Sunflower Sisters didn’t bloom for me

I finished reading “Sunflower Sisters,” which is another prequel of “The Lilac Girls,” and “Lost Roses,” by Martha Hall Kelly. Checking it out from the library was the wisest choice I made. Its also a sign that its time to move on from Caroline Ferriday and her family. If I bought this book this would have been a more harsh review. “Sunflower Sisters,” takes place during The Civil War from the points of view of Gorgiana Woolsey Caroline Ferriday’s great aunt who became a civil war nurse, Annie May Watson a plantation owner and her slave Jemma who eventually escapes.

Pros

There are some positives about “Sunflower Sisters.” Martha Hall Kelly is an amazing writer and you know she did excellent research. I liked in the beginning that Georgiana was ambitious in being a Civil War nurse and wanting to start her own nursing school for women.

Cons 

Unfortunately there are a lot of negatives. I remember reading a few amazon reviews after finishing the novel and found they match how I feel. Georgiana and her sisters were a bit bland and you couldn’t tell them apart. Also Georgiana herself wasn’t that likeable, she strung that Frank Bacon along back and forth and they married at the end if I were him I wouldn’t have done it. Also the characters seemed to be stereotypes. Georgiana seemed way too modern for her time to seem real and Anne May seemed too evil to be real and her redemption at the end seemed a bit random I think. Sunflower Sisters seemed to repeat the mistakes of the last novel, “Lost Roses,” where only one of the characters was real and the other two were made up characters.

Overall

Overall the book had potential but fell flat. I think this book would have benefitted if Georgiana’s story and the stories of Jemma and Anne May were two separate books especially since Anne May and Jemma are fictional characters. I also agree with Martha that as sad as she is to say goodbye to Caroline and the women in her family, it’s time to move on. I am excited about Martha’s next novel which I wrote about in an old newsletter awhile back.