Well written psychological thriller.
I cared about the characters, they were believable and we'll rounded.

*Book provided by the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Sister Sister is the second book by Sue Fortin I have read and I have to say I fell even more in love with her writing.

The story follows Claire, she is a solicitor, married to Luke and they have two beautiful daughters. Her mum Marion lives with them. There is a time during the year where both Claire and Marion get sad and think about …’s sister Alice. She now lives in America and was taken from Claire their lives, when the father decide to leave.

This has been really hard on both women. Why did he take Alice and not Claire? Why couldn’t they find Alice? Questions and questions…

One day they get surprised by a letter from Alice, that’s when it all changes. Alice visits them and at first everything is fine. Especially Marion is very happy to get to know her daughter. Claire however, gets more and more suspicious, because weird things start to happen. Accidents, broken things and more. After a while there is even the police involved and Claire gets blamed for everything. Alice also flirts with Luke and spends a lot of time with her daughters while she is at work.

Claire sees her world falling apart, everyone blames her for the bad things that happen and nobody believes her. She is determined to find out the truth about Alice. What she finds out is shocking! It involves some other people as well, some she thought she knew well and also new people.

The storyline in this book is very clever. It builds up and up until you just want to go and help Claire reveal everything. It’s so hard to see her struggle, but it’s part of the story, which is very gripping, riveting, spellbinding and mesmerizing. I got so hooked, because I just wanted to find out the truth. You can feel the tension through the words and you just can’t let go.

This is a thriller full of twists and turns and it includes family, love and friendship. These things all put together with great writing create a novel you can’t miss. I’m not that big on thrillers, but this one is fabulous!!! You don’t know which way the story is going and that’s fascinating!

This book is a definite must read!!!

As far as suspenseful books go this is a pretty good one. Unfortunately I had recently read a book by Joanne Fluke, another mystery writer, and part of her story included one about a long lost sister/daughter who showed back up and the sister had her doubts while mom welcomed her back without question. Since I already knew how that turned out I had a fairly good idea how this book was going to turn out as well because it's not an original idea.

Aside from that the author did a great job of keeping the pace moving at break neck speed. There was quite a bit at the end I hadn't seen coming so Fortin did a good job of creating some red herrings. There were also some shocking twists at the end that made me glad I kept reading even after my initial disappointment at having figured out the beginning's mystery. Overall I'd recommend reading it because regardless of what recycled mysteries were used in this book it's still well written and a good use of time.

