"Brett and Kelly Courtney are the shining jewels in a New York-based reality TV show called Goal Diggers. One of the most popular shows on American national television, its fiercely competitive cast of five self-made women are defined by their success, beauty and ruthless drive to reach the top by whatever means necessary."

I could not connect with Brett and Kelly and their shiny happy lives in the world of Reality TV.
Not a book for me, despite being granted access to it via NetGalley, so not a book I feel I can review honestly.

This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

I loved this book and it's a great follow up to her previous novel. The plot was original and interesting and the characters were funny and quirky. I can highly recommend this to anybody

I really enjoyed Luckiest Girl Alive. A few years later my main memories are that it was glorious nonsense and I cheered out loud when a bloke got his junk shot off. This isn't as good. It's longer and it feels a lot longer than it is, particularly in the first half. I was really confused for the first couple of chapters as so many of the women have names more typically used by men and it wasn't made very clear (this was especially confusing in the first chapter when Brett and "my sister" were used interchangeably so it appeared they were two characters). As a satire on the augmented reality industry this is interesting and seems to be well researched, although I must admit it's not my area of expertise (I was entirely here after LGA). The race issues seem to have been considerately handled, as a white person I can't say for sure but reading this in 2020 there was nothing to make me squint. The ending tied up too neatly and some of the read herrings (the fiancee) were beyond my belief. Overall this was mostly enjoyable if slow.

Unfortunately, after trying to get into this one for some time, I just wasn't able to. I didn't connect with this read and I wasn't really enjoying it. Due to the fact that I have such a long TBR list and so many books that I can't wait to read, I've decided that this one will be a DNF for me.
Due to the fact that I never actually got very far with this read, I don't feel that it would be fair on the author or the novel for me to post a review on the social media platforms that I normally use, or on Goodreads.
Thanks for the opportunity of reading and reviewing this title.

Although this is enjoyable enough, unfortunately it was not the mystery thriller I was expecting and it did not wow me.

Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to have sampled this entertaining read. I enjoyed the book and can't wait to see another from this author.

A juicy plot based on a reality show about how the characters succeed in business. Brett’s sister joins the show a few seasons in, much to her sisters disdain, but Brett has been murdered- the story then takes us back to look at this build up. A really juicy gossipy take, with no overly likeable characters, yet somehow it works!

I thought, as a fan of The Real Housewives franchise I would enjoy this but sadly not. I really enjoyed Knoll's previous work but this felt incoherent and rambling. A disappointment.

DNF this book so far into it because it simply wasn't for me, the characters just weren't to my liking.

As explained in my notes this just wasn't for me, sorry - so I won't be including it on my blog as I try not to post negative reviews on there.

I really struggled with this book. I didn't engage with the characters and I struggled with the plot. I really had liked the premise and I'm quite disappointed with the reality.

Unfortunately a DNF. It started interesting, you wonder what happened to Brett. Kelly is an intriguing character. But as more characters are introduced to the plot, Jess, Lauren, Stephanie, Jean, etc I started to lose interest. There is too much going on, way too many dialogue which I couldn't make sense.

One thing I found confusing is that the story is trying to have a feminist tone but there are so many things in it that's against feminism and this is not in an ironic or sarcastic way. I didn't like that inconsistent narration. An example is "eating carbs". I understand Knoll wants to criticise the pressure on woman to stay thin, or how they look but hey, what is the big deal? As the writer says in the book, "Being a feminists doesn't mean you have to like women". But this book itself is judging women who don't eat carbs or who really wants to look 'perfect'. Let's just leave everyone to be whatever or whichever way they want to be, okay? The feminism in the book feels fabricated to me, sorry.

Another point that put me off the book is that it's so "New York" and so American. It's written in a way that most things probably won't make sense to you if you're not living in America.

Just not my cup of tea, but might attract people who follow American reality TV.

Goal Diggers is a reality TV show centred around five successful women; originally meant to break down some of the stereotypes about the genre and about powerful women, the producers are now orchestrating more elaborate storylines and arguments between the cast. At the heart of it all are two sisters, Brett and Kelly, who have always been in competition with each other, even as they work together. The novel begins with the revelation that Brett has been murdered, and the producer is working with Kelly to create the perfect reality TV moment around her death - but what really happened behind the scenes?

I found the book slow-going at first, trying to pick apart which character was which and what their back story was; at times I think the book is deliberately misleading to add to the suspense and at times I think it's just hard to keep track of five women's stories with little introduction. But, once I was into the meat of the book and the secrets kept mounting, I was hooked on finding out the truth - which isn't as it seems. As the lines blurred more between fiction and truth, it was almost dizzying to live in the world of these women, watching them try to navigate their friendships, their business and their place on the TV show. I'm not sure it paints women in the most attractive light, but maybe that's the point. But, it was dramatic and compelling, and sometimes that's as deep as you need to get in a book.

Borderline mind-numbing, The Favourite Sister tells the story of five highly annoying, but wildly successful women who get their lives documented on a reality TV show.

Somewhere, very deep, there’s some feminist message hidden in this story. You know, women need to stick up for each other, and so on, but neither of these backstabbing bitches actually do anything remotely similar, except one time, and that’s entirely for the wrong reason.

In case I have not made it clear, all these women are quite unlikeable, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Usually these kind of characters are either so awful that I relish in their horribleness and follow their story with morbid fascination, or they do something to actually redeem themselves, making me feel sympathetic. Not these ladies however, and it was quite a disappointing aspect of the book for me. They were not intriguing psychopaths, just some fucked up people, exploiting their success from media exposure, a bunch of fake people doing everything they can to stay relevant to the show. All of them had a chance to actually make a difference, and influence people in a good way, but it seemed Brett was the only one who actually tried to do some good, and even her ways were rather questionable.

