Evening Everyone,

Hope you’re all well and enjoying the weekend. Bizarrely, I feel like I really needed this weekend even though I only worked one day this week. Sometimes I just need a day where I know I have nothing that I need to do and nobody that is dependent on me. Today has been one of those days and it’s been lovely.

Book 📖

Thank you to @gwasghonnopress for this copy of Sisters by @judithbarrow2912 in return for an honest review. Thank you also to @randomthingstours for a spot on the blog tour for this book. I apologise profusely for posting my review later than I was supposed to, please forgive me. Sisters was published on 26th January 2023 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Two sisters are torn apart by a terrible lie. In shock after an unbearable accident, Angie lets her sister Mandy take the blame, thinking she’s too young to get into trouble. But she’s wrong. Mandy is hounded out and goes to find a new identity with their aunt. As Lisa, she builds a new life, never wanting to see her sister again.

Angie’s guilt sends her spiralling into danger. Thirteen years later, they meet again at their mother’s funeral. Lisa starts to suspect something is wrong. Angie seems terrified of her husband, and their father is hiding something too.

Can she overcome her old resentment and forgive the betrayal?

General Thoughts 🤔

Firstly, I need to apologise again for missing my date on this blog tour. Long story short, I was away last minute and without access to be able to write and post my review. The weird thing is, I was away in Pembrokeshire which is where the author of this book lives so it all feels kind of destined now.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was the perfect balance between easy to read and heart wrenching and emotional. The story started in the 1970s and straight away, I was hit with a tonne of emotion about what the characters were going through at that time. Not only did it make me sad, it made me angry and I felt so bad for Mandy. She was far too young to have to navigate a situation like that.

The story didn’t get particularly rosier as it progressed however I did start to feel hopeful and I really liked reading about the characters and how they changed and developed over the years.

Characters 👫👭👬

The characters were a huge part of how much I enjoyed this book. The story was told from both Angie and Mandy’s perspectives and I felt connected to them both in different ways.

My heart broke for Mandy as a child; I thought that she was extremely lucky to get through a situation like that relatively unscathed and still grow up to be a functioning adult. As an adult she was strong minded but also vulnerable and I loved how those two traits were balanced out.

I struggled to like Angie in the beginning because I felt like she was the sole cause for all of the injustice and pain that her younger sister and the rest of her family were going through. It wasn’t the act but the way she dealt with it. At sixteen years of age, I think she ought to have known better. In her adult years, Angie was a completely different person and although my heart broke for her, I also found her to be quite frustrating. She was so lucky to have her younger sister back in her life because I think it would have been a very different ending otherwise.

Writing Style ✍️

As I mentioned above, I found this book quite easy to read from a binging perspective. The chapters were short, snappy and a mix of the character’s perspective so I definitely found the book moreish. Though the writing was easily consumable and not over complicated, the subject matter was at times difficult and there were multiple chapters that gave me a lump in my throat.

I really liked the way that the author weaved together a story about family and the relationships that exist and struggle within them. For the time that this book started off in, sending away a child wouldn’t have been unheard of and I thought that the way the plot and characters both developed felt painfully real.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

This was a book that landed at the exact right time for me and I think that played into how much I enjoyed it. A story that started with such a horrific event that drove a family apart, but ended with two sisters who were able to reconcile their differences when they needed each other the most. There were many lumps in my throat throughout this book for both good and bad reasons and it was because of the devastatingly flawed and also brilliant characters created by this author. I’d definitely recommend this book for a weekend read; but keep your tissues close by.

😍😍😍😍😐