This was a powerful book of secrets and redemption. It was also a great mystery along with family drama. The only thing that bothered me was that it took Sylvie so long to investigate her sisters murder. Other than that it was a great page turner that had me reading long into the night! Would definitely recommend and want to thank netgalley for letting me give an honest review of this book.

Sixteen years ago, Sylvie’s sister Persephone never came home. Out too late with the boyfriend she was forbidden to see, Persephone was missing for three days before her body was found—and years later, her murder remains unsolved.

In the present day, Sylvie returns home to care for her estranged mother, Annie, as she undergoes treatment for cancer. Prone to unexplained “Dark Days” even before Persephone’s death, Annie’s once-close bond with Sylvie dissolved in the weeks after their loss, making for an uncomfortable reunion all these years later. Worse, Persephone’s former boyfriend, Ben, is now a nurse at the cancer center where Annie is being treated. Sylvie’s always believed Ben was responsible for the murder—but she carries her own guilt about that night, guilt that traps her in the past while the world goes on around her.

As she navigates the complicated relationship with her mother, Sylvie begins to uncover the secrets that fill their house—and what really happened the night Persephone died. As it turns out, the truth will set you free, once you can bear to look at it.

My Thoughts: As Sylvie returns home, reluctantly, to care for her sick mother, Annie, she is confronted by the past and its dark secrets. Sometimes, studying the past can change one’s perspective and even the reality of one’s relationships.

What would Sylvie learn, as she tried to sort through the events leading up to her sister’s death? Would her view be reinforced, or would she realize that she had it all wrong?

As we follow Sylvie’s story and her interactions with Persephone’s boyfriend, we learn more about Annie’s story. The one loss that changed everything in her life, leading to Dark Days and the inability to really nurture her daughters, could have been the one thing that changed everything for the girls, too.

How can Sylvie sort through the detritus of her sister’s life, as well as her mother’s secrets, and discover the truth? As the final revelations in The Winter Sister are unveiled, everything will finally be brought to light, setting them free. 4.5 stars.

***My e-ARC came from the publisher via NetGalley.

What I liked about this book: I thought the author did a great job of describing the emotions of family members after Persephone was murdered. I got a very real sense of how her sister’s guilt affected her choices in life, and her mother’s despair led to her drinking, even though her response at the time was over the top. The story unfolded a bit at a time, keeping me in suspense for a good part of the book; although, I did have have my suspicions about the identity of the murderer.

What I didn’t like: I never like to see curses words with God in books, and this book has too many. I prefer to read books without the sex scene that every author feels they have to toss in the book. This book includes one that has a serious ick factor because of the people involved.

Overall, the book is well written.

Entertaining murder mystery. This was study in guilt wrapped up in lies and half truths. It’s been twenty years since Sylvie’s older sister Persephone was murdered one winter night. No one was ever charged for killing sixteen year old Persephone and Sylvie has been carrying the weight of her suspicions along with the guilt that she didn’t do more to help bring the killer to justice.

Told in first person, the reader discovers unknown details of Persephone’s death along with Sylvie. Our opinion of possible suspects fall into line with our narrator since we are looking through the same foggy lens, bent on believing our own preconception of events at the time. I enjoyed being tossed off balance by the author and riding the rollercoaster of possible scenarios of one night and how it impacted the lives of many. I was less impressed with the portrayal of the mom. Hard to believe children would be left with a woman this hysterical and secretive.

Impressive debut by an author I will add to my watch list.

ARC received with thanks from publisher via NetGalley for review.

While this is not usually a book for me, I had to give it a try when I was given the choice to read this on Netgalley by the publisher. Because of how Megan Miranda had loved it. As I have read her adult mystery books, and they were so very good. I had a hope that this one would be the same. It wasn't. Sigh. Not even close.

But it also was not all bad. And I was so unsure if I should give it three stars or two stars. But I'm going with two. As there was not a single part of this book that I loved. It was an interesting story, but I very much could have been without reading it. Which I'm a little depressed about, to be honest, haha. I wanted to love it so.

I was also thinking that this might have been a three star for me, considering I stayed up until past two am to finish it. But though I very much wanted to know the ending, it was never good for me. And that is why this book is a two star for me. Since even though I read it from start to finish, and I was not able to stop reading for hours, it wasn't because I was loving the story. It wasn't because it was exciting and scary and thrilling. Since it was none of those things. And I'm so so upset about that, lol. I was expecting a great mystery book. I did not get that. Well, a little bit, but not nearly enough. And I have so much to share about this book. As I had so many thoughts about it all while reading. The writing was sort of okay, but sadly never connected with the main character.

