I just finished up listening to the book True Colors by Kristin Hannah. I’ve read other book by this author and have very much liked them so I had high hopes for this one.
I had seen others saying they had read the book and enjoyed it so my hopes were extra high.
Did I love it? No. It was an okay book but it wasn’t anything as good as the previous books of hers that I had read. I loved The Nightingale. I loved The Great Alone. The one didn’t have the developed characters like the others did. This one was more like an extended Harlequin romance that I read in high school. This one did tackle harder topics like WWII or mental illness. I was really surprised about that. Then I went to write this review and this is what I found.
I went to Amazon and looked up the book so I could write the review. I typed in the author’s name and this came up.
The Nightingale was written in 2015.
The Great Alone was written in 2018.
True Colors was written in 2009….that’s 10 years ago.
This is the original cover.
After the authors GREAT success with the two books I previously mentioned they dug in a the archives and re-released this book with a new cover.
That’s why this book didn’t quite have the zip the first two books I’d read had. The author has matured and honed her craft. All in all, for me, that’s good news. I had been disappointed in this book after I had compared it to how much I loved the other two I’d read.
Here’s what Amazon had to say:
“The Grey sisters had only each other when their mother died years ago. Their father provided for them physically on Water’s Edge, the ranch that had been in their family for three generations, each of them however, longed for their father’s love.
Winona, the oldest, knew early on that she could never get it. An overweight dreamer and reader, she didn’t exhibit the kinds of talents and strengths her father valued.
Vivi Anne, the youngest, had those things. And it was Vivi Anne who only ever saw a glimmer of their father’s approval.
When Vivi Anne makes a fateful decision to follow her heart, rather than take the route of a dutiful daughter, events are set in motion that will test the love and loyalties of the Grey sisters.
With breathtaking pace and penetrating insight, Kristin Hannah’s True Colors is a novel about sisters, vengeance, rivalry, betrayal – and ultimately, what it truly means to be a family.”
Readers gave the book 4.6 stars. Not me. I’d say 4.1. It was an okay book. The characters weren’t warm or enduring. There wasn’t the grit I loved in the other books…I know others had really enjoyed it though.
I like books on tape too. You can do other things while listening to the story. Some times I get good ones and then other times I get some I don’t like. I get them from my Public Library.
Joshilyn Jackson is one of my new favorites. She does the reading on the audiobooks and is fantastic. Just listened to The Almost Sisters and am well into Backseat Saints. I will be reading/listening to all of her I can find.
I also love Kristin Hannah books. I’ve read the Nightingale and the Great Alone. both great! Try reading Night Road – it’s another one of her good ones! Thanks for letting us know about True Colors. I won’t be reading it. She has too many good ones to read!