Sister, Sister is a psychological thriller by Sue Fortin. It focuses on Alice & Clare and what happens when a long lost sister returns to the fold. Alice had been taken to live in America by her father leaving Clare with their mother. Alice was only 4 when she left with her father. Over the following years Clare and her mother continually searched for her in the hope that they would be reunited. Now a lawyer with her own family, loving husband Luke and 2 daughters Hannah and Chloe she still lives in her childhood home along with her mother Marion. One day a letter arrives from someone claiming to be Alice. Over time Clare thinks Alice is a manipulative liar who is trying to steal her life, Alice thinks Clare is jealous of her return and place in their family. ….One of them is telling the truth, the other is a maniac.
What would you do if someone suddenly came back into your life claiming to be the sister you had not seen for years?? Would you welcome them with open arms or would you be cautious??
To start with it appears that this is a nice story about a family reuniting after a long time apart and Alice just want to reconnect with the mother and sister she has not seen for years but don’t be fooled.
When you meet Clare she seems to have it all but she is missing that one piece of her life - her sister. She feels guilty that she didn’t do more to stop her father taking Alice away whilst also wondering what she did wrong that her father didn’t want her too. When the letter arrives from Alice her mother is naturally excited to finally be in contact with her youngest daughter and despite Clare wanting to be a bit more cautious she invites Alice to come and stay along with her friend Martha. Whilst I can understand Marion wanting to be reunited with her daughter I did have to wonder why Clare as a solicitor would not want to check things out more before allowing her mother to invite Alice for a visit. Alice was only small when she left therefore her memories of the past were very sketchy and I felt that her “recollections” were prompted by Marion asking her if she remembered certain events.
As the book progresses you see little things start to niggle at Clare and she thinks that Alice is not all that she seems to be. These things start to affect both her personal and professional life and it looks like Clare is heading for a nervous breakdown. Whilst on the surface Luke seemed like the perfect husband with a down to earth sense of humour I must admit I was a little surprised how he suddenly turned on his wife and believed the version of events supplied by someone he had only just met. He had been the one that advising the family to take things slowly in the beginning and then he seems to just change his tune and welcome Alice into the family.
I can understand Marion’s reaction to events after all she has got her daughter back and just wants Alice and Clare to get along. She doesn’t want to lose Alice just as she has found her again and doesn’t want to believe that she would do anything bad or manipulative. She is remembering how 4yr old Alice was and surely she can’t be bad now.
Each character in the book had a part to play in the story and their buried secrets that slowly came out all added to the eventual outcome. Some of these secrets you will guess at over time… others may just surprise you. There will be times you want to scream at them as you just know they are doing something wrong or that will lead to more trouble but don’t let that put you off.
I thought that I knew what was going to happen and in some instances I was right however despite this I found that I couldn’t put the book down and I was hooked right to the end. There is a small twist to the tale that I didn’t expect but you will have to read the book for yourself to find out what it is.
This is the first book I have read by Sue Fortin but I am sure it won’t be the last.

This is astonishingly the first novel I have read by Sue Fortin and it definitely won't be the last! I was completely captivated by it and devoured it within a day. The central characters are easily accessible and completely relatable, jumping off the page and taking the reader on an unpredictable journey full of twists and turns.

Highly recommended!

After a slow and steady start, Sister Sister brings a chilling and anxious tale of two sisters separated as young children and know reunited as adults. Like I said with a slow build up I felt that when we finally got to reach the books climax it didn't give me anything over 3 stars.

A fantastic premise non the less, but for me missing a lot of intrigue at the start. It did feel like the book starts halfway through.

Still though a good read and one I do recommend despite my grievances. I know it will be one that will for sure bring readers to their psychological thriller climax!

3/5

Wow! What an absolute corker of a book! I literally could not put this down as clichéd as it sounds. As the book started I actually forgot that this book was a psychological thriller, my mindset was of the two sisters finding each other and rekindling their relationship. What a lovely story I was thinking, and then BOOM!! A truly terrifying tale began to unfold with sinister goings on aplenty. The story then became a roller coaster of twists, turns and tummy dropping jumps. It was impossible to turn the liget off and go to sleep - I just had to see how this whole adrenalin rush was going to end. And what an ending! I have to jump the queue at the book club and insist that this is next in line.

Claire's sister Alice was taken away from her when she was a child by her father and moved to the US, without any contact for the last twenty-or-so years. When Alice gets in contact with Claire and her mother and comes over to England to be reunited with her long-lost family following her fathers death, she begins to raise questions in Claire's mind and soon, everything Claire thought she knew comes tumbling down around her.

Sister Sister is the first book I've read by Sue Fortin and definitely won't be the last. I loved the way Fortin's writing kept me gripped and even when the storylines seemed predictable at times, I was still drawn into the characters and the drama that was unfolding on the pages. With twists and turns that will have you eager to see how they unfold, this book is definitely one you can whiz through in one-sitting. The characters were excitable to read about as we didn't know who we could trust - even when the twists had me guessing numerous possible storylines about who could and couldn't be trusted, I was left reeling by the reveals.

One character I absolutely hated and disliked the ending because of it, was Claire's husband. Without spoiling the story, his character wasn't likeable and I disliked his lack of loyalty towards his wife. Overall, this was a very enjoyable book and I would recommend reading it if you like edge-of-your-seat mysteries that get inside your head and make you doubt everyone.

