Title: The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters

Author: Balli Kaur Jaswal

Publication Date: 2019

Genre: Contemporary

Number of Pages: 312

From Goodreads: The British-born Punjabi Shergill sisters—Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirina—were never close and barely got along growing up, and now as adults, have grown even further apart. Rajni, a school principal is a stickler for order. Jezmeen, a thirty-year-old struggling actress, fears her big break may never come. Shirina, the peacemaking “good” sister married into wealth and enjoys a picture-perfect life.

On her deathbed, their mother voices one last wish: that her daughters will make a pilgrimage together to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites. After a trip to India with her mother long ago, Rajni vowed never to return. But she’s always been a dutiful daughter, and cannot, even now, refuse her mother’s request. Jezmeen has just been publicly fired from her television job, so the trip to India is a welcome break to help her pick up the pieces of her broken career. Shirina’s in-laws are pushing her to make a pivotal decision about her married life; time away will help her decide whether to meekly obey, or to bravely stand up for herself for the first time.

Arriving in India, these sisters will make unexpected discoveries about themselves, their mother, and their lives—and learn the real story behind the trip Rajni took with their Mother long ago—a momentous journey that resulted in Mum never being able to return to India again.

I read this book with my book club, and I really enjoyed it. This book follows three sisters, who have grown apart over the years, who take a pilgrimage to India together to carry out their mother’s final request. All three sisters have a secrets that they’re keeping and what follows is a trip they’ll likely never forget.

I liked that all three of the sisters had unique and distinct personalities. I also liked that the book switched between each of their perspectives, so I could get an idea of what each one was thinking while they were on their journey together. I also liked that each sister had a completely different life and that they were all facing something they didn’t know how to handle when they returned home from India.

I think my favourite part about this book was that each of the sisters had secrets that they were keeping from each other. I enjoyed trying to figure what they were keeping from each other, especially when vague hints were dropped about what was going on. When the secrets were revealed, my heart broke for the characters because of the difficult situations they were dealing with.

I liked that this book took place in India. I liked travelling with the sisters and seeing things through their eyes. I especially liked Tom Hanks, the driver that they hired on a few occasions.

There were some moments in this book that I did not expect, and a lot of these unexpected moments were quite heavy. The secret that Shirina was keeping was especially heavy and heartbreaking and difficult to read about. This book also had a decent amount of lighthearted moments that helped balance things out.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I liked the sisters and the journey that they went on together. This was the second book that I’ve read by this author and I’m looking forward to reading more.

Rating: 4 Stars!

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