BOOK REVIEW: The Orchid Sister by Anne D. LeClair @amazonpub @lakeunionpublishing #TheOrchidSister #bookreview

“Everyone has scars, Maddie. They just hide them in different ways.”

Beautifully written and with a vague hint of lore and mystery, Anne D. LeClair’s The Orchid Sister was simply magical. In the wake of a challenging upbringing, two sisters prove that their bond is greater than the bad things that come their way. This suspenseful women’s fiction novel is a beautiful story, and one with many layers.

About the Book

From the bestselling author of The Halo Effect comes a heart-racing novel of love, suspense, and the unbreakable bond between sisters.

The people you love are taken from you. That’s what Maddie DiMarco learned when she survived the plane crash that killed her parents. Fifteen years later, the scars remain. And the ones no can see are hardest to heal. Since the accident, Maddie’s avoided the unpredictable and uncaring outside world, including any relationships—except for the one with her devoted older sister, Kat, who has always been there for her.

When Maddie meets handsome pilot Jack Moroni, she finally begins to let down her guard. But just as quickly, her hope and trust are once again shattered when a plane crash forces her to revisit her traumatic past. Maddie turns to her sister for comfort and guidance, only to realize that Kat is missing.

But Kat hasn’t vanished without a trace. An investigative journalist, she’s left behind a subtle trail of clues leading to the mysterious, myth-shrouded Yucatán coast of Mexico. To follow it, Maddie must confront her deepest fears—of flying, of intimacy, and of loss. She hopes that in doing so, she will find her sister. And if she’s lucky, she may also find herself along the way. 

Reflection

The girl with the scars. The girl with many masks. Maddie has many names, and many ways she is described by others. It is hard for people to see past the scars that Maddie wears, marks from the plan crash that killed her parents. Marks of a survivor, though they don’t always feel that way. When Maddie met Jack, handsome and adventurous, she fell for him quickly. Jack was one of the first men that didn’t recoil from her scars. He sees Maddie as the beautiful person she is, inside and out. Her scars are just on display.

Maddie is fascinated with masks, and she also creates her own masks. Perhaps this is part of her healing, a way to show that the outward appearance often hides who someone is. But the masks also have so much meaning, and Maddie is fascinated by the way different cultures create and use masks. The symbolism and the work that goes into them lends to the magical and ethereal quality. And of course, the masks also have symbolism in this book!

Maddie’s sister Kat has disappeared, and though the police initially doubt Maddie’s insistence that something happened to her sister, Maddie knows it to be true. It is the kind of thing you can feel when you have a bond like Maddie and Kat. But of course, we know where Kat is, because half of the chapters are told from Kat’s perspective. And the more we learn about where Kat is, the more sinister it becomes…

There are eventually 5 narrators to this novel, though Maddie and Kat narrate the most chapters. Structurally the changes between the storylines kept it engaging. I ended up listening to the audiobook for this one, and all of the voice actors were fantastic. It made it so easy to follow whose chapter it was. Each was very unique, as were the stories they had to tell!

A good portion of the book takes place in the Yucatan in Mexico, and it really is the sort of book that transports you there. I loved the local lore that surrounded Kat’s disappearance and discovery. There was a dark, mystical quality to this mystery that leant to the atmospheric feel of the book. Wonderful!

Many thanks to Lake Union publishing for my copy. Opinions are my own.