I have really enjoyed reading all Faith Hogan’s novels. This again was another 5 star read from me although it take me longer to both be invested in the story and characters.

The novel focuses on the sisters - Blythe and Rae and Blythe’s daughter, Sissy.

Blythe always expected to inherit management of the family hotel but after her marriage to Kit and the birth of Sissy, she is forced out. Instead her sister, Rae takes over after her marriage to Marcus - a former friend of Blythe’s from her college days.

Instead Blythe focuses on the development of Still Water House as a guesthouse. These events form a permanent rift in their relationship.

Rae - whose marriage was coercive and abusive - is forced to evaluate her future after the death of Marcus and the financial plight of the hotel becomes clear. She decides to sell up part of the hotel to allow redevelopment of the remainder.

As she is considering this - Blythe is facing a series of what feels like insurmountable issues - her relationship with her husband is fraying because of her overprotective nature towards their daughter; she is pushing her daughter away particularly over her relationship with an outsider; she cannot countenance the hotel being sold on to someone outside the family and her fear of outsiders is losing her friends.

Can the sisters find a way back to supporting each other and a new future?

A heartwarming story.

Another great read from Faith Hogan. Sisters Blythe and Rae Carney live in their family hotel where it was always assumed Blythe would run one day as Rae doesn't have any interest in it but circumstances change when Marcus arrives on the scene with plans of his own including getting Rae and the Hotel. I loved the way the story was told as it want back to the past so we understood the characters better and also the present where i really disliked Blythe and hoped as the story unfolded she would work things out with her sister as the Hotel starts to struggle.after the death of Marcus.A beautiful, uplifting story, great writing and full of interesting characters that you can resonate with.

An engaging read, where I really felt I got to know the main characters and cared about what happens to them. Set on 2 timelines which eventually meet we learn more about sisters Rae and Blyth from teenagers to twenty years later.

I enjoyed this read. The story between two sisters living on a little island of the coast of Ireland. It’s a present day timeline and then also the back story between the sisters and their family members. A bit harrowing at times and also frustrating - families hey!

You follow two sisters on a small Irish island . Family differences have torn them a part . I struggled at first to get into it as it moves back and forward but you get hooked. Some interesting characters good and bad. It has a nice neat ending . Read it

Venture back to Pin Hill where sisters Rae and Blythe are estranged . Family fortunes did not go as anticipated underwritten by their grandfather . Coercive behaviour , prejudice mother coddling and jealousy underwrite the family tale. There are characters to love and to dislike but all are well portrayed.
A slow start building to a fiery crescendo leading to harmony

This story follows two sisters, Rae and Blythe, who live on a small Irish island. The book moves between the past and the present, showing how their lives changed over twenty years. It’s a bit slow and a bit hard to follow at first but it becomes easier as the story goes on.
There are sad and tense moments, but also hope. Ultimately, It’s a story about family, mistakes, and finding a way back to each other.

Two sisters on an island off Ireland. Blythe proudly runs her family hotel, Still Water House on Pin Island. This year she’s hoping to win a coveted award and believes the woman who rates hotels for the award is coming to stay with them under an assumed name.
Meanwhile, her sister Rae has just lost her husband and is struggling to make her business, the Hope Square Hotel, pay.

Faith Hogan’s books are always a good read, though this one takes a while to get into as it’s on two timelines. Blythe and Rae are the main characters, along with Blythe’s daughter Siggy and husband Kip, a former national rugby player. Will the two sisters reach out to each other when times are tough? The ending is quite dramatic!

Two sisters help run a family-owned hotel. Blythe dreams of inheriting her grandfather’s estate and continuing the family business while Rae has no interest.

In a picturesque rural Irish community, grief, love and family dynamics intertwine to create a plot with elements of sadness and betrayal. Family controlling what happens in others lives so they can’t follow their dreams.

A captivating emotional journey, demonstrating how everyone’s emotions and actions can influence other people’s dreams.

