I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘We Were Sisters’ by Wendy Clarke in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Kelly takes her twin daughters Isabella and Sophie to school for their first day leaving baby Noah outside in his pushchair. When she returns she finds the pushchair has been moved and wrapped up with Noah is a locket with the word ‘sister’ scratched on the back. Kelly knows that her foster-sister Freya was wearing the locket when she died fifteen years ago so how can it be in Noah’s pushchair?

This is the story of Kelly who realises quite early in her childhood that her parents don’t love her and only have affection for the numerous children they’ve fostered over the years. Freya joins the family at the age of ten and Kelly is two years younger, she wants them to be proper sisters but when she tells lies about Freya she’ll blame herself throughout her adulthood for what happened.

‘We Were Sisters’ tells of Kelly ‘then’ and ‘now’ and although it has good parts I found it a bit slow and it wasn’t until further into the story that it became interesting. I didn’t find it heart-pounding or suspenseful, just rather predictable, and although I thought it might become more exciting towards the end it didn’t happen which is a pity as it showed promise and could have been so much better.

Tricky one for me. It had great potential, but I just found it a bit slow and hard to get into. It seemed to take ages to get going, the characters were a bit flat, the plot was a bit blah, just all not quite hitting the mark.

I've read a lot of these sort of novels, so maybe that affected my enjoyment? I just didn't find anything that unsettling or shocking, and the ending just sort of happened. There was no build up, no real tension, it just sort of fizzled out.

A bit predictable, and lacking the style and edginess of better novels in this category.

I absolutely loved What She Saw by Wendy Clarke so I was excited to read another book by her. We Were Sisters had a great story but it fell flat for me. It was slow and drawn out and the secrets were not shocking or surprising to me. The main characters were all a bit meh for me, I was hoping for more and for them to develop into people that I could connect with. Unfortunately it did not happen. I did enjoy the story but it could have been better.

Kelly has a perfect life or so it seems. Married to Mitch and the mother of twin girls and baby boy it appears she has it all. But on the day that her twins start big school things start to get weird. Things from her past start appearing and memories of her not so pleasant childhood come back to haunt her. With alternate chapters between the present and the past we learn about Kelly and her foster sister Freya. The ending was a bit disappointing for me, not as intense or shocking as expected.

Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

This book was excellent! Totally kept my attention and I wanted to find out what would become of the main characters. Highly reccomended.

This book revolves around Kelly Thirsk and her dead-sister, Freya.
Kelly is married to Mitch, has twin girls (Sophie and Isabella) and a son, Noah.
She also has OCD – a weird obsession with counting till 20.

From the day the twins start school, things start going awry in Kelly’s life. Noah goes missing for a while, but is later found with Freya’s locket in his pram. How can the locket have gotten there? Freya was wearing it the day she died.
Following this, even more strange things keep happening. Freya’s star sign, Gemini, keeps coming back to haunt her – in the form of newspapers, magazines (which she didn’t order), and frostings on her window. It’s like Freya wants to give her a message – or is she seeking revenge?
What does Kelly’s past hold? What is she guilty of?

Kelly’s relationship with her parents is blotched. She never received the love she wanted and craved from them. Her parents, especially her mother, were foster carers – so Kelly was used to new children, walking in and out of her life. Freya was one of them – but with her, she connected on a different level. Because, she harbours Freya’s deepest darkest secret.
How did Freya die? What was the reason for Kelly to have severed all ties with her family?

Told alternatively, between the then and the now, this book held promise with the plot.
However, the plot went off in many unbelievable tangents and Kelly’s choices and actions were quite questionable. I didn’t relate to her neurotic behavior.
And the ending fell very flat for me – it just seemed ridiculous that any person could go to such a bizarre extent, when things could be done in a much more simpler way.

2.5/5 for me, rounded upto 3.

A bit long. Found myself thinking about what I was going to read next. Pushed through but very predictable. Wendy's writing was very good but it just didn't have the psychological thriller edge to it. Thank you Netgalley for the eArc.

