Sister Dear

The wonderful Lia at Harper Collins invited me to join the Blog Tour for a new Mystery Thriller called Sister Dear.

About The Book 📚

SISTER DEAR

Author: Hannah Mary McKinnon

ISBN: 9780778309550

Publication Date: May 26, 2020

Publisher: MIRA Books

You can BUY the book HERE:

Social Links:

Twitter: @HannahMMcKinnon

Instagram: @hannahmarymckinnon

Facebook: @HannahMaryMcKinnon

Goodreads

Author Bio:

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing, and is now the author of The Neighbors and Her Secret Son. She lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons, and is delighted by her twenty-second commute.

Book Summary:

In Hannah Mary McKinnon’s psychological thriller, SISTER DEAR (MIRA Trade; May 26, 2020; $17.99), the obsession of Single White Female meets the insidiousness of You, in a twisted fable about the ease of letting in those who wish us harm, and that mistake’s dire consequences.

The day he dies, Eleanor Hardwicke discovers her father – the only person who has ever loved her – is not her father. Instead, her biological father is a wealthy Portland businessman who wants nothing to do with her and to continue his life as if she doesn’t exist. That isn’t going to work for Eleanor.

Eleanor decides to settle the score. So, she befriends his daughter Victoria, her perfect, beautiful, carefree half-sister who has gotten all of life’s advantages while Eleanor has gotten none.

As she grows closer to Victoria, Eleanor’s obsession begins to deepen. Maybe she can have the life she wants, Victoria’s life, if only she can get close enough.

My Review

“The police didn’t believe me.”

› Sister Dear begins with a chapter from the present then we time-warp to fifteen months before the incident. Eleanor is a thirty-year-old website designer living in Maine. Her father has pancreatic cancer and is in hospice. Eleanor’s mother treats her like crap while Eleanor’s sister, Amy, is their mother’s golden child.

› Eleanor discovers her parents have been lying to her for her entire life. Her father isn’t her biological father. Her biological father is in fact one of the richest men in town. On the way home, Lewis, Eleanor’s sexy-gym-owner neighbour saves her from an attacker in the parking lot. The next day Eleanor finds out her father died. She’s wrapped up in a whirlwind moment where everything in her life is falling apart. So she does what every main character would do and decides she wants to know more about her biological father. While learning more about him she learns about her half-sister, Victoria, who she becomes obsessed with. I don’t want to say any more than that because this is a mystery so you’ll find out what happens between Eleanor and her new “family”.

› Sister Dear is being marketed as a thriller, but it’s really just the last 10% that I would consider a thriller. I wouldn’t call it suspenseful either, definitely not psychological suspense or thriller. It is a mystery told completely from Eleanor’s point of view, and if you don’t like Eleanor (like I didn’t) then you may not enjoy the way this story is told. I love the premise, and writing itself, but I’m not a big fan of the plot or ending.

› Trigger warning for: sexual harassment, weight issues, emotional binge eating, death, grief.

› Final Thoughts
• Sister Dear is an over-the-top mystery with an unlikeable main character about family secrets, betrayal, loss, love, loyalty, and revenge. If you read a lot of mysteries then you may not find the plot twisty and surprising, however, if you are the kind of reader that doesn’t usually figure out what’s going to happen before it happens, then I do think you’ll find the ending shocking.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.