This book was full of emotions and drama.
I did have hard time in the beginning of the book keeping the two main characters straight. Not sure why, maybe it was just me.
I did enjoy the book
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

Phoebe and Suze, Suze and Phoebe. They’ve been best friends since they met on the beach as kids, a friendship that has sustained and hurt and healed and hurt again. As secrets and unresolved hurts have built up over time, their relationship has fractured. When Suze returns to their small coastal Oregon town to recover after a brutal attack, all their history bubbles to the surface. With Phoebe’s beloved granddaughter about to move to London and Suze still in danger, the two women need each other more than ever.

O’Neal weaves a story full of well developed characters in a gorgeous setting. Suze and Phoebe’s small town is a character unto itself, the place where their friendship began, jealousies grew, and to which each woman returned. It offers both redemption and to serve as a reminder of the secrets they keep.

I love the way Barbara O’Neal writes women. Each character is fully developed, intricately crafted and realistic whether they are four, forty, or eighty-four. O’Neal sees the whole character, capturing their voice and thoughts in a way that makes them feel whole. Suze and Phoebe are both grandmother-aged, though their specific ages aren’t revealed. I adore how they are each their own person, yet their impact on the other throughout their lives is also visible. I also just love seeing women and girls of all ages portrayed as the complex, creative, all encompassing people they are. There are no stereotypes, advanced age tropes, or negative connotations about these characters at any of their ages.

This dual point of view, flashback-filled novel is engaging, entertaining, and thought provoking. With a hint of mystery, a lot of heart, and a gorgeous setting, The Starfish Sisters is sure to be one of your favorite fall reads.

The Starfish Sisters will be available September 1, 2023. But! If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can get this book on Kindle for free during the month of August through the Amazon First Reads program (must have Amazon Prime membership).

Thank you to author Barbara O’Neal, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for an advanced e-ARC such that I could share my honest opinions.

You know that one person that you had growing up that you shared everything with (well almost everything)? That's the relationship that this book is based on. The two main characters in the book are best friends growing up. They truly need the other. But as always, as they get older life gets in the way. Things happen that they don't share with each other. The distance between them grows, words are said and the relationship just isn't there anymore. The question is do they drop it or try to get back to where they were?

I loved how O'Neal developed each character with their past that showed the differences that were their lives, but also how they crossed over emotionally. Her female characters are just so richly written that you always want them to be your friends. You want to yell at them when they're being stupid, but you also want to protect their hearts. She always shows just how complicated relationships are.

There was some romance and a little mystery thrown in. This was a fantastic read that I wanted to go on forever. Until the next Barbara O'Neal book...

Thanks to the author, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the gifted copy. All thoughts are my own.

This is the story of Suze and Phoebe. They have been friends since they were children, but events have caused the fabric of their friendship to fray as adults. This book moves back and forth between the past and the present to tell the story of how they came to be where they are. There is heartbreaking tragedy, unimaginable grief, amazing emotional support and teenage jealousy. Added bonus – you also get suspense and romance. In short, it is a tale of female friends who have bonds closer than many sisters. I am always in awe of Barbara O’Neal’s talent for creating female characters. In the same book you go from wanting to shake them, slap them and hug them. This book is an emotional rollercoaster in the very best way. This book is a gift.

Set on the brooding Oregon coast, The Starfish Sisters is an enticing novel of lifelong friendships, tangled relationships, and redemption that includes a dash of mystery and a touch of romance.

Phoebe and Suze have been sisters of the heart since their childhood in Blue Cove, with all the ups and downs, fierce love, and petty hatreds that go with the territory. Beryl, Phoebe's grandmother, watched over and loved the motherless Suze as much as she did own granddaughter. Phoebe lived over an hour away with her parents during the school year but during summer and long weekends at her Grandmother's on the coast, the two girls were inseparable. Despite time, distance, and very different careers they've always remained in contact.

