Good Girls

by Amanda Brookfield

Who can you trust with your darkest secrets...

Everyone that meets Kat Keating is mesmerised. Beautiful, smart and charming, she is everything a good girl should be.

Her sister Eleanor, on the other hand, knows she can't compete with Kat. On the awkward side of tall, clever enough to be bullied, and full of the responsibilities only an older sibling can understand, Eleanor grows up knowing she’s not a good girl.

This is the story of the Keating sisters - through a childhood fraught with dark secrets, adolescent rivalries, and on into adulthood with all its complexities and misunderstandings.  Until a terrible truth from the past brings the sisters crashing together, and finally Eleanor begins to uncover just how good Kat really was.

Good Girls is a mystery, a love story, a coming-of-age story, and a tear-jerker. But most of all it’s a reminder of who to keep close and who to trust with your darkest secrets. Perfect for fans of Jane Fallon, Celeste Ng, and Julie Cohen. 

Genres: Audiobook, British Literature

362 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 8, 2019

About the author

I have two elder sisters and a twin brother who is much quieter than me and with much longer legs. Our Dad was in the Foreign Office so we spent our childhood living in far-flung places like Shanghai and Stockholm. In fact, until the age of 32 I had never spent more than 3 years under the same roof...it's left me with the opposite of 'itchy feet'.
I fell in love with writing aged 11 when my class was asked to write a ghost story - that thrill of being able to make it all up! Studying English at Oxford was a dream come true, but then real life got in the way and I started a career in advertising, climbing the greasy pole for four years, helping sell washing powder and cold remedies.
Aged 25, I got the chance to go and live in Argentina. I left advertising, set myself up as a freelance journalist and wrote my first novel,'Alice Alone' which was published (to critical acclaim!) in 1989. I haven't stopped,or looked back, since.
I am now published by Penguin. At the last count I had produced fifteen novels and two sons. There will be no more offspring, but lots of books I hope.

Reviews

[Louise Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kat and Eleanor are sisters. Eleanor is the main character. Kat is the beautiful, charming and clever one. Eleanor knows she can't compete with her. The sisters couldn't be any more different from each other. The girls have had a difficult upbringing. Their father was a strict clergyman and their mother has mental health issues.

The story alternated between the sisters at different stages in their lives. It starts off slowly and seemed to drag on at times. The characters are complex. Some parts of the book are sad and difficult to read. The story covers from Kat and Eleanor's childhood, right up until the present day. The girls lives are very different to each other. I liked the authors descriptive writing. The second half of the book was better than the first, especially when it hit around the 60% mark. A really nice read.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Boldworld Books and the author Amanda Brookfield for my ARC in exchange for an honest review

[Bookread2day · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Good Girls in paperback. Amanda Brookfield has painted a very good description of two sisters that are completely different in many ways. I have two daughters myself that are very different in their personality and ways .

It can safely be said that all readers are going to understand what Kat is going through with having a tumour removed from her bowel.

Maybe Eleanor, Kat's sister was envious of how, Howard and Kat lived in a Georgian house that seemed to be the kind of house you would find in a fashion house magazine that's full of lovely expensive houses.

Then it seemed Eleanor was rather jealous of Kat with her posh dress making for private customers, and then with Kat's husband, Howard who has a big bankers job.

To Eleanor everything her sister Kate and her husband had was glamorous, unlike Eleanor who rents a property and is writing an old actor's memoirs for money that will barely pay off her overdraft.

This story Good Girls is rather moving with plenty of stuff about two sisters through childhood fraught with secrets, until a terrible truth brings them crashing together and then Eleanor begins to uncover just how good her sister Kat really was.

A drama story about sisters that shouldn't be missed.

[StinaStaffymum · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I started GOOD GIRLS by Amanda Brooksfield, I had no idea why I requested it. It is not my usual genre, and the synopsis wasn't even particularly grabbing either. So I was puzzled what had attracted it to me in the first place. Even so, I began in the hope that I would discover its attractions. But it was not so.

I don't know if it was my frame of mind, but I found the characters irritating - particularly Kat - and I just didn't want to know anything about her. I felt she was a bit of an entitled bitch and treated her sister like crap. I felt for Eleanor (who was a little like me), the unnoticed unappreciated sister. It seemed that Kat just took advantage of her older sister's good nature.

