Monday 30 January 2017

Book Review - The Other Sister by Rowan Coleman - Rachel Reads Randomly Book #50

Amazon UK
Title:  The Other Sister
Author: Rowan Coleman
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Ebury Press
Publication Date: 17th November 2016
Rating: 4 Stars


Every family has its secrets...
Willow and Holly are identical twins, as close as two sisters can be. But while Holly has gone through life being the ‘good twin’, Willow has always been the less than perfect one. Holly is happily married, Willow is divorced and almost twice her twin’s size. And while she puts on a brave face to the world, Willow knows she’s been hiding her unhappiness for far too long.
So when the past catches up with her, Willow realises it’s finally time for her to face her fears, and – with her sister’s help – finally deal with the secrets of their childhood before it’s too late.

The Other Sister has hidden depths to it, which completely took me by surprise. I could tell the story was leading up to something, and there had to be a reason why Willow and Holly, identical twins, seemed to be so different, but I just wasn't expecting what was revealed. 

Willow on the whole doesn't tend to like people, she likes her sister and her best friend, but generally doesn't want to spend her days with anyone else. She lives alone, and has a job in a talent agency and has an ex husband plus ex-stepdaughter. 

Over the course of just a few days Willow ends up sharing her house with a famous actress that is a client of the agency, needing a bolthole to lay low, and her ex-step daughter is suddenly back in her life too. What is seemingly the trigger of this is one day when Willow was heading back to the office, she accidently took a wrong turn, and found a shop that had the most magnificent pair of shoes in stock. 

Whether you believe it or not, these shoes, plus some of the other things in this shop appear to have magical qualities, or at the very least life altering consequences, and from that moment Willow is suddenly more open to people than she has been for years, more attractive to men than she has been for a long time, and generally is liking her own reflection a lot more. 

I loved the scenes involving Willow, India the actress and Chloe (the stepdaughter), and there are some great moments between the three of them. The trip to Hamleys brought a huge smile to my face as well as reminders of my own childhood. 

As I have said there is far more to this story than I want to say, mainly as its far more fun to discover everything for yourself. What I will say is from the start I was interested in Willow's story, and as more threads and characters were introduced, I felt more and more involved and just wanted to help Willow change to become a more rounded person. 

I've read quite a few of Rowan Coleman's books now, and I really enjoyed this one, it may not become a new favourite, but its still a lovely piece of writing, with warm hearted humour, as well as some far more serious subject matter too. 

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Ebury Press for this copy of the book which I have reviewed honestly. 

Thank you to everyone that voted for The Other Sister this week. You managed to pick the one review book that was in the selection, which is rather helpful, as it fell into my backlog of review books, especially as it was released while I was deep into Christmas reading season! I'm very glad that I've finally read it and look forward to seeing what paperback I will be reading courtesy of this weeks vote. 

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