Maine Characters | Book Review

Set at a lake house in Maine, two sisters meet for the first time after the death of their father.

Jul 03, 2025

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Maine Characters by Hannah Orenstein
400 pages | Published by Dutton

The Set Up: After the death of her father, Vivian heads to his Maine lakehouse to get it ready to sell. She needs the money so she and her boyfriend can finally go public and open their own restaurant. But when she arrives, she finds Lucy—the sister she didn’t officially know existed. Lucy is distraught at the news her father has died, and refuses to let Vivian even consider selling the house. They agree to spend the summer together to attempt to find some sort of compromise.

I saw this promoted heavily as “The Parent Trap for adults.” I guess that’s kind of accurate, but really the only similarity is two sisters that didn’t know about each other; Except that’s not right actually: one absolutely knew about the other, and the other had an inkling about a secret sibling.

I struggled with these characters for a bit, but the amount of growth we get to see made that worth it. I thought Lucy was a bit of a pushover and Vivian was incredibly insensitive, but as the summer went on they balanced each other out and I ended up being happy with who they are at the end.

“Not every family was that close, she knew that, but she also understood that if you got lucky, a sibling could feel like another limb.”

I enjoyed the shifting POVs, moving back and forth between the sisters really highlighted just how different their perspectives were because of their different upbringings. I do wish I had connected more with the setting. The focus here was clearly on the sister dynamic, and I feel like the author could have done *just* a bit more to really develop that sense of place.

I was so intrigued to know what conclusion they came to about the house, especially given both sisters had shifting financial situations throughout the story. While I would have loved a bit more romantic tension throughout on behalf of each sister, the ending wraps up with a perfectly satisfying little bow that left me feeling happy and hopeful.