The Rift Between Us by Rebecca L Marsh

After a family dinner turns into a bitter fight, sisters Maria, Lauren, and Avery decide to go their separate ways. Their father warns them that someday they will need one another. When he dies suddenly, they learn that he intends to make sure that they do. He’s left them a substantial inheritance, far more than any of them ever imagined. There’s just one catch. If they want the money, they will have to spend two weeks together at a secluded lake house and follow all of their father’s instructions — no matter how strange. Their task seems simple enough, but each one is holding onto painful secrets and old grudges the others know nothing about. But if they can learn to trust each other again, they might be able to mend the rift between them and give their father his dying wish.

Diane Andersen’s Review: 4-Stars

Three sisters, a dark and checkered past and a dead father’s bequest to reunite them all work together to tease out a story of damaged relationships and the enduring bond of sisters. Maria, Avery and Lauren Anderson each have their view in alternating chapters that slowly bring to light the reasons for their rift some years ago after a family dinner gone wrong. For years, the three girls remain estranged until their father’s death leaves them with his bequest to work things out at an isolated cabin for two weeks if they hope to inherit a sizable fortune. Reluctantly the three girls agree and slowly each of their stories unfold in a tangled web of lost dreams and broken lives.

The story unwinds in a slow burn psychological character study that may not be everyone’s taste in reading. Sometimes it was difficult to keep the women’s problems straight with the alternating chapters and similarities in voice between the sisters. Having a unique feature would have helped greatly in keeping names and personalities together.

While the story comes across with all the sweetness and sentimentality of a Hallmark special, it also came across as a bit implausible, given the very detailed method in which the father dispensed carefully crafted and well-timed notes from beyond the grave. Unless there was some supernatural force at work, I could not see this working out as perfectly as it did and hitting home at precisely the right moment for each daughter as intended. What kind of pre-planning would that have taken? Not to mention, finding the right person to carry it all off at a remote cabin? Yes, it is a bit contrived, but sometimes reading a story where everything turns out all rosy and three sisters end years of a silent standoff in order to learn the true meaning of family makes for the perfect weekend escape. This is just that sort of story.

Sherry Terry’s Review: 4-Stars

The author of The Rift Between Us did a very good job of pulling me into the story. The cover is spot on, so colorful and beautiful. I think the three women at the end of the dock are a splendid touch and fit the story perfectly.

If you like to read books with a lot of good descriptions that meander you with the character in their journey, you will love The Rift Between Us. Rebecca Marsh did a splendid job of just this and I found it rather relaxing, to be honest. In a lot of other books, this wouldn’t work, but it does in this story.

I did have a hard time keeping up with who was who, and I think that is because while each sister had different personalities and flaws, they didn’t have something specific to each of them. It’s hard to explain and put my finger on exactly why. Each sister’s “voice” was the same if that makes sense.

This is a good family saga with real-world problems that takes three sisters who have nothing to do with each other and bring them back together as a family. When their father dies, he stipulates in his will they have to spend two weeks together in a secluded cabin. The sisters find notes from their father, which I enjoyed even though he had to have worked years and spent a lot of money setting them up.

There were a lot of sentences that could have been worded better for a stronger feel, but this did not take away from my overall enjoyment of The Rift Between Us by Rebecca Marsh.

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