This emotionally powerful read keeps you turning the pages with a few twists and turns.

Highly recommended.

The Sisters of Hope Square is a tender, quietly gripping story about family, legacy, and the dreams we carry long after life has pushed us in another direction. Faith Hogan captures the ache and beauty of sisterhood with such a gentle touch, weaving Blythe and Rae’s lives together in a way that feels both intimate and deeply relatable.

Blythe, with her polished guest house and carefully curated success, is a woman who has built a life she’s proud of, yet can’t quite shake the feeling that she’s living in the shadow of the future she once imagined. Rae, newly widowed and exhausted from holding the Hope Square Hotel together with fraying hands, is a woman who never wanted the legacy she inherited — but took it anyway, out of duty, love, and a desire to honour the family name. Their tension is beautifully drawn: not dramatic or cruel, but rooted in years of unspoken disappointment, misunderstood choices, and the quiet grief of watching someone else live the life you thought was meant for you.

Pin Hill Island is rendered with a lovely sense of place — peaceful, weathered, full of memories — and the hotel itself becomes a symbol of everything the sisters have lost and everything they still might save. As Rae faces the possibility of letting it go, and Blythe wrestles with the life she built versus the one she wanted, the story deepens into something warm and poignant. It’s about forgiveness, second chances, and the courage it takes to admit that the people we love can hurt us without ever meaning to.

This is a heartfelt, emotionally rich novel that explores the complicated ties of family with honesty and hope. Perfect for readers who enjoy character‑driven stories full of warmth, gentle drama, and the promise that it’s never too late to fight for the future you once dreamed of.

With thanks to Faith Hogan, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC

I was asked by NetGalley to review this really emotional story recommend a box of tissues when you read this.

Blythe with her sister Rae are helping to run a family owned hotel. Blythe would love to inherit her grandfathe's estate and run thefamily business wheras her sister is not interested in this. Set in rual Ireland, there is family issues, controlling what happens so there is no dreams to follow. This story is emotionally charged with such sadness, betrayal and love thrown into the mix, with twists along the way ensuring the reader reads to the end.

Recomended read from Faith Hogan and due fdor publication June 4th 2026.

Sisters Blythe and Rae were brought up in the family hotel and Blythe always wanted to carry on with the family business. Life did not turn out as planned and the book is best at describing the relationships between the characters: not just the sisters but marriages, first loves, parent and child, and within the whole community. Only 4 stars because I struggled with the ideas of parents having such set expectations of their children, and anyone being so obsessed with a business, it just didn’t work for me.

This is the story of two sisters living on an island off the coast of Ireland who have been brought up helping out in their grandfather's hotel.
Blythe feels she is sure to inherit the hotel ,after all it is her life and she knows the business inside out. Rae,her younger sister helps out but running the hotel is the last thing she ever wants to do.
The lives of the sisters is torn apart by the actions of one narcissist man. Secrets are kept and lives changed.
Any book written by Faith Hogan is sure to be a good read and this one is no different.
I loved it and couldn't put it down.

The sisters of Hope Square – 4 stars

Having read The Bookshop Ladies by Faith Hogan, I was looking forward to reading this book. It is a story of 2 sisters and their hopes and dreams for the future which doesn’t quite work out the way they hoped. I found it a bit hard to get into and took me a while to take to the characters. The book is written in a historical way from the point of the main characters so kept jumping back to 15 years ago. Once I got used to this and got to know the characters I did enjoy this book.

This story is about two sisters who used to be very close until circumstances distanced them. They live on a small Irish island where everyone knows everyone else. The book moves between past and present, following their lives, marriages, mistakes and ultimately finding each other again. A very emotional book and, as always, very well written by Faith Hogan. Recommended.

Another great read by Faith Hogan, looking at the lives of two sisters whose grandfather owned a hotel in Hope Square.

Blythe loved the hotel as a young girl and her dream was to run it one day, Rae her sister loved animals and her dream was to work with them.