This book tells the story of thirty year old Sylvie. It begins by sharing what happened when she was only fourteen, when her sister did not come home, and it took three days to find her dead body. I did enjoy the beginning a lot, I liked knowing things that happened in the past. It was interesting. But then the present came. And it ruined the story a little, to be honest. Because I could not find it in me to care about Sylvie at all. She was so beyond boring. And had lived half her life doing things that did not make her happy. Sigh.

She had one friend, her roommate, Lauren. We get to see some weird written texts between them in the book. But I did not get their friendship at all, sadly. Especially not because of how Sylvie had lied to her since the moment she met her, about how and when her sister died. I did not think that she had enough reasons for doing that. So yeah. I never grew to care for Sylvie. Sure, I felt badly for her, for having lost her sister. And that they had never found out who killed her. And I understood her guilt about it. Maybe.

But that sadly did not make me care for Sylvie as a person. She feels guilt because of something she did the night her sister did not come home. And I got that. Sort of. But she never told anyone about it and that I did not get. Because it didn't seem like such a big thing. And the scene where she suddenly realizes she should not feel that way anymore was completely silly, to be honest. She spent half her life feeling guilty. But then one person tells her it was not her fault, and she stops right away? Yeah. It was all a little weird.

But anyway. This book is about Sylvie and her working to figure out more about how her sister died and who killed her. She has to return to her childhood home, as her mother has cancer. And that was a weird relationship. Her mother. She started drinking when Persephone died. And have been all kinds of horrible ever since. We get to learn their past, with how Sylvie worshipped her mom until the death of her sister. It was, well, beyond weird. Didn't get their relationship at all. So bad. And I disliked her mom beyond words.

I did like learning more about her dead sister, though. And who she had been as a teenager. But her life had not been easy, and that wasn't okay. Which made me dislike Sylvie even more, to be honest. Sigh. The dead sister had a boyfriend, Ben. And now with Sylvie being back in town, she runs into him all the time. And she believes he is the one that killed her sister. Yet she spends time with him, and I just found all of their scenes to be so awkward. Especially the small romance part. It was so so very bad. Shudders.

There is so much about this book that I did not like. There was barely any mystery at all. We learn who killed her sister at the very end, and the reveal was so very silly. No danger. No threats. Yeah. I wanted more from this book. I wanted it all to feel dangerous and scary. It never did. Because the whole book is spent inside of Sylvie's head. Being in the past, being with her mother, talking to her all the time. Ugh. It was too much focus on relationships, to be honest. Sure, some of it were interesting, but it was too much.

But I also did not completely hate this book. I disliked most of it, but I enjoyed reading it too. I wanted to know what would happen. But my gosh. It was way too slow. And nothing ever did happen. Ugh. There are some surprises that I had not seen coming, and I liked that. But they were too few and not that very interesting at all. The Winter Sister ended up not being a book for me. I would not read it again, but I'm still kind of glad that I tried reading it. Huge thank you to the publisher for letting me read the eARC early.

It took a while for me to get into this book before it started getting good. Persephone and Sylvie are sisters. Persephone sneaks out to be with her boyfriend, Ben, a lot and one night Sylvie locked the window so she could not get back in. Persephone ends up murdered that night and the case goes cold for 16 years until Sylvie has to return home to look after her mother who has cancer. Every time I came to the name "Persephone" it was like hitting a speed bump. It did turn out to be a good read although I had it figured out early on. I think I would have liked it better if Persephone had a different name and if the characters were not so flawed and unlikable. I would consider this more of a YA book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

COLLINS SHOWS CONSEQUENCE OF SECRETS IN SUSPENSEFUL DEBUT NOVEL “THE WINTER SISTER”

THE WINTER SISTER starts with 30-year-old Sylvie recounting the night her older sister, Persephone, never came home, and the ensuing guilt Sylvie has carried the last 16 years. Present day, Sylvie is called home to care for her ailing mother. She is forced to confront her past and all its secrets tied up with her sisters unsolved case.
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Megan Collins is a deft writer — this novel crosses more than one genre but with authority and purpose. It’s a suspenseful mystery and a character-driven family drama with nods to greek mythology and classical literature (ie. Wuthering Heights). While there are hints of well-known stories sprinkled throughout, Collins never mimics plot lines . There are some classic “suspense” elements, but the story still feels fresh.
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I think it would benefit the reader to look at this story as a “suspense drama.” There were passages that I underlined and that moved me (which isn’t normally the case for a pure thriller). This drama will draw you in like a thriller and keep you thinking about the consequences of holding secrets.

