
Claire always wished for a sister. But should you be careful what you wish for?
Claire has spent her whole marriage trying to be the perfect wife and mother – supporting her husband as he goes for promotions and always making sure she’s there to tuck her daughter into bed each night. But little does she know that almost everyone around her has been keeping secrets that could ruin the life she’s worked so hard to create.
Growing up with warring parents and an often absent father, Claire has always wanted to give her daughter Ella the dream childhood she wishes she’d had. So, when she discovers her husband Luke has been having an affair, Claire is left wondering how she can possibly keep her daughter’s world from crumbling.
Then Claire receives a text message from someone called Sophie that simply reads – ‘You don’t know me, but I’m your sister’. At first, she’s shocked. And Sophie’s appearance raises questions Claire would like to put to her elderly father before it’s too late. But as she gets to know Sophie – who is so like her in so many ways – she can’t help but be delighted to finally have the sibling she always dreamed of.
As the two women become inseparable, Claire leans on her new sister more and more, ultimately asking her to move into the family home and trusting her with Ella. But when the unthinkable happens and Claire fears for her daughter’s life, she starts to wonder whether her new sister is exactly who she says she is.
One thing Claire knows is that telling the perfect lie seems to run in the family.
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Hi and welcome to my review of The Perfect Sister!
But first, this: You know what’s really silly? Being over the moon that you’ve been granted NetGalley access to a book you’ve been looking forward to, only to go and download it a day later, and notice that in the meantime it’s been archived (insert giant facepalm emoji here). Yup, book blogger extraordinaire right here! Luckily for me, The Perfect Sister was archived when it became available to buy, so all I had to do to get my mitts on it anyway was to hop over to Amazon and buy it, which was of course what I did.
And what can I tell about The Perfect Sister? Well, mainly that it’s another great addition to my Sheryl Browne collection! Sheryl writes the most easy to read thrillers, and I mean that as a huge compliment, I can’t just sit there and read slowly, I FLY through them. They are marketed as unputdownable and that’s exactly what they are, this latest addition is no exception. As always, I got sucked in right away, raced through it, and before I realised it, I’d reached the finale.
The Perfect Sister is all about Claire, and Claire is struggling bigtime, her little girl has haemophilia and her dad has early onset dementia, leaving Claire between a rock and a hard place: as her dad’s sole caregiver, she and her family have moved in with him to be able to take better care of him, and keep tabs on him, but the situation, not to mention her dad’s violent outbursts, is beginning to weigh on her marriage. Enter Sophie, the half-sister Claire never even knew she had, but before long, it’s like Sophie has always been there, she’s indispensable. Or is she?
Let’s not beat about the bush, we’re all clever readers here, when the title of a thriller is The Perfect Sister we all know said sister will be anything but perfect, yeah? We all realise from the get-go that the characters we’ll be reading about will most probably be put through the ringer by this perfect family member, of course we do. The element of surprise is not in that, but there ARE elements of surprise, little twists along the way. I won’t lie, I saw one of big twists coming very early on, but that didn’t spoil my fun at all, if anything it was a reason to speed through the book even faster, to find out if I was right. Still, Sheryl did manage to catch me unawares with a few other things, so I’m actually a very happy reader: I got to feel clever AND I was surprised, perfect!
The Perfect Sister is a quick, fun read that I’d happily recommend to all you thriller lovers out there!
Many thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the eARC, even though I read and reviewed my own e-copy 😄
Kelly! You’re a star. Thank you so much for downloading and reading The Perfect Sister! And for a really fab, smiley review. It was just what I needed right now: an injection of enthusiasm. My brain has been a bit stultified by the terrible global events. I am now concentrating on the outline I need to do, thanks to you! Keep safe, lovely! xx
You’re welcome, I’m happy my review came at a good time 😊 Hope you’re well xx
Fantastic review! I’m definitely kicking myself now for not getting a copy of this one while it was still an ARC… I’ve been staying away from the Bookouture page as the autoapproval thing is too dangerous. xD
Thanks Yvo 😘
I’ve done that too and also just bought the book as well 😀
Great review – I’ve still to try this author.
Good to know I’m not the only one that’s happened to 😄