Little Sister is a brilliant psychological thriller which is full of plot twists and turns which keeps the reader engrossed to the very end.

The book starts with an eerie prologue which sets the scene well. It is haunting and it remains in the readers head throughout the whole book. The book is told from the two sisters point of view, swapping between them both, with past family history being revealed as the story progresses.

This is unputdownable and a book that will stay with the reader for a long time after the last line is read.

Set on the Isle of Wight, Little Sister is a deliciously twisty slow burner of a thriller. Two sisters, Emily and the younger Jess, both very different in character – one can be spiteful and deceitful, the other needy and a little unstable. Jess was once estranged from her sister Emily, but following their mothers death, she has returned to make her home with Emily and her family. Something major has happened in the past to separate the two sisters, but does this have any bearing on Daisy’s disappearance?

Who has taken baby Daisy from her home? Quite honestly it could have been anyone. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has a secret to hide and it’s impossible to know who to trust. Just when you think you have worked it out, another curve ball appears to throw you off balance and those doubts reappear.

With shocking revelations and a twist that came as a complete surprise this is a great read. The setting of the small Island gives a slightly claustrophobic and atmospheric feel to the story. I will definitely be reading more from Isabel Ashdown.

A nice little psychological thriller. A missing child, an aunt with a dubious past and a habit of passing out, a stepmother and a too good to be true husband make for a read that keeps you guessing. It got off to a bit of a slow start, after Daisy goes missing there's a lot of lying around in bed and taking of pills but it soon finds it's stride as everyone begins to suspect everyone else and skeletons come out of the closet. My only slight criticism is I found myself in disbelief at the way some of the characters behaved. If your child is missing could you go back to work quite so quickly, go shopping for a new coat? Apart from this is was an enjoyable read with a particularly satisfying ending if you hold grudges, like me.

Wow, this was a very very good read. I was nailed to the book and could not move until I finished it!
I just had to see what happened to Daisy, who took her, was she found and the whole drama behind the abduction of the baby girl. The book was well written and worth the time and effort.
Can't wait to read more by this great author!!! Recommended!

This was my first Isabel Ashdown book and I’m not sure how?
This book was bloody brilliant! Just when you think you have things sussed you’re back to square one.
I look forward to reading more by this author.
Thanks to Orion Publishing Group for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been wanting to read Little Sister since its release in eBook earlier this year. Those clever PR types did a stonking job of ramping up my FOMO* by handing out sampler copies over on NetGalley. Not the full book, you understand, just a short taster of what you could get if you were lucky enough to receive a copy. And readers were buzzing! A large proportion of the bloggers who I completely adore and (obviously) whose opinions I 100% trust, loved this book. So I was rather pleased to get my mitts on a full, start to finish, prologue to epilogue copy. Unfortunately, my blog tour reads have taken all of my spare time since then so I haven’t been able to make a start on this highly anticipated novel….until now! Thankfully, due to the August holiday lull, I have managed to read Little Sister, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I always become a little more excited about a book if, after reading the prologue, I have a case of the chills. The prologue of Little Sister gave me goosebumps and nearly broke my heart, all in one.

We are introduced to estranged sisters, Emily and Jessica, who meet for the first time in years at their mother’s funeral. Jessica is the younger sister, sent away several years ago by her family for an unforgivable incident which brought shame upon her strict Catholic family. Emily has since carved a wonderful home life for herself with a new baby, Daisy, a loving partner, James and a teenage stepdaughter, Chloe on the peaceful Isle of Wight. The reunion between the sisters is a positive one and before long Jess has moved in with Emily’s family as Daisy’s nanny, enabling Emily to return to work. But on New Year’s Eve, whilst Emily and James are out enjoying themselves, Daisy is taken right from underneath Jess’s nose. Slowly and surely the family begin to unravel, suspicions run high and secrets are the mainstay of this once-loving family. Was Emily right to trust Jess? And will Daisy be found before it’s too late…?

This is one of those novels where you can never be sure who to trust, who is keeping a monumental secret hidden within and exactly where the story will take you. Pure fictional bliss, in other words! I immediately disliked Jess and was incredibly wary of her. I couldn’t understand why this sensible, practical new mum had decided her estranged sister was the right person to be in charge of her young baby. Purely convinced of the fact by a simple, quick lie from Jessica about being a nanny in Canada whilst travelling! But as this twisty story progressed, my allegiance changed. I began to dislike Emily and warm a lot more to Jessica. Strange things were happening. As the author laid out her character’s lives, new ‘clues’ became unearthed, points I hadn’t taken into consideration before suddenly became…well, significant.

