover startling secrets about their parents, their neighbors and each other. Liza is the dutiful, successful oldest sister whose marriage suddenly implodes. Tricia, a driven attorney and runner, finds that pressing pause is actually pleasant. Maggie is the baby of the family who embraces an unstructured artist lifestyle but also craves stability. Over the long summer, they reconnect with lost loves, meet a mysterious fourth sister, struggle with the truths contained in their father’s unflinching memoir and discover that they can rewrite their own stories.

An easy fun read. Three sisters back together following the death of their father, a famous author. The sisters are all likeable in their own way. The author weaves the stories of each sister together to form an absorbing family drama. I enjoyed this novel and will look for others written by Lian Dolan.

The Sweeney Sisters is a delightful read. Three sisters' lives become quite jumbled after their father's death. They discover many of his secrets, including another sibling. Each sisters processes the mess in her own way and comes out stronger. Character development was good, except William Sweeney was a self abosorbed jerk. The ending was lovely and handled masterfully.

This is a good read. It didn't blow me away and at times I felt like the characters were a bit one dimensional, but I really liked the concept and I enjoyed the literary backdrop. I could have done with a bit more flushing out and setting the stage at the beginning up until they found out about the fourth sister (their reaction to this revelation seemed a bit bland and anticlimactic given the level of surprise this would be).

I loved the Little Women vibes I got from the sisters. All so very different, not always on the same page, often frustrated with each other, but so very well versed in one another’s tendencies and patterns.

I did struggle a bit with some of the flow and how it would switch (seemingly randomly) from one character’s inner thoughts or actions to another’s.

This is mainly an intimate look at family (and more specifically - sister) dynamics and I really identified with that, having a sister myself with whom I have a complicated relationship. I found a lot of the internal as well as sister-to-sister dialogue to be very relatable and reminiscent of sisterly interactions.

This will be a great read for those who love family sagas like The Nest, The Most Fun We Ever Had, or others that aren’t as much plot-heavy but relationship and family dynamics-heavy.

Appreciate the opportunity for an early read!

I received an ARC of this book from the author, publisher, and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I love reading family sagas and this story did not disappoint. The Sweeney Sisters tells the tale of a family coming to terms with loss and finding out the people that they love are not who they always thought they were. At times, I wished for more depth in some of the characters stories and the book sometimes read like a TV drama. However, I was happy to have read it in the end and was pleased with the outcomes.

This was a beautifully written book, it's emotional and at times humorous. Every family has secrets, most times it's discovered at the worst. The relationship between the sisters are very much relatable, each one with different emotions and questions. Their love for one another brings them together and shows us the resilience of what a family can overcome. I received this ARC from Harper Collins Publishers.

The was a sweet story and a quick read with a great beginning and a perfect ending. I felt for the sisters having to come to terms with their fathers secrets and seeing his selfishness on another level, and I really liked Tricia, Liza, and Serena.


For most of the novel I couldn't stand Maggie. She seemed unmotivated and even lazy, a grown adult who was unwilling to make her own way through life, instead relying on the generosity of others. Both of the cars she'd owned had been given to her as gifts. She's an artist without any other job, but she doesn't seem motivated to fulfill her commissions either. When the sisters have to sell the home they grew up in, Maggie is upset that there won't be enough money from the sale for her to buy a place on Martha's Vineyard. When she learns she has another sister, her first reaction is anger that she'll have to split the inheritance money another way. Maggie not only didn't like helping her sisters with any kind of work, she would actively look for ways to get out of it. Despite the fact that she lives off of others, we are told that Maggie considers that "everything that went right was her doing and everything that went wrong was someone else's fault". I was disgusted by Maggie, especially when she was so cruel to her sister Liza (on whom Maggie was reliant for her living) apparently just for the fun of it.

Fortunately Maggie grew up by the end. All of the sisters grew, and I really appreciated that. It made for a satisfying read.

This is a sweet story that I would have felt comfortable recommending to any reader if it hadn't been for the strong language.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Book Club Girls group for this early read.

I am so happy to have had the opportunity to read this book. The Sweeney Sisters was a delightful read. I put a good deal of emphasis on whether I am going to enjoy a book if it captures my attention from the beginning and allows me to become absorbed in the story with the characters. This did not disappoint. I had a hard time putting it down because I couldn’t wait to read what happens next. It was a touching story of the relationship between three sisters growing up and dealing with loss, love and family secrets. DNA tests have become so popular and this story will touch many who may be skeptical about opening a Pandora’s box.

I really enjoyed this book, and it has made me want to read more of this author's work and I think I would really enjoy her podcast. The author wrote an easy read about sisters, which she knows a lot about as her podcast is with her own sisters.
The book starts out with us meeting the three Sweeney sisters; Liza, Tricia and Maggie, as they come to learn of their father's passing. They come together to their childhood home to piece together the estate, and all the new information they come to find out about their father's life. The book follows them through finding out some pretty shocking details about their father, and it goes into what each sister does to handle it. The first shock is to find out there is fourth Sweeney sister who grew up as their neighbor. It just gets more interesting from there!