Fate dealt Blythe and Rae with devastating news when her father was killed in a car accident and their mother never fully recovered.

Blythe was away in Dublin studying for her final exams when she received the phone call.... she fled Dublin and never completed her course. She had met a determined young man on the course and went out with him a few times. At the funeral he turned up to pay his condolences and wormed his way into the hotel and married Rae taking over the hotel. Blythe turned the family home into a Guest House with her husband.

Rae is widowed and struggles to run the hotel, Blythe's daughter helps out at times, and realises the hotel is in financial trouble.

The story is at a reasonable and keeps you interested until the end.

Faith Hogans books are always reliably good and I enjoyed her latest very much. Her settings in Ireland are so evocative and the characterisations spot on. A lovely story well told. Many thanks I would recommend.

The Sisters of Hope Square

This was such a lovely, comforting read that pulled me in straight away.

From the very beginning, it felt like slipping into a warm blanket easy, soothing and impossible not to enjoy.

The characters were so likeable and I found myself completely drawn into their world. It’s one of those stories that feels gentle but still keeps you turning the pages.

This would be the perfect book to take on holiday, relaxing, uplifting and just a really enjoyable escape.

A beautiful read and one I’d definitely recommend.

I feel very lucky to have read this early through NetGalley, with the book due out in June.

Lovely to return to Pin Hill, this time with Blythe and Rae who are sisters and both own a guest house/hotel on the island.

There's lot of family issues in this book. Blythe as the older sister expected to run The Hope Square Hotel, eventually taking over from her grandfather, but due to circumstances it went to her younger sister Rae. Blythe ended up with another family house that she turned into a guest house but she always felt as if she missed out on her dream of running the hotel.

Both get married and Blythe has a daughter, but neither are particularly happy with their lot. Blythe because she isn't running the hotel and because of an incident that happened to her when she was younger and moved off the island for a period of time, and Rae because her marriage wasn't as happy as everyone thinks because of her bullying husband, who has passed away.

When Blythe's daughter gets friendly with an 'outsider' who has moved to the island and then wants to move off the island to continue her studies, things come to a head and lives start unravelling as Blythe can't control everything anymore.

I really couldn't take to Blythe, even though I sort of understood her reasons, she was hard work, and her family were very patient with her controlling nature. Thankfully the rest of the characters were interesting. As usual a good read, with an explosive ending!

Following the lives of the sisters of hope square this book was a good read . Blythe was hard to warm to given her regimented views on life and people. A big drama at the end that ultimately cleared a lot of lingbstanding issues.

An enjoyable book set on the Isle of Pin Hill off the Atlantic coast of Ireland. Based on the stories of two sisters, Blythe and younger Rae from their close childhood through an estranged adulthood and subsequently resolving their separation, albeit somewhat drastically. Told through both of the sister's sides plus those of Blythe's teenage daughter, Siggy and husband Kip, over the previous thirty four years to the present day. Plenty of drama and ups and downs with well drawn characters over the generations and touching upon control, discrimination and general family turmoil with underlying love.

A lovely and sometimes sad story. It is about two sisters, Blythe and Rae, who have become estranged mainly due to them setting up two different hotel/guest house in the same place. Blythe always thought that her grandfather would gift her the hotel and she worked tirelessly to prove her worth. Blythe met Marcus and she thought he was the love of her life but that was not meant to be. On returning to Pin Hill to take over the business things changed. Rae met Marcus and as he knew about the hotel he made inroads to the grandfather to let Rae take it over with his supervision and marrying Rae to make sure things went accordingly to his plan. Rae did not realise at the time that this was his plan all along having met Blythe and she did not know until it was too late that he was a bully. Blythe took over the family home and made it into guest house and made it a success but the two sisters became separated by jealousy and loathing of Marcus on Blythe’s side. Things eventually improved when Rae was widowed but it took near bankruptcy of the hotel, a fire and an almost tragedy before the two of them reconciled. The book delves into many issues mainly of jealousy, hurt feelings and feelings of being let down. I enjoyed this book. The parts where Blythe’s husband and daughter are in the book were lovely and made the book more down to earth.