The story is told from three POVs; Emily, Jess and a third narrator who shall remain nameless for the sake of this review (and to avoid spoilers). There are glimpses into the past and the terrible incident which drove Jess away from her family, told from Jessica’s side and also from Emily’s. These flashbacks give the reader a much clearer understanding of the shaky foundation this sisterly bond was built upon and provides the reader with a greater insight into these two women.

Would I recommend this book? I would. It’s twisty, emotional and a darn good tale of sisterly love gone ‘off track’. I loved the uncovering of the secrets, the clues left along the way and the gradual unravelling of one of the key characters. I enjoyed Ashdown’s writing style but at times was longing for a little more dialogue (but that’s just me!). Intricate, seamless and wonderfully intense. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Four out of five stars.

I chose to read and review an eARC of Little Sister. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

*FOMO = Fear of Missing Out

Little Sister is a dark and disturbing debut, twisty and thrilling until its final page.

Jessica and Emily are sisters, reunited after Sixteen years apart. Jess is delighted to become reacquainted with her elder Sister at their Mother's funeral, and the suggestion that she helps out with her sister's baby daugther Daisy just falls from her mouth before she has chance to really consider what she's offering.

Despite initial reservations, Emily is delighted to accept Jess' help, and quickly she is living with the family in their home on the Isle of Wight. The arrangement is working perfectly, until New Year's Eve.

Emily and her husband, James are out for the evening at a party, Emily's step daughter Chloe is at a friends and Jess is left alone with Daisy. By the time the New Year has been celebrated in, Emily and her James are home, Jess is lying barely conscious on the kitchen floor and Daisy is missing.

Was Jess attacked?

Where is Daisy?

These would be the sensible questions to be asking, but all Emily wants to know is why her sister is on the floor...

Little Sister is a book that doesn't allow itself to be put down. Full of suspicion, half truths and concerns about the past. As for the ending - well it may just be perfect. I can't wait for Isabel Ashdown's next!

My Review:  4.5/5
The book starts out so fast, it was a blow to my whole being.  A baby is kidnapped, right from the parents' home, while being watched by her aunt.  The terror of it all!  As a mother of two, I simply cannot begin to understand what it is like to have your child go missing.  Soon, as the story unfolds, we learn so many secrets within this 'close-knit' family.
Emily is the mother of Daisy (the baby who was taken).  She has an extremely hard time coping when her baby disappears.  A once polished, confident woman, takes a huge spiral downward and turns to alcohol and prescription meds.  Her life is out of control.
Jess is Emily's younger sister, who was watching Daisy when she disappears.  After being estranged for many years, the sisters are reunited at their mother's funeral.  While they seem close on the surface, their relationship is based on deceit, jealousy, and oh so many secrets.
This was a whirlwind of a book.  It gripped me from the very beginning and didn't let go until in the week hours of the morning.  It had me guessing until the very end and kept me on pins and needles trying to figure out the mystery of Daisy's disappearance.  I have a sister and am very close to her.  The animosity between Emily and Jess is so foreign to me. 
This is a very well written book that will draw you in from the very beginning.  As soon as I put it down, I couldn't wait to pick it up and dive in again.
***Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of this book, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Warning – Don’t open this book for a peek, you will not be able to put it aside once you start!
This book has a seriously good opening and one that you won’t forget as you read on to find out what happened to baby Daisy in the early hours of New Year’s day morning, because one thing is for sure she is no longer at home in her cot where she should be.
Daisy is Chloe’s younger sister, well technically she is her half-sister Chloe’s mother having died when she was small but her father James met Emily when she was small and they’ve been a family ever since. Now on the brink of her sixteenth birthday she adores baby Daisy.
Jess is Emily’s younger sister, with just ten months between them they always did everything together, they were even in the same class at school and Jess adored Ellie. Recently Jess moved in with Ellie and has taken on the role of nanny to Daisy while Ellie returns to work. The sisters have much catching up to do as they only regained their tight bond following their mother’s recent death.
So we have two sets of little’s sisters and two mysteries. The overriding one into Daisy’s disappearance and the historic one into why Emily and Jess became estranged when they were teenagers. Both storylines are utterly compelling and reveal long-buried secrets of the relatively small cast of characters. Although the story is mainly told through the eyes of Emily and Jess in the past and the present we do hear from other key players along the way. Each chapter spills at least one secret challenging the reader to put the book aside. I simply couldn’t; this was a real, just a few more pages and then I’ll go to sleep book!
Little Sister is set on the Isle of Wight and although it is many years since I visited, the famous locations are woven throughout meaning that this beautiful location really feels to be part of the story itself. Living on an island myself I didn’t need too many prompts to work out that this was going to be one claustrophobic story and boy does Isabel Ashdown use this to ramp up the tension. Daisy’s disappearance brings outsiders in the way of the police to investigate but it also brings a pack of journalists baying outside the front door as each lead hits the headlines nationally as well as locally but it isn’t just the daily revelations that mark the passing of time since Daisy went, we also have the slowly decaying Christmas tree wilting, the baubles that Daisy once babbled at looking ever more forlorn as Emily refuses to allow it to be dismantled, anxious that Daisy should see it once more when she is found. It is these smaller details which turn this book from a run of the mill psychological thriller into something quite exceptional which alongside the pitch-perfect pacing had me completely hooked.
While the answers to the two mysteries become clear well before the end of the book, because of the depth of the story I didn’t feel cheated because there is plenty more to come. I particularly loved the ending where the author has chosen to wrap everything up in one neat bow with flourishes that were entirely satisfying.
This is a book I wanted to savour but at the same time couldn’t slow down with a story I became so immersed in so well-drawn were all the characters from the teenage Chloe to the police, from the distraught mother Emily to the owner of the café – all were so realistic, I feel sad to say goodbye to them all.