Now in middle age, Suze, an accomplished actress, returns to her Oregon cliff side house to recuperate from an attack that left her physically and emotionally drained. An illustrator and textile artist, Phoebe, now a grandmother herself and living in Blue Cove, greets that return with mixed emotions. She cares deeply for Suze and spent days at her hospital bedside after the attack, but fears that a horrendous argument after Beryl's funeral a year earlier may have caused an irreparable rift.
Alternating between past and present, with chapters in each viewpoint, adds to deeper characterizations of Suze and Phoebe that never becomes confusing. Although the novel contains a romance for each both, it doesn't overpower the core of the story--the two women and their entwined history.
The story is steeped in atmosphere and images which only adds to it's enjoyment.

I especially enjoyed the letters the girls wrote to each other and the shared diary that they mailed back and forth whenever Phoebe was away. It was an enjoyable look into communication before the advent of the internet and a time when long distance phone calls cost a fortune.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of the book.

I will read anything this author writes. Anything. It can be a cereal box and I'm reading it. She writes so beautifully and poetically without being cheesy or cryptic. She never lays the romance on too thick, nor does she make her heroines "need" a man or even companionship in order to progress or advance in some way.

I enjoy reading books with a heavy friendship theme, and this one definitely hits that mark. I wasn't able to figure out the exact "twist" (not really a twist, but the surprise toward the end, I suppose), which was great too. The character development was just enough that it made me want to read more without also rolling my eyes at any predictability or "brokenness" that some writers assign to their characters.

My only issue with this book, which is why I gave it 4 stars, was that Phoebe tells her date that she never had the chance to travel anywhere because of getting married young, then being a single mother, then trying to get her art career off the ground, yet in the next few chapters, Suze talks about Phoebe visiting her in Paris and also Phoebe talks about how she went to Italy in high school. So it was very inconsistent and felt like an error in editing rather than a piece of the plot. I even went back and read the date scene a couple times to make sure I didn't miss something. I don't know why, but that really annoyed me! I'd count Italy and Paris as travel, but she didn't even mention it to her date, a well-traveled man, that she had been to those places.

Also, I don't typically love storylines with little kids in them but I appreciated that the author didn't lay it on too thick with the baby-ness that some authors do with little kids. Granted, this kid is 10, but she didn't make her overly childlike nor did she make her too mature or even a "main character" even though she appeared consistently throughout the book. So I appreciated that aspect that the author still kept the 2 main characters as Suze and Phoebe.

Last thing as a side note: Suzanne is the name I've always had picked out for a daughter if I were to have one and I always wanted to call her Suze, so I am loving the name that she picked for her main character!

I think that's it! Overall, I enjoyed the book, as I knew I would! She's just such a wonderful author and one I recommend on both Reddit subs and other social media on a regular basis.

Can't wait for whatever comes next!

*I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Starfish Sisters captures the tenderness, longing, excruciating intensity of first love and also new love as mature adults. Interesting how different, yet how similar the two can be. ‘It feels like a million years have passed and no time at all. It feels like he’s always lived in some secret part of my body and now I’ve opened the door. It feels like oxygen. It feels like a prayer.” Simultaneously, this book captures the reality of friends, true friends from early in life, how they grow apart, but can transcend all manner of obstacles. ‘I’ve loved her all my life and I love her now. It’s oddly piercing and I don’t know why.”
I loved the titles of some of the chapters that were titles of songs. It provided a soundtrack while I was reading and helped me empathize with the characters, and remember the thoughts, hopes, struggles I was having at the time these songs came out.
This review would be longer, but I feel compelled to go call my best friend from childhood now.

I don’t feel that I simply read The Starfish Sisters. I feel like I fully inhabited the world and story Barbara O’Neal created. Good authors make their readers feel something/anything. Great authors infuse us with such deep empathy that we feel what the characters feel. This was my experience with this book. I was there in the present with main characters Suze and Phoebe and also part of their teenage lives that formed not only their friendship, but also their conflict.

The storyline is multi-layered and unique. Suze is an acclaimed actress who survived a recent, brutal attack. She grew up the abuse victim of a fundamentalist preacher father. Phoebe is the loved daughter of parents who are in conflict. They meet through Phoebe’s beloved grandmother Beryl who is their comfort, emotional security, and sanctuary in the beautiful coastal area of Blue Cove, Oregon.