When it comes to thrillers, I equally enjoy the slow burners that creep up on you and hold you in their grip, and the fast paced ones that don’t even allow you to catch your breath. The Favourite Sister was unfortunately not either of these. With its long and tedious chapters it was verging on boring, and I’m not sure where all those hair-raising plot twists all the taglines boasted about were hidden. The story seemed to drag on forever.

The last, big reveal at the end of the story was meant to be shocking, but by that point I was so fed up with everything that happened, or rather not happened before, that I just shrugged and muttered “Noted, don’t care” under my nose and exhaled a relieved sigh once the whole thing was over.

Women’s empowerment and body image were also a hot topic these five women all tried to stand up for in their own way. Brett had SPOKE, a company that provided aid for women living under unsafe conditions. Her sister, Kelly had a yoga studio where they focused on well being, rather than body transformation. Steph, the writer, spoke about abuse, and Jen was into healthy eating and juicing to the extreme. It’s all nice on paper, but when shit hit the fan and their true selves got revealed, everything came crumbling down. In private, of course. Never in public.

The Favourite Sister is not a book I would recommend to anyone looking for a satisfying thriller, but if you enjoy shit stirring characters who create drama where otherwise there wouldn’t be any, you might enjoy this one.

I'm afraid that I've had to DNF this at 10%. I really couldn't get into the writing style; it just seemed very disjointed and didn't flow for me and I was struggling to read it. I have no idea what TV show they are on about for this book yet if I’m correct this book is centred round a reality TV show? We start off in Kelly’s perspective and then we get a chapter in Brett’s perspective but the writing felt like it was getting mixed up between being Brett and Kelly. The movement seemed to jump aroun; one minute they were in a yoga studio holding auditions for a yoga teacher (or at least that’s what I can gather) and then the next minute they’re in a car going somewhere. The whole beginning yoga studio thing also confused me and if I’m correct it’s because Brett now owns and runs some spinning and bike gyms? Also, there seemed to be a lot of life lessons shoved in about women celebrating themselves and being who they want to be etc; which is fantastic but the way they were done felt so strange and disjointed. One minute it would be part of the story and then the next you’d get what seemed to be a serious few sentences. Overall I didn’t enjoy the small part that I did read which is a real shame because the concept sounded great.
I've left a 3-star review so it won't bring the overall rating down and because I have to leave a star rating to leave a review.

I must confess that I did not like this book by Jessica Knoll quite as much as "The Luckiest Girl In The World". Actually, I'm even not sure if I liked it at all. Nevertheless, it has entertained and bound me in some way. But there are some crucial criticisms for me.

I'm not a big TV watcher. Reality TV is not my cup of tea. But of course I have heard about it, occasionally even zipped in for a few minutes. But I'm not a fan. Nevertheless, this book interested me for that very reason. You get a glimpse of what's happening behind the scenes in such a show. All the characters in this book are unappealing. All are selfish, sneaky and out on their own profit. At least one of the characters in my opinion even has a serious personality disorder. At first I liked Brett, but that too changed over time.

My biggest problem was that the book is very American. I am German, but have been reading mainly books in English for years and now I am well-versed in that. I had no linguistic issues here, but I do not live in the US and the many references to American television culture and public figures that we do not know here in Europe were difficult to understand. There are also many expressions that I first had to think about, such as the abbreviation POC. I think it means "person of color". But with terms of this kind that are not used where I live, my direct understanding of the story is interrupted and thus my reading flow. There are often comparisons made with people who are well known in the US, but I completely unknown to me and therefore I could not draw the comparison. Such a strong effect had so far no book of an American author on me. In a German translation, a good translator might iron things out, put it in context with German comparable stuff but in the English original the book was a real challenge for me for these reasons. I have the feeling that I have not understood a part of the book because I lack the necessary knowledge of certain American society-typical facts. I've never experienced that so much in a book.

All characters are very unusual personalities and in no way pleasant as a person. But at the same time they were very intriguing in their own way. The characters are a clear plus for me. I was a little bothered by the slightly aggressive language of the author. It’s not so much about strong expressions but rather style. Of course it suits the story somehow, but personally I found it less enjoyable to read.

Eventually, I did not like to read the book, even thought about stop reading it in the beginning because I found it hard to get into it. So many people at once and I struggled quite quickly with my understanding problem described above. In retrospect, however, I'm glad to have finished it. It developed a certain dirty pleasure. Probably as reality shows and trash TV do. And so it was a very consistent implementation of the story. But I think it should not be labelled as a thriller. It is a drama, but no thriller at all.

I stayed with this book for 18% and despite trying to engage with the story, I'm stopping here. It is tipped as a thriller, but I genuinely didn't find anything in the story that created any kind of suspense or anything of interest to keep me reading. My main issues lie with the plot, as I have just mentioned, and also the characters and subject matter. There is a shallowness to this book and I am bored by it. If you are a fan of reality TV shows, popular culture and competitive female friendships then you might like to give this a go, but it's just a little bit too much of a 'popcorn read' for me.

I'm moving on to something else but would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this.

I had really enjoyed the authors previous book so was excited to read this. A group of women are part of a 'reality' tv show in the style of Real Housewives. It took me a really long time to get into this book as it just didn't grab me at all which is really frustrating. The characters aren't likeable but that's kind of the point. There were some good twists during it and i found it unpredictable but overall I didn't love it.

I really enjoyed Luckiest Girl Alive and I could not wait to read this one... sadly I just could not get into it. I really did try to enjoy this book but I found it confusing and over the top. So many characters and most of them very irritating.

Thanks to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for my honest opinions