A taut, psychological exploration of sibling rivalry and the lies that families tell.

Emily is, to all intents and purposes, married to James. She lives with him and his teenage stepdaughter and together they are parents to the toddler Daisy. When the book begins, her estranged sister Jess has re-entered her life, and is living with the family in the role as Daisy's nanny. On New Years Eve the unthinkable happens and Daisy is abducted from the family home whilst her parents are at a party, Chloe is out with friends and Jess is passed out due to her rare heart condition.

The first half of the novel is then told from the alternating viewpoints of Jess and Emily. As Emily falls to pieces, Jess steps in and keeps the family on an even keel. As we learn more about the lies that each person has told about what really happened on New Years Eve it becomes clear that no-one can be trusted. We also learn more about Jess and Emily growing up, and what happened to make Jess disappear when she was only 17.

The second half of the novel adds a new voice into the mix, and it is this element I found to be the weakest part of the story. The addition of this voice is a clever twist, and obviously progresses the plot line and resolves the Disy "issue", but for me, the strength of this book lies in the real tension that exists in the dynamic between the two sisters. I would have liked to understand more about why Emily acted the way that she did, and how she has been able to hide her cruel and vindictive nature from those close to her.

A good read and thanks go to the publishers and netgalley for the arc in return for an honest review.

Little Sister gripped me from the very first page and held me in it's grasp throughout the entire book. Baby Daisy is missing and the premise really pulled me in on an emotional level. Having a child go missing is a mothers worst nightmare and I could easily imagine the panicky, helpless feelings that would accompany this situation. It's told using dual narratives, that of both Jess and Emily and honestly, they both made me feel uneasy and wary. I was never quite sure which one was telling the truth and their versions of events were constantly at odds with each other. James is Emily's husband and I was suspicious of him as well, in fact I side eyed everyone of the characters at some point, which is exactly what I think is supposed to happen when I'm reading a good psychological thriller.

This entire book was twisty, but at the halfway mark things are really flipped on their head when Ashdown delivers a killer plot twist. The sisters have a complicated history that is slowly revealed and eventually you find out some dark secrets that added depth and intrigue. The relationship between sisters is always a fascinating dynamic to me and Emily and Jess definitely have a tangled past.

This was a really engrossing read that kept me on my toes and Ashdown's writing style was really crisp and effective. Full of dark moments and surprises galore, this was a very entertaining read. The ending was superb, just the type of conclusion that I appreciate, one that takes me off guard a bit, but in a good way.

A brilliant dark psychological thriller examining families, siblings and secrets and lies.

Little Sister is one of those books whereby you are glad that your family isn't like that portrayed on the pages before you.  Jessica and Emily are sisters, and on the surface you would think them one happy family, with Jessica caring for Emily's baby daughter Daisy during the day, but it's only when Daisy disappears that the cracks start to appear and you realise that appearances can be deceptive.

Emily and Jess didn't speak for years, but when Emily meets widower James and his stepdaughter Chloe, they become a happy family unit.  The arrival of baby Daisy leads Emily to look for someone to care for her, and she turns to Jessica to do so.  Jess instantly loves both girls so Emily feels that they are in safe hands; however on a rare night out, the parents arrive home to find Jessica seemingly passed out drunk, and Daisy no longer in the house. 

As you can well imagine, this is where things begin to crumble.  Emily goes to pieces, and it becomes Jessica's role to hold the family together.  But is she doing so for the sake of her sister, or does she have her own ulterior motive? 