I hard but a great read for all of us mothers out there that love a good suspenseful thriller. This story tugs at the reader's heartstrings, because how would you feel if someone you loved were dead, but something told you otherwise?

Fabulous read
Brings dysfunctional to a new level.
Kept me turning pages so much so i stayed up amd read in it one sitting. I tried to go to bed but it was calling me....

I was sent an eArc of this book by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

Overall this book is a quick read & I did like it however its definitely not a favorite.

The characters seem one dimensional & in my opinion unlikeable. There was no character development at all. I would o have liked to have seen the characters grow as the story went on but they didn't. Parts of their past do come up from time to time but it feels forced.

The plot is somewhat unclear & it didn't go anywhere until about the last 30 pages. I had high hopes for this book & the plot but I was let down.

I recommend this book if you are looking for a quick thriller to read.

This is a very good psychological thriller looking at the past and present between two sisters. The characters in the book were easy to understand. There was so many twists and turns right to the last page.
I did feel as though I knew what was going to happen from the book and this is why I didn’t give it a 5*.
At the last part of the book when Kelly receives the information about her childhood about her mother, I wanted more. I would have liked to have read what Kelly said to her mother, so I was disappointed there.
However it was a good read and thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you for the advanced copy.

We Were Sisters is a psychological thriller I enjoyed reading over the weekend. The main character is Kelly. She and he’s husband Mitch have twin daughters and she’s recently given birth to a son. Parking her son’s pram up outside the classroom as she drops the twins off for their first day at school, she returns to find the pram missing. He’s quickly found outside a different classroom but as she comforts him she finds a locket tucked in with him. It belonged to her sister and hasn’t been seen since she died.

Kelly’s feels her life begin to unravel. Is her sister back from the dead? Is she losing her mind?

I really enjoyed this book though half of me was rooting for Kelly and the other half just wanted her to get a grip. It’s fairly fast paced and easy to get drawn into. I would rate this book 3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the chance to review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

WOW! Based on the book description, I honestly thought this book was going to be a more straightforward thriller. But this is DEFINITELY a psychological thriller. And quite a good one at that.

Kelly grew up in a home that had a revolving door for foster children. Her mother always seemed to be searching for the perfect child. When Kelly was 8, Freya came to live with them. And for a while, Freya seemed like the perfect sister. And then she was taken away. Six years later, Freya returns. And things go horribly wrong.

Now Kelly is a grown up, with twin girls and a baby boy. The first day she drops the twins off to school, strange things start happening. Kelly seems to be losing her mind. And her life starts to fall apart.

This book alternates chapters between current day, and the past when Freya lived with Kelly's family. They are short chapters, and the dread builds in both timelines. It's difficult to put the book down - you want to know what's going to happen/happened in the past.

The twists continue until almost the final page.

Atmospheric, creepy, edge of your seat. Love and hate characters and a gripping read. Enjoyable and great storyline

Excellent read. Hard to put the book down. Right from the start you were sucked in and new this was going to be a good one. The storyline was wicked. Not quite knowing where it was going next. There was lots of twists and turns in the road.

All of her life Kelly just wanted to feel loved by her parents. Failing that love from a foster brother or sister her parents would take in, shower with love and attention and then as quickly as the children came they left. Her parents if they bothered to tell her anything would just say “it wasn’t working”.
Until Freya comes. Could she be the sister Kelly’s always longed for? The girls bond very well but something is off about Freya, and after revealing a troublesome secret Kelly feels fear and mistrust towards Freya but promised never to reveal the secret. And she doesn’t. But something happens one night where Kelly does tell a secret about Freya but it’s lie. And that lie tears everyone apart.
Now an adult with children of her own Kelly has cut all ties with her family and hasn’t seen Freya since that fateful night. Strange things are happening in Kelly’s world. Like her young sons pray being moved with him in it. Panic stricken her son is soon found but something odd is found in the pram. A heart shaped locket just like the one Kelly wears with the word “sisters” scratched on it. Kelly knows she’s tired with 3 small children but she also knows she’s not imagining the things that are happening in her home. Why won’t anyone believe her? Could Freya be back? It certainly appears that way but Freya died that night so many years ago.