GOOD GIRLS is the story of sisters Eleanor and Kat, who were once close but became estranged as they grew older - each of their lives moving in a different direction. Then fate cruelly brings them together once again - but is it too lat for the sisters?

The story begins with Eleanor rushing to her sister's side after receiving surgery for bowel cancer. Surgery was successful but Kat was an irritating patient and a complete pain in the butt. She didn't seem to appreciate Ellie's efforts at all being there for her. Their father resides nearby in a care home, suffering from dementia. Ellie doesn't get to visit him as much living in London, and the travel to Surrey is too costly to make the trip on a regular basis.

Kat has always been the popular sister, the one everyone loves. She even married a rich man, produced three perfect children, lives in a lovely perfect house and has the most amazing perfect life. Ellie, on the other hand, is too tall, too awkward, too nice, to unnoticeable and despite being incredibly clever with a sports degree from Oxford, she lives in a small flat in London with an unexciting job, no money and no one interesting in her life. Both girls are products of their upbringing with their somewhat stern clergyman father and their mentally ill mother who committed suicide when they were young.

An obviously dysfunctional family from the start, this story focuses on the tension between the sisters. Told through varying perspectives, primarily Eleanor and Nick (a childhood friend of the girls), the story drifts back in time to when the sisters young to when Ellie left for university. I always enjoy dual timeline narratives but with this book I just found myself becoming more irritated with Kat as the story progressed.

The promise of something I'm not entirely sure of gives way to a somewhat slow and drawn out story with people living miserable lives and basically being incredibly horrible to each other. I really struggled with this book and didn't enjoy the journey at all and spent most of the time waiting for something interesting to happen...which invariably didn't.

I feel really terrible about giving a bad review but in all honesty I couldn't seem to connect to the characters or the find the story remotely interesting. I'm not sure what genre the book is meant to fall into, but I would categorise it as a family drama.

While I didn't enjoy GOOD GIRLS that isn't to say others will. I urge you to make up your own mind, as I can't categorically state whether this is a bad book, a bad story or just not appealing...because everyone is different. Everyone's tastes are different and what appeals to me may not be the same for you.

I would like to thank #AmandaBrookfield, #NetGalley and #BoldwoodBooks for an ARC of #GoodGirls in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

[Nila (digitalcreativepages) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite a different read with unlikable characters and their dysfunctional family. The Keating sisters and the friction between them. Kat and Eleanor. Kat was the perfect one and Eleanor was still struggling in life. This was the story of their relationship.

My first book by Amanda Brookfield, the story moved at a slow pace, jumping between the timelines with most of it being narrated by Eleanor and Nick, an old friend of the sisters.

Secrets stayed hidden in the first half. I hoped it wouldn't be what I had suspected from the thoughts of the secondary characters. And it exactly was. The second half dealt with the repercussions of such a revelation and the way Eleanor found her way to move ahead in life.

The story needed patience to hear what the sisters were telling me. I could feel pain, anger, sadness, helplessness in their voices. There was jealousy and power games as they were growing up. The author provided adequate backstory to understand their lives.

As the pages unfurled, I was pulled more into the book, especially when the emotions were laid bare. This was not a happy book to begin with, but for some of us, life is not a bundle of joy. I could understand the sisters more as I have gone through those parts of life. I knew where their anger stemmed from.

For me, the author wrote an honest story, showing me facets of the relationship between sisters, as seen from a different angle. Life could be viewed in more ways than one.

[Elaine and Tess the Springer. I won’t be on GR for a bit. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keep reading because it’s worth it.

A bit of a slow starter for me that dragged on a bit but it picked up as the chapters passed and was a really great book. There’s a definite tension in the book between the two female characters and in the beginning it’s not clear why but it made me want to speak out for them so that they could then start to communicate about what they couldn’t bring themselves to say to each other. Life isn’t always a happy ever after as much as we would like it to be. In the end I enjoyed it and I would recommend it to others.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice easy read about family dynamics and things not always having a happy ever after when it comes to family love.

