Tangle of Strings
By Ashley Farley
Blurb
Some families never resolve conflicts. Not so with the Sweeneys. Their sense of family, their love for one another, and their willingness to forgive have always triumphed and brought them back together. Until now. The latest crisis threatens to tear the family apart and crumble the foundation that has always proved itself rock solid.
At the heart of the matter are sixteen-year-old Annie Bethune and her boyfriend, Cooper. At stake are their dreams for the future. As to these dreams, no one in the family holds back when asserting an opinion.
Annie soon begins to feel like a puppet on strings with all those she loves telling her what to do. When those strings become tangled and a family feud develops, Annie, unable to bear the pressure, runs away. Straight into the arms of danger
Our Review
Yet another fantastic read in the Sweeney family series and it is set to be the last one for a while. As with all the other books Ashley Farley shows her outstanding ability to weave characters you genuinely care about.
One of the things I like in terms of the layout of the book are the little love hearts at the beginning of each chapter and also I always like novels that are written from several points of view.
Other novels in this series have focused on Jackie, Sam and Faith Sweeney with various other characters peppered throughout. This novel focuses primarily on Annie, the newest addition to the Sweeney family, and her boyfriend Cooper.
Annie was first introduced to readers in Lowcountry Stranger as the mysterious stranger who turned up at Faith’s wedding. Since we have been with Annie as her father died, as she grew to be part of the Sweeney family and as she learned that Heidi is the mother who abandoned her.
Her boyfriend Cooper has only really been introduced to us as half of a set of twins. Cooper has always been shown as light-hearted and carefree but has also been a little known character.
The book begins with Annie dashing home to get ready for her after-school job at the Sweeney sister’s seafood market. When she pulls up at the house though Heidi is waiting to try to convince her to talk to her and Annie is not happy to see her. Annie had asked Heidi repeatedly not to contact her. Couldn’t she take a hint?
Annie is furious with Heidi for abandoning her and she feels like the Sweeney family are her family in all but name and certainly more her family than Heidi. You took off to Hollywood to chase your dreams of becoming a movie star, and left me with a man who didn’t know how to scramble an egg or balance his chequebook, let alone look after a little girl.
Annie is still struggling to contain her emotions as she drives to work and as a result is going too fast to do anything when a Chrysler Minivan veered over the lane and into oncoming traffic. Annie’s car flipped over onto its roof.
Whilst in hospital Annie makes a discovery which could potentially change Annie and Cooper’s lives forever and everyone has an opinion on how they should handle it. Each of the Sweeney sister’s has an opinion they want to force on Annie, Jackie and Faith are particularly forceful in their opinions. In fact, Sam is the only one arguing that they need to listen to Cooper and Annie’s wishes.
In the meantime, Cooper has taken a step back from Annie while he faces tough decisions over what he wants his future to hold.
When it all gets too much for her Annie turns to her best friend Althea Bell, otherwise known as Thea. Thea is a nice girl but Eli and Sam have concerns over their friendship because Eli has had negative dealings with Thea’s brothers in the past.
I read this book in a few hours and will be recommending the entire Sweeney sister series to everyone.
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