An excellent thriller that deserves all the praise and buzz it's receiving. Many thanks for the opportunity to read this gem early.

🪶 BOOK / REVIEW 🪶

It has been a million years since I've read a book by the incredibly talented @vanessalillie, so when I saw the #audiobook available through @prhaudio (thank you for my #gifted copy!), I downloaded it immediately.

This book reminds me so much of @chevystevens novel #darkroads, which was brooding, atmospheric, and chilling. While this one was a bit of a slower burn than I prefer, I still found it action-packed and full of Native American history and traditions. I loved that this was so well researched - I felt like I learned so much. There is also a fun supernatural element - ghost Luna plays a significant part in this story and the reader is treated to a very unique perspective because of it.

And the twist? Ooooh, that TWIST. I absolutely loved it, and it totally came out of left field! I do not want to give any more away because I did NOT see it at all.

If you love #mystery novels that may haunt you well after the novel ends, I definitely suggest this book. I could totally see this turning into a mini-series or movie!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a fantastic mystery crime thriller full of haunting suspense that pulls you in from page one. There were so many twists and turns that I literally did not see coming and that ending was fabulous. This is a gripping story of 3 “sisters” that suffer a traumatic event at age 15, leaving one dead. Then 15 years later, one sister is literally dragged back home to uncover the mystery of a female skull left for on her dead friend’s property only to be pulled into her sister’s drama as she gone missing and she can’t help but wonder if old habits die hard and her sister dropped back into drugs. The story touches a lot on the history of indigenous people in the Oklahoma area, the Trail of Tears, and the injustice their people are still suffering. I absolutely loved every drop of words written on these pages and found it to be such a dark and unsettling but amazing read.

A thriller of a book on a subject I knew almost nothing about, the disappearance and violence about indigenous Native American women, a very important topic that has been neglected for many years but it is so important to bring to the surface to give a voice to the voiceless women who has lost theirs along with their history and stories.
Yes, this book is a thriller and not based on an actual event but it can easily be based on one, that's why, along with very good writing the book is engrossing but at the same time hard to read, it will break your heart and make you angry. But as a thriller, it will keep you glued to its pages and will shock you with a big twist at the end.

Blood Sisters is a deep dive into the psyche of an archaeologist who is haunted by a violent past. It begins fifteen years in the past. Her sister and best friend were watching TV when two masked men attacked the trailer. The girls try to protect themselves and Syd ends up shooting one of the men. This has a lasting effect on Syd as we are bound to find out in the next chapter. By the way, this makes for a terrifying beginning. I was hooked.

In the present time, life has changed. Syd is working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) that have a long and tumulus history with indigenous peoples She has a stressful relationship with her family. Her sister has been abusing drugs for a long time and Syd feels like she is always getting her out of trouble. She was deeply hurt when she had to rescue her sister on the day when she should have been celebrating her wedding. Syd also carries guilt from years ago, for not having protected the girls better. Her personal life is suffering as she is weighed down by so much pain.

Three years after she decided to break away from her family, Syd has to return home as part of an investigation. Something is strange about this case though. It seems like someone is screaming to get her attention. She is not sure who. On learning that her sister has been missing for a few days, her hurts resurface. She falls into old habits, how she used to find her sister before. But a lot has changed since she has been gone.

On top of all that, there is another eye opening situation awaiting at her hometown. The story explores the suffering of an indigenous community with impending displacement as the government tries to buy out her family home.

Through her research for her sister and the case, Syd is plunged into the underbelly of the town. The illegal activities, the town grievances are all connected to Syd’s past.

She has to grow up. She has to learn to let go of her grudges and perceptions. She has to start seeing the truth. She has to start taking the help. The writing does the plot justice.

Blood Sisters is the story of how people who have suffered so much can move forward with the help of family and friends. Openness and empathy heal old wounds. The writing was vivid and evocative. The narrative plays on the bounds between human and the ways in which we torture ourselves when we are deeply disappointed at the way life has turned out. It’s a situation of high conflict, which I read about in Amanda Ripley’s book of the same name. To see what I read there portrayed accurately, makes this book even more real. The interludes between chapters kept the story interesting and offered a glimpse into the citation of another character, someone pivotal to Syd’s life.

Overall, an uncomfortable yet satisfying read. Many thanks to Berkley Books for a review copy of the book for an honest review.