[Monica Shaver]

Boring, boring, boring!!!!
Half way through, can't do it.
DONE

[Chickpea · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like books about families and relationships then this may be for you. Quite a lengthy saga - links to Jane Eyre. Overly detailed in parts but some enjoyable aspects too.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there’s one thing that this Ginger Book Geek likes it’s discovering new authors. Amanda Brookfield is certainly a new author for me. I read the synopsis for ‘Good Girls’ and it certainly sounded intriguing and like my sort of read. A psychological tale with a twist to it. It certainly was that and so much more. Overall I did enjoy reading ‘Good Girls’ but more about that in a bit.
I can honestly say that I didn’t take to either of the lead female characters at all but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There was just something about the pair of them that set little alarm bells ringing in my mind. Out of the two sisters Kat is the prettier of the two and doesn’t she know it. She has married a wealthy man and they live the sort of lifestyle that is beyond most people. On face value Kat is one of the good girls. Eleanor is Kat’s sister and she is the elder of the two siblings. Eleanor is the one who is the more awkward of the two sisters. She’s a tad clumsy and she certainly stands out from the crowd, which has led to some bullying from others. Eleanor feels responsible for her sister and most of her life has been taken up with looking out for sister. As I said, I didn’t take to either character and I didn’t consider them to be at all likeable. That’s only my opinion though and others might feel differently.
I must admit that it took me a little while to get into this story. I don’t know whether or not that was because I was tired or because the story confused me a bit. I couldn’t make my mind up if the story was trying to be a psychological thriller or a domestic suspense or crime sort of book Once I got into the story that was it I was away as the saying goes. I became intrigued by the sisters and I had to find out what the truth was and which of the sisters really was the good girl. I binge read the book over the course of a few days.
‘Good Girls’ is well written and the author clearly knows how to grab your attention. Once she has your attention it is rather hard to for you to reclaim your attention. She has created intriguing characters and given them back stories which are interesting. The story isn’t particularly fast paced but that suits the sort of story that this is. Amanda creates a tense and dramatic atmosphere and makes you uncertain what or who to believe. She also shows that just because you might be related to somebody it doesn’t mean that you can trust them. That certainly resonated with me because I feel exactly the same.
If I had one teensy weensy little grumble it would be that this book is a bit wordy for my liking and uses words that I haven’t come across in books before. That said I was able to guess at the meaning of certain words by reading the context in which the word was used.
In short and overall I did enjoy the book. I would definitely recommend this book to readers, who love a slower pace of story. I will be reading more from Amanda Brookfield in the future. I look forward to catching up with the books that she has already released. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a well deserved 4* out of 5*.

[Jane Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two sisters, once close, but who have become estranged as they grew older. Eleanor, the older has her reasons, but she’s never understood her sister Kat’s. Drawn together again, by a cruel stroke of fate, is it too late to reconnect?

This is an excellent family drama, with dark family secrets that devastate the once close sisterly bond. The story begins with Eleanor rushing to be with her sister, and them drifts back in time to the mid-1980s when they were young girls, and then the early 1990s, when Eleanor left for university.

The historical events slowly illuminate the present discord and misunderstanding, but all is not revealed until it is in some ways, too late to make amends. Serendipity plays a part in this story, as it often does in reality, and Eleanor gradually comes to terms with her past and the possibility of a hopeful future.

The cast of characters resonate, they all play a part in Eleanor’s life but have their motivations and flaws, which makes them real. The story is realistically peppered with laughter, sadness, anger and despair. It is a poignant reminder that you cannot sometimes trust those closest to you, and of the rollercoaster nature of life.

An emotional family drama, with a realistic plot and memorable characters.

I received a copy of this book from Boldwood Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The depth—the beauty—of this evocative story is almost too difficult to encapsulate. 'Good Girls' explores the complexities of life and love in its many forms. Without revealing too much, this story is about the growth of a damaged woman, Eleanor, that had endured years of heartache, apathy, and loss. It is about a self-doubting man, Nick, questioning the choices that he has made and forcing himself to wonder if choosing the path of least resistance was worth it in the end. It is about the bonds of sisterhood between Eleanor and Kat: the rivalry, the envy, the loyalty, the pride, the understanding, and the love... Enough. Simply put, this book is superb.

I can't recommend this story enough. 5+ stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Amanda Brookfield for an ARC of 'Good Girls' in exchange for an honest review.

