4 out of 4 stars
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"Friendship is a great gift, one that should never be taken for granted. The capacity of a woman's heart for her friends is vast, so vast it is hard to comprehend sometimes. Like the river transforms the land, the bond of friendship can transform your life. Trusting the currents, navigating the terrain, and figuring out how to read the water are all skills that take patience, time and love." - Rose
The Reel Sisters by Michelle Cummings is a story of five very diverse women who develop a friendship as their lives become intertwined around the love for fly-fishing. Rose is the mothering mentor and fly-fisher extraordinaire. Veronica is the CEO of her own company and her husband is the chef and owner of an elite restaurant. Amanda is a young teacher with two kids and a husband who has been deployed to Afghanistan. Sophie is the small town outdoorsy girl from Kansas who moves to Colorado and now owns a greenhouse. And then there's Melody, a "lost soul" who has plenty of creative talent in art, music and photography but no direction. Who, just by happenstance joined the group when the other women literally plucked her naked from the waters of the Arkansas River.
This is a story about friendship, and in many ways it correlates the idea of friendships and fly-fishing as they relate to life. The love and care these women have for each other transcends fly-fishing, other hobbies, jobs, distance and marital status. While they learn to be authentic and real with each other we have the opportunity to watch them open up and share their chaotic, troublesome, busy, heartbreaking, and at times adventurous lives.
I enjoyed how the author introduced each woman and explained how they got involved in fly-fishing. In this very creative way she is sharing her own love of fly-fishing with her readers. She also did such a good job in describing the women that I was able to relate to each of them.
I could imagine myself in the shade of a tree, somewhere in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, beside a swiftly flowing river; watching the gracefulness of a fly-fisher and I found myself wanting to learn how to fly-fish right alongside them. Because of that, I rate it 4 out of 4 stars. There is some fly-fishing technical jargon you have to wade through which might cause some people to get bogged down. Also, due to some minor cursing and a couple of adult subjects, I would not recommend it for younger readers, but I think it is a book that would be enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds.
On a personal note, I was especially surprised to read that the author is from a small town in Kansas that just happens to be the same small town where my husband went to high school and still has family. She then moved to Colorado where she lives with her family not far from where my family lived. It's always nice to read a story from a "hometown girl."
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The Reel Sisters
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