Book Review: Sisters Behaving Badly by Maddie Please

Sisters Kitty and Jenny haven’t spoken since a very disappointing Carvery lunch. Kitty, sixty-two, thinks Jenny is turning grey. Jenny, sixty-six, thinks Kitty needs to grow up!

So when both sisters inherit a farmhouse in rural France, it gives them the perfect chance to heal the rift between them. Except the farmhouse is a wreck, the garden is terrorized by a flock of chickens, not to mention a donkey with a serious flatulence problem!

Kitty is determined to enjoy herself, especially when she meets gorgeous French builder, Leo. Ooh la – la! And Jenny finds the fully stocked wine cellar helps enormously with missing horrible husband Paul – hic!

And as the two sisters begin to repair their fragile friendship, they discover that being bad is actually very good for the soul.

*****

Kitty has not spoken to nor seen her older sister, Jenny in a while.

So, when they both inherit a farmhouse in rural France, they are given time to hopefully heal their relationship.

They may well just discover that being bad… isn’t bad.

This is the first novel I’ve read by Maddie Please. Having read the premise for this book, I was excited to be invited onto the blog tour.

I loved the setting for this story. I could see the house and surrounding area from the way it’s described. It sounds stunning. I imagined it like Colin Firth’s Garden in Love Actually.

I liked that these ladies were in their sixties and were still having fun. I think it makes them very relatable. As sisters, even as adults, both of them know exactly what buttons to press.

Kitty is very easy to love. She’s a fun character who wears her heart on her sleeve and takes things as they come, even if it means jumping into situations without thinking.

Jenny was a little harder to get to know and therefore, it took me longer to warm to her. She’s a little shy and reserved and therefore, it’s easy to think that she’s not going to be a likeable person when you first meet her.

At the beginning though, I had the feeling that they could learn something from one another. Also, that they were misunderstanding each other and not communicating very well.

The supporting characters were wonderful and added a lot to the story. Even the chickens and the cat. Haha. The only character I wanted to scream at was Paul. I did find myself wanting to know more about Sheila. Her story sounds fascinating.

The plot unfolds well. You can really feel the tension between the sisters at the beginning and it was interesting to see how that developed over the story, especially as everything gets more chaotic.

As usual, that is all I am going to say as I don’t want to spoil it.

Sisters Behaving Badly is a compelling, inspirational story that had me smiling, gasping and full on laughing out loud in many places.

It’s a story of how important siblings can be. It’s also about how it’s never too late to go for a life that makes you happy.

I loved it. Thank you Maddie Please for a wonderful, insightful story.

About Maddie Please

Maddie Please is the author of four bestselling romantic comedies, having had a career as a dentist and now lives in rural Devon where she enjoys box sets, red wine and Christmas.

She will be taking a new direction in her writing for Boldwood with joyous tales of older women.

Say hello to Maddie on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Bookbub. You can also sign up for Maddie’s newsletter by clicking here. 

Sisters Behaving Badly was released by Boldwood Books on 16th November 2021. Click to buy from Amazon UK.

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Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.