Honestly...this wasn’t good at all. It wasn’t for me whatsoever. In the beginning we find out the Colleen and Ella are long lost sisters. Their mother gave Colleen up shortly after she was born. After their mother passes, Ella finds a shoebox containing evidence that she has a sister named Colleen. They begin to connect and it goes from there. Colleen his running away from her current situation with her husband and tries to find her birth father. I can’t really go into much more detail without giving anything away. I really didn’t enjoy this. The beginning, the very beginning, got me hooked almost instantly. However, the further I got in to the book the less it was enjoyable for me. Maybe this would be better suited for another audience but I was truly hoping for something gripping and something that would keep me on the edge of my seat. This just wasn’t it.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me this book for review.

I really loved this book. The twists and turns were surprising and kept me enthralled as I read. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.

It was an interesting story. Started off strong as we were introduced to both sisters but it got a bit clunky in the middle and it seemed that some storylines were a bit disjointed and some issues seemed unresolved,

The Secret Sister
by K A Clarke; A J Brittany
HQ Digital

General Fiction (Adult) , Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date 10 Jan 2020


I am reviewing a copy of The Secret Sister through HQ Digital and Netgalley:


Ella Matthews seemingly has everything. She has a loving husband, a beautiful house, a daughter she adores. Her life has turned out just as she planned, or has it?


After her Mother unexpectedly dies, Ellen’s perfect life starts to crack. She learns she had an older sister, named Colleen.


Ellen is excited about the prospect of no longer being an only child and starts out to search for Colleen.


But Colleen has a whirlwind past of her own. She is so desperate to escape her past she will go to any length to do so.


Just as their paths start to collide it is realized someone is keeping secrets...After Colleen disappears without notice Ellen cannot hell but wonder if she should have started looking for Colleen.


I give The Secret Sister five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

A brilliant book by these 2 authors, I raced through it and loved it from page 1. Excellent! Thank you for the chance to review it.

Imagine life as you know it being turned completely upside down by the revelation that your mother had another child. A child she chose to give away and keep secret for the entirety of her lifetime. Ella is thrown for a loop, and yet part of her feels drawn to find this stranger, who is part of her mother and part of her.

Colleen has had a turbulent and painful life, which hasn't been made easier by a partner who appears to be a loving person to the outside world. The truth is that Gabriel has another face completely - a persona that only Colleen gets to experience.

In a way Colleen has made similar choices to Anna without being aware of it. The need to be loved overshadows the negative aspects of the relationships they have with men. They both have or had a tendency to pick men with possessive, jealous streaks, which ultimately ends up defining the lives they lead.

The difference is where one gave in and subjected herself to the wishes of her man and thereby ignoring her needs and those of her loved ones - can the other woman break the cycle and be free to determine her own path in life?

It's a moving tension filled psychological thriller which draws from the complex relationship structures of mothers and daughters. If this collaboration is anything to go by the writing duo Clarke and Brittany is off to a fantastic start and I hope this is the first of many more.

Thrillers and suspense are my favorites! So when I saw the premise for The Secret Sister by KA Clarke and AJ Brittany, I knew I had to get this one! Can you imagine learning that you have a sister that you had no idea existed? Would you be happy or nervous or anxious? I think Id be in complete shock!

Synopsis:

Can you trust a sister who is a stranger? Ella Matthews has it all. A beautiful house, a charming husband and a precious baby daughter – her life has pretty much turned out exactly as she planned.

But when Ella’s mother tragically dies, her perfect life starts to crack. Her mother had been harbouring a life-long secret. Ella has a sister – an older sister – called Colleen.

Excited by the thought of no-longer being an only child, Ella can’t wait to find her. But Colleen has a whirlwind past of her own. Desperate to escape her troubles, she is ready to go to any length to start afresh.

As their paths collide, someone is keeping secrets… and when Colleen mysteriously disappears without notice, Ella can’t help but question if she should have started looking for her at all…

Such a fantastic premise for a story and this was a well written, fun ride of a thriller! Highly recommended!

