The Geometry of Sisters

4.5 stars
Every time I choose a book from the Little Free Library, I worry. Will it be horrible? Will I be sorry I even started it?
Well the first chapter had me. The voice of the 14-year-old girl was perfect pitch. And she had problems beyond the usual teenage angst. Her father had just died in a boating accident, and her sister had run away immediately afterwards.
The author switched away from first person in the next chapter, but the voice of Beck still returned from time to time as the story unfolded. I was not completely happy about all the premarital sex and the lies that went with it. There were hints of magical effects - they stayed just hints - but I worried that the book would go there and I don't care for magical solutions to show more real problems.
The story kept my interest, and the ending was certainly satisfying. The author resisted the temptation of suddenly tying up a couple of loose ends. And romantic love was triumphant. So was family feeling. And the 14-year old was not just OK, she was "good." show less

After the sudden death of her father and the simultaneous disappearance of her sister, Beck is struggling to keep her world together. With their family of five cut down to three, their mother has decided to move them out of state so she can take a job teaching in a private school. Beck and her brother must deal with their own feelings of grief and loss while trying to uncover the family secret that brought about such tragedy.

Eh, this book is just not very good. The math metaphor is forced and doesn't quite make sense. All these teenagers are ridiculously mature, articulate and super-humanly emotionally actualized. Also, the character of J.D. reads like a super-villain. He's disabled after a freak accident and totally obsessed with some show more girl he spent a few months with twenty years ago. He follows her every move via her sister. He buys the island next to their family vacation spot and builds a light house on it????? This dude is insane in a clinical sense. That's up there in creepiness with writing her name on the moon with a giant laser. I know it was supposed to be romantic but it just wasn't. It was weird. show less

I really loved this story. The plot and the dynamic. The grief and the loss. The love and warmth. This was the first book I have read by Luanne Rice. I know for certain it will not be my last.

This is a book about the past and the present. A family struggling through grief and loss. A story of new beginnings and righting old wrongs. A heartfelt tear jerker.

You will love the family and their friends. Everyone's point of view is shown. This was a must read for me. It didn't disappoint.

Maura Shaw has returned to Newport, Rhode Island, with two of her three children. Her elder daughter, Carrie, disappeared from the hospital where she was taken following a boating accident in which her father drowned. Maura’s sister, Katharine, an artist, lives in RI. Maura is to be a teacher at the prestigious Newport Academy and daughter Beck and son Travis will attend as students. A new start is what this family needs to mend. Elder sisters Maura and Katharine need to find their way back to each other and Beck, who is seeking life’s answers in the world of mathematics, needs for her sister Carrie to find her way home. This was a very satisfying story of family, sisters, and friends in an examination of how the past can influence show more the future. show less

Maura Shaw is a young widow with a missing daughter and two grieving remaining children. To try and give them a new beginning, Maura accepts a teaching job back home in Rhode Island and moves the family there. They all miss the older daughter Carrie and Travis and Beck struggle to feel at home in their new school. All characters are richly fleshed out in this absorbing novel, another Luanne Rice success.

This book held my attention. I especially liked the math obsessed daughter Beck. Not a great work of art, but it was diverting.

This is a stimulating story about broken and renewed family relationships; about the special connections that sisters have with an interesting mathematical twist to ponder.