I am so happy to have the opportunity to be part of the blog tour for The Half Sister by Sandie Jones. Thank you to the team at Pan Macmillan, for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

About The Author:

I have heard a lot about Sandie Jones, but I haven’t read any books by her prior to The Half Sister. Sandie Jones has worked as a freelance journalist for over twenty years, and has written for publications including the Sunday Times, Woman’s Weekly and the Daily Mail. She lives in London with her husband and three children. The Other Woman is her debut novel.

Synopsis:

I need to mention that the original synopsis of the book may be a bit misleading. Lauren and Kate are two sisters, but they don’t get along too well and their relationship is complicated.

Kate is a reporter, married to lovely Mark, and going through many rounds of IVF treatment, hoping to start a family. Kate had a very close relationship with her father until the day he died, but was never too close to her sister Lauren and their mother, Rose.

Lauren, on the other hand, is a full time mom of three, with a demanding and overprotective husband. She is very close to her mum, and had a complicated relationship with her father, never forgiving him for understanding her in the past.

One day, while Kate, Lauren and their mum are having their usual Sunday roast, a woman knocks on their door and drops a bombshell. Jess claims to be their half-sister.

This allegation is met with denial - how could she be a secret daughter of their father. Their mother is devastated, Lauren is not surprised, and Kate doesn’t believe Jess at all. But as more secrets start to unravel, no one can know who to trust anymore…

My Thoughts:

I loved the idea of this book, even though I am not too big of a fan of domestic mysteries and drama. My impressions were that this would’ve been more psychological thriller, but I was in the wrong. However, despite this, the book is really surprisingly well-written and kept me on my toes until the very end.

The lives of Lauren and Kate in particular were very well written. I can imagine people being able to easily relate to their struggles. The difference between the two sisters is like night and day. I loved the fact that this book was not sugar coating this, and it didn’t end it with a “happily ever after”. Instead, it ended with “we know we are different, and we are working to fix our relationship in its natural course”.

The story about how Jess comes into their lives, and the whole DNA situation was extremely not believable. As well as the fact that doing another DNA test at the beginning of the novel would have solved all assumptions, rather than people believing hearsay and creating more drama. However, I am also aware that drama was needed to keep the story going, so I can’t hold a grudge.

The ending was predictable half-way through the book. Some scenes are completely unnecessary and make the story more complicated. There are many triggering moments in this book. Cheating, domestic violence and abuse, both physical and emotional and abortion. This book may also trigger people that have had difficult relationships with their parents and/or siblings.

Even though not a favorite thriller, I enjoyed this book and recommend it to everyone that loves domestic thrillers. It is a fast-paced read, and the plot twists are juicy.

Having read previous Sadie Jones books was looking forward to reading the half sister however although I enjoyed this book it didn't have quite the psychological thriller feel of the others although it did have a few twists and turns it was more focused on the science of DNA and the events in finding out of the women who had turned up during Sunday lunch really was their half sister and was their father the father of a other daughter
The book explored family tied and emotions and Secret a and lies.

Read all of Sandie’s books so far and this one didn’t disappoint. Looking forward to the 4th!! Great characters and fast paced storyline

Sandie Jones delivers another knockout, suspense-filled novel in The Half Sister. I devoured this book in less than a day, more than once convinced that I had figured it out, only to be proven wrong on the next page. The characters are likable and believable, and I found myself sympathizing with sisters Kate and Lauren and the turmoil that their recently deceased father has left in his wake. The Half Sister is fast paced and twisty and completely enjoyable!

Firstly thank you to the publishers for having me on the tour .
I loved her debut book so was excited to read this .

Starts with a bang,straight into action.

Secrets,lies and scandal.

Intriguing and fast paced.

A great thriller thats compelling and unpredictable . This explores what happens to a family dynamics when someone new comes along.

Published 25th June and do check out the other blogs taking part in the tour.

Since their father Harry's death, Kate and Lauren meet up for lunch on Sundays, along with other family members. One day, the doorbell rings and Lauren's husband lets a young woman, Jess, into the house who claims that her father is Harry Alexander. Shaken and dismayed, Kate and Lauren's mother, Rose asks Jess to leave before she causes any more upset within the Alexander family. But Jess has DNA proof that she is Kate and Lauren's half-sister which throws everything into disarray... or does it? Is the DNA proof a reality or is it a forgery?

