Sister of Mine by Laurie Petrou

It's not a 'whodunnit'...it's a 'what happens next?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Blurb:

Two sisters. One fire. A secret that won't burn out.

The Grayson sisters are trouble. Everyone in their small town knows it. But no-one can know of the secret that binds them together.

Hattie is the light. Penny is the darkness. Together, they have balance.

But one night the balance is toppled. A match is struck. A fire is started. A cruel husband is killed. The potential for a new life flickers in the fire’s embers, but

resentment, guilt, and jealousy suffocate like smoke.

Their lives have been engulfed in flames – will they ever be able to put them out?

The Review

Thanks to Anne Cater (http://randomthingsthroughmyletterbox.blogspot.com/) for inviting me on the Blog Tour for Sister of Mine by Laurie Petrou.

So, I just came across a quote for this book which got me thinking about why I liked it SO MUCH:

"It's not a 'whodunnit'...it's a 'what happens next?'"

This almost seems to be billed as your typical thriller and nothing hinted otherwise to me. But, it's so much better than that. This is not a clichéd story that tries to keep you guessing about who committed the crime. It's about the fallout after the crime, how it impacts on the relationship between these two sisters and how it shapes the paths their lives then start to follow.

The relationship depicted between Penny and Hattie in this book is superb. Anyone with a sibling knows that real clash of love/hate you can sometimes feel. How they can be the only one who truly understands you whilst also being the one person you can't stand. Sometimes, sibling relationships in books are oversimplified and fall into over worn formulaic tropes, but the author here depicts that constant pull and push in all it's real complexity.

Hattie and Penny love each other, there is no denying that. And yet that unconditional love leads them to share a secret that threatens to drive them apart for good. The resentment they feel towards each other is palpable.

As this resentment builds, so does the slow trickle of tension. The sense of foreboding building throughout leaves you constantly on edge about which one of them is going to break first (because it feels inevitable that one of them will).

Both the writing and the plot are superb. It's smart, intriguing and whilst perhaps not a 'thrill-a-minute' ride, it teases you with a slow inexorable burn until you feel like one of the characters has to snap. It's genre bending too, I would say while traditional thriller lovers will like this, it easily falls into 'literary fiction' too. The focus on the characters in this book is so strong and so deftly done and the deep, dark, secretive relationship these sisters have is too captivating to turn away from. This book explores the sacrifices these two make for each other and the ensuing rivalry, jealousy and resentment. You'll find yourself loving them both at moments, and feeling sickened by them in others.

It's been a long time that I've been so impressed by an author I've not read before and I thoroughly look forward to reading more from Petrou.

Thank you to the Blog tour organiser and the author for the invitation to participate in this blog tour & a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

LAURIE PETROU has a PhD in Communication and Culture, and is an Associate Professor at Ryerson’s RTA School of Media in Toronto, where she is also the Director of the Masters of Media Production program. She has given several TEDx talks on subjects including gender and rejection.

Laurie was the inaugural winner of the Half the World Global Literati Award in 2016, a prize that honours unpublished work featuring female protagonists, for her novel Sister of Mine. She now lives in a small town in Ontario wine country with her husband, a wine maker, and their two sons.