This book is a bit different than the other Vanessa Lillie books I have read. In this novel, she examines the plight of Native Americans and how they have been pushed off their land and the drug and alcohol addictions they face. Additionally, she adds in murder!
Years earlier, Syd, Emma Lou, and Luna became blood sisters. But one night, the devil came and tried to kill them. Fighting back, only sisters Syd and Emma Lou made it out. Syd left OK and moved, becoming an archaeologist, examining graves of missing women. Now, she is called back to OK, where a skeleton has been discovered with her badge in the skeleton's mouth. When she returns, she finds that Emma Lou is missing. Syd believes the worst, that Emma Lou is using again. But people say it isn't true. Syd finds herself at odds with the Daweson family, the people she believes is keeping her sister captive.
The truth will turn the story on its head.
Heartbreaking and sad look at people struggling to get by.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Berkley, and Vanessa Lillie for the advanced reading copy.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. Sydney Walker was such a complex yet relatable and loveable character. I’m honestly having a hard time putting into words how much I enjoyed this book and why. Vanessa brings SO much into this book.. sisterhood, injustice, a mysterious skull and so much more. But what really stood out is her commentary on the injustices Native Americans all while teaching us within the pages of this book and I truly did learn a lot (despite it being a thriller)! The authors note is also worth a read. Vanessa’s passion and dedication to not only the characters, location, and plot was completely unwavering throughout and I’m honored to have gotten to meet her at Thrillerfest. Towards the end I just couldn't put it down because of how much it picked up, I just needed to keep going! The ending was also perfection.

I enjoyed that this had a Cherokee main character, and there were personal stakes in this story. Vanessa Lillie does a fantastic job in getting you into the world and it doesn’t let go until the end. The characters were everything that I was hoping for and hope there is more from the author.

This was a great thriller, right up until the very end! I really enjoyed following Syd as she tried to unravel the mystery of her sisters disappearance, as well as the mystery of who left her a calling card, pulling her back home.

A lot of things happen in this book, but Lillie manages to wrap it all up relelatively nicely in yhe end.

I do kind of wish that it would have been longer, Or even a series because I think some extra time on certain aspects would have made it even better.

Overall though, I had a really good time reading this book!

I am a huge fan of Vanessa Lillie and this is another book that will be in my ever growing top reads of 2023. This story was personal to her which made it even better for us as a reader, and I absolutely loved this one and could not get enough. It was on the slow and steady side, but I didn’t mind as I loved the ebb and flow of this one, its cultural elements, and the case itself, which was so intriguing that I could not stop reading until I knew how it ended. The audio was a great way to read this one and I highly recommend that way if you can do so.

That being said, do not miss this book and do not miss the author’s note at the end. It is a must read that needs to be on your list for so many reasons. Thank you to Berkley Books and PRH Audio for the digital copy to review.

This book is a mysterious crime novel that has many twists and turns that will keep you turning the page. The plea to take notice of all the missing Native American girls is heartbreaking.

WOW. Vanessa Lillie has written a compelling, fast-paced, brutally heartbreaking story rooted in the real-life horror of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2Spirit people -- and how their deaths and disappearances are ignored, under-investigated, and covered up by authorities. I absolutely loved this book and hope it helps enlighten people who were previously unaware of how pervasive the violence against Indigenous people has been since the first colonizers arrived, and how women, girls, and 2S continue to bear the brunt of this violence.

This book is a goddamn reckoning, and Lillie's voice is powerful - perfectly balancing action-packed thrills, fury, and deeply emotional moments of connection.

I also just realized Blood Sisters is the first in a planned series, and I CANNOT WAIT to see what Lillie does next. Five hundred stars and one of my favorite books of the year.

I wish I had the words to describe how amazing it was. Raw, visceral, I could not get enough, I felt all the feels. This book is heavy but also I sped through it because my heart was racing and the story was nonstop.

The audiobook was perfection and elevated the book to an even more heart grabbing pitch.

I was provided an ARC of this book via the Berkley Besties program and Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This is a fast paced mystery/thriller following Syd, an archeologist working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She uncovers tribal artifacts and remains and returns them to their tribal leaders to ensure they are handled with care and proper burial rights are performed. She is reassigned from her current regional work to one closer to her hometown in Oklahoma when remains are found with her internship ID attached to them. Syd has no desire to go home and revisit the trauma from her past, but upon her return she finds that her sister is missing and things just aren't adding up when she starts asking questions.