Another great read from Faith. A nice meaty read. It features the lives of Blythe and Rae and the life they lead on an island off the west coast of Ireland. They both face trials and tribulations along the way. The story goes back and forth from when they were young to present dat.

The Hope Square sisters are estranged after Blythe and Rae's pappy leaves the hotel to Rae.
I found Blythe to be quite a bitter character. She feels everyone owes her. Not inheriting the hotel, she sets up a rival business, running a guest house from her home. Blythe is very controlling even down to telling her seventeen year old daughter what she can and can't do. I found her to be annoying. Towards the end, she does something unforgivable.
Rae never wanted the hotel. She had dreams of working with animals. Unfortunately, she met Marcus, who had other ideas. She married him and now had to suffer the consequences.
I didn't think this was Hogan's best.
This is a story of family ties and sister bonding. Told from the points of view from both sisters and Kip, who is Blythe's husband, we go back and forth from their childhood to the present day.
It's an enjoyable read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Aria and Aries for the invitation to read in return for an honest review.

Another amazing book from Faith Hogan set in an idyllic village in Ireland described in such detail that you really get to picture the beautiful place. This is about two sisters and their lives throughout the years it keeps going from the present to when the girls were younger. All of the characters have so much depth and you are just hooked from the beginning. I have read all of Faith Hogan’s books and loved them all. Such heartwarming stories.

Blythe and Rae, two very different sisters on a small island whose family run the local hotel as they are growing up. The reader follows their lives to the present day, witnessing their heartbreaks and happy times. A true to life story, as their lives progress.

The Sisters of Hope Square by Faith Hogan is the enchanting story of two sisters and their family hotel in peaceful Pin Hill Island,which has been in the family for generations but is now losing money and needs refurbished.
The two sisters married very different men and it is only after the death of Rae’s husband that the truth of the marriage, and how the two sisters ended up running two separate guest houses becomes known.
Highly recommended family saga.

Thank you to Faith Hogan, Aria and Aries and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review. I’ve read some of Faith Hogan’s previous books and they did not disappoint, so I knew I would really enjoy this one.

The book centres around sisters Rae and Blythe who ran The Hope Square Hotel. As the sisters get older, circumstances and life separates the sisters into running their own hotels. Rae’s husband passes and Blythe is fining it hard to let her daughter Siggy live her own life. When a family loves to the island, and burglaries begin to happen, can the community come together and accept everyone for who they are.

I really enjoyed this book, it dealt with some serious and relevant issues of immigration, prejudice and control and family ties, without losing the plot of the book. I really liked Rae as a character, she goes through a lot over the course of the story. Blythe is less likeable, is a bit of a loose cannon, speaks her mind and isn’t easily swayed. That said she has a few quips that made me shake my head while laughing.

For me it was a deeper read than I had expected, but very powerful, poignant and thoughtful. I really enjoyed The Sisters of Hope Square, it kept me engaged and gripped until the end. I would highly recommend this book.

What a joy to return to Pin Hill Island, this time with the story of sisters Blythe and Rae. If not estranged, exactly, they’re certainly not as close as they used to be, or close as Rae yearns for them to be. But perhaps too much water has gone under the bridge.
That water is slowly revealed through chapters set when the girls were in their late teens and early twenties. We see Blythe and her dreams of taking over the family hotel, Rae and her passion for animals. We see how their experiences damaged them and made them the women they are in their early forties.
The island community is especially well drawn; from the Val’s, the immigrant family who are accepted by some but not all, to the leopard-print wearing Fiona. The perfect backdrop for this story of two sisters and two hotels to unfold.
Although I found it hard to warm to Blythe – which was probably the point – I did enjoy this book very much and heartily recommend it.