Read this in one sitting!  It would make great big screen entertainment too.

This book starts with a fairly short but almost too powerful prologue which really does leave you wondering just what is to come. These are two sisters with a history. Just what that history is is not apparent from the start however it is clear that it has had a major impact on their relationship. As a result of this they have not been in touch with each other for some years. The situation now appears far better however Emily's baby girl goes missing while in the care of Jess, her sister.

In a sense this feels quite a conventional story; two sisters who have history, a missing child, police enquiries, liaison officers and the like. There is a simplicity to the writing that worked well for me and the story moves gradually to the reveal. That simple telling has a darkness to it and uncertainty grows in the dark. It quickly became a book I was not going to put down easily.

Throughout this book there is a sense of dread over what might happen next and what the outcome will be. There was a fairly big twist in the storyline around halfway through which I'm happy to admit I did not see coming! In the end I think this is a deceptively simple story told with deceptively simple writing - it hooked me.

I've had my eye on Little Sister for a while so I couldn't resist picking it up to see what all the fuss was about. Yes, I expected a twisty psychological thriller but what I didn't expect was such a fast-paced dual timeline story that had me suspecting EVERYONE!! Sometimes I didn't even know which 'Little Sister' the book was named after - it really is SO good.

Emily and James have a baby daughter, Daisy. Daisy is the Little Sister of James' teenage daughter, Chloe. When Emily and James go out to a party to welcome in the New Year, Daisy is left in the care of Emily's Little Sister, Jess. When Emily returns home, she finds Jess collapsed on the floor and Daisy missing. As the police hunt for Daisy, we delve into the dark and dusty background of each and every member of this family, discovering more skeletons in the closet than the ghost train at the fair.

Emily and Jess have been apart for many years and have only just been reunited when Jess returned for their mother's funeral. As we look back into their past, we find such deep rooted sibling rivalry that was quite cleverly hidden. On the surface they appear to be loving sisters, but underneath...dare I say it, I think they hated each other! That was all in the past, though - wasn't it?

Meanwhile, Chloe is lying and sneaking around as she spreads her rebellious teenager wings. Could she have put her Little Sister in danger? Then we look at Emily and James - why did Emily return from the New Year's Eve party without James? What happened to James' first wife and why won't he marry Emily? So many questions with such ripe juicy answers just waiting to be plucked within the pages of Little Sister.

You seriously won't be able to put Little Sister down! I thought I had it all worked out on many an occasion, only to be proved wrong time and time again. I gave my eyes a total workout as they whizzed over the pages of this riveting book and I can't recommend it highly enough.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

This is a dark, disturbing, and fast paced psychological thriller set on the Isle of Wight. Griefstricken sisters, Jessica and Emily meet again at their mother's funeral after sixteen years of estrangement between them. Finding they get on well, Jess moves into Emily's comfortable home with her husband, James, his fifteen year old daughter, Chloe from a previous marriage, and their baby daughter, Daisy. Life is good in the family as Jess fits in well, then James and Emily go out to a New Year's Eve party, leaving Jess to babysit Daisy. They return to discover Daisy missing and Jess passed out on the floor covered in blood. Jess is questioned by the police, but each character has suspicion cast on them. The hunt is on for Daisy's kidnapper but the focus is largely on the history between Jess and Emily. Is anyone in the family to be trusted, including Chloe? This is the story of a dysfunctional family, betrayal, buried secrets, lies and deceit. The narrative is delivered with flashbacks from the past that go on to reveal what caused the schism between the sisters. This is a cracking story, full of twists, tension and great characterisation. I found it a unsettling and gripping read. Thanks to Orion for an ARC.

Fantastic read. i do love a good thriller with a good strong storyline to it and this book was it for me. Had a great mix of characters that all worked well in the book. The characters were such a strong part of the book. I loved the book and recommend to everyone

Excellent book. Great main characters and plot. I would recommend this book.

Just who can you trust and believe in? A happy and loving family? You make your own mind up! Great characters. Well written. This is one of those books that make you question everything you thought was correct and then another curve ball is thrown into the mix. 4* from me. One to recommend. My thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

I have been an Isabel Ashdown fan for some time, so was very much looking forward to reading her new psychological thriller, Little Sister.

The story revolves around the abduction of Daisy, Emily’s baby which takes place while Daisy is being looked after by Emily’s sister, Jess. Emily and Jess have only recently been reunited after a 16 year estrangement and over the coming chapters, told from the sisters’ alternating viewpoints we come to understand what has gone before. But who is telling the truth?

For the most part I enjoyed this book. It was unpredictable, tense, well written and it kept me guessing, however, I did not particularly like or care about any of the characters.