Jill Shalvis is my go-to feel good author for contemporaries. I was stoked to see she had a new series coming out (Lost and Found Sisters is the first book in the Wildstone series). I enjoyed the book, but strictly speaking, it’s not a romance novel. So I enjoyed what I got -but I didn’t get what I expected. While I can’t fault the book for being tagged as a romance at places like Goodreads, I did have issues with how many plotlines were packed into one novel. There’s a lot going on, and the ending felt like a lot of it came together too fast.

Now, there is a romance plot line here and it’s an important part of the story, but it takes a backseat to the story of the heroine finding her place in the world and finding her family. Since the romance isn’t the fuel that drives the novel, and since the book is so focused on those other elements, this book falls into the category of Women’s Fiction.

For the record, I hate the term “Women’s Fiction” because it implies that women and men can’t enjoy the same things, and I hate when it’s used as a marketing tool to put a bunch of books with Adirondack chairs and flip-flops on the cover onto a table at Barnes and Noble. It’s Mother’s Day! Get your flip-flop and Adirondack chair books here!

Anyway.

Lost and Found Sisters is a really heartfelt, funny, sweet novel. It also features rogue chickens, a sassy one-eyed cat, and a geriatric golden retriever with hideous farts.

Quinn Weller is a sous chef in Los Angeles whose personal life has stalled after her sister, Beth, died two years ago. Quinn is just going through the motions now, numb to just about everything. Then one day she’s approached by a lawyer who tells her that was actually adopted and that her birth mother has died. Quinn’s birth mother has left behind a café in the small town of Wildstone, CA, and has bequeathed it to Quinn, and to Quinn’s fifteen-year-old sister, Tilly.

So for two years Quinn has been grieving the death of Beth, the sister she’s known her whole life, and now she finds out she has a sister that she’s never met, who is now more or less alone in the world.

Quinn goes to Wildstone, where she has a little breakdown on the beach. It’s there that she meets Mick Hennessey and his dog, Cooper, the one with the horrid gas. Cooper, with his big dopey golden smile, offers Quinn some comfort while she processes. Dogs are great, y’all.

For clarification, Quinn did not know she was adopted, nor that she and Beth were not (as it turns out) biologically related. Quinn and Tilly are. I have no idea about the legalities surrounding informing someone they were adopted after a birth parent’s death. I have, however,  spent time with geriatric golden retrievers and vouch that their farts are legitimately horrible.

Most of the book is about Quinn trying to connect with Tilly who is 1. fifteen 2. just lost her only parent and caregiver and 3. reasonably upset about shit and not ready to trust anyone. Quinn and Tilly both struggle with the fact that their mom didn’t tell them the truth about each other, and both are still badly hurting. Quinn is also upset at her adoptive parents for not being honest with her, either. It’s pretty shitty to find out you’re adopted from a lawyer.

Quinn has a life waiting for her back in LA with a good job, the guy her parents wish she’d marry, and friends who love her. In Wildstone, she has a café that the locals want reopened, a sister who is pushing her away, and a yard full of chickens who like to escape.

She also has Mick. He’s in Wildstone after the death of his father, helping his mother clean out the house and settle affairs. Turns out Mick’s dad was not an awesome guy, and he’s struggling to make peace with his own grief and anger.

Shalvis is really talented at writing characters who are struggling through complicated, difficult emotions and at making that journey feel genuine, but never heavy. For all its discussion of grief and disappointment in parents, this is not a depressing book. Rogue chickens help with that, of course.

There were scenes that kicked me in the Feels pretty strongly. Quinn sometimes sees Beth and talks to her – not as a hallucination nor a dream. I lost my brother-in-law suddenly to an undiagnosed heart condition (aortic dissection) six years ago. I still talk to him sometimes, and I still feel him here with me. The Quinn and Beth scenes made me tear up a little because it felt so close to home.

The romance between Quinn and Mick is sexy and it’s satisfying, but it’s not what’s driving the novel. For the most part, the conflict between them comes from the fact that Quinn is debating radically altering her life. Does she stay in Wildstone and become Tilly’s guardian or does she go back to LA? It’s not a great time to start a new relationship.

The primary conflict of the novel is Quinn finding her place, either in Wildstone or LA, and making peace with her parents, as well as with the family she didn’t know she had. I liked that there were no right answers presented for Quinn. There was never a clear path set out for her with regard to Tilly or the café or even Mick. No one tries to guilt her into guardianship (which was given to a neighbor after Tilly’s mom’s death).

Her relationship with Tilly also runs hot and cold, which to me seems like pretty realistic interactions with a fifteen year old. Sometimes it’s fun and popcorn and movies and adopting a one-eyed cat who wants to eat your chickens. Sometimes Tilly isn’t talking to her.

Even though this wasn’t really a romance I enjoyed the book. The only real problem was there was too much going on for one book to handle. Quinn and Tilly’s relationship could easily take up an entire book by itself, and when you throw in Quinn’s romance with Mick and her trying to reconcile the fact that her parents lied to her for her entire life…that’s a lot of plot.

The other issue is there are also subplots about the town of Wildstone struggling to stay afloat, a character named Brock who is the guy Quinn’s parents want her to marry (and whom I suspect is sequel bait), and a little bit of a suspense element at the end. If I listed everything that goes on in this novel, this would be a seriously long review. As it was, it’s too much for one novel and detracts from the overall story.

Lost and Found Sisters isn’t a perfect book, and it’s not really a romance. It made me laugh and it made me tear-up, but it wasn’t what I was expected when I picked it up.