Thought I would pick this book up early yesterday and ease myself into it. Ended up being unable to put it down and read it in just over 24 hours. Wow, this book has everything. Well written, totally gripping, secrets and lies and is a really great story. Perhaps a tad predictable in places but of course there's more to it than the obvious!
Clare was a great character who I felt so sorry for when her life started to unravel and things started to get out of her control. One to recommend.
My thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Sister Sister by Sue Fortin is a fast paced psychological thriller. I was so excited to get an ARC of the book from NetGalley that I ended up dropping everything else (bookwise) to read this one. The book begins with one of the sisters admitted in hospital after an accident but no details are given about what happened or who else was involved. This sets the pace for the rest of the story with the questions piling-up through the chapters and the suspense growing with each page.

Sister Sister by Sue Fortin tells the story of two sisters, Clare and Alice who were separated when they were kids and ended up spending most of their lives apart. They later reconnect after twenty years but the excitement is short-lived as strange events start taking place and everything start going wrong almost immediately. This story moves pretty fast with so much happening that I found myself totally engrossed in it. I mean, how could a family reunion go so terribly wrong?

Clare is the main narrator. As the story progresses, there quite a number of things that start happening around her especially as far as Alice is concerned. She starts becoming obsessed with unraveling the mystery and figuring out her sister. However, her obsession starts getting out of hand hence heightening the tension in the book. What I liked most about Clare’s narration is that it was hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t. At some point, it seemed like she was losing her mind. Everyone around her seemed to think so anyway. I started to doubt her actions and some of the things she did seemed quite reckless. At the same time, it was hard to completely figure out Alice. At some point, she seemed like the liar and the crazy one but I just couldn’t figure it all out at first. I haven’t been this suspicious about two characters in a while. I kept shifting between the two sisters trying to find out who was lying and about what exactly and why.

I was able to predict one of the main twists in the book fairly early. However, the author still managed to surprise me with more twists and revelations along the way. There is no way that I could have predicted the end. The final twist was thrilling and I think the author did an amazing job building up to it.

Sister Sister by Sue Fortin is a brilliant psychological thriller with suspense right from the first page. The book is well paced, engrossing and very well-written. It’s the kind of book that will have you suspecting everyone. It’s a story about family, lies and secrets. I definitely recommend this one to all fans of psychological thrillers.

Sister Sister by Sue Fortin is a gripping page-turner of a novel that'll leave you craving for more.

I picked up this book impulsively and having nothing better to read in the first week of the year, I decided to go for it. I was hoping to fill up my entire lazy week with this book as I was on a vacation on a beautiful hill-station, but when I started reading this book, all hell broke lose and I was up in the night at 4 o clock trying to read the book and finish it as soon as I could.

The best part about this book is the pacing. The book was proceeding with a blinding speed and I started to feel really anxious whenever the lead character was faced with a dicey situation.

The characterization is beautifully real. I could totally relate to the main character, though at some places she behaved rash considering that she was a lawyer by profession, but I still understood as behaving with a calm mind in every situation is almost always next to impossible for impatient people. I loved how beautifully the relationship between the lead couple was shown and how over the period of time it was shown getting weak by the chapter due to the situations and "incidents."

The beginning was good and I was pulled into the story from the starting page itself. The ending was perfect and even though it was predictable, the pacing and the tension buildup totally made up for it.

The writing style of the author is brilliant and it made this fun a really memorable experience. I still can't get the story out of my mind. This was my first book by author Sue Fortin, but I'm sure I'll be buying her other books soon as I absolutely loved her writing style.

I'd recommend this book not only to all the mystery and thriller lovers but also to anyone who wants to read a nice book with strong characters and a powerful story.

I found the writing very bland and far far too many irrelevant details that slowed the story down to a ridiculous pace. At a very early point on I felt incredibly frustrated and decided to give up on this novel. for that reason I will not share this 2* review on goodreads or amazon, as it is unfair If I did not complete the novel.

