Gave up. Just couldn't connect with any of the characters.

This one has been on my TBR pile for a while now and for some reason I kept bypassing it. Glad I finally let it grab me... and grab me it did. I totally love this book and the characters inside. The story follows a quirky family throughout the years. And the twist at the end was completely unexpected. I did expect a twist but what I thought was going to happen was completely not what happened, and not even on my list of guesses. The little twist at the end allowed everything to come together and wrap up nicely albeit sad. ( )

This was my first book by this author and I really didn't care for it. The writing style was a bit choppy as were all the characters. Glory Tangle was a horrible mother. She lied, kept secrets, and refused to communicate with her family. Her selfishness and neglect caused her son's death and her whole plan to keep her remaining three children apart after the loss of their brother didn't make any sense to me (even after finding out the youngest probably had brain damage). Who would do that? I didn't care for this character at all, but maybe I wasn't supposed to, so there's that. The idea of a pond that is maintained only by cutting a trench in the sand to connect it to the ocean every year was also strange. If that is really something that goes on in Martha's Vineyard, they should definitely barricade the area off so people can't get hurt. I find it hard to believe any beach community would allow it. ( )

When Ginger Tangle worries, she worries herself, her family and her friends into avoidance and ultimately pushes away one of her loved ones. (which one? I will never tell, read the book.)
Ginger may or may not have been a worrywart before the accident. No, she definetly might not have been, however ever since she was 13, she had stood up and taken care of all her siblings and this might have fed into the worry she carries throughout her adulthood.

Glory Tangle, her mother, was the complete opposite of Ginger, she worried about nothing. If anything she was an avoider. I relate to Glory, some how she reminds me of a past I don't remember, maybe it's because of my birth mother Trudy, maybe it's from being an avoider myself. I was enthralled with Glory and her fun, fly by the seat of her pants personality until the accident where her ofttimes moodiness of her children's hold on her life showed up in double spades and she decided to go back to work so she didn't have to face her emotions.

Ginger's family consisted of 5 members, her aforementioned mother, her father Solly an offbeat toy seller of toys that no one wanted, sort of like the Island of Misfit toys, somehow just not right. She had two younger sisters- Mimi and Callie and a younger brother, Charlie. When they were all together they created trouble as most kids do when their parents are involved in their own dramas.

As an Adult Ginger is dealing with her troubled marriage, her daughter Julia who pulls away from her and her of course all that Glory involves her in. Her mother is a fist full of dynamite that Ginger avoider communicating with because her mother avoided communicating with her.

That Tangle Mangle of wording is endearing and until the end you don't know it serves a purpose you just think it's a funny family trait.

Sisters One, Two, Three is written in the present tense and the past tense. Most people have a problem bouncing back and forth between memories because they don't know which tense they are in at the start of a chapter, I felt that Nancy Star did a great job of keeping the era's separated and yet connected in what was going on in the present. I enjoyed the format very much.

The book is a two part story. Part One consists of "Before and After" what is this before and what is it about the after that it goes all into Part One? Well you are going to have to read the story to find out. I refuse to give it away. bwahahaha Part Two contains "From Now On" this section is much shorter, the ending of the story so to speak. However it is not this nice tidy little tying up of the story, far from it. You are left breathless up until the last few pages. I like that in a book. Makes for an interesting read the whole way through.

Over all I give this book a 4 in ratings for believability, topic, writing format and character development. A rating of 5 would mean it was my favorite of all time and those come very few and far in between. Although I would read this story again (one of the requirements for my rating of 5. I would have to wait and this would be maybe a two time read not a continuous yearly read, like say, Anne of Green Gables; the Harry Potter series, Grapes of Wrath or The secret Garden.

The twist in the story was surprising to me, I didn't see it coming and that is refreshing as I usually am very intuitive to a climax in the story. Mrs. Star does a great job at not hinting at what the falling action is until the very end. I loved that.

My only problem with the story is that we get this perpetual feeling that something bad has happened when it comes to one of it's characters Carter Diggins, or as the children called him Mr. Diggins. This truly never gets fleshed out. As if as a child you have this feeling of people you don't like, but don't really know why and never find out, it's frustrating and not worth worrying about... Why were we given that feeling in the first place? My one and only confused source of wonderment. :)

Over all this was a great story and I am excited to speak to Mrs. Star tomorrow at the Author Discussion about this book. ( )

Wow, I got this little gem for free on Amazon Prime and what a terrific book it turned out to be! Perfect for a book club, lots of discussion material and yet very readable. I look forwarding to reading more from this author. ( )