[Julie Rhinehart · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the story of the Keating sisters. While this book may have been lived by others , it was not for me. I had a very hard time getting through this book as I found the characters unlike able and unrelatable. The story was slow and so many tragedies that it just got to be overwhelming.

Thank you NetGalley, Boldwood Books for this advanced reader edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partners

[Emma Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I have read this year. 'Good Girls' is a moving poignant story about two very different sisters, Kat and Eleanor. Kat is wild and care-free while Eleanor is more serious and reserved. It is a joy to read how the relationship between the sisters evolves from childhood to adulthood and fascinating to find out the secrets that have kept them at such a distance. Recommend it to anyone who is looking for an intelligent, memorable, stunningly written book.

[Neeky · Rating 2 out of 5]

This will contain spoilers. If you don't want spoilers, please don't read on in case my spoiler tag didn't work.

I'm conflicted about this book, because some of the story felt complex and well fleshed out, and yet some of the tropes/outcomes/characters were not.

I felt that Connie, for instance, was written in a rather insightful way. A woman struggling with addiction, trying to find an anchor, thinking she found it in a pastor, but realising that trying to cure yourself in that way rarely works, and ultimately, feeling trapped and that her children are better off without her. Vincent, a pastor who turns out to be a sexual abuser, both to his wife and to one of his daughters - yet he was not written in the usual religious-sexual-abuser way, but as a more complex character initially as well.

However, it was very hard to like or feel sympathy really for any of the main characters in the book. And I felt that certain plot devices were overused - for instance, Nick's wife is almost comically villainous, and he finds out she's also cheating on him. I find that in novels, movies, series, this is an overused device to justify a character's own cheating, even though such cheating was going on before finding out. (Emotional cheating, or "just kissing", is also cheating. Nick cheats on Tilly with both Eleanor and Kat, and he cheats on Donna emotionally with who he believes is Kat, but that is completely glossed over.)

Not to excuse Donna, meanwhile. I was disturbed at the portrayals of domestic violence where, if the situation had been reversed, we would hope for a serious comeuppance for the abuser. Yet all of Donna's abuse, whilst it affects Nick, feels like it is only a plot device to show that it's okay for him to be flirting with another woman over email, rather than an incredibly serious situation for which he would have every right to press charges. Whereas Connie's situation seemed more fleshed out, Nick's was more ... trope-y.

So, I am absolutely not excusing Donna, however, I am confused that she obviously became the villain because she was cheating, but Nick cheating on Tilly was completely glossed over as not that serious and because Tilly is a character we never get to meet; and Eleanor's sleeping with her BEST FRIEND'S HUSBAND, a heinous act in any real-life setting, is also completely glossed over as a mistake and that her best friend, having more children with the bloke, never needs to find out. Eleanor's conscience is thus clear and she can go on to have her happy ending.

The last thing I want to touch on is the icky aspect of two sisters sharing a brother. Not at the same time, admittedly. But I've always felt that it borders on incestual (even though not technically) when in fiction, a person is with one sibling romantically and/or sexually, and then ends up with the other. Eww. Can we not?

So ... good writing in some parts, and I felt connected to certain characters, such as Connie, whilst reading about them. The very character I probably wasn't supposed to feel sorry for, and for the whole book the kids didn't seem very affected by her death; she was just relegated to "well, she wasn't a good mother, so who cares that she's gone". I felt disconnected to other characters, such as the main ones I was supposed to root for. Some parts of the book, I couldn't put it down, other parts I found myself speed-reading or else reading a paragraph over and over because my mind was wandering.

[Lizp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this read. It is a very well written story. The characters are interesting , well developed, and really well drawn.

Sisters Eleanor and Kat Keating have an oppressive Vicar dad and a beautiful alcoholic mother who is under the thumb of their dad. Dad moves them from London to rural Broughton to get the mum, Connie away from her drinky friends. He is very controlling of their mum and is sexually abusive towards her.

The sisters are very different. Eleanor, the older sister, is brainy and quiet. Kat is beautiful, wild, and outspoken. Their mum dies in tragic circumstances whilst the girls are still very young. Eleanor leaves home for Oxford on a scholarship to study literature six years later and meets Nick, a handsome medical student. She feels overwhelmed at Oxford and Nick is nice to her. She falls for him. Sadly, he is more taken with the gorgeous Kat, which causes a rift between the sisters, whose relationship is already fragile and fragmented.

