Sister Dear

Description Doesn't Match Story... Until It Does. I gotta admit, the most remarkable thing about this book for me was how WILDLY wrong the description was. Until it wasn't anymore, and suddenly the description fit perfectly. McKinnon does a remarkable job of seemingly writing one story, only to suddenly flip it and reveal that she had been writing a very different story all along. Very much recommended.

Sisterhood?

This is my first book by Hannah Mary McKinnon and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I will say that I picked this book off the Netgalley because the blurb was very intriguing. However everything that the blurb said and everything I thought would happen in the book was completely not what happened or an extreme stretch from what I expected. Which for someone who reads as many thrillers as I do was a great surprise and gem of a read so I give the author lots of credit for being able to surprise me.

Eleanor Hardwicke has not had an easy life. Her mother and perfect younger sister belittle her at every opportunity and when her beloved father dies, she is left adrift. Finding out that he was not her biological father, Eleanor imagines starting over with a new family, her other family. Her father Stan wants nothing to do with her, but her sister Victoria might be another story. Victoria is the complete opposite of Eleanor; she has a father that offers her every advantage possible yet wants nothing to do with Eleanor. This has enabled Victoria to lead a privileged life and become who she is today. Why shouldn't Eleanor have some part of this fairy tale life? So when a stroke of luck happens and Eleanor finds out that Victoria needs a websites she goes above and beyond to try and befriend Victoria so she could at least have a relationship with one person from her new family even if that person has no clue of her existence..

She can't believe that her plan worked and she not only has a job that is paying money and she can afford her bills but under a guise of a web designer she can finally feel like she belongs somewhere and doesn't feel like a black sheep. The more time that passes the harder it is to tell Victoria and the more she likes her and Victoria genuinely seems to like Eleanor and the risk of losing it all is too great. As Eleanor gets drawn deeper into Victoria's perfect world, the facade she has built of the perfect life starts to look a lot less perfect. But helping Victoria comes with a price. A price that might be more than she ever thought possible.

What I will say is that this is one of those books where the explosive ending is not one that you will see coming. You will also learn to love and hate some of the characters very early on in the book but every person and every act is perfectly placed to make this a great read. I apologize for my delay in reviewing this book; I enjoyed this very much and would read more books by this author in the future.
I received an arc from Harlequin Trade Publishing through NetGalley.