Book 37/30.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I started this Kristin Hannah book about sisters on August 6th because the first Sunday of August is National Sisters Day 👯‍♀️
True Colors is a novel about sisters, vengeance, jealousy, betrayal and, ultimately, what it truly means to be a family. The Grey sisters had only each other when their mother died years ago. Their stern, unyielding father gave them almost no attention. Winona, the oldest, needs her father’s approval most of all. An overweight dreamer, she never felt at home on the sprawling horse ranch that had been in her family for three generations. Aurora, the middle, is the peacemaker. Vivi Ann, the youngest, is the undisputed star of the family. Everything comes easily to Vivi Ann, her father’s love most of all. But when Vivi Ann makes a fateful decision to follow her heart, rather than take the route of a dutiful daughter, events are set in motion that will test the love and loyalties of the Grey sisters. They will be pitted against each other in ways none could have imagined. Secrets will be revealed, and a terrible, shocking crime will shatter both the family and their beloved town.
First things first, I need to give Kristin Hannah her flowers for the marvellous job she did with setting the scene. I have never been to the United States of America, let alone a horse ranch, so the world in this book is completely unfamiliar to me, but the author’s immersive writing easily transported me into that world. Turns out the novel is set in a secret, practically unknown corner of Washington State that even a lot of locals did not know about by the time of the novel’s publication. The author did a remarkable job with the worldbuilding that I could picture the blue water, grey sandbanks and snowcapped peaks on the opposite shore vividly and with ease. The warm waters of Hood Canal really form the foundation of the novel and made Oyster Shores in general, and Water’s Edge in specific, feel like a character in and of itself. In addition to the physical location there is also the “horsey” setting, and the love of rodeos, 4-H and barn dances were a delight to read about.
One thing Kristin Hannah does remarkably well is show the importance and strength of the relationships among her female characters, and this was no exception. The relationship between the sisters was complex and dynamic and one of them had me mad as hell for most of the novel, but thankfully she showed her true colors when it mattered most. At its very heart True Colors is a story about the way in which families – especially sisters – can break apart and come together. That said, the author did a great job developing Winona and Vivi Ann’s characters, but Aurora was so underdeveloped she was practically a secondary character. We never got into her shit the way we did with Winona and Vivi Ann. Significant occurrences in her life were mentioned in passing, yet I wanted to know how and why her story played out the way it did.
True Colors was both heartwarming and heartbreaking and it affected me in a similar way that Night Road did in that I was balancing tears during some parts of the story. It is next to impossibility to say why I was balancing tears without giving anything away, so you will just have to read it for yourself to find out why because damn this one got to me 🥺
PS: This was my seventh Kristin Hannah read and of the seven, five were 5 star reads i.e. The Nightingale, Firefly Lane, Night Road, The Great Alone and now True Colors. Winter Garden was a 4 star read and Distant Shores was a 3 star read.
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 