“Maybe when it comes to sisters, boundaries are always a little bit blurry. Blurred boundaries, I think, are what sisters do best.”
Rose and Fern Castle are the twenty-eight year old fraternal twins of a single mother. When the girls were twelve two traumatic incidents saw them put into foster care.
Rose Castle – is separated from her husband and works as an interior designer. She is the higher functioning of the two girls. She suffered psychological abuse from her mother and always took care of her sister Fern.
Fern Castle – works in a public library, is very intelligent, but is on the spectrum and exhibits most of the symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome. She has always been under the thumb of her sister Rose. She remembers her childhood much differently than Rose does…
“People without sisters think it’s all sunshine and lollipops or all blood and guts. But actually it’s always both. Sunshine and guts. Lollipops and blood. Good and bad. The bad is as essential to the relationship as the good.”
What a fantastic read! And how clever! All the while, the reader wonders just which of the Castle sisters is in fact ‘the good sister‘.
We must remember that each of the girls have different recollections of the same events. Whose is correct? Each sister displayed good and bad traits and their characters were complex and multi-layered. Is their sisterly relationship supportive and caring, or, is it manipulative and devious?
I’ll confess, I never really bonded with Rose despite the fact that she seemed caring and protective of Fern. Though being privy to her diaries made me sympathetic to her life and situation, I still had a feeling of unease about her.
I found myself loving Fern. Sure she was bizarre in many ways – but she was so genuine. Hyper-sensitive to sensory stimulus, socially inept, resistant to change, unable to maintain eye contact, and very literally minded, she nonetheless captured my heart. I also came to care for her boyfriend ‘Wally’ aka Rocco who understood and loved Fern for who she was.
This was an expertly written thriller that will doubtless make my list of Top Reads for 2021. A skilled character study masquerading as a thriller. Brilliant!
This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.
ISBN: 9781250120953 – ASIN: B08BYCWK6T – 320 pages
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Sally Hepworth is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, most recently The Good Sister (2021), which was an instant bestseller. Her novel, Mother In Law (2019) has been optioned for a TV series by Hollywood actress and producer, Amy Poehler.
Drawing on the good, the bad and the downright odd of human behaviour, Sally writes incisively about family, relationships and identity. Her domestic thriller novels are laced with quirky humour, sass and a darkly charming tone.
Sally’s novels are available worldwide in English and have been translated into 20 languages.
Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and three children.
Follow Sally Hepworth on Twitter @SallyHepworth
My Tuesday post where I’ll ‘tease‘ you with the cover, blurb, and first paragraph of one of the advanced reader’s copies from my own TBR.
From the prologue:
Midnight – a nine year old mare who, for the last six years was a one woman horse. Midnight loves her young owner, almost as much as her owner loves her. She is a very sensitive horse who has been lovingly trained in dressage.
Having no particular knowledge of, or, interest in horses, I have had this novel on my Kindle for several years and am only now getting to it. I have to say, this novel will make a horse lover of everyone. Mostly though, this is a well written story of two people trying to get through some extremely difficult circumstances… together.
Bob (aka Bobby) – a mongrel with the colouring of an Alsatian, comes into Missy’s life much to her chagrin. She thinks she is not a dog person and that dogs are usually over exuberant and emotionally needy. She is cajoled into caring for Bob on a temporary basis as a favour to a friend. Little did Missy know then… Bobby would become ingrained in her heart.
I thoroughly enjoyed making the acquaintance of Missy Carmichael. Probably because I am no longer a young woman, I could identify with her on a basic level.
4.5 stars rounded down for Goodreads and Amazon
Little does Olivia know, but one of the houses he broke in to was the house of Robert and Amanda Pierce. The beautiful Mrs. Pierce’s body has just been found in the trunk of a submerged car. Her husband Robert seems shifty, and of course the first person blamed is always the husband. However, in this instance there are myriad possible suspects. And to make matters worse, it is quite likely “Someone We Know“!
The daughter’s story was set during the late 1970s. Lexie Gordon, who had a lovely voice, left the small community to become a singer of some renown in London. Her partner has deserted her, and her singing voice ruined by lesions on her vocal chords. Now she has returned to the small lochside village of her youth with her own small baby girl. With her mother now dead, she moves into the cottage where she was raised, and delves into her mother’s story to find out long held secrets.
Kitty has had a rough run of luck. After a hurtful breakup, the subsequent result is that she has lost her home, her car, and her job. Now, though, she couldn’t be happier. She has found a new home, albeit a temporary one, in a charming former seaside B&B which she shares with a motley group of friends, a small child, and two rescue Staffordshire terriers.
Kitty is working at a fish & chips shop. Her housemates include Jemini, a young Asian woman who works in an estate agent’s office, Jemini’s toddler daughter Teddy, and Apollo, a chef. Their life cohabiting is quite idyllic.
I was in the mood for some romance, but truth be told this was just too light and unrealistic for my taste. I prefer a love story with a little more substance, more heft. I can’t quite immerse myself in a story that presents a ‘perfect’, happily ever after scenario, with story outcomes that are so improbable.
This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from the publisher Headline Accent via the 
Christina Jones has written all of her life (as well as having millions of proper jobs (including factory worker, secretary, nightclub dancer, blood donor attendant, barmaid, waitress, civil servant and fruit picker) Christina first had a short story published when she was just 14 years old. She has written for teenage and women’s magazines – fiction and non-fiction – for a number of years, had her own humour column in The Oxford Times, and has contributed to national newspapers.
Is this a title that you would consider adding to your TBR pile?
I continue to be amazed when I learn that a book was written by two different authors. How that can share such a personal creative endeavor is beyond me.
The overriding themes of the novel include childhood trauma, loss, and the psycho-therapist/patient relationship. It explains how an emotionally fragile psyche can be influenced by a therapist, not always in a positive way.
Joanna Oliva is a happily married thirty year old woman who lives in a basement flat in London. She adores her husband Reuben, and enjoys her job working on one of London’s mobile library buses. She goes out one night to a bar for a ‘catch up’ with a girlfriend. A patron of the bar asks for a ‘selfie’ with them, then makes himself generally annoying by not leaving them alone. He is tall, dressed in black and is wearing bright red trainers.
In a word TENSE. That clenched, panicky feeling kept me turning pages rapidly. Women everywhere have known that feeling. Walking alone, then you hear footsteps behind you. You are just not thinking rationally due to fear and anxiety.
3.5 stars rounded up for Amazon and down for Goodreads
Gillian McAllister is the author of The Good Sister, as well as several Sunday Times bestsellers in the UK. She lives in Birmingham, England, where she worked as a lawyer and now writes full time.