A thriller that will keep you guessing and keep you turning the pages until the end.

Our protagonist is Kelly. She is married to Mitch and they have three children; the twins Isabella and Sophie and newborn boy Noah. Just your regular family living in Brighton you’d say. But you never know what goes on in someone’s mind...

We meet Kelly for the first time when she brings the twins to their first day of school. It’s immediately clear that Kelly suffers from OCD, she’s counting steps between lamp posts.
The twins' first day of school is worrying her. Yet she tries to hide her worries and her OCD from her family. But is it just the first day of school that triggers her anxiety?

Our first clue something more might be going on is when she’s walking back to Noah’s pushchair and she realises it has been moved. At least that’s what Kelly thinks. All the classrooms look the same, so maybe she just made a mistake. Yet, there’s a locket in Noah’s pushchair. Very similar to the one she owns, and very similar to the one her sister Freya used to wear.. but Freya died years ago!

Wendy Clarke alternates the story telling between Kelly “now” and Kelly when she was a child. Slowly but surely the reader discovers Kelly's troubled past, as well as the effect it has on her adult life. The other way around we learn that the small -albeit scary- things that happen to adult Kelly, like the moved pushchair that could be a simple mistake, or an open door, might not be so simple and innocent after all.

Has a secret from her past come back to haunt her? And what has her sister Freya, who died when Kelly was a child, have to do with all this? Or doesn’t she have to do anything with all of this and is it really all in Kelly’s head?

I felt really sad for adult Kelly that the people in her life make her feel like she’s crazy. That the things she is experiencing are immediately categorised as nothing or that they must be caused by “baby brain” because taking care of Noah is leaving her physically and emotionally drained. Not once do any of these people, least of all her husband, stop to ask themselves what is going on. I can’t understand why Mitch would just dismisses Kelly’s claims of someone having been in the house. I’d like to think a caring, loving father and husband would at least check the house or change locks or something. His lack of empathy got under my skin a bit and his behaviour annoys me to an extend.

Which is all good! I love it when a book evokes emotion towards characters, whether it’s joy, laughter, anger or annoyance. When an author can make you feel things you know they have really good writing skills!

This book kept me on the edge of my seat, literally! At one point, I was so engrossed in the story, I literally sat on the edge of the settee! And just as you think you have it all figured out, PLOT TWIST! This book left me guessing to the last minute.

Compulsive reading, this is an addictive suspenseful psychological thriller like no other.

The plot is unpredictable with lots of twists and turns along with solid engaging characters.
There is also a sense of dread as the story deals with the deep and dark corners of the human psych.

I very much enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone!

We were sisters is a real page turner! The main character Kelly is a troubled mum who comes from a difficult childhood. I love the twists and turns in this book, every time you think you have the answers it just gets more complex! This book deals with some difficult issues such as fostering and mental health/childhood trauma. The characters are well rounded and I was gripped right to the end. This book will keep you thinking even after you have finished it and really shows the complexity of human relationships. Great book!

This was a slow starting but once it got going it was a race to the finish.

The characters in this book were not likeable, they were all pretty terrible people. But this twisty turny journey was amazing. I though I had the answer multiple times only to be wrong.

It seems pretty unbelievable that there were no conveniences to the actions that took place in the book. But it was good if your willing to look past that.

The author is a fantastic writer, very descriptive and had a great pace.

I was given this book in exchange for my honest option.

A complete must read for all suspense and psychological thriller fans.
This book tells the story of a mother battling with the stress of having young kids and a new baby while running from a past that she can never get far enough from.

From the first page this book grabbed my attention, this is the first novel from Wendy Clarke I had read but it certainly won't be my last.
The pace of writing throughout the book is exactly on point with twists and turns to keep you interested from start to finish.
Just when you think you have it all figured out your wrong your so so wrong.
If I was to give one small criticism it would be that I would have liked some more details from the point of view of the other sister (I don't want to give spoilers so that's all I will say)
I would highly recommend this book a very high 4 out of 5