By Candace Carty-Williams
Published September 2022
335 Pages
Cyril Pennington isn’t going to win Father of the Year any time soon. He’s sired five children by four different women and only shows up when he wants something. But the adage blood is thicker than water holds true. Despite the siblings being radically different from one another, her oldest sister is the first person Dimple calls when she’s in a situation she can’t handle. Although for Dimple, most situations are ones that she has a hard time handling.
Despite not seeing each other for over a decade, they band together to help Dimple over her crises; then they don’t go away. Events conspire to continue bringing them together, and Dimple finds herself no longer alone, but with a passel of relatives she never knew existed that are going to help her, even if it pulls her radically outside of her comfort zone.
I’ve read several sibling books lately and each one has done a remarkable job of fleshing out disparate characters and making them 3-dimensional. This novel was no exception. Although the spotlight was on Dimple for most of the book, it was written from an omni point of view so we got a glimpse at everyone’s thoughts. The author showed little quirks each character portrayed that tied them together paternally, while also showing the vast difference being raised by different mothers made. I understood all of the siblings, even the ones I didn’t much like. I have to be honest, Dimple and her mother were cringingly co-dependent. I wondered a few times why the author chose to focus on her, although her other sisters were less sympathetic so may have lost my interest if they had dominated the narrative.
I love it when an author gives the main character a “thing” – some idiosyncrasy that pops up throughout the book and really makes that character stand out. For Dimple, aside from the fact that she was overly emotional, this was astrology. Unfortunately, it popped up in a few scenes and then disappeared again. I would have preferred it to have been used throughout the book or not bothered with at all since it perked me up, then felt like a device the author forgot about.
But, that was my only complaint. Overall, an enjoyable read.
Final rating: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Until next time, thank you for visiting.
Ann Dudzinski 