The Winter Sister is a page-turner centered on Sylvie, whose sister was brutally murdered 16 years ago, and has barely talked to her broken and neglectful mother since then. When her mother is diagnosed with cancer and has no one to care for her, Sylvie finds herself home again, confronting memories and people from the past she has been trying to forget. Sylvie can't shake the feeling that keeping a terrible secret cost the life of her sister, but what if other people in this town are keeping secrets as well?

The characters were well developed and the story flows. There’s a twist that I was able to figure almost to the end. Upper level YA’s will enjoy this novel.

I was so fortune and also shocked to be gifted a copy of The Winter Sister by Megan Collins. Thank you net galley touchstone books.
Sylvie’s sister, Persephone (a Greek mythological name that I stumbled over throughout the entire book), is murdered and left to be discovered under a deep pile of snow, 3 days later.
Fast forward sixteen years later, where the case is still open and so many questions are left unanswered. Every character has played a part in Persephone’s death.
*the boyfriend who left her on the side of the road.
*the neighbor who was stalking her.
*her own sister (Sylvie)who intentionally locked their bedroom window, so she couldn’t sneak back in the house.
*their alcoholic mother, who is barely present or much of a mother to either of them.

About midway through, I was fairly confident knowing the real killer. There were so many questions, details, answers waiting to be found, it kept me guessing and reading page after page. This is a book that is centered on the emotion and connection you feel for each character, rather than the crime.
A definite recommendation!
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

3.5 Stars


The Winter Sister is a captivating thriller that captures a families worst nightmare. Persophone is dead. After a night out with, Ben, a forbidden boyfriend, Persophone never comes home. Her mother and younger sister, Sylvie panic immediately as they search for her but soon her case goes cold. Now sixteen years later, Sylvie returns home to care of her ailing mother and begins to dig deep into her sister's murder. Soon secrets and lies come to light, some which you never see coming.

Mystery type books are always a hit or miss with me. The plots are usually all the same and the twists and turns are mostly predictable. While I did see some of The Winter Sisters plotlines coming there were, in fact, a few that genuinely surprised me. And for that, I appreciated it more.

The characters were somewhat frustrating at times. The decisions some of them make upsetting but I think it made it more intense that way. If that makes sense? I think Sylvie and Persephone were alright characters but definitely didn’t connect with them the way I should have.

Overall, not a bad book. This debut novel definitely made me want to read more Megan Collins. I look forward to seeing what she writes next. If you like a good murder story followed with some crazy twists than you should definitely give this one a go!

A beautifully told story packed with secrets, grief, and guilt!

Megan Collins has crafted an entertaining tale with an effortless flow. Another exquisite debut, this year seems to be oozing with amazing debuts!

Sylvie has come back home after being gone for many years to take care of her estranged mother who is suffering from cancer. Over a decade ago Sylvie’s older sister Persephone went missing only to be found a few days later dead in a pile of snow. The killer is never found, Sylvie is buried in grief, and her mother Annie retreats into a world of darkness. Now Sylvie is back home forced to face her past, her guilt, her secrets, and the man she is convinced killed her sister. What happened all those years ago? Will the truth set Sylvie free? Will it bring her mother out of the darkness? So many secrets so long buried what will happen when they all come to light? Well you will need to read this book to find all this out!

You may have read this trope before, however I thought it was extremely well executed in this story. Sylvie is an incredibly likable and engaging character someone you could see yourself as friends with. The twists and reveals were cleverly done with the perfect amount of clues sprinkled throughout the story. The ending was unquestionably fraught with tension. I was absolutely glued to those pages, needing to know what the story behind everything was, and I truly was almost more interested in Sylvie’ss mom’s backstory then the murder. There was also a nice dose of romance in this book a little unexpected and a little unsettling. Cannot wait to see what Megan Collins has in store for us next, absolutely recommend!

🎧🎧🎧 Rebecca Ross narrates this book bringing the perfect voice to Sylvie. Rebecca Ross is such an amazing narrator she really breathes life into the books she narrates. If you have not listen to a book narrated by her this is a good place to start! Just saying!

🎵🎵🎵Song Running Through My Head

Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone at home?
Come on, now
I hear you're feeling down
Well I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again
Relax
I'll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?
There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
You are the only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain you would not understand
This is not how I am
I have become comfortably numb
I have become comfortably numb
Okay
Just a little pinprick
There'll be no more
But you may feel a little sick
Can you stand up?
I do…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hECRtLZ3Zdw

*** many thanks to Atria and Simon and Schuster Audio for my copy of this book ***

4 STARS for this engaging suspense novel. It's about a family with a lot of secrets and hidden pain. The primary character is Sylvie. Early on we find she needs to return to the home where she grew up to care for her ill and cancer ridden mother, Annie. We learn about a horrible event that haunts her. Sixteen years ago her sister, Persephone was murdered. Sylvie was just a kid. Persephone would sneak out to see her boyfriend through their bedroom window. But, one night, she couldn't get back in and she was discovered dead soon after, when someone saw her red coat in the snow.

