Blog Tour ~ Sister of Mine by Laurie Petrou

I'm delighted to host the blog tour stop for this debut book

No Exit Press
20 June 2019

My thanks to the publishers and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to be part of the tour

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?

Steeped in intrigue and suspense, Sister of Mine is a powerhouse debut; a sharp, disquieting thriller written in stunning, elegant prose with a devastating twist. Fans of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies and Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door will be utterly absorbed by this compulsively readable novel.

What did I think about it..

Sister of Mine is a roller coaster of a read which starts with an dramatic opening chapter which sets the scene for a taut and rather dark psychological thriller. Penny and Hattie are as close as two sisters can be, they have grown up in a small Canadian town and share a close familial bond however, the secrets they keep, both from the townsfolk, and from each other, are always set to engulf them.

The author writes well, with particular attention to her characters which I found really interesting. It must be said that neither sister have many likable personality traits, in fact, one of them becomes quite unlikable as the story progresses, but all credit to the author for keeping me emotionally connected to both Hattie and Penny, even though they didn't always act in the way I expected.

A creeping menace shadows the story, and whilst it's a quick read, just about 250 or so pages,  and I'm not going to spoil it by revealing the plot, it's certainly not short on either content or on the power of its dramatic domestic noir story line. I was hooked from the start and I devoured the story in one sitting as I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next in the complicated lives of these two enigmatic siblings.

Sister of Mine is a really exciting debut novel which looks at the complicated bond of sisterhood and of the lengths that some siblings will go to protect themselves ...and those they love.

 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.

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