boeklogboek: Susan Mallery – Sweet talk

The first book in the Keyes Sisters series, published July 1, 2008.
Genre: Contemporary romance
Cover: fun, but I don’t get it at all.

Is there anything sweeter than a first love?
Don't ask Claire Keyes. The twenty - eight - year - old piano prodigy has never had a regular boyfriend, much less a real romance. Her music career has left little room for friends or family - which is just part of the reason she hasn't seen the family bakery or her two sisters in years.
But now Nicole is sick, and Jesse is AWOL. Despite the fact that Claire can't boil water, she's determined to play caretaker. Connecting with her sisters tops her to - do list... along with falling in love, or at least in lust, for the first time.
Ruggedly sexy Wyatt just might fit the bill. Although he keeps saying that he and Claire come from entirely different worlds, he lights up hotter than a bakery oven whenever Claire is near. If this keeps up, she just might sweet - talk him into her bed... and her life.

I know Susan Mallery has written lots and lots of books, and is most famous for her Fools Gold series. This is my first Susan Mallery book, but it certainly won’t be my last. At first I thought it would be too silly for me to enjoy, a woman gets a phone call from her estranged younger sister, asking for help, and she drops everything she should be doing and heads on over. She even rents a car while she doesn’t really know how to drive and certainly does not feel confident doing it.
But I was proven wrong fast enough, when I got sucked into the story.

Nicole and Claire are twins, but they were separated when they were six. Claire blames Nicole for that, as she had to hear all about her sisters brilliance. And when she was 12, her mother joined Nicole, leaving Claire behind to take care of their younger sister Jesse, and their father. When their mother died in a car crash, and Claire survived, Nicole blames her for that as well, and told her at the funeral never to come back. They were 16 at the time.

Nicole believes that Claire has lived a charmed princess life all those years, but that is not true at all. When she was 3 years old, Claire discovered a piano for the first time, and she started playing it. Since that day, her life has been filled with lessons. A prodigy! Her mother and grandmother were so proud of her! When she was six, her grandmother took her on the road, giving concerts, practicing long hours, and travelling, from hotelroom to hotelroom. Never time to make friends, to be a normal kid, or to meet other children. She missed her twin sister and her family dreadfully. When she was 12, her grandmother could no longer be with her, and her mother came instead. But Claire’s life never changed. She was a famous concert pianist now, and very sought after.
Even while her mother was dying in the hospital, her manager made her go to her next engagement and play. And as a dutiful child who did not know better than to obey her manager and her mother, she went. She did not get any time to grief.

Nicole is 28 now, and is on the verge of a break down. Or actually, she did break down during her last show and had to be removed from stage. She needs to change her life, but she does not really know what she wants to do. She never learned anything else but play the piano.

So Jesse’s phone call came at just the right time, and she left all her obligations behind her, to take care of her sister. The sisters she hasn’t seen or heard from in 12 years. And not for lack of trying on her part. Nicole will need her now.

Nicole doesn’t want Claire in her home, but she has little choice. She needs to be taken care of, and as she has just kicked her husband out when she discovered him with her little sister, there is no one. She kicked Jesse out as well. Her best friend Wyatt has his own business and his little girl to take care off, so he can’t stay with her either. Nicole runs the family bakery, and Claire wants to help out there as well, but Nicole’s staff doesn’t want her there either, and she messes things up a bit at first. But like at the house, Claire perseveres, and slowly she gains the respect of the staff.

It takes a long time for Nicole and Claire to talk about their grievances. I liked how Claire just kept on trying, no matter how nasty Nicole was. She is sweet, and she is learning how to live a normal life. Doing laundry, driving, cooking, and even babysitting. Wyatt doesn’t like her, as he has been listening to Nicola for years, but he needs someone to look after his little daughter, who is deaf, now Nicole can’t do it.
I loved how Claire and Amy bonded, and how Amy could feel the music Claire was playing.

I really, really liked Claire. She realizes she misses her music, and she really needs to play, but she is in charge of her own schedule, and she will decide how often she will perform, and if she wants to live in Seattle, with or without Wyatt, she can do that as well.

The romance with Wyatt was slow. Wyatt comes from a big family of men who are lousy at relationships. He is divorced, his wife left him when Amy was 3 months old, and he has been a single dad ever since. So he is pretty clear with Claire, they will have an affair and that is it. He doesn’t want to marry ever again, or fall in love. He resents being attracted so much to her, why couldn’t it have been her sister, who is his best friend?

A nice romance, but the book really evolves around the three sisters, their misconceptions and how they can become friends. Jesse is hiding something, I can’t figure out what she is hiding about almost sleeping with Nicole’s husband. Was he trying to rape her? She really needs to do some growing up and acknowledge her mistakes instead of blaming others.

I look forward to reading the other two books in this trilogy.

8 stars.