The story is told via alternating chapters between Lauren's and Kate's viewpoints. With its flawless writing I cruised through The Half Sister at a fair rate of knots. A compelling and engrossing tale, themes of sisterhood, sibling relationships, and family dynamics propagate along with a deluge of mystery. The Half Sister is masterfully plotted by Sandie Jones and the compulsive tale is aided by plenty of revelations, twists, surprises and narrative swaps. Most of the characters were untrustworthy, obnoxious or merely unlikeable, but this served to enhance the story. The pacing was comfortable and this supreme domestic psychological thriller piqued my curiosity and held me captive until the fulfilling finish. A terrific five star read.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Pan Macmillan via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

Thank you netgalley for this advanced copy. This was an amazing book!! I couldn’t put it down. I told myself it was predictable more than once and then the next page proved this was not the case at all! Great thriller. Great author. Can’t wait for her next book!

The Half Sister is a new book by a queen of domestic suspense Sandie Jones.

A life of an ordinary family has been destroyed when a young woman shows up at the door claiming to be their half sister. But the father is not there anymore to clear the things up.

I really enjoyed Sandie Jones’ writing, clever plotting and amazing characters. The book is a cross over between family drama and suspenseful thriller full of lies, secrets and unspoken truth. Short chapters and alternative point of view kept me reading till the late hour. The novel is kept on a lighter side which is exactly what I needed right now.

Another enjoyable novel by Jones that I would highly recommend.

Description 🔖

Rose and her daughter Lauren and Kate are seemingly part of the perfect family. The death of Rose’s husband and the girls’ father deeply shook them all, but they maintained their closeness and kept their routine of family Sunday lunch. Then Jess turns up one Sunday claiming to be the half sister of Kate and Lauren.

All three women are horrified by this claim but as Jess’ story starts to unfold, family secrets start to spill and it is clear that the family aren’t as perfect as they seem.

General Thoughts 🤔

I was excited to have the opportunity to read this book. I read and reviewed The Other Woman by Sandie Jones and enjoyed it so reading some of her recent work appealed to me.

Straight away, it is obvious there are going to be some interesting revelations in this book. The obvious question to begin with being is Jess really a long lost relative? Once the answer to this question is revealed, there are just more questions thrown into the mix. I liked this about the book in that I always felt like there was something about to be revealed. That said; I have to say I was slightly disappointed by the ending. Although I had my suspicions that this was indeed how it was going to end, it felt a little rushed to me.

Characters 👫👭👬

I found the characters and their relationships interesting in this book and it did make me think about my own relationship with my sister. Kate and Lauren have very different relationships with their Mother as do my own sister and I. They also had very different memories of their Father. It intrigued me that they had such different memories of their Father’s character and would never really know the truth with him not being there to tell his own story.

As sisters, Kate and Lauren had a relationship that I imagine is quite common. Each of them took quite different paths in life yet ultimately, envied what the other had. It seemed to me to be the ultimate “you always want what you haven’t got” scenario.

I never quite worked out how I felt about Jess. I went through sections of the book feeling sympathetic towards her and I went through other sections frustrated at her actions. I still can’t summarise how I really feel about her character.

Writing Style ✍🏽

Each chapter is told from either the perspective of Kate or Lauren. As a reader I become quite invested in their stories and didn’t really notice that I wasn’t getting the perspective of any of the other characters. In hindsight I think reading the perspective of Rose and Jess would have been quite intriguing.

I was drawn into this book because of all the unknowns and the secrets but as I mentioned above, I feel like it ended a little too abruptly. I would have liked to have known more detail about the conclusion.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

Overall this was a good mystery thriller and served it’s purpose for the time at which I read it. It wasn’t too complex and I didn’t find it hard to follow. This is the exact kind of book I needed to break from the intense books I have been reading of late. If you need a little bit of an escape I would definitely recommend this. I can imagine this story translating into a drama for TV quite well!

Really good read. Would recommend to friends and family. I could sympathise with characters (important for any fiction novel!) and looked forward to picking it up and reading the next few chapters! Interesting plot line and a good ending. Will look out for more novels by the author. Thank you.

A book full of family dramas, family secrets, marriage, lies, sibling dramas and so much more. After reading Sandie’s previous titles I was expecting a great book and I was disappointed.

During a family get together there is a knock at the door. In walks Jess looking for her long lost father, who just happens to be the recently deceased father of Kate and Lauren. Is Jess telling the truth ? Or is she after something ?