Syd lives with alot of survivor guilt and rage from a traumatic event that occurred when she was a child. She is driven by a sense of justice and vengeance in her adult life because she couldn't stop what happened that awful night. Her sense of justice helps her with her day job, bringing lost things back to their rightful owners and lost souls back to their families so they can gain closure and peace. When she goes home, however her rage and need for revenge take over and her ability to think rationally are kind of thrown to the wayside. I had a hard time connecting with her on that front, but I've never been in that kind of situation. I think it is hard to say what I would do if I lost a loved one like that or dealt with some of the things she had to deal with.

I thought this was a captivating and well written story. I did find it hard to follow at times as there are many characters to keep track of. I also thought there were too many plot points to keep track of., however the author did a good job brining things together in the end. I do appreciate that this novel is base in reality and it is horrible that drugs, crime, and corruption plague the indigenous tribes. This does have a more true crime feel to it, so if you enjoy thrillers based on true stories this is a great read.

I knew immediately when I first started reading this book I would be giving it five stars, the characters the story line and more held my attention and I wanted to learn so much more.
Syd an Oklahoma Cherokee woman who lives in Rhode Island with her wife, she works for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) as an archeologist. When Syd is informed of bones that we’re discovered at a crime scene that she has a personal connection to from fifteen years ago back in Oklahoma. She heads back to Oklahoma and hopes to help solve the case, when she arrives she sees that much hasn’t changed she faces drug dealers, government officials, and towns people and all of them are trying to silence her. When her sister goes missing, Syd is determined to find her and also face the past she ran away from, but she begins to go down a path that holds a shocking discovery.

With a suspenseful plot shrouded in secrecy and a unique Cherokee protagonist, there is a lot to love about BLOOD SISTERS. Syd Walker leaves her career as an archeologist to return home to Oklahoma after her sister disappears and stirs up questions about cold cases of missing indigenous women.

I thought this was a timely and compelling story and I especially enjoyed the ending.
It went off the rails in a great way that I found surprising yet plausible. I also appreciated the way the author wove politics, indigenous culture and history together and found it so enlightening. This is more than just a thriller; I wasn’t expecting to learn as much as I did. Add BLOOD SISTERS to your winter TBR, it’s out now!

RATING: ⅘ ⭐️

#bloodsisters #vanessalillie

Many thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read/listen to a lot of true crime. A few podcasts have devoted at least an episode a month about missing and murdered indigenous women. There are so many unsolved cases that it is almost incomprehensible. So, I was interested in Blood Sisters because it features this crime. The story is fictional, but it focuses on the desire to solve these crimes and bring the women home. The main character is an indigenous woman and an archaeologist. She is forced to return to Oklahoma for her work and face her past. Now, one of the missing women is her sister.

Syd is a well written character with a complex story. She isn't always likable or comprehensible, but I think that is appropriate given who she is. The mystery is interesting as well. What really makes the story memorable is all the details about the culture of the indigenous people. While the story is fiction, some of the truth is mentioned in discussing the missing women. The story itself seemed slow and it was a bit difficult to stick with at times, but it is a beautifully written story.

**Many thanks to Catherine Barra at Berkley and Vanessa Lillie for an ARC of this book provided via NetGalley!**

Syd Walker works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and her work is nothing short of vital to her community: as an archaeologist, she strives to help uncover the mysteries hiding in the buried bones she discovers. Indigenous women are one of the most likely subsets of people to go missing and/or be murdered with little recourse, and although Syd lives in Rhode Island now, her hometown in Oklahoma is near and dear to her heart. When a skull turns up at the site of Syd's sister Emma Lou's disappearance, it feels like Oklahoma is TRULY calling her back to solve the case once and for all.

When Syd returns, however, she falls back in with some of the people from her past...and starts to slowly discover connections she never knew existed. The seedy drug scene has taken over the town of Picher, and Syd is shocked to learn some of the people who have been lured in and she feels an even stronger urge to get to the bottom of the long string of disappearances over time. With tension bubbling at the surface, Syd tries to balance her strained (and now long distance) relationship with wife Mal AND her detective work...all while "Ghost Luna" keeps coming to visit...and Syd can't get the voice out of her head. Can Syd crack the decades-long code and find the missing girls...or was her whole trip back a carefully plotted attempt to take her "off of the case"....permanently?

