Review of The Reel Sisters

[mhahn617]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Reel Sisters" by Michelle Cummings.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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A beautifully written tale of female friendship, The Reel Sisters from author Michelle Cummings is a good read. It delves into the friendships and lives of Rose, Sophie, Veronica, Amanda, and newcomer Melody. These five women are all at different stages in life with different lifestyles, and yet forged a strong bond. At the heart of this bond is a love of fly fishing. Together they take lessons learned while participating in one of their favorite hobbies and apply them to their lives and the world around them.

The best aspect of this book is how wonderfully the female friendships are portrayed. There is no cattiness or overdramatic declarations. Even when the women disagree they do so realistically and understandably. I also fully enjoyed the variety of personalities the five women have. They each have their own lives but also maintain their friendships. I loved how they even incorporate each other into their lives outside of fly fishing. The author is able to make this believable without resorting to a shift in personality to justify how two different people can remain friends.

I do find, however, that the characters at times felt a little stereotypical. An example is the tough, highly successful, city-dwelling woman, being afraid of getting dirty. It also takes about half the book to become really invested in the characters, since there are five of them. It feels like once you start learning a little about one character, the book is quickly switching to another. A little more time with each character at the beginning of the book would have gone a long way.

I rate this book a solid 3 out of 4 stars. As I’ve already stated, there is definite room for improvement, however, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was entertaining, sweet, and even heart-wrenching in places. I truly appreciate a book about women from an obviously talented female author.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a story about realistic female friendships. This is definitely something not seen as often in literature as I would like. It does go a lot into the technical aspects of fly fishing, so be forewarned. I did not find that to be a drawback even though I have no major interest in any type of fishing. The parallels the author makes between fly fishing and real-life makes the fly fishing content more interesting than I would have expected.

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The Reel Sisters
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