The book opens up with the death of one of the sisters and a lot of secrets. You don't know who you can trust and if anyone is really telling the truth. All you do know is that everyone seems to be keeping a secret about the sister's death.

This book really shows how family secrets can make a lot of toxic relationships and how only knowing half of the story can cause a lot of confusion.

I didn't rate it four stars because it felt predictable and had the trope of a young person not going to an adult when they should have and it only causing more harm.

Overall I would recommend this book as I was hooked from the beginning and finished it in one day.

I could NOT put this book down. Sylvie has escaped her messed up family life and left it in the past. She's been struggling to make a go of it on her own when she gets the call from her aunt that her mother is ill, and it's Sylvie's responsibility to come back and care from her. She does, but in doing so opens up a Pandora's Box of memories as she tries to come to grips with the death of her sister sixteen years past. When she runs into Ben, her sister's ex, who is a nurse at the cancer center where her mother is receiving treatment, Sylvie realizes that there are too many questions that need answers. What she uncovers is a dark wound at the center of the horrible family mystery that will change all their lives forever. Collins is a brilliant strategist when it comes to plot--layering truths and untruths in a way that keeps the reader guessing.

A truly mesmerizing debut. I can't wait to see what Collins is going to write next!

'Strange, now, to think of it, now that I was so far from that world, sucked back into the one I’d thought I’d peeled off of me like a sunburn.'

Winter Sister, at its heart, is about more than the death of Persephone, Sylvie’s older sister. It’s about their mother’s ‘history of silence’ and strange ‘dark days’. Sylvie, before the tragedy of Persephone’s murder destroyed her mother, lived in the spotlight of her mother’s love, a tenderness that never seemed to shine over Persephone. Sylvie is the favored one, because she reminds their mother of the man who got away, according to her mom. With their independent mom, who could “love us more than a hundred fathers ever could” there was never any reason to know who those flings were. Perseophone never quite feels that all encompassing adoration and attention, and could have used a father’s love.

Sylvie thinks she harbors all the secrets that matter, that her shameful act the last night she saw her sister alive makes her as guilty of her murder as the actual killer. Persephone was forbidden to date, her mother knew nothing about Ben and their volatile relationship, nor the hidden fingertip sized bruises he left on her beautiful skin. Sylvie knows he killed her sister with his dangerous, brutal love but no one would ever accuse the mayor’s son of such an act, despite the reports that she mattered as “one of Spring Hill’s own”, Sylvia knows her sister is nothing to the town. In truth, they were never truly a part of Spring Hill. It takes the loss of her mother, when she most needs her to be present and the passage of time to see clearly what she missed sixteen years ago.

Present day and Sylvie works in a tattoo parlor, no longer known as ‘Persephone’s Sister’, having long ago shed that skin and reinvented a past for herself that doesn’t carry the tragic air of loss. In her new life, her sister hasn’t been murdered. On the night of her thirtieth birthday, the call comes about her mother’s cancer. Aunt Jill had stepped up and cared for her when her mother retreated to her room and from life in the aftermath of Persephone’s murder. Now, Aunt Jill is needed desperately by her own child, stretched too thin it’s time Sylvie do her duty and return home to help her mother through treatment. Never once had her mother checked in on her, not once did she give her the comfort she desperately needed after losing her beloved sister and now, she’s meant to play devoted, caring daughter to a mother she hasn’t spoken to in years, still just as bitter and mean as ever. To make matters worse, Ben works as a nurse at the cancer center, Ben who Sylvie is adamant got away with killing her sister.

In confronting the past, she must also question her mother’s coldness towards her sister all those years before she was killed. Could she have been the one abusing her? Why did it seem like they both shared a different mother? Has what she believed about Ben been wrong all this time? If not Ben, then who had reason to hurt Persephone? It is about being too young to understand the dynamics of relationships, being between childhood and adult things. It is a bond between sisters and how their mother’s attention or lack there of spills over into their interactions with each other, fueling resentment at times, and yet Persephone and Sylvie always chose each other, until one night Sylvie thinks she knows a way to save her sister from all consuming dangerous love. A decision she will regret all her life, a boulder of grief she carries in her gut.