Many years pass by. The sisters have drifted apart. Kat becomes seriously ill, having a tumour removed from her bowel. Eleanor visits her at her husband Howard’s request. Kat lives a glamorous life with her husband, a rich banker, and two children in a salubrious house. Eleanor has very little money and rents a house. She writes from time to time; at one point writing the memoirs of an old actor, which she really enjoys but the money she’s paid is paltry. She has a spate of relationships with men. Kat does some dressmaking for well off customers.

The story moves between the sisters’ childhood and their later years. There have been many misunderstandings between the sisters, whose poor parenting has caused major issues for both of them. As the story unfolds, we find out how good a sister Kat has been to Eleanor. Secrets that have been long kept are revealed.

Kat and Nick, who has moved to South Africa is doing well for himself as a doctor and has married a bossy wealthy woman, engage in an email correspondence whilst she’s ill. Nick doesn’t know that she is ill . After a time, Kat suddenly tells him she wants their contact to cease. A serious incident that occurs in his life prompts Nick to reevaluate his priorities in life. He wishes to resume his friendship with the Keating sisters.

This is a very engaging and absorbing book. I was taken with the story from the outset. Once I picked up the book, I found it hard to put down. I have long been a fan of Amanda Brookfield’s books. In fact, since back in her Alice Alone days. Her Relative Love is a favourite book of mine.

I highly recommend this beautifully written, emotion charged book to others.

[Els · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been a very long time since I picked up a book by this author. I have always loved her stories. They are filled with love and very moving. The reason why it has been so long? Well, people change in a lot of ways and also when they read. I never liked thrillers and crime stories before and it was always chicklit I would pick, but the last few years my taste has changed. It does not mean I don’t read this genre anymore, but a lot less.

So for me it was a bit like returning to a first love. 😉

What makes a good book? There is not one definition. Each reader would tell you something different. For me a story that blows me away is one thing, but I also struggle a bit sometimes when there are big parts without dialogues. A dialogue equals a more fluent read for me and of course every book has some parts without them.

How did this book do? I cannot say the story blew me away. There were parts that I thoroughly enjoyed, but some parts were a bit too dry if you see what i mean and it slowed me down.

I know you don’t know when you are going to fall in love or who will be the person that ignites those feelings, but Nick really messed it up. On the other hand the part where the author took us to South Africa was my favorite one.

I was also happy to see how Eleanor changed and became a stronger person.

Anyways, for me sometimes a bit too slow, but a beautiful story with a lot of ups and downs. 3.5 stars

Thank you

[Jan Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

As sisters, Eleanor and Kat Keating couldn’t be more different but with a scatterbrained, alcoholic mother and a somewhat misguided, controlling priest for a father the family unit was always going to be one of intense diversity. When Eleanor leaves home for university, the relationship with her sister undergoes subtle changes. It becomes even more fractured when Eleanor’s handsome friend, Nick, is captivated by her younger and prettier sister.
Many years later, Nick has married into a wealthy family in South Africa. A near-death accident forces him to re-evaluate his life and pick up the threads of his friendship with the Keating girls, and although the trail of lies he is fed eventually leads to a reunion of sorts, there are innumerable hurdles to jump before the truth is finally laid bare.

I was fully engaged in this story from the first to the last page. Terrific character development centered around basically good girls – but the products of bad parents – coupled with a lifetime of misunderstandings which only become clear as the novel develops. Skilfully written with a deep understanding of the nuances and the sometimes see-saw of emotions within different relationships.