I have enjoyed Faith Hogans other work and this didn’t disappoint. I liked the split timeline and the location of the action, this was depicted so well. A really good, involving tale which was relatable and heartwarming. A definite five star

As children Blythe and Rae were inseparable. They grew up in the shadow of the family hotel on Hope Square on a small island of Ireland.
Blythe goes off to Dublin to learn hotel management and meets Marcus, she’s very taken with him. But one evening as she’s getting ready to go out, burglars enter the flat and she is threatened and scared. Marcus picks her up and afterwards leaves her at the door, she feels he should have at least her safely in, check that the thieves had gone. She suffers as a result of the incident, and goes home, doesn’t even take her finals.
She finds herself pregnant and marries Kip, who is Siggy’s father. Everything changes when Marcus turns up and make passes at Rae. Suddenly nothing is the same.
The book bounces around in time, then and now, with each different perspectives from the different characters, which was fine and easy to follow.
Easy to read. Nice, cosy summer holiday story. I really enjoyed it.

This was a captivating story and so touching for the two sisters and their family hotel. Full of great characters and a story the touches the heart and won't forget easily. It's only once in a while a book touches you the way this one has. Beautifully written. Amanda can tell a great story. Unfortgetable.

This was a well written story of family, of belonging, expectation and not all being as it seems. Focused on the sisters, we learn about them in the present and their history is unwoven in dual timelines. Secrets, betrayal and ultimately belonging, it was warm and emotional. One to read.

Just off the coast of Ireland, sisters Blythe and Rae Scott, live on Pin Hill Island, their grandfather Jack owns Hope Square Hotel and their parents and the girls live in Still Water House.

Blythe marries Kip Carney, an ex-rugby player and they have a daughter Siggy. Blythe is furious when she returns from having her baby and Marcus Johnson her sister’s boyfriend has taken her place in the hotel and Jack believes she should stay home and take care of her child. Blythe has always expected to run the family business, she met Marcus when she was attending college in Dublin (he was odd) and once he marries a gullible Rae and he takes what's rightfully hers. Blythe also blames Rae, who couldn't see her husband was conniving and by the time she does it’s too late, she’s lost her sister and stuck in a bad marriage.

Fifteen years later, Marcus dies, the hotel finances are a mess, Rae and Siggy try to come up with a solution to her problems and maybe she could sell part of the property and is worried how Blythe will react? Meanwhile Blythe is having issues of her own, her husband Kip is distant, he doesn’t agree with how she’s parenting Siggy, Blythe can’t see she's pushing them both away by her behaviour and she dislikes outsiders and teenager Danial Val.

I received a copy of The Sister of Hope Square by Faith Hogan from Aria & Aries and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. The author has sold millions of novels including The Women at Ocean’s End which I read and loved. A narrative about family dynamics, duty, jealousy, resentment, being a snob, racism, coercive control, going too far and forgiveness.

Five stars from me, what's between the pages of this book is as stunning as the cover and I highly recommend.

The storyline, which goes across time frames, is an effective way to help us understand how Rae and Blythe became estranged. The writing is engaging and the characterisation well developed. Hopes and dreams are thwarted by a grandfather who flips the deck to change the natural skills and ambitions of the two sisters. Heavily influenced by Blythe’s male college “friend” the story line demonstrates how sexism and gaslighting derail the sisters innate hopes and dreams. As the book unfolds the resentment and rift is evident yet the old experience of control is almost perpetrated on the next generation. Forgiveness and redemption round the story off but not without some drama. Overall a very good read

A good story about the family dynamics and what can change it and make or break relationships. Enjoyable read

This is my 4th book by Faith Hogan, and the 2nd one set on Pin Hill Island, so it felt like coming home, just meeting new people. I was so excited when I saw that Faith had a new book due out soon.

What a wonderful cast of main and supporting characters Faith has created. Sisters Blythe and Rae, Blythe's husband Kip, their daughter Siggy are the main focus, with wonderful friends who support them.

Blythe always thought she would take over the Hope Square hotel from her grandfather and all Rae wanted was to become a vet nurse, but life had other plans in store for both of them.