I started this book yesterday morning, thinking I'd read the first couple of chapters, I was still reading late into the evening having found myself utterly engrossed by Sue Fortin's brilliantly drawn characters and compelling storytelling.
From start to finish I found Sister Sister very hard to put down, it was just so gripping. Brilliantly paced, the tension builds throughout this novel with twists, turns and revelations.

I cannot recommed this novel highly enough. The suspense never lets up for a minute, it’s a terrific psychological thriller and look forward to reading more books by Sue Fortin.

Thank you.

It seems like forever ago I started this book, life has gotten in the way as it so often does, but I had managed to read a few chapters and in my time away from the book I found myself thinking about it, wondering how things where going to turn out. This wasn't just a page turner, it pulled me, trying to draw my attention even when I wasn't reading. When I was finally able to dedicate some time to reading I found myself utterly engrossed, I had hoped to be able to read a few chapters at least, but when I finished the book I realised several hours had passed without me realising.

Fortin has done a fantastic job with this book, she will have you doubting everyone, never knowing right to the very end who you can trust. Helped along by the fact that even Clare doubts herself... when you cant trust the narrator who can you trust?

I can already tell this is going to be a strong contender for my book of the year. The opening scene sets the scene - with the main narrator in hospital for an unknown reason, sending out little hints that all may not be what it seems.

The blurb suggests that 2 sisters who are reunited after over 20 years apart have many issues to deal with. Who is paranoid and who is hiding something? Just what lengths will they go to to protect themselves and what are we about to discover?

With Claire starting the book in hospital we begin to wonder whether her paranoia has tipped her over the edge. But is Alice all she seems? Is Alice trying to destroy Claire's family and take her place?

I was trying to second guess the story all the way through and it had me gripped throughout. It must be awful to be separated from a family member in childhood and this book shows how it can affect everyone involved. The Mum in the book has never got over the pain- and the reunion has put the sparkle back into her eyes.

I really would highly recommend this book and would like to thank Net Galley for the opportunity to discover Sue's books. I just know she's going to join my list of favourite authors and already had a couple more books lined up to read.
A solid 5* read for me

I loved this book! Fantastic psychological thriller. This is my first book by Sue Fortin. It's my understanding that it's more of a suspense than most of her previous works. I hope she continues in this vein, because I'd love to read more!

Clare has a great life. Two adorable little girls, a loving and attentive husband, and a successful career as a solicitor. But something very unusual happened in her past... when she was young, her father took her younger sister from their home in the UK to America. He was supposed to return, but never did... leaving just Clare and her mother. Though they've tried many times over the years to find Alice and bring her back, they never managed. Every private detective and search failed, almost like the two vanished into thin air.

Alice's birthday is always a painful time for Clare and her mother... a yearly reminder of what they've lost. This year is different... as her birthday approaches, they receive a letter... from Alice. Now in her twenties, she has reached out to her mother and sister after the death of her father. She wants to come see them.

After a brief communication, Alice journeys to the UK for a reunion. What should be one of the happiest moments of Clare's life just doesn't seem right. Alice doesn't remember much of her life there, but she was only young when she was taken. Clare thinks it odd that she'd have no memories of defining moments though. She also finds it odd that she's not feeling much of a connection to her sister... only a bit of jealousy and the feeling that Alice is intruding on her life... and perhaps paying a bit too much attention to Luke, Clare's husband. Is she just having a hard time adjusting to having her sister back in her life after so many years, or is something more sinister at play here?

Super engrossing, well written story. I flew through it and enjoyed every chapter. Full of twists and surprises.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and HarperImpulse, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

"Sister, Sister" is the first of Sue Fortin's books I've read but definitely not the last - I've no idea how I've missed on this author's previous novels, guys. Mea culpa. I am already looking forward to reading Ms Fortin's other books. "Sister, Sister" is a perfect psychological suspense, just what I am developing to love very much, a book with a lot of tension, questions and missing elements but without murders, pouring blood or gory details. Just incredibly clever, intelligent, complex and brilliantly plotted story that made me experience all kind of feelings and emotions.