[Sami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what this book was trying to be. It started off really well, with the MC Eleanor going to visit her sister with whom she has a strained relationship. The sister (Kat) says she has a minor illness but we soon see it’s much more serious. So ok I think, this is a tearjerker about sisters reconciling before one dies ...but no the sister dies suddenly, off the page, as though her death was a mere plot device for Eleanor. Then we keep going to South Africa to hear all about the life of Nick, Eleanor’s first love who fell in love with Kat instead. Fertile ground there but this didn’t get examined too much, so much time is spent painting Nicks wife as a huge bitch, I think to justify how he eventually leaves her. Eleanor pretends to be Kat in some emails which is a bit silly but hardly the massive betrayal Eleanor carries on about. We go back into the past to find out about the sisters’ parents relationship, which were for me the most compelling scenes in the book, but I just didn’t see why we needed that level of detail just to ultimately fill In Eleanor’s backstory. And all the points of view...her dad, her mum, Nick, Eleanor...at one point we get the POV of Nicks bloody assistant, who overhears some crucial information. Whhhhyyyy? Write that scene from the POV of the person with something to lose, not from a random character’s we’ve literally never heard of until then. The whole thing was just ambling all over the place by the end, which tied up like a romance, as though Eleanor and Nick had always meant to be together but kept missing each other because of delays in the postal service. That dude was Not That Into Her from the get go, fucks her sister, runs off to another country, then after 15yrs or so we’re supposed to believe he’s in fact always secretly loved Eleanor? Nope. And what about his daughters? He leaves South Africa to return to England without them. HE LEAVES HIS KIDS IN ANOTHER COUNTRY. Fair enough leaving the wife, she was awful, but the kids? I can’t fathom that choice, really. But it’s all ok, he has everything he needs with Eleanor. Wow. No pressure. This relationship is DOOMED. So the book does not work as a love story, as a depiction of sister relationships (she dies too soon), as s character study or as a family drama. If anything it’s like a soap opera but populated by boring people instead of lusty, incestuous fashion designers. Felt like the whole thing needed a major content edit.

So I’m still giving it 3 as I read to the end and there were moments when I really thought the book was going somewhere...then there would be a random POV switch and poof! My connection with the story disappeared. Too bad.

[Goosegirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, thought provoking, emotive and well balanced. It was worth reading and a good study of complex families and characters and relationships. I liked how Brookfield contemplated how time, life events and hindsight can shift perspective and change one's priorities and feelings about situations and towards others.

My only criticism is that I didn't feel it was that stand out, and I've definitely been more engaged with many other books. Something felt a bit absent or maybe its just a preference for certain styles of writing.

[Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read

I started the book without any preconceptions, it was the first one for me to read by this author. The summary of it took my attention, I was curious to find out more. The more I read the more intrigued I was, why were the sisters behaving like this, why had their mother provoked this reaction, why was their father so remote. All is explained in such a believable way, I will be looking for more like this.

[Alice Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

mixed feelings

Started off ok but many chapters later I began to wonder what the point of this book.
Started skimming and skipping.
In the end just went to final chapters to finish it off.
Well written but far too long, needs a good edit.
Chalk and cheese sisters. Both like Nick Wharton. Outgoing Kat pounces on Nick leaving Eleanor disappointed.
Lots of infill of in between years until Kat is dying young and Nick comes back into their lives.
Rather predictable outcome.

[Gary Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was enjoyable. A family drama flitting between two main time periods, concentrating on two sisters and their lives over the years. There’s a few surprises along the way and the history of the main characters is well explained.

If you want a soft and fluffy story, this isn’t it. If you want a little more realism, then give it a look.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to an audio version of this book an greatly enjoyed it. An easy book to follow with well developed characters and an interesting story line. The story touched on a lot of relationships and how they are effected and change over time. It would be a great book club book to discuss.

[Emma]

I liked parts of this book. I didn’t like others and generally felt a bit indifferent to it - although I did want to know how it all worked out.

And I’m getting bored of books with unreliable narrators - feels a bit of an overused trick now.

[Morag · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two very different sisters' lives told over many years.
Lies and misunderstandings. Sibling tensions. Family secrets and their repercussions.
I found the jumping about between time periods and places rather irritating. However, I did finish the story and was satisfied with its outcome.

[Ronnie Johns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this book on Audible and really enjoyed the narrator and her various accents. This book got me through 3 days of gardening in half term! What an interesting character Kat was and how surprising the father was. Some good twists.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book about family life and the ups and downs that life can give you. Well written with characters that are believable and also well performed. I think everyone can relate to one or all the people in this book

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has lots of good elements but the pacing could have been far better. The first half of the book dragged and I had already worked out what was happening long before any big reveals. The complexities of relationshipsare well written though.

[Catherine Dennison · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started listening to this on Audible but had to stop after a few minutes because I found the character of Cat irritating and unbearable. It's a shame because I previously enjoyed Before I Knew You and loved Alice Alone by the same author.

[Mary Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite. I didn't find the two main characters to be very likable.