Woah!! An unexpected read.

Ella had a beautiful home and family. At her mother's death, she discovered that she had a half sister Colleen. And planned to meet up with her. But their happy union didn't occur as Colleen went overboard. There were too many secrets between them. Then Colleen disappeared after an argument with Ella. And she went in search of her.

My first book by the author duo K. A. Clarke and A. J. Brittany, I loved their writing, their prose enmeshed beautifully with nary a seam. This was a perfect thriller which started slow building up the foundation of the different characteristics of the sisters and laid down their background.

The twists and turns made the plot intriguing, the secrets added to the dark flavor. I loved the contrasts between the sisters, and that made this book thrilling.

A fun read, I would say

A brilliant collaboration between two equally brilliant authors. Enticing and emotional and thoroughly enjoyable.

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read this book. I found this an easy story to read and would recommend if you don’t want anything too ‘heavy.’ The 2 main characters are Ella and Colleen and the chapters switch between being written from one or the others perspective, this is an aspect which I liked in particular.

Ella’s mother has recently passed away and while dealing with the aftermath of this Ella discovers she has a long lost sister. The switching between character perspective works well because as the story develops you see how each character feels about this, and how it fits in with their history and lives. It is interesting that their characters are very different in personality.

I did enjoy this book but if I’m being honest (which I am!) I felt like something was missing. I don’t know what but it didn’t excite me or get my heart racing like similar stories have before, I didn’t find myself second guessing what was going to happen or feeling gutted at the end when I had finished the book. This is not a criticism because it is just my personal feeling, but I just felt like it was an okay easy read.

Having said this I would be open to trying more books by these authors in future.

Wow! This book had more twists than a tornado – and the action was just as fast paced! This was a brilliant write, but you’ll need to concentrate hard or you miss something! Just a word of advice – don’t take anything at face value… Looking forward to reading more by this pairing of writers!

I will rate The Secret Sister a 3/5 stars. This is a story of a daughter, Ella, discovering that she has an older sister, Colleen, that she never knew existed until she was going through her mother's, Anna, belongings after she passed away. Shocked, yet delighted to find out that she is not an only child, she researches Colleen's whereabouts online and finds her profile on Facebook. Despite her husband's, Greg, warning, she messages Colleen and it sets the pace for the two sisters to meet. Colleen is five years older than Ella and recently discovered that she was not the lady who raised her daughter. This revelation disturbs Colleen and she sets out to find her father, Reagan, since her adopted mother informed her that Anna recently passed away. Colleen is also trying to escape a seemingly controlling marriage to her husband, Jake, and has a history of substance abuse. There's also a mysterious tragedy from the past surrounding Colleen and invading her present being. When Ella and Colleen meet, it is clear that the two women are nothing alike and both sisters begin to wonder if meeting each other was the right thing to do.

What I liked about this book:
Around the middle of the book the story became interesting and I wanted to find out more about why Anna decided to give up her firstborn daughter. Reading the story from two POV was okay, although I enjoyed reading from Colleen's POV over Ella's.

