Trust Me on This by Lauren Parvizi

TRUST ME ON THIS by Lauren Parvizi is a quick read with likeable characters, two sisters who seem so dissimilar due to different mothers, different life experiences, and different dispositions. Zahra Starling is older, divorced, angry, and abrupt. Aurora (or Aura Star, her professional name) is younger, vulnerable, more naïve, and generally optimistic. Their father, a powerful force in their lives, tells them he is quite ill and asks to see them together. Thus begins a crazy road trip from Los Angeles, through Paso Robles, to Seattle. Along the way, there is plenty of angst with each of their Moms, a budding romance and a horribly broken one, plus reflection by each on her career goals. Of course, it turns out that these sisters need each other even if they cannot see it at first. Zahra “prefers stability to surprises,” finds cooking to be “an equation she could solve,” “a form of active meditation.” Aura is a people pleaser which has created deep conflicts for her. The growth that both experience – largely due to emulating aspects of the other’s personality – pulls in readers who will be rooting for both sisters to overcome trauma and learn to forgive and to trust each other. Parvizi writes with empathy and insight: “you spend so much time wondering when and how your number might be called, but once it happens, the specifics hardly matter …. It was impossible to remember the last time you did the smallest things you took for granted, and it was usually those things you wished you could remember most.” Evoking abundant emotions, TRUST ME ON THIS is a family drama filled with descriptions of wonderful food and scenery (e.g., the cathedral of redwoods).  Enjoy the journey.