But. This book. It could go two ways. Either I could love it or hate it. Why? Because lately I've read two books with very, very similar pattern, like leaving home and not remembering it or thinking you're loosing your mind, one of them I only reviewed yesterday, and so it could be I've been there, I've seen this, there is nothing new, I'm bored. However, this book has defended itself for me. Yes, I relatively quickly guessed the turn. Then the hints were probably too unsubtle for my liking because I was dead sure I've guessed the second twist as well. Yes, there were moments that were much too familiar for me. But then I thought, well, it's not this book's fault that it is the next one with a similar pattern, right? And let's be honest, it was a great book. Thrilling and tense, and it had me totally glued to the pages, hell, it kept me awake while I should have been making use of my beauty sleep!
And guys, this book annoyed me so much! It was because it was crystal clear for me from the very beginning who is the good one and who is in the wrong, and I could cry out loud from frustration that I can see it but the other characters can't! I wanted to pat one of the sisters on her shoulder and tell her she's not alone, that I know she's not going crazy. Arrgh, I tell you guys, I really felt annoyed and frustrated and I could bang the characters' heads together. As for Luke... oh my word. As much as I loved Luke, he was a great husband and brilliant dad and I loved his sense of humour, he disappointed me more than once with the way he talked to Clare. I understand he could have doubts but there is no justification for him speaking to her like that! Really, all the characters were brilliantly written, they had depth and their own personalities, they were believable.

So yes, it's like this, guys. I was dead certain that I know who's right and who is wrong, I just felt it in my heart, head, stomach and at the tips of my fingers. Nevertheless, I was glued to the pages and raced through the book to see that I was right. See this? "To see that I was right", not to see IF I was right. If the book turned out differently, I'd be very surprised! Very! Not sure if I'd be happy if it turned out differently, though, and I was extremely glad that the story ended in the way it did. Did I feel disappointed that I knew how it's going to finish? Absolutely not! I really think that if it ended differently then I'd be disappointed. Did it also take the joy of reading and wondering if it is the narrator who's unreliable or are there other characters making things up away? The answer is also no. I absolutely loved this book!

What was absolutely thrilling was the fact that the story was all the time developing, unravelling layer after layer of new facts, buried skeletons and secrets, being then caught up in a brilliant, surprising grande finale that I couldn't predict. I knew perhaps who but the events at the end of the book took me totally by surprise. The story runs at great pace, and there is all the time something happening, either at home, or at Clare's work or with her friends, and I really appreciated this diversification. Also, Sue Fortin didn't stop adding twists and turns till the very end of the story! There were many of them but I've never felt too overwhelmed or couldn't sort them out, I've never felt confused. It was all cleverly and skilfully plotted and the events flew effortlessly.

So all in all, guys, even with me guessing who (but now how!), I think this book deserves the big, fat 5 stars rating because it's pure genius. A bloody good psychological suspense/thriller with a writing style that just draws you in, and you can't stop reading. "Sister, Sister" is a story of betrayal, lies and secrets, an absorbing and disturbing psychological suspense with greatly developed characters full of secrets and issues, all so significant to this story and they keep you guessing till the end. This is this kind of a book that you say to yourself you're going to read only one chapter more and come up for a breath few hours later. Highly recommended!

Wow what a great fast paced psychological thriller. I was drawn in right from the beginning to the end. Another great Sue Fortin book.
Sisters Claire and Alice were separated as young children. Alice and her father went to America and never came back. Claire tried to find her sister but never managed to but then, suddenly Alice makes contact with her mother and so the problems begin.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review

While this book didnt grab me and keep me on the edge of my seat from the very beginning, it was still interesting enough to hold and keep my attention. It was extremely well written and kept up the pace throughout. I really enjoyed reading Sister Sister and will definitely be looking out for more by Sue Fortin.