What a wonderful, kind, patient and caring man Kip is, supporting Blythe the way he does, even when he doesn't agree with her or understand her reasoning.

Not wanting to give away any spoilers here, but there are some very strong topics dealt with here, about women not being seen as strong enough to run a business as well as look after a family, domestic violence, criminal activity and racism. All have been handled delicately.

Thank you to Shannon from Head of Zeus, NetGalley and Faith Hogan for the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

Blythe Carney has spent years building a life she never really wanted, after her dream of running the family hotel slipped into her younger sister Rae’s hands. Rae, meanwhile, never asked for the responsibility but took it on out of duty—and now, newly widowed and struggling to keep the hotel afloat, she faces the possibility of losing everything.

The story follows both sisters as they navigate old resentments, unspoken disappointments and the complicated ways family expectations shape a life. The setting is a real strength—Hope Square and Pin Hill Island feel warm, lived‑in and easy to picture—and the characters are likeable, even when they’re at odds.

You can more or less see the direction the story is heading, but that doesn’t take away from its charm. It’s a gentle, enjoyable read about family, forgiveness and finding your way back to the life you wanted.

A lovely 3.5/5.

Free courtesy of Netgalley

I really enjoyed this book from Faith Hogan. Even though there was a divide with the sisters I felt for both sides, both manipulated by one man who gaslit both of them.

The sisters were really close when they were younger and Blythe always had her heart on taking over the family hotel in Hope Square. When she goes off to university study hotel management she meets the focused Marcus who tells her he will run his own hotel one day, Blythe tells him all about taking over her grandfather's hotel and her plans. When Blythe's flat gets broken into, whilst she is there she abandons her course and moves back to the island.

She finally ends up in a relationship with her Grandfather's enemy's son and this makes her grandfather reevaluate who will take over the hotel. Suddenly Marcus appears and makes a play for Blythe's little sister Rae and manipulates their grandfather to leave the hotel to Rae.

With the explosion and deterioration of the sisters relationship, the story moves forward to Rae being a widower and needs money to keep the hotel going, whereas Blythe has transferred her parents old home into a successful BnB, but will she be pushed over the edge when she learns that Rae is planning to sell

The story is told from both the sisters point of view, and although Blythe is somewhat over protective and forceful, you do feel for them both. It was a great story and I really enjoyed the book

Very well done Faith Hogan for delivering another fantastic family saga about two sisters and the hotel business, set in Ireland with great characters and plenty of secrets!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. It was a delight.

This is a story of the past, the present and the future for The Sister of Hope Square. Set on an island off Ireland, two sisters, Blythe and Rae, had lived knowing who the Hotel was going to be passed on to. Blythe was part of the furniture of the hotel, whereas Rae wanted to work with animals. A meeting changed all that, and the once close sisters have drifted apart over the years. They still live close by, but the trust they once had has gone.

The author tells the fate of the sisters and their relationship over the years, the pressure placed on them by their grandfather, and what they put on themselves. Of how they have been manipulated and how they see themselves. Both are a presence in this small community, but how they deal with the present will dictate how the future could pan out. Things come to a head at the end of the book, and what follows feels appropriate in the outcome. Sometimes something extreme is needed to make people realise what they have and what they stand to lose.

This is a story of love, life, regrets, moving on and admitting how things through the years have changed. The author tells the story from the perspective of various characters, and it is a great chance to see different sides of a story and some of the smaller wrangling and the author keeps everything in check.

If you are looking for something that has family secrets and expectations set in the past and the present, then this is a book that I would be very happy to recommend.

This is the story of two sisters and looks at their history as well as the present day. It interweaves well and is easy to follow. I have read books by Faith Hogan before and she is good at describing the joys and struggles of family life. These sisters have their share of difficulties both in their relationship and in everyday life. It is an easy story to read though it deals with some serious themes, Overall I enjoyed this book. I am grateful to Aria and Aries and NetGalley for the advance copy.