Cover Image: Bad Sister

Bad Sister

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Member Reviews

I listened to the audiobook.

A gritty, emotional thriller where you aren't sure who or what to believe. Being told from multiple POVs made this really interesting and suspenseful.

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Bad Sister by Sam Carrington.
When flames rip through their family home, only teenager Stephanie and her younger brother escape unhurt. Brett always liked to play with fire, but now their dad is dead and someone has to pay the price.
A really really enjoyable read. I loved the story. Twisty. 5*.

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Omg wow this book is amazing it's full of twists and turns it will keep you up all night I really enjoyed this book

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Great story, thrilling plot that I could not put down. Well worth a read, and would recommend to others.

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Oh my word what ah absolutely fantastic read this was, It has everything that I love in a book and I read it in one sitting it was that gripping,

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*thank you to Netgalley, Sam Carrington and Avon Books UK for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*


3 stars. 

While still a good story overall I found it to be a bit flat on suspense. The beginning was good but then it tended to drag and I noticed my mind drifting more and more. I became uninterested in the characters and had hoped for more. Unfortunately this wasn't for me but I am wanting to give this author another go. I do really like the cover for this book.

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This book was a quick moving thriller tale with well written characters and a followable plot. The story kept me interested thoughout.. I recommend it!

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Bad Sister by Sam Carrington is narrated through 3 female characters. It's fast-paced, gripping and has a tense and intriguing storyline.

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This was the first book of Sam I've read, and it won't be the last. The book was a rollercoaster ride, taking the reader by the throat and not leaving until the end! Recommended.

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I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley.

Bad Sister looks just like the type of book I enjoy. It literally looks like a psychological thriller.

I was not disappointed! I'm forever expecting a twist in my reads, and I didn't see this one!

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Clever with twists and unexpected turns. Well written with a great pace that helped me fly through this book.
I really enjoyed it and will look for more by Sam Carrington!

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC which was provided to me in return for an honest review.

Having previously enjoyed Saving Sophie, I was excited to start reading this new offering from Sam Carrington.

Unfortunately, although the story was well written, I felt the plot was very flimsy.
The characters were fairly one-dimensional and the various unresolved family issues were confusing and hard to keep a track of. This made the story quite disjointed for me. Although most of the questions raised throughout the book were resolved in the end, I finished the book wondering what the main point of the story had been. It seemed like we had gone the long way round to get to the same destination.

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This is a gripping book with lots of twists and suprises.

Well-written book that flowed brilliantly. I literally couldn't put it down from the first page.

Loved it and a full 5 stars from me for this one, highly recommended.

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Initially, it felt eerily similarly to a favorite reads of mine from earlier this year. They definitely differed as the book progressed though. It's not a bad book, but it's a bit predictable and the writing wasn't inspiring. I enjoyed her previous book much more than this one.

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Absolutely amazing book!

This will have you gripped until the end. Such a huge plot twist that nearly had me crying at the end, for Connie to go through so much hurt and find that out at the end!!

I loved the way Connie and Lindsay became friends and that the investigation didn't stop their friendship blooming. Was a shame that Mack jumped to conclusions but was kind enough to partly forgive Connie.

Would love to see if there is a sequel and that Connie and Luke can reunite again.

Brilliant book, have recommended this is family and friends.

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The writing in this book was just atrocious. No no no.

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In this second psychological thriller from Sam Carrington, we’re dealing with both Stephanie and Connie who are trying to escape a past that just doesn’t want to let them go. Stephanie is hiding under a witness protection scheme, with Connie trying to help her deal with the past and adjust to a new life, but when Connie’s own past is thrown glaring into the spotlight, Stephanie wants to be reassigned to someone new. That doesn’t happen, and we soon start to fear for the safety of both characters.

Bad Sister is a character-driven novel that soon draws you in. Well written, plenty of intrigue, and enough twists and turns to keep you off-balance. A great book!

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I was hooked from page one. It was a pleasure to follow the life of Connie a psychologist and her clients. Entwined with her own personal history and loss of her own brother. The plot twists and turns with every page leaving your wanting more and unable to put the book down. Well written and researched set in beautiful Devon.

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I enjoyed this book, the story unfolds slowly but the plot is a good one and the more I got to know the characters, the more I liked them.

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From the moment I started to read the first chapter of this book, I could feel myself being drawn in. If there is one thing that Sam Carrington excels at (and there are definitely many more than that, believe me), it is in creating a tense and intriguing opening to a novel, one which, if you are anything like me, will compel you to read onwards because you will want to know just what is going on. That is exactly what you get when you open up the pages of Bad Sister, and is exactly what made me power through this book, just as I had its predecessor.

Now this book felt very different in tone to Saving Sophie in that the changes in the atmosphere and tension were more gradual and creeping. This is no bad thing, and in terms of creating a sense of place and setting, fitted this novel perfectly. You are faced with a two-fold story almost, that of Stephanie and her past which she is desperately trying to escape, and that of Connie, the woman who tasks herself with trying to help her. Both women have a story to tell, stories that intersect in the most surprising of ways.

While you are immediately faced with certain somewhat disturbing facts, uncovering what really happened takes a while longer. As each clue to the past is gradually revealed, readers are taken on a truly satisfying journey. There are so many twists, so many diversions, that the path to the book’s conclusion is a far from straight one and I really enjoyed not knowing quite where the story was going. There was a growing sense of foreboding from the very start, but saying that, the threat and menace wasn’t blatant, and it was more the sensation of knowing that something wasn’t quite right, rather than the characters being faced with obvious jeopardy, something which fits the narrative and the plot perfectly. Connie is a Psychologist, and the representation of psychology is the element of the book which is so effectively captured on each page, Ms Carrington using her own experience to great advantage here. Not that the moments of jeopardy didn’t eventually come. They did for Connie, and in quite a major way too.

Now we are faced with a particularly grisly death early on the book, but it is not represented in a gratuitous way. Enough is said, however, to make it very clear what has happened and the fact that it links back to Connie. But is it because of her clients or because of her past, the situation which arose that was the catalyst for her leaving the prison service? Investigating this crime brings the reader face to face with key characters from Saving Sophie, and there are references to the book that savvy readers will readily spot. They’re not enough to act as major spoilers, but do be aware that they could give away a little of what befalls the characters in that book, so you may want to read it first. That said, if you completely ignore me and forget I said anything, then both books work equally well as stand alones.

I really like the way that Sam Carrington portrays the protagonists within her book. She has a brilliant way of capturing and creating characters who are intrinsically human; that you can both admire or despise and yet still be completely invested in. Of making people who can unnerve you and also those whose nervousness, guilt and fear emanates from the page. This is especially true here as you feel Connie’s tension rising as the investigation progresses, and yet you are left to wonder how much what she feels is true, and how much paranoia brought on by her own delicate condition. You will never quite know until the very last pages.

Told from varying points of view, those of Connie, DI Lindsay Wade and a third, mystery voice from the past, you get to see all angles of the investigation, from the almost clinical police investigation to the more personal and fraught observations of Connie. That said, there are elements of the story which will surprise readers, hidden back story which once exposed go some way to explaining certain characters behaviour which otherwise seem disproportionate and out of character. What works really well here is the growing friendship between Connie and Lindsay Wade who is working the murder investigation. Wade should be keeping Connie at arm’s length – she is, after all, either a suspect or potential future victim, and yet there is some kind of kinship between the two which works really well. It would be great to see the pairing develop further in future books. It is after all one with a lot of scope.

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