Uncommon Relations is a rather unique story about twins who were brought up by different families and led very different lifestyles. Rosalind Minett puts a very convincing plot together that grips the reader's attention, their meeting will unravel events that will deeply affect their lives and that of all those around them. Intriguing!

I don't usually read thrillers or suspense, but this one caught and held my attention. Finding a clone of yourself (especially a BETTER clone of yourself) is everyone's worst nightmare, and this book takes you on a rollercoaster when Terry meets a better version of himself.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The cover is okay! The yellow is definitely eye-catching. But the multiple text colors wasn't my favorite.

This was my first book by the author, so I wasn't too sure of what to expect.
Their writing style is great.
The storyline flowed easily and was easy to follow.
The plot idea was fairly unique. I personally haven't read anything like it.
The characters were well-developed and easy to relate to in some ways.

I'll definitely be looking out for other work by this author.

The story starts with a prelude set a year before the main story, where a man is watching his wife and grown-up daughter (adopted from wife’s sister who had too many children already) as they coo over the adopted daughter’s new adopted baby.

Chapter One then moves to the present-day where the protagonist, 28-year-old dull and boring Terry, is going through the motions of his everyday humdrum life with his dull wife and dull job, when his world is jolted wide awake when he bumps into somebody who looks exactly like him. Terry can’t wait to tell his wife, Gudrun, all about what has happened but with a job in social care that soaks up all her time, she isn’t interested in listening to him.

Terry soon discovers that his lookalike is his twin, Gerry, and they were both adopted out to different parents. This sets a spiralling set of events in motion as Terry decides to trace his blood family; with little white lies scattered here and there as he tries to explain to Gudrun what is going on but can't quite get her to listen. But what really drives the story forward is the fact that Gudrun has a secret of her own that she is hiding from Terry - a much bigger one.

I'm not sure why but this was not what I was expecting at all. Uncommon Relations is a psychological mystery - not exactly a thriller. The premise sounded good but it was a bit slow moving. There were whole chunks of narrative and dialogue that didn't add much to the story and made the book drag a bit. It certainly has promise and I'd be interested in reading the next one to find out what happens to Terry and Gerry.

This sounded like it was going to be really interesting but I felt that the story could have been condensed into a reduced amount of pages. I don't think I'd read it again

Uncommon Relations: Part 1 had promise at first, but then it became dialogue heavy with little to no plot or character growth. I personally wanted a better relationship between Terry and his wife. I wanted more of Terry and Gerry together and more plot build up after the reveal at Leon's.

Uncommon Relations would be a great book for someone that likes books that have more dialogue in them and that you have to wait until the end of the book for the plot twist.

I received an ARC of this book via netgalley. This book had initial promise. I liked the concept of twins who were separated as babies and didn't even know the other's existence. However it didn't hold up to continued inspection. There were long passages where you just wanted the author to move the narrative on. The characters were as a job lot unlikeable almost unmoulded, plastic. one sided.

Terry becomes consumed by the mystery and the search but even from the outset it is evident that something is not "right" about all this. It is difficult to give a real account of what this is without giving away the plot. Some of its unraveling was predictable but there are twists that i had not seen coming. The ending is truly weird - appears to have no relationship to the rest of the book - but previews book two and is obviously a lure to the reader to go on with the series. Although this was not an awful book I am not sure that it did enough to make want to read more.

I did not connect with the main character here, or any of the characters to be honest. I did not understand the brother's complete disinterest in discovering a twin, and found the main character's actions to be deplorable at times. I had no desire to read further to find out the answers.

This book was an ok read. The premise was interesting, but the actual book drug on at parts. Sometimes while reading, I had to force myself to sit and get through the chapter.

I tried to get through this one but I really struggled with it. I had to keep trying to register what I was reading. I can't say I recommend this due to the fact that I never don't finish a novel and I couldn't finish this one.

The mystery of whether Terry will find his adopted roots and bond with his newly discovered twin brother Gerry, along with the sad drama of his unhappy marriage kept me interested in Uncommon Relations, but I have to admit there were times where I skimmed dialogue, both inner and between characters, feeling like things could have been sped along. I also did not realize this was only the first part of this tale--I am not a fan of picking up first installments of unproven authors--so it's hard to stick with an unlikable, miserable character like Terry when you suddenly realize 3/4 of the way through that he will not be going through a character development arc in this single story. Aside from Terry, the other characters in the novel didn't feel fully fleshed out--I actually wondered at one point if he was making the whole thing up, if no one else could see Gerry or Fiona at all! I am curious will what happen next, and would read another NetGalley proof of the next installment, but I'm not sure if I would run out and buy part 2.

Ignore the original review. NetGalley glitched and that review was for another title. I am still reading this one

This was an interesting read with a strong premise and some good writing but it does need a bit of a structural edit which is a shame. Good luck with it, with a tweak it will be fab x

This wore me down as it took forever to finish. The story was imaginative, good plot only by the end I found I could not care for Terry a most boring pathetic pain depressing character.The set up the end was the best part and clever only by this time I was over Terry.
An independent review from NetGalley

This was a quirky but fun read. Some of the underlying social statements are pretty spot-on. Finding your long lost “real” parents may not be what you dream it is. This is certainly the case here. The book was written in an easy and fluid style. I even downloaded the next in the series. Very cute too.
Some parts of the book are dark also though. It is a good mixture of good and bad in society. The book also deals with the idea of nature vs. nurture, an important thing to consider.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a fun and quirky read, which I do sometimes.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get in to this one. Ended up not finishing it. The writing felt stilted and the story just didn’t engage my interest.

I must admit, I'm not generally a fan of series. One and done, is more my literary style.

That being said, I would read more of the Uncommon Relations series; both quirky and engaging, this book is just waiting to be a quick summer read. Follow the twists and turns of Terry's life as he finds his long lost twin, he never knew he had, as he uncovers a pile of family secrets which hit closer and closer to home.

I can easily see the Uncommon Relations series becoming an airport/hotel store mainstay.
Order yourself a margarita and get to reading Uncommon Relations!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Uptake Publications for a copy of Uncommon Relations in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. I wanted to like this novel, I really did. The premise was good, the blurb sounded promising and other reviewers had mostly been approving. I started reading with a positive mindset,

However, I was very quickly irritated by the clunky prose. It read very much like something written by a new writer for a writers' group to critique. It was badly edited (Leon at first worked for Flashbyte, the company name subsequently being changed to Flybye a few pages later) and the figures of speech were clumsy: “‘The shopping list’s under the clock,’ she nodded towards it, her hair flapping across her eyes in sympathy with her sagging blouse.” What does that even mean?

The dialogue was unnatural, self-conscious and, in places, cringey. I wanted to persevere but to be honest I reached a little over 20% in and decided that life is just too short to read poorly executed novels. If it had piqued my interest enough to continue I might have got to the meat of the story but alas it did not.

So whilst I don't like to criticise authors unduly, I'm afraid this book is a “no” from me. Out of respect for the author I did not publish this review on my Goodreads page or anywhere else: my opinion here is purely for your use as publishers. I regret that I was not able to give it a more positive write up.

This was well written with a few minor errors, all in all though a decent story with rounded characters. I do confess to being a bit grumpy when it finished where it did, but, I guess that just means I will have to wait for part two.