The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they’ve been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.

Every once in a while, a few pages into a new book, a thought strikes me: “This author has something to say.” This is always a magical feeling—one that brings a sense of certainty and excitement that what I am about to read will stay with me for a long, long time. Blue Sisters was one of those books. Right from the start, it’s easy to tell that Coco Mellors wrote this emotional saga with conviction—and boy, does she deliver on it.

Family is always complicated, and the Blue sisters have no lack of baggage. Avery, the oldest and always put-together, is hiding a past heroin addiction; Bonnie, the middle sister and former boxing prodigy, has receded into hiding in LA after a particularly devastating defeat; and Lucky, always the baby of the family, has endured a lifetime of abuse in the Parisian modeling industry. Nicky, the fourth sister, was the one thing holding them together—but her tragic death has left the sisters scattered and grieving. When the trio are brought back together under threat of losing their childhood NYC home, their reunion uncovers longstanding tensions—and forces them to reckon with the secrets they’ve kept from one another.

A tribute to sisterhood and female ambition, Blue Sisters left a deep emotional impact on me. I luxuriated over each pitch-perfect sentence and the sisters’ sharp characterizations. Pick Blue Sisters up this month. Though brimming with loss, it will give you a newfound optimism for humanity.