Book Review: Sister of Mine | Laurie Petrou

There is no greater love and greater betrayal that occurs than between two sisters… Wow, what a wonderful book this is by Laurie Petrou!!! I had the pleasure of reading this with Brenda, Norma and Berit as a mini Traveling Sisters read. Of course, as many of you know, Brenda and Norma are real life sisters and they live in Canada! In fact, they recognized many of the settings in this book, so that was an added layer of delight I got to have when we discussed it.

About the Book

Penny and Hattie lost both of their parents at different points in childhood, and developed a sort of dependency that can only happen through a tragedy such as the one that took their mother from them. Penny was in a challenging marriage when Hattie assisted her in freeing herself from the hold her husband Buddy had on her. But a secret that large can both strengthen and overwhelm the bond two people share.

This story then truly begins, like many stories do, with a stranger coming to town. A stranger named Jameson who will soon become anything but a stranger. As Jameson, Hattie, and Penny become more entangled with one another, the secrets and demons that haunt the sisters may come to light and destroy the bond holding them together. Can the love of sisterhood prevail?

Reflection

The title of this book I found to be perfect. Sister of Mine has a certain old-fashioned charm to it, but it also suggests a bit of that possessiveness and competition that sisters have. The love between sisters is stronger, but more volatile, than the love between others. I have a sister, and what I will say is that sisters are capable of intensely loving and intensely despising eachother almost in conjunction. Of course, my sister and I do not despise eachother, but let me say we’ve had a few fights over the years that at the time we would have said that’s what we were feeling!

There is something old-fashioned feeling about this book. Brenda mentioned that this is how thrillers used to feel—like dark character-studies. It wasn’t about the twists, it was about the way the characters developed over the pages. That is the perfect way to describe this book! In fact, many of the twists you will know even from reading the back cover of the book. This book doesn’t rely on twists and it doesn’t need them. The characters and the smoothness of the writing and the story are what propel this book forward.

And finally, we should probably talk about those sisters. Oh, these sisters!!! What to make of them? It is a huge credit to Laurie’s writing that I couldn’t decide what to make of each of them. Which one was the good sister? Which one was the bad sister? Of course, the reality is neither of them is the good or the bad sister. But they both have such an intense bond. It is as though they want to free themselves of that bond, but when they find themselves away from it they are afraid. But boy, do these sisters know how to get under the other’s skin!!! The conclusion did shock me, I will say. It wasn’t what I expected at all! But that was the brilliance of this book. In a way, it was the perfect conclusion and it rounded out the development of the characters and plot in a wonderful way.

Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books for my advanced copy of this book.