Why didn’t her mother ever care enough to share in their grief together? Why is Ben telling a story that puts Persephone in a wildly different light? Maybe she didn’t know her sister as well as she thought, or built her own version of their love based on the evidence she saw. Could she really have been wrong all this time? Her mother is sober now, and it’s frightening, her vulnerability. “How much of Persephone’s relationship with Mom had I missed? How many small but accumulating hurts and dismissals had I filtered out over the years, swathed, as I’d been, in Mom’s arms?” Anaïs Nin once wrote, “we don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are” and that could be the title of this book. The truths Sylvie has held in her mind begin to disintegrate upon her return home, with the clarity of adult eyes. She is stunted, she hasn’t been living her life fully since that night. I found what moved me more than the ‘who done it’ is the dysfunction in her family, that each person’s history in the same home can be outrageously different, and the truth lies somewhere in between. Youth is often a cloud that plays with memory. Fear, too, can color how we behave, or raise our children but when a child needs their mother, there is never an explanation good enough to exonerate her actions. Yes, read it!

Publication Date: February 5, 2019

Touchstone

Atria Books

Enjoyed the book but I have mixed feelings about it. I liked the story and the writing style but hated the characters. The exception was probably Jill. She loved her family and was always there to pick up the pieces. By the end of the book I didn’t mind Sylvie as much and blame all her problems on her mom. Annie will definitely never win the mother of the year award. She claims she loves her daughters but I don’t believe her. She was simply an awful mother. Annie must have some psychological problems because I couldn’t believe how she acted when she learned the truth about her daughter’s death. From the start I wanted to find out what happened to Persephone and wasn’t sure who killed her. After Sylvie discovered her mom’s secret, I had some suspicions. Persephone’s death could have been prevented if all the lies and secrets would have been revealed a bit sooner. I feel sorry for Ben about what he learned about his girlfriend.

I recommend the book and really liked the story. The book had some twists and turns and dealt with horrible family relationships. Especially between mothers and daughters. I can understand why Sylvie never wanted to come home. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

Thanks to NetGalley, Touchstone and the author, Megan Collins for a free electronic ARC of this novel.

I loved this book! So many emotions felt throughout. I could relate to all of the characters and some of them ripped my heart out. The deception, secrecy, guilt and broken promises show how fragile our human condition can be.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Highly recommend!

Thx to Netgalley, Simon and Schuster , and Megan Collins for this ARC I loved this book, it was one of my favorites this last year. The combination of characters and stories had me captivated in that I read it in 2 days. I wasn’t sure who or if the killer would be discovered, and I never had a clue. That is a complement to the author, as I’ve read so many mysteries I usually know who the killer is before the end. Definitely checking out more books by this author. I give it 5 stars And a big referral to my book club friends.

At 14, Sylvie's older sister, Persephone sneaks out of their bedroom window to meet a boy. Sylvie saw her sister get into her boyfriend, Ben's, car. Three days later her dead body is found in the snow. And no one has been charged with her murder.

Her once close bond with her mother disappeared the same day. She crawled into a bottle of Vodka and Sylvie went to live with her aunt. 

At age 30, Sylvie has an art degree but is working as a tattoo artist and living with crippling guilt and a lot of questions.

As if getting laid off isn't enough drama, a phone call from her Aunt Jill puts her right back into her childhood home with a mother now stricken with cancer, but sober. Things are tense. Sylvie is frustrated and haunted by the murder of her sister and no one being held responsible. 

Meeting up with Persephone's old boyfriend at the cancer center shocks her to her core. She has always believed he killed her sister, but now she isn't so sure.

Digging into the past she will find shocking secrets kept by her mother and her sister. She will come face to face with a killer but she isn't about to back away from getting answers.

Even after I had my own suspicions about what was going on the writing was just so good I barely came up for air. This story asks the question exactly how well do we know our mothers, our sisters? And how one decision can shape so many lives over so many years. 

The writing is so smooth, it carries you right along through the good, the bad and the really ugly. The characters are real and deeply flawed in some cases. As a debut novel, I don't think you can get much better!

Well Done!