Sylvie is certain it was Persephone's boyfriend and is determined to find out the truth, at whatever cost. Annie is mysterious and full of darkness and you kinda wanna hate her for being such a crap mother. More shall be revealed. Who is innocent? Better yet..who is guilty? Grab this for yourself to find out. I found it an entertaining winter read. I enjoyed the discussion as a buddy read in the The Traveling Sisters Group.

Many thanks to the publisher via netgalley and Megan Collins for a digital copy to read for review. Highly recommended!

Thank you to Netgalley, the Publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

This is the first book I have read by this author and while this story line is a little familiar and not that original, I think it was well written. Sylvie has to move back home to look after her mother, who is dying, but Sylvie and her mother have been estranged for many years, since her sister was brutally murdered and Sylvie's mother started drinking. Begrudgingly Sylvie goes and the longer she is there, the more she needs to know what happened to her sister. Sylvie holds a lot of guilt from that night and she feels that Sylvie's secret boyfriend killed her and cannot understand why he was never arrested or charged.

Sylvie is not the only person who feels guilty about that night and getting closer to the truth means unearthing secrets that she may not have wanted to know. The characters were well written and it was a satisfying ending to a good story. I will definitely check out more books by this author.

I think that if I haven’t read An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks earlier this year, I would have liked this book so much more... Because in the two books, a sister dies because the other sister locked her out of the house a night that she sneaked out. Even if this moment is really more important in Megan Collins’ book, it felt old, you know? But I liked the twists at the end of the book. I admit that I didn’t see who the killer was, at all.

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Although the story didn't ring as completely new to me, I was impressed with Collins' writing and the characterization. Rather than a saccharine relationship between the sick mother and the haunted daughter, it was refreshing to read complex characters handling complicated situations in a way that felt authentic.

Sylvie has been living with the guilt over the death of her older sister Persephone for almost 20 years. She may not have been the one who killed her sister, but she feels that her actions on the night of Persephone's death, as well as the actions she took (or didn't take) many nights prior, played a large role in what happened. She is also frustrated at the fact that the police have never been able to arrest anyone for the murder, despite Sylvie's conviction that Persephone's boyfriend was to blame.

All these years later, Sylvie has returned home to take care of her mother, who became closed off and turned to alcohol after the death of Persephone. While home, Sylvie reopens the mystery surrounding her sister's death. Was her boyfriend to blame? Or has Sylvie had it wrong all this time?

I enjoyed this book and read through it quickly in an effort to get to the bottom of the mystery. While I enjoyed the story overall, I guessed some of the details early on. Some aspects of the ending also felt fairly unbelievable to me; however, I had fun learning about the different characters and the family dynamics as I read along. Definitely a quick and entertaining read.

Plot twist and turns , love and betrayal, the past present and future all come in to play. Get ready for bumpy ride ,

This was not nearly as gripping as I had hoped. Sylvie's older sister Persephone doesn't come home one night and is found strangled by the side of the road 3 days later. Sylvie beats herself up for her role (locking the window so Persephone couldn't get in after sneaking out) for 16 years. When she returns home as a 30 year old the case is cold. And if this review had spoilers, I could sum up the rest of the book in 2 paragraphs. Sylvie is very stuck in her 14 year old thoughts and beliefs and actions. Understandable, but it made me feel like I was reading about a whiny teenager instead of an adult woman. Eye roll.

Thank you to Atria and Touchstone Books for both inviting me to read this book, and Atria for gifting me an E-ARC. All opinions are my own.

I rate this book a 4 out of 5 Stars.

“When they found my sister’s body, the flyers we’d hung around town were still crisp against the telephone poles

Probably one of the most epic first lines in a book that I have ever read. No joke, I was addicted to this story, from that one line. I just knew that I was in for one stupendous ride. For me, the momentum of that first line didn’t fade, it kept pace the entire book, there was not one lagging moment.

I love the baroque prose, the intricately woven history of Sylvie, Persephone, and Annie. I ached with Sylvie regarding the loss of her sister, and the guilt that she had felt regarding the part she played the night her sister went missing. I devoured everything related to Persephone, I wanted to know what caused her to be so angry, what secrets she was hiding, who murdered her, and a plethora of other things.

