What do readers think of Sisters of Heart and Snow by Margaret Dilloway? Write your own review.

It is always tricky when writing a story with two very different time lines, usually I end up liking one way more than the other. In this case I likes them both and they complimented each other very well. Present day finds two sisters trying to regain a relationship to help their mother who is in a convalescent center, remembers very little and is fading fast. In one of her normal moments she asks her daughter to find a book that is in her sewing room. This starts a journey onto the past, back to the days of the samurai, and a very special woman who was a female warrior.

Interesting back stories, present and past, but this book is about relationships.
Sisters of blood, or sisters that you come to love and care for, protect and defend. And of course the relationships, so often complicated between mothers and daughters. The father in this book was a major piece of work and I really wished bad things for him, but maybe loneliness as he ages will ne his just punishment.

Good book, probably my favorite by this author.

This is an absolutely beautifully written book. Sometimes the words just took my breath away. The Snow sisters, Rachel and Drew, are very different from each other and have fought a lot throughout their lives. But now they are drawn together as their mother, Haruki, falls deeper and deeper into the depths of dementia. The sisters are united in ensuring their mother continues to get the best care possible, while their father Killian is only concerned about the expense.

During one of Rachel’s visit with her mother, Hakuri asks for a book that is in her sewing room. Then she sinks back into her dementia. Rachel and Drew find the book; however, it is written in Japanese. Thus they find a translator who feeds them portions of the book as he completes the translation.

The story in the book is from twelfth-century Japan, and tells of two “sisters of the heart”. Tomoe, a female warrior, loves Yoshinaka but can bear him no children. Thus, he brings a bride, Yamabuki, to his home. At first Tomoe sees Yamabuki as a threat but eventually she learns to love her as a sister. Tomoe is torn between always being at the side of her samurai lover Yoshinaka or staying to protect delicate Yamabuki. However, the women find strength from each other to deal with formerly foreign ways of life.

“Sisters of the Heart and Snow” alternates between the stories of the Snow sisters and the story they read of the “sisters of the heart”. Both Rachel and Drew draw strength from the story of Tomoe and all her trials and tribulations. They even learn about sisterly love from the story of real-life female samurai Tomoe Gozen. Rachel and Drew use the book to better understand their relationship with their mother and with each other.

I so enjoyed this novel. It is about a father, mother (Japanese) and two sisters. The mother is in a nursing home with Alzheimers and on one good day she tells one of her daughters about a book that is hidden in her sewing room. The sisters find the book which is written in Japanese. This is where the novel truly begins as the book that the sisters find tells the history of a woman warrior Tome and the relationship to their mother. The two sisters renew their lost relationship while finding out the secrets of the past. This is a story of love, hope, and forgiveness throughout. A beautiful novel.

I would give this book a 4.5 - good enough that after finishing it, I immediately bought the author's first book. This was a very compelling story; one of those books that is very difficult to put down. The characters and story both felt real and believable. There were a couple of things I found slightly distracting about the writing: the parts of the story that occurred in San Diego in the present day were sometimes narrated in the third person and sometimes by Rachel in the first person. Since the point of view wasn't identified in the chapter headings (as the time and place were), this inconsistency was sometimes a bit difficult to follow. The author's tenses were also inconsistent at times. I read an uncorrected proof, so perhaps these issues will be resolved before publication along with typos and other minor errors. In any case, they didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the book, and I recommended it to my book club.

The story takes us beyond sisterhood into the dynamics of family life. In this case the dynamics of a multi-cultural family. Actually families would be more accurate. One present day and one from the 1100's. I found the present day family to be much more interesting and became involved in their lives. It was difficult to make the transition back to the earlier family and the connection between the two stories often blurred. The focus of the story, the bonding between sisters is always apparent.

Rated 2. Too predictable - sisters who are once close, now distanced, brought together by a real family situation in the present with a contrived family solution from the past.

Predictable. Awkward. Strained.

I was crushed reading this book, I was anticipating a captivating read and was beyond disgruntled.

I felt as if I was reading two very differing books with a blurred line connecting the two separate stories forcing a linkage. I enjoyed Tomoe's story, however, it's vastly different from the 'main' story, it comes across as misplaced and/or awkward, almost an afterthought trying to emphasize a connection virtually invisible between the two plots and characters.

I understand Tomoe's story is designed to affirm points in the main story but it fails miserably. Straining trying to connect the two stories and really poorly implemented.

The main story of Rachel and Drew, and their dysfunctional family woes is about as predictable and formulaic contemporary fiction can be. Trying to show a comparison between Tomoes's story felt amazingly contrived. Two stories with the secondary being far more interesting, Dilloway creates a competition of sorts and I declare the winner Tomoe's story. The two narratives fail at achieving parallel status rather end up unakin.

Forecastability, clumsy dual narratives, staleness homogenize creating one let down of a read.