Netgalley/ February 5th 2019 by Touchstone/ Atria Books

Pretty solid domestic thriller that kept me entertained. I'm still wavering between 3.5 to 4 stars...this was good, but not very memorable. (I made the mistake of waiting 2 weeks to write this review and I'm paying the price now as I dig to remember the highs and lows.)

What I remember I liked:
-The mystery had me hooked
-There were some nice surprises that I didn't expect

What I remember not being crazy about:
-Sylvie's mother-too much of a stretch for things to have gone like they did without any intervention.
-The ending was a bit too pat for me.

Would I recommend? Yes, especially since this is a debut novel. While it didn't knock my socks off, it held my interest and I will definitely be watching to see what she comes up with next.

ARC provided by NetGalley

3.5 stars.

Our main character is Sylvie, whose older sister Persephone was murdered when they were teenagers. Sylvie still blames herself for her sister' murder, as that night after her sister went out, she locked the window so her sister couldn't get back in along with helping her cover up other things in her life. Sylvie finally returns home to care for her sick mother and ends up running into her sister's old boyfriend Ben and she becomes determined to finally discover what really happened the night her sister was murdered.

The Winter Sister was definitely an interesting and entertaining read. The reason for the 3.5 stars is that I feel like I have read this plot line before, just with different characters. I would however recommend it to those who are fans of the suspense and thriller genre. I enjoyed the characters and the author's writing.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book.

The Winter Sister by Megan Collins

February 2019

I received this digital ARC from NetGalley and Touchstone Simon & Schuster in exchange for an unbiased review.

“Demeter had an only daughter, Persephone . . . the maiden of the spring. She lost her and in her terrible grief she withheld her gifts from the earth, which turned into a frozen desert. The green and flowering land was icebound and lifeless because Persephone had disappeared. —Edith Hamilton, Mythology”

It had been sixteen years since Sylvie’s sister Persephone snuck out to see her boyfriend and never returned. Her body was found but years later her murder still remained unsolved. There were several suspects but no clear evidence which exacerbated the guilt of those who loved her.

It has always been Sylvie and Persephone. Their mother Annie claimed to not need a man in her life. She raised them herself on her meager salary as a waitress in the local diner. Though the years they notice Annie becoming more bitter and acerbic drinking and kicking herself in her room for days.

Annie’s sister Jill is the consistent stable person in their lives. She takes care of Sylvie until she goes away to college and tries to forget the tragedies of her past. It’s only when her aunt begs her to come home to help care for her ailing mother that truths of the past start to unravel.

This is a powerful story about family, lies told to protect, destructive behavior and redemption. It is well written and hard to put down. It pulls you into the story wanting to know how it ends.

“The Winter Sister” was a multi-faceted psychological family suspense/mystery which grabbed me from the beginning and kept me flipping pages at least half way through. Once the author started taking off the layers and baring the skeleton of the story as well as the character of the characters, I became so disgusted with the characters, themselves, I didn’t want to read further. However, I did and I’m glad I did as the ending not only exposed the mystery, but shed a lot of light on the development (or deterioration) of the characters, themselves.

Very well written psycho-drama and highly recommended.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, Simon and Schuster, in exchange for an honest review.

The Winter Sister is a fantastic debut novel by Megan Collins.

When Sylvie is called home to care for her cancer-stricken mother, she is forced to re-examine the events that surrounded her sister's unsolved murder from over a decade prior. What she finds is a tangled web of relationships, small town history and secrets.

I literally read this in one evening. I couldn't put it down.
Looking forward to future novels from Ms. Collins.

I received an advanced reader copy via Net Galley.

A death sixteen years ago traumatized both Sylvie and her mother Annie. Annie becomes an alcoholic and Sylvie is never the same. Cared for by an aunt, Sylvie is resentful of the lack of caring and indifference on the part of her mother. Persephone was a loved sister and her death especially since the murder was never solved left a huge hole in their existence.

Returning to the dismal family home Sylvie is determined to try to open this cold case, despite one of the original detectives long retired and the suspects being related to the most prominent man in this tiny town with a reputation for being determined to get his own way.

The story unravels fairly slowly, at times a bit too slow. You realize where this is going but that does not detract from the telling of the story. It is the characterization of Annie the mother that gripped me. That a woman could be so blind to anything else than her passionate love for a scoundrel amazed e. Everything else fell by the wayside. That she realized that her idol had feet of clay at the end, was neither here or there. That her surviving daughter could move on showed the character of Sylvie.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Touchstone Atria Books.