Today I’m thrilled to be a part of the blog tour for the great new novel by S.D. Robertson – My Sister’s Lies. Read on to find out what I thought…
Title: My Sister’s Lies
Author: S.D Robertson
Publisher: Avon Books
[Synopsis]
For a decade, Hannah’s life has been pretty close to perfect – she has a great job, she’s married to Mark, and her child-free existence means she’s free as a bird. The only sadness in her life is a fall-out with her sister Diane, who hasn’t spoken to her in over ten years. But now Diane is on her doorstep – and this time, she’s got her teenage daughter Mia in tow.
When Diane asks if Mia can stay with Hannah and Mark for a few days, Hannah is glad of the chance to get to know her niece. But as the days turn into weeks and Diane doesn’t return, Hannah begins to worry. Why hasn’t her sister been in touch?
Diane is carrying a devastating secret that will destroy Hannah’s carefully constructed life. But how much is she willing to reveal – and when will she pick her moment?
[My Review]
This is a well-crafted, thought provoking novel about forgiveness, family and – of course – secrets. There’s an element to mystery about it, as the book opens with an unnamed woman preparing for something quite dramatic which we can sort of work out, but we don’t know who it is or when it’s occurring. Then the narrative switches to Hannah and her husband Mark, who is visited by her estranged sister Diane and her daughter, Mia. Diane asks them to take Mia in whilst she sorts ‘something important’ out.
What follows is an emotional story that slowly unpicks those incidences in the pasts of Hannah, Diane and Mark which led to such a rift between the sisters and them not speaking for over 10 years. I was really intrigued as to what would happen, and although I did guess at quite a lot of what happened, it didn’t hamper my enjoyment at all.
The story is very much about the relationship between the main characters, and how decisions they’ve made in the past can have such a big effect on their futures. As I read I put myself in Hannah’s place, thinking how awful it must be for her, and for Mia and even Diane, who hasn’t made the best decisions to date…
Things get really messy, and no character is painted as completely guilt-free or perfect, which I felt was so much more real and believable. The story kept me wanting to keep reading from start to finish, and I now want to read many more novels by S.D. Robertson.
Many thanks to Avon Books for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review, and for inviting me onto the blog tour!
[So who is this SD Robertson chap?]
Hello. Pleased to meet you. Feel free to call me Stuart. S.D. sounds weird on its own.
I worked for almost a decade as a journalist before leaving my position as a local newspaper editor to pursue a lifelong ambition of becoming a novelist. I suspected making up my own stories would be more fun. I was right.
An English graduate from the University of Manchester, I tried my hand at a few other things before I started writing for a living. I’ve been a holiday rep, door-to-door salesman, train cleaner, kitchen porter and mobile phone network engineer.
I live in a small village in the North West of England with my lovely wife and daughter. There’s also Bernard, our cat, who likes to distract me from writing – usually by breaking things.
[Follow the rest of the tour]
