Thank you, thank you to Justine Sha with Harlequin Books for the opportunity to be invited to and included in this blog tour! I was presented an advance copy of Sister Dear in exchange for my honest review and opinion. All thoughts expressed are my own. Stay tuned after my review for an excerpt!
I never thought a book could have me feel all different kinds of emotions for the protagonist until I read this one. What do I mean? Here’s a list of everything I felt for Eleanor, our main character: sorry, angry, upset, crazy, happy, and my list could go on with all of these opposing emotions. What a tale Hannah Mary McKinnon takes us on and what a ride she takes us on with Eleanor!
This story is told through Eleanor. She recently loses her father, the only parent she had a relationship with. She is estranged from her mother and sister and could care less about them. When a secret comes out on her father’s death bed, her life changes.
Eleanor lives a single lifestyle, barely hanging on, and has a problem with binge eating. Her father’s death catapults her and she ends up learning even more about her mother. Her mother comes around and tries to be nice, but all she wants is for Eleanor to give any money her father left her, to her sister. Mind you, her sister didn’t even come to her father’s funeral.
Oh, did I not mention the secret that she found out? Right…well, her father wasn’t her biological father. Nope. And she found out she has a half sister. If you thought her mom and sister were drama…oh no, wait until you meet her real father and see how THAT plays out.
5 stars. Why? Because my opinion of Eleanor changed SO MUCH throughout this book, it was unreal. The ending made me angry, but weirdly I was ok with it. I’m still angry and upset over the ending, but any other ending really could have been a little more unrealistic. This book just takes you on a wild ride and I loved every minute of it. Such a great job by the author!! You won’t regret picking this one up!
EXCERPT: Chapter 1
The police didn’t believe me.
A jury wouldn’t have, either, if I’d gone on trial, and most definitely not the judge. My attorney had more than a few reservations about my story. Ms. Allerton hadn’t said as much. She didn’t need to. I saw it in her eyes, could tell by the way she shuffled and reshuffled her papers, as if doing so might shake my lies clean off the pages, leaving only the truth behind in her inky, royal blue swirls.
After our first meeting I’d concluded she must’ve known early on—before she shook my hand with her icy fingers—that I was a liar. Before she’d walked into the room in shiny, four-inch heels, she’d no doubt decided she’d heard my excuses, or a variation thereof, from countless clients already. I was yet another person claiming to be innocent. Another criminal who’d remained adamant they’d done nothing wrong, it wasn’t their fault, honest, despite the overwhelming amount of evidence to the contrary, a wall of impending doom surrounding me.
And still, at the time I’d believed the only reason Ms. Allerton had taken on my case pro-bono was because of the amount of publicity it gave her firm. Reducing my sentence—for there would be one—would amplify her legacy as a hot-shot lawyer. I’d accepted her help. There was no other option. I needed her knowledge, her expertise, saw her as my final hope. I now know her motivations were something else I’d miscalculated. All hope extinguished. Game over.
If I’m being fair, the judgements Ms. Allerton and other people had made about me weren’t completely wrong. I had told lies, some, anyway. While that stripped away part of my claim to innocence, it didn’t mean I was entirely guilty. Not of the things everybody said I’d done. Things I’d had no choice but to confess to, despite that being my biggest lie of all.
But I’ll tell you the truth. The whole truth and nothing but. I’ll start at the beginning, and share everything that happened. Every last detail leading up to one fateful night. The night someone died because of me. The night I lost you, too.
I won’t expect your forgiveness. Our relationship—or lack thereof—will have gone way beyond that point. No. All I can hope for, is that my side of the story will one day help you understand why I did the things I did.
And why I have to do the things I’ve not yet done.
Title: Sister Dear
Author: Hannah Mary McKinnon
Genre(s): Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Psychological Thriller
Publisher: MIRA for Harlequin
Release Date: May 26, 2020
Find it here on Goodreads
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