I come from a household with three girls so I related to this story except for the fact that I didn't have .a famous father (lol). I loved how the author showed the relationships of the sisters in their state of mourning. I also found the relationship to the sister they never knew existed was developed in a great way. The twists and turns kept me interested, after a slightly slow start. I am excited to have found this author, and will definitely look forward to reading more of her work.
Thank you to Harper Collins, NetGalley, and author Lian Dolan for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful book about the Sweeney Sisters, who must navigate grief following their father's death. What I enjoyed so much about this book is that the characters were well-developed and real; vulnerable and flawed. A solid four-star read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters were flawed and likable. The story was well thought out and entertaining.

The Sweeney Sisters by Lian Dolan is a wonderful novel that delves into the complicated relationships and feelings within families.
It was interesting to read the complexities of the disagreements, yet loyalties and love that interplayed between the three main characters that are sisters: Liz, Maggie, and Trisha. Each have their own personalities, hang-ups, pasts, strengths, and weaknesses. They get on each other’s nerves, but love one another despite it all. Each sibling had their “niche” and role to play in the family dynamics. Liz: the oldest is a planner and manager, Maggie the “mess-up”, and Trisha the lawyer and numbers gal. I enjoyed reading their interactions and the paths they were leading.

I also enjoyed some of the curveballs and wrenches that were thrown in after their father’s death and learning about their half-sister Serena.

I also truly enjoyed their transformations and the ending. It was definitely fitting.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow/Harper Collins for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

What a delightful book about sisters and secrets after their father's unexpected death. The Sweeney sisters must deal with the problems their outgoing father, a writer, left for them to deal with after he died. The problems include searching for his memoir that was not to be published until after his passing. This story pulls you in to situations we have all dealt with in our lives. It is a book to be enjoyed.
I received an ARC of this title through Netgalley.

The Sweeney Sisters: A Novel

Sisters! Sisters! There were never such devoted sisters. . . .(are you humming it?)

This book begins with three devoted, yet mourning, sisters. Their parents loom large throughout the tale but happen to be dead (mostly), famous, rich, and the pages are possessed of so many clues you couldn’t be blamed if you thought this was a mystery – well, ok. I think it is. And a little ways through, tag it a romance, and part way through I began to sense someone somewhere in the writing crew has interior design credentials, with possible realtor experience. There are handsome men, all mostly rich – everyone is rich – and golfs, tennises, and yachts. One man isn't rich but knows how to grill - that means he has one. I was raised up a poor kid, so about there in the book I was fading – these folks are too many social classes above me!

But then. . . .I started seeing the differences between these girls, and they were not the same. Ha! That happens in my family. So, some relevancy cred regained. Then a little bit of friction, each have some kind of person issue that holds them hostage – another relevancy cred applied. And then well STUFF HAPPENS. . .I will leave you to find out on your own. From there in, I held tight to that kindle, stabbing the right side as fast as my big brown eyes could do that L-T-R zip across the screen. It was A Blast (capital B), every T crossed and all the I’s dotted. A very fun, smart and engaging read. After it was done, I missed the mix-and-mingle of the characters done so well by this author. I missed them.

4 stars. . . There was one person of color and hurrah for that yumminess, but a family that caucasian could stretch its wings a little. . .

From now on, I am looking for more of the Dolan flair.
Got it.!! ?did you? ;)


A sincere thanks to Lian Dolan, HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book and the story of the Sweeney Sisters (and hope there’s thought of a sequel)! It’s a great read for anyone who’s a sister, wanted to have sisters, or who has women in their lives who we feel are sisters (even if not from a biological POV).

Liza, Maggie and Tricia are the sisters in question and as the book opens, their lives are about to be seriously disrupted and changed with the death of their father, a well-known writer. Their lives get even more interesting with the arrival of another Sweeney sister.

The author does an amazing job of introducing us to life in a small town coastal community on the East Coast, and especially with capturing the essence and relationships between sisters. Additional themes, including divorce, infidelity, and the death of a parent and how that changes family dynamics were also beautifully handled.

Once I read the acknowledgements, it became clear why the author was so successful in handling sibling relationships. She’s one of the Satellite Sisters and I’m definitely checking out her other books and podcast.

The Sweeney Sisters goes on sale on 4/28/20 and should definitely be on your TBR list! Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the opportunity to read The Sweeney Sisters in exchange for an honest review.

When William Sweeney, a famous author, dies, his daughters are forced to return home to settle his affairs which he left in shambles, quite frankly.

What they don’t realize is there will be shocking news. The question is how will they react? Each sister is strong in her personality and love for each other. Once learning of the shocking news, the girls have to make decisions that will undoubtedly affect their futures.

The other daughter, tossed into the midst, must decide whether or not she can fit into this family that she’s always admired, and perhaps even envied from a distance.

Does a great job of creating characters that we can connect and relate with as readers, while they struggle through this new revelation in the wake of their father’s death. Each woman must come to terms with the unflattering truth of their lives, as their father releases a memoir that portrays much in an unflattering light.

If you like familial ties and bonds, struggles from family, love and compassion, then this novel is definitely one you want to read!

This was a charming and witty story of sisterhood and what it means to show up for family, even when they disappoint you. I adored each of the Sweeney sisters and was hooked from page one. Their dynamics with one another were so true to real life that I couldn't help but relate. Several chapters could've been edited down, because some of the narrative felt too repetitive. However, I enjoyed the book overall and will definitely read more from this author.