Largely estranged at the book’s beginning, Suze returns to Blue Cove to continue her recovery. Suze and Phoebe are navigating rocky paths, in life and in their emotional healing. They, and we readers, wonder if they can successfully journey back to the sisterhood that has been vital to them all of their lives.

O’Neal is a master of her art. Her writing is luxurious, drawing descriptions that awaken all of our senses. The inner thoughts and spoken dialogue are eloquent. Yet, as rich as her language is, it never crosses over into “purple prose”. We can revel in the texture and power, whether the scenes are light and happy, heart-breakingly sad, or fear-filled.

The characters are all authentic and wonderful, even the main players in their adolescence and teen years and Phoebe’s 11 year old granddaughter in the present. We know them, we grow to love them, we hurt or feel joy for and with them.

As a woman in my mid-60s, I also absolutely love that Phoebe and Suze are my age-contemporaries. I get Phoebe’s body-image insecurities along with her hopeful yearning for passion and sex. While I am not a world-famous actress, when Suze rails against women of her age not having agency in her career, I get that, too.

It is obvious that I loved The Starship Sisters. I can’t wait to read it again.

This is my favorite Barbara O'Neal book to date. She captured to recency of this post-COVID world experiences, paired with extremist religious zeal and coming of age in The Starfish Sisters.

Her understanding of complicated relationships and deep character development shines in this story. The alternating points of view, slow reveals, multilayered themes and rich setting has made this book one that I will read and read again, much like The Lost Recipe for Happiness.

Barbara O’Neal has done it again. A writer of words that I can see and taste. Suze and Phoebe have been connected almost all of their lives, connecting in heart and the beautiful Oregon coast around them. Both girls come from very different life styles, both having hardships in their lives. As they age, their lives drift even further apart. This is the story of finding their way back, to finding your ‘sister”, your person, the one that really has been there all along. I received an ARC of this book for a fair and honest review. The Starfish Sisters. Five wonderful stars.

I’ve been reading Barbara O’Neal for years and absolutely love her books. The Starfish Sisters are about two best friends growing up, Suze and Phoebe shared a wonderful bond of friendship until a massive fight tears the friendship apart. After Suze was brutally attacked outside her Hollywood home, Phoebe rushed to be at her side only to be told thank you for coming but it’s okay if you go home. Feeling the rejection, Phoebe leaves. However, when Suze texts Phoebe she is coming back to their hometown, Phoebe is torn between wanting to take care of Suze and wanting to protect her heart from another rejection.

The friendship between these two characters is wonderful. Each character has it share of misery and pain. However, Suze’s is a much more tortured childhood. Only with the love and guidance of Phoebe’s Grandmother, Beryl, does Suze survive her childhood. I understand the angst of wanting to be accepted, the first time you have such intense feeling for another person, and when a friend betrays you. Those feelings can be overwhelming to a young person and the author does a great job of describing those feeling, you can feel your emotions stir. That type of writing is a gift and Barbara O’Neal has this gift. Her writing is cohesive even when flowing between the past and the present, characters are people you want to know in your life, and the storyline ebbs and flows seamlessly. All these things make for a wonderful story, and a beautiful read. Well done again!

This story was riveting, and as excellent as all of Barbara's books. Two friends, lifelong, are both facing challenges they are dealing with, along with trying to maintain their strained friendship. Misunderstandings from the past boil up & they must find their way back to each other & to their friendship.

An emotional story of two women whose lifelong friendship is in jeopardy after long buried secrets and jealousy threaten to tear them apart. The books goes back and forth between the past and the present and weaves a moving journey with the ups and downs of a relationship with characters and plot lines that are very relatable. This book has it all-love, betrayal, forgiveness, suspense!

As I write this review I still feel rather breathless at all the twists and turns of the peoples lives that Barbara O'Neal has made me a part of. There is absolutely no other writer that can make me feel like I am totally a part of each of her characters lives. Each one becomes real, they become friends or enemies.

The Starfish Sisters is full of why secrets, jealousies and anger is never beneficial in your life!

I cannot recommend this book enough. Once again Barbara O'Neal has given me a favorite book. It's amazing.
5 stars is not enough.

Ethel O