The Delta Sisters: A Novel

by Kayla Perrin

The Grayson family is a pillar of the African-American community in New Orleans. But Sylvia Grayson, the matriarch, has deep secrets that she represses under a veneer of keeping up appearances. She keeps a tight rein on her daughter, Olivia, and has the perfect life mapped out for go to college, join the Delta sorority, marry the proper boy. So when the town's "bad girl" is found murdered one summer day in 1975, Sylvia pulls Olivia even closer. But when Olivia's one last attempt at rebellion is subverted by her mother, Sylvia's relentlessly tight control shatters the ties between them.
Years later, Olivia's own daughter, Rachelle, is trying to make her way in the world. Olivia does not want to make the same mistakes as her mother, nor does she want her daughter to make the same errors Olivia made out of rebellion. Meanwhile, a killer is watching from the shadows, determined to keep the secrets of the past from coming to light. The Delta Sisters is a spellbinding, intimate portrait of what happens when these passionate women have to join together at last in the face of danger.

Genres: Mystery

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Danita Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good read. I always loved something about New Orleans and that's where this story took place and I enjoyed it. I still haven't found out if the Delta sisters and the sisters of theta phi kappa r sequels.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It started off slow and I wasn't sure what to expect but I was never able to put it down. Just when you think you know what's going to happen next, the book turns another way and it's not what you expect! The end had me yelling out loud ("What? He did WHAT?!"). It was a lot of fun!

[Love7567 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book The delta sisters was a good book I finished da book u should read it!!!!!!!!

[Kyra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The end was definitely out of nowhere. It was pretty good, a bit choppy and then rushed ending. A good read if you feel like something light.

[Chin · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow! wow! this book is amazing i like it..I think
you guys should take a good look at it and ready to read it..

[La Tonya Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a light fun read regarding a dysfunctional family. The sins of the grandmother follow the mother and daughter. The drama continues.

[Nikkie Tariot · Rating 4 out of 5]

This kept me guessing. Every time I thought I figured out the murderer from the beginning every time I thought I knew Sylvia’s secret, I was wrong. In the end I was surprised and I can’t ask for more than that.

[Mads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the perspective changes throughout the book. I only wish that it didn't go from past to present as it made the story's plot less strong. Lots of twists in the book tho

[Noelle ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kayla Perrin can write her ass off! This book was so good, I finished it in about a day and a half.

[Melva Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read!

This book kept me engaged every time I picked it up. I really wish there was more to the ending more like a epilogue to say what happened to everyone.

[Phyllis | Mocha Drop · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kayla Perrin's latest release, The Delta Sisters, is a multi-generational saga that chronicles the impact of a mother's past sins on her daughter's. The story opens with a murder of a local promiscuous teenaged girl but quickly shifts focus to widow Sylvia Grayson, a prim and proper New Orleans socialite who wants only the best for her daughter, Olivia. Olivia must mingle and date within a select group of privileged children, so when Olivia falls in love with "the help" Sylvia outwardly disapproves, separates the two lovers (in a predictable mean-spirited way) and cripples an already fragile mother/daughter relationship.
Fast forward nearly thirty years later and we discover a widowed, alcoholic Olivia in an equally dysfunctional relationship with her daughter, Rachelle, from a passionless marriage to a man thirty-years her senior. Rachelle suffers an identity crisis -- wanting to desperately escape the oppressive household and break family tradition by neither attending the local Dillard University nor pledging the Delta sorority that her great-grandmother helped found and where her grandmother and mother are idolized.

The book opened strong with a murder and some hint of Sylvia's secret past, but fizzled when it went off into unrelated tangents and drawn out passages of mother/daughter banter, lost love themes, and occasional hints that a murderer is still afoot. Nearly 300 pages later, the police reopens the murder case, lost loves are reunited, and Olivia's secrets are revealed -- but at that point, I was ready for the book to end. I struggled through the shifting focus, slow pacing, and elongated storyline. In the end, I was disappointed and closed the book thinking "was that it?!?!" While reading, it was also a challenge to understand how and when the title of the book would become relevant to the plot. I suppose the analogy of the lead characters being sorority sisters and a sorority being like a family (even the dysfunctional ones) is a takeaway, but I still feel somewhat misled by the title because sorority politics and sisterhood principles were addressed so late in the story and played such a small role in the overall plot.

Overall, this book was entertaining for a light summer read -- the characters had good intentions and were fairly likable. There was romance, drama, and a bit of intrigue; so the elements are there for an enjoyable reading experience.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I stumbled upon Kayla Perrin's mystery. I'm not usually a mystery or fiction fan, yet this page-turner was a win! Perrin covered everything for the young visceral reader while keeping culture, story and characters exciting.

[Maya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a quick read. It has some surprises but it lacked real substance, and the end seems abrupt.

[Dashonne]

It was life changing

[Martita Claiborne-Robbins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put the book down! The characters and plot are too captivating. This book should be one a great movie!