Despite promises of being "spellbinding and suspenseful", I found Megan Collins' The Winter Sister to be wholly average. There's a lack of a strong or unique voice here, which would've helped the book tremendously, and the protagonist is mostly uninteresting-- not because she is adrift, but because the writing doesn't deepen her character or even fully encompass it. Annie, her detached mother, offers a wealth of potential depth, but this opportunity is missed. Nothing is strikingly 'bad', but neither is there anything here that will stick with you past the final page. The romance that sort-of blossoms is expected, and the "twist" is given away far too early. That being said, there were a few moments where the otherwise-plain story would open up to reveal a beautiful turn of phrase, worthy of highlighting. Because of this, I think Collins shows promise in her debut, and I would be interested in following her career, to see how her writing evolves, and what sort of voice she adopts as she continues.

I really enjoyed the mystery/suspense aspect of this novel. Although I suspected the culprit from relatively early on, there were plenty of red herrings that made me doubt myself along the way. There were also smaller mysteries, such as the bruises and the Mom's dark days, that I didn't know the explanation behind until it was revealed. It's the kind of character-driven suspense that I most enjoy reading.

While I also enjoyed the complexity of the relationship between Sylvie and Persephone, Sylvie was not my favorite character. I found her somewhat immature and felt like she made a lot of poor decisions and did not appreciate the good relationships she did have. I also really did not like the mother. Though she and Sylvie both show some growth by the end of the story, not as much as I'd hoped.

I'm sorry, I tried on this one and even went back to it a couple of times but I can't make it past about 25%. It's too slow to keep my interest.

This was a great book that really did keep you guessing until the very end. I loved the complexity of the characters.
Great for a cozy afternoon read.

A great debut that I really enjoyed! Well written and suspenseful, I will be looking for all future books from this author!

Fast, enjoyable read that I recommend! 4 stars!

Thank you to Atria Books and Net Galley for allowing me the opportunity to read this great debut!

I really enjoyed this book. The author kept me guessing and I couldn’t figure out the killer. The writing was very eloquent and I enjoyed the mythology elements. Very well written and well done. 4 stars.

I loved this book! I thought it was well written, small town scandal, love, loss and secrets! I can't wait to read more from this author!

This is by first book by Megan Collins that I have read. I really enjoyed the story line as well as the characters. This book tackles a lot of issues regarding abuse and love, forgiveness and most of all guilt. We get to know the two main characters Sylvie and Ben really good especially as Sylvie explores her sister's murder. Megan Collins does a good job of keeping us hooked until the end where the killer is revealed. I would recommend this book to readers of mystery novels.

Sylvie had always wondered who killed her sister as sixteen years ago when Sylvie was younger. Her sister Persephone left with her boyfriend and never returned home. Later her body was found. The police despite the family's pushings could never find any leads, and her case went on unsolved. That was until sixteen years later, Sylvie returns home as her mother is dying and her aunt is busy with her new grandchild. Being back home with her mother stirs up old memories of her sister Persephone. When Sylvie runs into Ben - her sister's boyfriend at the time of her disappearance and the last supposedly to see her alive. It sparks up Sylvie's passion for finally finding out the truth about what happened to Persephone that night. By doing so, Sylvie will also unravel the facts about Persephone's father and the reason why on the 15th of every month growing up her mother would lock herself in her bedroom and have what the girls called her "dark days." I did like the twists that The Winter Sister took and I have to admit I did not see that ending coming when it was revealed who the killer was. I quite enjoyed this book as I love the past/present stories where unsolved murder cases get solved years later.

This was a pleasant surprise in the way it grabbed me from the beginning! I read A LOT, and unfortunately, many books lately haven't been grabbing my attention, or I feel my interest waning a lot of times before I finish.

Sylvie admires her sister Persephone and has a modest, but fun childhood, thinking life is pretty good. Sylvie thinks her mother hung the moon, but Persephone has nothing but a list of complaints about their mom. Sylvie doesn't understand why Persephone feels this way and just chalks it up to Persephone's attitude.

Then, one day, Persephone disappears and her boyfriend, Ben is the prime suspect. I won't go into a whole lot, to avoid spoilers, but the book then skips to when Persephone is an adult and how she copes, or doesn't with what happened to her sister. And, to make matters worse, has to deal with the fallout surrounding her mother's trouble in coming to terms with what happened so many years before.

The book is really about what happens when secrets are kept when they shouldn't be and the havoc they can cause on lives for even years to follow. This book releases in February 2019 and I highly recommend it. I noticed this was the authors first book and I look forward to her next story.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this. I really enjoyed it.

Sixteen years ago, Sylvie’s sister Persephone never came home. 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. Annie’s once-close bond with Sylvie dissolved in the weeks after their loss, making for an uncomfortable reunion all these years later. Persephone’s former boyfriend, Ben, is now a nurse at the cancer center where Annie is being treated.

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.

The Winter Springs is a heavily drama filled whodunnit book that will keep you on the edge of your seat! The whole time I was reading this story I thought I had it figured out, but this is not your average thriller.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC of The Winter Sister by Megan Collins
Pub Date 05 Feb 2019

The Winter Sister is a lovely debut by Megan Collins. I really enjoyed reading it. I thought the characters were interesting, even if some could have been developed a little more. There were some nice plot twists that kept me wondering. I guess I was a little disappointed by the resolution but not much. In general I liked the book and I look forward to this author’s next book.
3.5 stars

2.5 "pushing it" stars. 16 years after her sister Persephone turns up dead, Sylvie returns home to care for her gravely ill mother. Classified as an unsolved and open investigation, the police still have very few suspects but Sylvie is determined to set out with her inquiries but as she peels back each layer, she begins to uncover a tragic and terrible truth. I found this story to be extremely boring and disappointing.