What I didn't like about this book:
It took way too long for this book to grab my attention, yet, due to Colleen's erratic behavior and thinking, I decided to give the story a chance and stick with reading the book instead of classifying it as a DNF. Ella's POV bored me terribly and she seemed quite gullible, dim-witted and child-like. While I can relate to wanting to establish a relationship with a sibling you never knew you had (because I have actually attempted this before in my own life) the way she went about it was unrealistic. She seemed to be living in a fantasy world. It isn't easy to meet a new family member. You can't just insert a sister, stir and serve and think that everything will go as you hoped and planned. Ella should have taken heed of her husband's warnings about Colleen instead of being so naïve and jumping into the situation with her eyes closed. The way she went about getting to know Colleen was irritating.
I didn't like the fact that the ending of the book felt rushed. Some scenes didn't make sense at all. Especially the cliff scene at the end of the book. How Reagan and Ella just happened to show up at the scene of the would be crime was a little far-fetched and unbelievable.
I honestly did not like any of the characters in this book. I cannot even say that I enjoyed the three year old daughter, Maisie. It just felt as it all of the characters were dry/dead and lacked any depth, flair, and life to them. Ella's father, by far, was the worst character in this book.
I really didn't follow whether or not Colleen had fabricated her situation with Jake or not. The ending of the book confused me with how easily he let her go. I really believe that Colleen was suffering from PTSD and some other form of mental illness and misinterpreting her relationship with her husband and that she was the actual problem, not him. This was really not made clear in the ending.
I feel as if this story requires a little more work. It just doesn't seem to be finished as it did not flow well or end well at all. A lot of scenes felt rushed, unfinished, and not well thought out.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ella's mother has passed away and while Ella is sorting through her mother's bedroom, she comes across a shoebox that contains items that tell Ella that she has a sister that she didn't know existed. She decides to find her, but when she does, she quickly realizes that they have nothing in common. In fact her sister Colleen seems to have a past full of secrets. Ella really wants to get to know her and despite her husband's warnings, she travels to meet her only to get involved with Colleen's shady past. This story is very well written and does have a twist at the end. Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. I thought that this book was slow moving in the first half but it really picked up halfway through and had so many twists and turns.

'The Secret Sister' is the first book by the writing partnership of K. A. Clarke and A. J. Brittany. K. A. Clarke also writes novels under the name of Karen Clarke and A. J. Brittany also writes under the name of Amanda Brittany. I am a huge fan of both authors and I was interested to see how the partnership would work together. Oh boy, 'The Secret Sister' was certainly one hell of a read and then some. I thoroughly enjoyed 'The Secret Sister' but more about that in a bit.
I found the characters of Colleen and Ella to be very intriguing and interesting at the same time. Both ladies have the rugs pulled out from under their feet and their previous beliefs challenged. Colleen is a young woman, who appears to be quite disorganised and a bit of a mess. She discovers that the woman, who brought her up and who she thought of as her mother, was really her aunty and that her uncle is really her biological father. When the story begins she has just discovered who her father is although she doesn't know who her birth mother is. Colleen is definitely troubled but the news tips her over the edge. Colleen seems desperate to have a new start and she goes on a journey of self discovery after she learns of the bombshell news and she also tries to find out more about her biological parents. Colleen is more desperate to track down her birth parents than she is to find her sister. On the face of it Ella seems to be the woman, who has it all. She is happily married with a family. Whilst clearing out her late mother's possessions she discovers that she (Ella) has a sister and that she is older than Ella. Ella knew nothing about this but rather than being resentful at her mother for keeping it from her, Ella seems thrilled to have a sister and sets about trying to track her down. What does fate have in store for Ella and Colleen? Well you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
I was drawn into this story from the start. I find the subject of secret families to be very interesting and I have uncovered a lot of secret relatives in my own family tree. I was intrigued to see the direction in which the story would go. Reading 'The Secret Sister' soon became an addiction and I found it increasingly difficult to put the book to one side for any length of time. I found every excuse that I could to get back to reading the book. The pages turned increasingly quickly as my desperation to find out what happened steadily grew and grew. At one point the pages were turning that quickly that it was almost as if they were turning themselves and before I knew what was happening I reached the end of the story which I had mixed feelings about. Don't get me wrong I was pleased to finish the book because it meant that I knew how the story concluded but at the same time I was enjoying the author's writing style, the characters and the storylines that much that I just wanted the book to continue.
'The Secret Sister' is brilliantly written. I absolutely love the books that the two authors have released in their own right and so I just knew that I would love a book that they had jointly worked on. I must be psychic because that is exactly what happened! Both authors have the sort of writing styles that are easy to get used to and easy to get along with. They both know how to grab your attention from the start and once they have your attention they won't let it go until the moment you get to the last word on the last page. The authors use such powerful and vivid descriptions that I really felt as though I was part of the story myself.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'The Secret Sister' and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. I hope that this is not the last we see of this fabulous and extremely promising new writing partnership. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

