Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Kensington Books for gifting me a review copy of Judge’s Girls by Sharina Harris.

I knew I had to wait until I was in the right mindset to read this book, and I’m glad I did because it gave me all the feels (in the best possible way). It is an emotional story that follows three women who are all very different but have one thing in common, Judge Joe. When he dies and they have to share his estate they start to learn more about each other, but also themselves in the process.

This book explores identity, grief, ambition, substance abuse, and relationships. Each character had their own complexities and issues, and my heart went out to them. The author wrote them in such a raw, vulnerable, and real way, and with the alternating points of view you really get to know them. It’s impossible not to be moved, and it’s the sort of book that ends up staying with you for a long time.

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Synopsis:

Three very different women. Only one thing in common. But when their family patriarch dies and they must share his estate, the truths they discover will test them--and everything they think they know about each other.

Beloved Georgia judge Joseph Donaldson was known for his unshakable fairness, his hard-won fortune--and a scandalous second marriage to his much-younger white secretary. Now he's left a will with a stunning provision. In order to collect their inheritance, his lawyer daughter Maya, her stepmother Jeanie, and Jeanie's teen daughter, Ryder, must live together at the family lake house. Maya and Jeanie don't exactly get along, but they reluctantly agree to try an uneasy peace for as long as it takes...

But fragile ex-beauty queen Jeanie doesn't know who she is beyond being a judge's wife--and drinking away her insecurities has her in a dangerous downward spiral. Fed up with her mother's humiliating behavior, Ryder tries to become popular at school in all the wrong ways. And when Maya attempts to help, she puts her successful career and her shaky love life at risk. Now with trouble they didn't see coming--and secrets they can no longer hide--these women must somehow find the courage to admit their mistakes, see each other for who they really are--and slowly, perhaps even joyfully, discover everything they
could be.