**I received an ARC Kindle edition of the book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

Sylvie returns to her hometown 16 years after her sister Persephone was found murdered on the side of the road. The murder was never solved, but Sylvie's number one suspect was Ben, Persephone's boyfriend. Now that Sylvie is back in town to take care of her mother she keeps running into Ben and decides to delve deeper into the mystery surrounding Persephone's death. Her mother shuts down and won't discuss the circumstances surrounding the unsolved murder. All Sylvie knows is that Ben and Persephone were forbidden to see each other, yet they snuck out every night to meet and one night Persephone never came home. Sylvie feels partly responsible for one part of that night and the guilt has followed her around for years. She needs to make it right by finding out the truth and bring the killer to justice.

This book took off right from the start for me. It slowed down a little towards the end and the conclusion didn't really surprise me. I think it was supposed to be a twist but it wasn't that hard to figure out. I liked the writing style and felt connected to most of the characters. I would recommend it and read more from the author.

An exciting debut thriller that kept me glued to the pages until I finished it in one day.
The plot is pacey, suspenseful, and tragic with lots of twists and turns.
Looking forward to read more by Megan Collins.
Thank you Megan, the publisher, and #Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. This book was so hard to put down I couldn’t stop reading it even though it was so sad and heavy. It was full of a lot of flawed characters but they seemed real enough to come right off of the page. Even though they made horrible choices and they did awful things I was still fascinated to see what happened to them. This book really explored grief and the stages it goes through, obsessive unhealthy love and the harm it can do and the regret that can happen from making wrong choices in life. Heavy themes but written in a beautiful way that made you invested in every word. This book broke my heart in all the write ways for a really great reading experience.

What an amazing read! I loved this book!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you netgalley for an exchange of this title for my honest opinion

Ever since her sister Persephone's murder, Sylvie has lofted beneath a shroud of guilt. If she hadn't locked her sister out of their room that night, Persephone would still be alive. This is the premise of Collins' great new novel THE WINTER SISTER. At the age of 30, Sylvie is forced to leave her comfortable, if stunted, life to return home to take of her mother. The same mother who completely shut her out and dove headfirst into the bottle after Persephone was killed. But upon her return, Sylvie decides to do more than just care for her mother - Persephone's killer was never brought to justice and Sylvie wants the case reopened and the killer prosecuted. But of course, there are many dark secrets that teenaged Sylvie was never aware of that are almost more than even grown-up Sylvie will be able to bear. While murdered of disappearing sisters are currently a popular trope in the mystery arena, Collins' story is particularly well-written and highly enjoyable. I look forward to her next book.

The Winter Girl is a Thoroughly Entertaining Debut Novel.
Sylvie worships her mercurial older sister Persephone. She covers for her each time she sneaks out to see her boyfriend Ben by leaving their bedroom window open a crack so she can climb back in.
Until the night that she decides to leave their window closed and locked.
Sylvie watches her sister run back to Ben’s truck and that is the last time she sees her alive. Their mother begins a rapid descent after Persephone is gone, drinking heavily and shutting herself away in her bedroom, hiding secrets of her own.
Sylvie ends up living with her mother’s sister who has taken over her car as well as her mother’s. Sylvie always assumed it was Ben who killed her sister, leaving her body to be covered with snow, obscuring vital evidence. Sixteen years later and the case has long gone cold. Sylvie is now working unhappily as a tattoo artist and floundering. When her aunt beckons her home to care for her now terminally ill mother, Sylvie moves back into a world of questions.
What happened to Persephone? Who killed her?
After Sylvie unexpectedly runs into Ben, now a nurse working in the hospital where her mother is receiving chemo, she begins to doubt, for the first time, that he is her sister’s killer. Sylvie begins again, this time more doggedly, searching to solve the case.
Full of long buried family secrets waiting to be uncovered, The Winter Girl is a thoroughly entertaining debut novel.
BRB Rating: Read It.

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4 for the imaginative drama and enjoyable prose
⭐⭐⭐⭐

While this book features an all too familiar plot, it does offer something that I wasn't expecting but very much enjoyed and that is a fascinating and novel family dynamic. I would definitely categorize this one under family drama with a generous sprinkling of the thriller/mystery genre.

I enjoyed the narrator, Sylvie, who has been suffering for 20 years with the guilt she carries over her sister's unsolved murder. She blames herself for the death due to her inactions leading up to that tragic night. Unlike a lot of characters of similar plots, Sylvie's feelings of guilt are completely founded leaving her in a crippling state of remorse.

Although she reads younger than her 34 years, especially considering the hardships she has endured, Sylvie is without a doubt a likeable character that tugged at my heartstrings throughout.

Silvie's mother, Annie, is portrayed in a nonsensical manner, her actions and motives absurd and totally unbelievable.

I figured out the plot twists, the murderer and the motive shortly before the halfway mark, which always sucks. The motive for the murder is a bit ridiculous and baseless.

Overall this is a fast, light and enjoyable debut, despite it's shortcomings. I'm definitely not deterred from reading more offerings from this author. I feel confident the best is yet to come.


I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.