WoW.....New Author's alert and what brilliant book The Secret Sister by K A Clarke and A.J. Brittany was.
I just LoVed it. It's very good psychological thriller told from the point of view of 2 women Colleen and Ella, They find out they are half sisters.
Ella, is married to Greg, they have a small child called Maise. Whilst tiding and organising her mothers house who has recently died. Ella finds an old box in her mums wardrobe hidden,. Ella opens it and finds some personal items of her mothers, a letter and a photo. At first Ella thinks the photo of her mum and the little girl is her, until she turns the photo over and see's the name written on the back - Colleen. Ella then reads the letter and finds out she has a half sister called Colleen, who is slightly older than her.
Ella goes and looks for her sister and finds her on social media, she sends her message. Colleen has just left her abusive husband Jake and is hiding from him!

They finally meet and they are totally different personalities but one thing in common they have the same mother.

Do they become good friends, sisters? or just strangers passing?

I was hooked from the very first few pages and wanted to find out more about the new relationship between Ella and Colleen. It's full of twists and turns with deep dark secrets that have been hidden a for a long time that comes to the surface. Plus, sadness to get both of them where they are today.

I highly recommend this new Book The Secret Sister.......I LoVed it.

Big Thank You to HQ Digital, Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological drama. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I really enjoyed this book. There were a lot of twists and turns that kept me guessing for great chunks of the book. The beginning felt slow and the ending a bit rushed however there was a lot of relevant scene-setting at the start that helped things make sense as the story unfolded. A worthwhile read.

When Ella's mother died, she finds evidence that she had been hiding a secret from everyone. Ella has an older sister, Colleen, that she never knew about.

Ella can hardly hold her excitement in check at the thought of a sister. But Ella's husband is skeptical of the idea.

When finally they meet, Colleen gets drunk and makes a couple of passes to Ella's husband. Seems like Colleen has some secrets of her own .. like running from an abusive husband. There's nothing more that Colleen wants than to escape her past and start over.

When Colleen disappears after an argument with Ella, she feels obligated to look for her ...but what she finds may put her own life in danger.

Can you trust a sister who is a stranger?

This is a well-written psychological thriller, it's full of twists and turns and deep dark secrets that have been hidden a life time. The characters are sharply described and the differences between the sisters are intriguing.

Many thanks to the authors / HQ Digital / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological drama. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I’ve always enjoyed books by these two authors and was very much looking forward to reading The Secret Sister. The story was seamless, and I never would have known that it was written by two people.

Ella is happily married with a little daughter when her mother, Anna dies. While she’s going through her mother’s possessions, Ella discovers a box containing a few items, one of which is a photo of Anna with a baby who she doesn’t recognise and with the baby’s name, name ‘Colleen’ written on the back. She finds a letter from a man she’s never heard off saying they’ve done the right thing. It seems that Ella isn’t an only child after all. She decides to trace her sister and get to know her.

Colleen’s life isn’t as settled as Ella’s though. She’s just left her controlling husband, not that he is about to let her continue with her single life. The woman she had always considered to be her mother tells her that she isn’t, but that a woman called Anna was her true parent and that Anna had recently died. Colleen feels let down by the lies and determines to connect with her birth father. When Ella traces her, Colleen invites her new sister over to Sligo so that they can become acquainted. Neither woman can imagine the events that their meeting will trigger.

This is a fast-paced story full of intrigue and heart-stopping moments. I read it in one sitting determined to discover what would happen to the two women before I could go to sleep. Definitely a must-read book!

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ Digital for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

I don’t really like books That talk about abuse. This book started out really good, but then blah blah blah. Abuse isn’t good to read about.Maybe there should be a warning about books that are difficult to read.