Megan Collins writes this book in a way, that points a finger to one person, but I knew better than to believe that. What made this book so devourable, was the game, the whodunnit and my complete distaste for Annie. Although, I kind of had it figured out halfway through the book, I still loved every twist and turn. There are more characters in this book, than the ones listed in the synopsis. Some I really enjoyed (Jill) and some, I think added extra depth to the mystery.

If you guys haven’t read this one, I highly suggest it.

I was sent a link to view this one through NetGalley, and the blurb was intriguing enough that I wanted to read it.

This book was a slow start for me. Persephone went missing and was found murdered when she was 17. Sylvie, 14 at the time, has shouldered some guilt for choices she made at the time. Even worse, the killer was never found. In present day, Sylvie gets laid off from her dead end job and goes home to take care of her mother, who is receiving treatment for cancer. Sylvie gets sucked back in to Persephone’s case, digging into the past and trying to figure out what happened once and for all.

I’m not sure what it was about this book that made it feel slow, but it took me a while to get invested in the characters and the storyline. Sylvie’s a bit of a mess, and her relationship with her mother is a bit prickly. In fact, there was really no point in the book in which I felt any warmth toward Sylvie’s mother, which is only exacerbated by the end of the novel and the climactic reveal.

I did love the ending and how it ties up Persephone’s murder. There were so many secrets and so many things that no one knew, and really it all just felt pretty sad to me. I also didn’t feel much resolution for Sylvie, which I honestly would have liked.

I did enjoy this book and still would recommend it. Just be prepared for some fairly unlikeable characters.

More of a mystery than a thriller, this book was not quite what I expected. The tension in the mother-daughter relationship was really the highlight of the story for me. I had a love-hate relationship with the characters but the plot had me compulsively turning pages. The book was well written and I enjoyed it.

One of the best debut novels I've read in years. One detail though: the last tense of slink is slunk, not slinked. That set my teeth on edge every time I saw it. Still, the characters were well rounded and the plot kept me guessing right up to the final chapter. An author to watch.

ARC via netgalley.

This book had me from the beginning. A really enjoyable mystery/thriller that I couldn't put down because I wanted to figure out the ending. This is a debut author and I can only imagine how good her next book will be. If you like mysteries and going home to solve things from your past, you will love this one!

I got this one a while ago via Net Galley (thank you!) and I started it right away and could not put it down! It was a suspenseful read and not easy to figure out. I really liked Sylvie’s character and I had my fingers crossed for a happy (or at least uplifting) ending with a sense of resolution and forgiveness. I was not disappointed! I read it in two evenings because I wanted the resolution.

After taking a bit of a break from the adult thriller genre, I figured I would jump back into it with this book. While it didn't necessarily live up to all of my expectations, it was a unique and interesting story that I enjoyed!

Thanks so much to Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me an eARC of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.

This story follows Sylvie - at first in two timelines, but mainly in the present. When Sylvie was fourteen, her older sister Persephone snuck out to see her boyfriend. Much to Sylvie's dismay, this had become a regular occurrence after their mother forbid them from dating. However, that night, Persephone didn't come back. Three days later, her body is found in the snow, strangled to death. Desperate to protect her sister Sylvie tries to convince the detectives to look into her sister's boyfriend, Ben, who just happens to be the son of the town's mayor. Now, sixteen years later, Sylvie has to return home to take care of her cancer-stricken mother - and confront her sister's cold case murder investigation.

I really liked how Collins told this story. So often with this sort of set up, the childhood trauma and then present, adulthood life, the story alternates chapters between the two, which can be distracting. Collins does a great job of keeping the story flowing in a way that gives all those details but doesn't toss around the timeline.

Obviously, this is a traumatic and terrible story with the unsolved murder of Persephone but I just wasn't really able to connect with a lot of the characters of the book. I couldn't bring myself to really feel much sympathy for Sylvie and Persephone's mother, she really showed her true colours, especially at the end. Sylvie herself was an alright character to me and I didn't love the romantic relationship that develops for her... it just really weirded me out.

I'm not sure if it was a stylistic choice or not but half the time I was reading this, it didn't feel like I was reading a psychological thriller. I would say it is definitely a slow burn. Don't get me wrong, things are happening but they are more peripheral. I think because there wasn't an on-going investigation, the fact that it was sixteen years after her death, that things felt more relaxed. Things obviously picked up in the end as the story started to unravel but until that point, it almost felt like a contemporary with darker issues.

Overall, I wouldn't say this was my favourite book but I did enjoy it and I know others will to if this is their sort of thriller.

A pretty good debut mystery/thriller. I admit I am a sucker for books that involve people returning to their hometowns to face their demons. This one also involves the death of a teenage girl and an ailing mother so I really hit the jackpot! It was well paced, lots of detail and while I was a little skeptical due to their fanciful names (Persephone? Really?) but the book did not veer into the silly. I think it would be a great vacation read.