Vanessa Lillie is a new to me author, but one I've been wanting to try, and I was intrigued by this book's premise and the promise of important Native American rep in the thriller space. I tried to get on board with Syd from early on: we were told about her first digging discovery and although it felt a bit outside the margins from what I normally read, I was determined to stay invested and follow her on her journey back to her hometown. Unfortunately, once we got there (and were done hearing about Syd's wife and their martial woes FAR more than was necessary) I found most of the characters in the Oklahoma setting to be not only unlikable, but more along the lines of stereotype than I would prefer to read, and therefore found it hard to be engaged in their conversations with Syd and all of the ensuing drama.

Ghost Luna is also a looming and repetitive presence in this book; so much so that frankly I was tired of hearing from her. Perhaps I'm just a bit burned out on the trope as of late, but without explanation or true emotional impact (we have to wait to hear full backstory for Luna until much later in the book) she seemed more like a nuisance than a necessary part of the plot. She doesn't really disappear until the end of the book, but I had lost interest in the overall mystery long before we reached the conclusion, and this sadly became one of those books that felt far more forgettable than it should have been.

Another issue I had is that in some ways this book was reminiscent of a book I LOVED (although it too was a bit of a slow burn): Chevy Stevens' Dark Roads. Both stories deal with missing Native girls and a sister returning to her home to try to find out what happened to her murdered sister. Although the overall tone and the plots of these stories varied dramatically, Stevens writing was so engaging, visceral, and spooky...everything I hoped to find in these pages but was sorely lacking in my reading experience. Both authors have brought long overdue attention to a grassroots movement known as MMIWG2S – Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit and have sought to amplify this injustice, and for THAT, I'm grateful.

My only wish in regards to the content of this story was that it had matched the intensity of the MMIWG2S movement itself...and that like any grassroots movement, through determination and education, this book can be one more voice rising above the violence until the rallying cry becomes a reality: "No More Stolen Sisters."

3.5 stars

Wow! I absolutely loved Blood Sisters, one of the best crime fiction books I’ve read all year. Whenever I thought I solved the crime, Lillie shocked me with another twist. Regarding the audiobook, both narrators added tension and suspense, so I recommend both formats to any crime fiction lover.

But, the story’s most significant impact lies in the social commentary regarding Indigenous communities. Lillie’s visceral storytelling exposes how white people affected Indigenous people in horrific ways: drugs, gambling, stealing land, stealing women, and washing away Native identities. Lillie also highlights the unspeakable (literally and metaphorically) plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit. Even though Lillie articulately exposes these atrocities, she equally honors the Cherokee people, history, and legends. I found the Agilvgi chapters (sister in Cherokee) hauntingly beautiful, offering the right amount of suspense to the crime story.

November is recognized as National Native American Heritage Month. Support indigenous writers! Go buy Blood Sisters today!

It’s evident that author, Vanessa Lillie poured her heart and soul into writing her latest novel, Blood Sisters. Yes, this novel is mysterious, suspenseful, and has some major thriller vibes, but the main focus is on the thousands of missing Indigenous women across the country. In the author’s note, Lillie states: “There’s a lot of truth in this fiction.” The extensive research, interviews, and personal touches from her past experiences all speak loud and clear on how important this topic is to Lillie. Snippets of Indigenous culture, history, and political issues are weaved in all throughout, which is extremely eye-opening. Labeling this novel as just a mystery or thriller almost provides a disservice because it is SO much more than that. It downplays the importance of the subject matter, and the enlightenment that the reader will receive after reading it. And I gotta say—the ending was phenomenal. There’s been SO many times when a thriller is solid for the first three quarters, and then tanks with a weak ending. That is definitely NOT the case with Blood Sisters. I was biting my fingernails, and sitting on the edge of my seat from all of the intensity, suspense, and shocking twists thrown my way. And the best part? Everything was tied up wonderfully. Nothing was left unanswered or unfinished. I was very impressed. If you enjoyed Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens, then be sure to check this one out as well. Blood Sisters is out NOW, and I give it 4.5/5 stars! Highly recommend!