Kate and Lauren have two very different reactions. Kate is convinced Jess is wrong, there is no way her father would have had an affair and fathered a child with someone else. Lauren however wasn’t as close to her father and believes that Jess is their fathers daughter.

The story is told via Kate and Lauren’s point of views and we get an insight to not only the reactions to the appearance of Jess but also their relationships with each other. It is a great book that you will enjoy on a lovely summers day.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

When an unexpected visitor arrives at their mother's house announcing that she is their half sister - a half sister they didn't know existed - life will never be the same again for Kate and Lauren as this shocking discovery unleashes family secrets which they never could have imagined. Both Lauren and Kate are leading their own independent lives and yet, even they are hiding secrets which combined with the discovery of this new half sister, threatens to blow their lives apart.

The story is pacy and flows well and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all of the characters, especially Lauren and Kate's mother, Rose who is equally as shocked by the unexpected arrival of Jess, the half sister. The story twists and turns, sometimes from the point of view of Lauren, whilst at other times Kate takes centre stage but throughout it all it's Jess, the half sister, who has the power to bring the whole of their lives tumbling down.

The Half Sister is a complex family drama which has enough elements of surprise to keep you guessing as just when I thought I had the story figured out the whole thing would veer off into another entirely new and unexpected direction.

Secrets, lies, sibling rivalry and marital infidelity, this family drama has all the right ingredients to keep you guessing right until the end.

I've read this book with a day and half. I found it slow to start but when the story started it was absolutely brilliant.

I couldn't wait for it to finish but also wanted to read more.

Lauren and Kate characters were really well written and they live was described

A really good read with a lot of twists. This is a gripping story which I read in one sitting. I was trying to guess what was happening the whole way through. There are really strong characters and a well thought out plot. I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Kate and Lauren are sisters who appear to be there for each other no matter what. As they gather for their weekly Sunday lunch, a knock on the door is about to change everything. Meet Jess, she claims to be their half sister...

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I’ve loved the other books I’ve read by this author so I was super excited to get this one started. Well, it didn’t disappoint. The pace was fast, really fast and I would have read it in one day had it not been for normal life. It was so well written that I wanted to find out more. I liked Kate and Lauren and I wished that they had a better relationship with each other. I particularly disliked Simon, Lauren’s husband. I loved the ending and would definitely recommend this one!

I was expecting another psychological thriller like The Other Woman, so I was a bit disappointed to discover this was a domestic suspense, which really just translated into a long drawn-out family drama among three women who don't communicate properly at all. I kept reading and hoping for a massive twist I wouldn't see coming, but unfortunately it was pretty predictable and not at all surprising. The style of book may be someone else's cup of tea, but regrettably, it wasn't mine.

Every week sisters Kate and Lauren meet for Sunday lunch. But a knock on the door is about to change everything. A woman hands them the results of a DNA test. She claims she is their half sister. It's also clear that they are also hiding secrets. .

Kate and Lauren are ot really close even though they meet regularly on a Sunday. They are actually quite jealous of each other. When Jess claimed to be their half sister, Kate and Lauren began to learn more about her, it seems the family wasnt imperfect after all. The story is told through Kate and Lauren's point of view. There's plenty of twists and lies. This is more a family drama than a thriller.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and the author Sandie Jones for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’d recently read ‘The First Mistake’ by Sandie Jones so I was really looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into this one. I wasn’t disappointed!

Kate and Lauren weren’t as close as sisters should be, although they spend every Sunday at their parents’ house for dinner. It’s been tough since their father passed away, made even tougher when a stranger turns up at their door claiming to be their half sister. Who is she and is she who she’s says she is?

As I read this I think almost every plot twist I could imagine ran through my head and I still didn’t see it coming! What I really like with Sandie Jones is that she keeps you guessing literally to the last paragraph. A real fast paced novel that keeps the reader hooked all the way through.

A story of family, lost love, domestic problems and infertility, all wrapped up in a psychological thriller. A really captivating read which I couldn’t put down. I look forward to the next one.

Thank you to netgalley and PanMacmillan for the copy in return for an honest review.

I loved this book. It is difficult to review without giving away any spoilers. There are lots of twists and not until the very last page is the truth discovered. Gripping from the start and another great read from Sandie Jones. Five stars from me .

Having read and enjoyed Sandie Jones' previous novels, I was really looking forward to reading her latest thriller. Unfortunately, I found 'The Half Sister' a little 'meh' as it was predictable and nothing made it stand out, in addition to the fact that it was more a family drama than a thriller.