I wanted to love this one and was thrilled to receive an ARC from Net Galley, but I could not get into this. The changing narration was hard to follow and it was hard to keep the cast of superficial women straight. I enjoyed The Luckiest Girl in the World, but there was no compelling characters in this. Hope her 3rd effort is as good as her first!

First off, I am SO glad I read this as a group. This one divided us a bit, but it made for some very interesting discussions. Some ladies love reality television and some do not, and it seemed to have some effect on how they felt about this book. I'm not a fan of reality TV. There were parts in this book that I found very gripping and some amazing quotes and thoughts from the author, but it took me quite awhile to get into it. There were just too many characters being introduced too quickly. The concept of the show the book features is basically supposed to be women doing it for themselves (I approve) but they constantly tear each other down. There's a reason for that. America doesn't tune in to watch women lovingly support each other with few fights and little drama. In their own way and for different reasons, each woman is addicted to the fame the show has given them. It doesn't pay well, but it opens doors. Each of them is desperate to stay on the show that tends to boot people who aren't interesting enough... or pass the age of 35.

I'm going to give this one a 2.5 but that doesn't mean I think it's a bad book. It's filled with twists, very unpredictable, and made some great points. I just wasn't into it because it's not my kind of book. If you're a reality TV fan, I think it may suit you better. The mystery fades into the background compared to the gossip and backstabbing, the desperation to remain what they consider relevant.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and Simon & Schuster, thank you! My opinion is honest and unbiased.

3.5 Stars* (rounded up)
 
Campy and purely entertaining
 
A book about a reality TV show involving women?  You have to know going in that it is going to involve catty, powerful women who will do anything to get ahead.  Imagine a “Real Housewives” scenario.
 
Five successful women are about to star in another season of “Goal Diggers.”  Let the games begin! Brett, is the uber successful owner of a spin studio, who everyone on earth seems to love, except for her cast mates, that is. It kind of makes you wonder why. Stephanie is Brett’s former best friend, an author of several fiction novels and now, a fictional memoir. She is everyone’s hero and the first black cast member and boy is her story a doozy.

Kelly, Brett’s sister has been vying for a spot on the show for years. On paper, she has the “look.” Gorgeous, skinny and a mind for business. Brett never thought it possible - Kelly has always been in her shadow. And then it happens.

When the next season start shooting, all hell breaks loose. For Brett, Kelly, Stephanie and cast members Lauren and Jen, the cuffs come off. It is reality at it is best. Picture drama like: “Puck” in the “Real World: San Francisco.” If you like reality tv, then this is a novel you will find entertaining. While I haven’t watched it in years, I used to (yes, I admit it) thus for me, “The Favorite Sister” was tawdry and engaging.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Jessica Knoll for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on Goodreads and NetGalley.

I found The Favorite Sister very difficult to get into. It was confusing and had uninteresting dialog. Unfortunately, I could not continue reading it. I was very disappointed.

This was very nearly a DID NOT FINISH (DNF) for me. I plugged away at it several times, since I was given a free copy by NetGalley and the publisher, and I felt obligated to read it to give an honest review.
This is a novel about a reality TV series about women who are managing their lives - and how the stars compete with each other. If you like The Real Housewives or Keeping Up with the Kardashians, you may like this book, as it is all about petty behavior, about clothes and pricey handbags and shoes, but not about substance. None of the characters are likeable. None of the characters warrant any sympathy. They are all liars and living lies for sake of the ratings.
I really didn't like this book at all. I am not surprised, because I also didn't like Luckiest Girl Alive.
In my opinion, don't waste your time on this book.

#NetGalley #TheFavoriteSister #JessicaKnoll

I can’t finish this book. Maybe because I’m not one of those people who tune in to watch the Bachelor every week.. It’s about a reality show.. There are two sisters and one seems to always have everything together and the other is the social one. They’re in business together even though the responsible sister seems to do all the work and came up with the business idea. The reality show is about successful women.. Honestly, I lost interest in the first chapter once the plot line started to open up but made myself read 15% more. I rarely don’t finish a book, but this one I won’t force.

Much like a reality TV drama, this book has a "this is too much, but I can't look away" feel to it. The melodrama outweighed much of the plot, and yet.. I couldn't stop reading because I needed to know how it would all come together in the end. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't love it either.

WOW!!! This book was amazing!!! The book was a real page turner. I just could not put down!! I need all her books ASAP!!!!

I absolutely enjoyed this book. It was a little tricky for me to keep the characters straight at the beginning especially since it jumps between different points of views for different chapters. I was a little nervous in the beginning because it had a slow start but once the story line picked up pace, it was a hard book to put down!

Also posted on my Goodreads account:

The Favorite Sister was the perfect book to kick off summer! It's a suspenseful guilty pleasure sort of book that keeps you guessing until the last page.

Reminiscent of a Real Housewives show, five young successful women are cast in a reality tv show Goal Diggers and as usual with reality tv, drama ensues. The book opens with the show at the end of its season and the information that Brett, one of the show's main characters, has been killed. Things aren't exactly as they are being portrayed. The book then flashes back to the beginning of the season and is told by the alternating voices three of the show's stars: Brett, the young lesbian entrepreneur, Stephanie, the bestselling author, and Kelly, Brett's older sister.

It quickly becomes obvious that all five women aren't quite as they are being characterized on tv and all have something to hide. But how did Brett die and who is responsible? You will be guessing right up until the very end.

I enjoyed this fun summer read. It truly did remind me of some of the reality tv shows and what might go on behind the scenes. It can be your guilty pleasure of summer.

I received The Favorite Sister courtesy of Simon & Schuster through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is such a fun read! It's about a reality show called "Goal Diggers," featuring some five super successful women in NYC. Among other characters, you'll meet Brett, Kelly and Stephanie all cast mates on the show. Brett and Kelly also happen to be sisters, hiding a dark secret. 

Underneath the surface, this book is about what it's like to be a woman in today's America. Whether it be the difficulty of trying to climb up the corporate ladder, or what sisterhood is portrayed as, or the pressure to stay young, vibrant and beautiful, this book will hit somewhere that every woman can relate to.

This was not a favorite of mine, although I do watch some reality TV (Real Housewives, etc.) as a guilty pleasure. I thought I would enjoy this more since it seems that some people will do *almost* anything to create a storyline and remain relevant.
This was about 5 successful women who become a part of the reality show "Goal Diggers". The characters were not likeable in my opinion so it was hard not to have someone to root for! It explored the dynamics between the women and how many feel the need to do whatever it takes to rise up through the glass ceiling. The ending left something to be desired as I wanted a bit more of a conclusion/wrap up.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster, Jessica Knoll and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This book was quite a ride! I loved her writing and how she pulled me into the story with such well rounded characters!! I loved the diversity of the characters...sometimes I didn’t love the characters and that’s ok! I love a book that gives you so many different types of people and this book is a perfect example of it done right!! It kept me guessing and definitely had a twist I wasn’t expecting! So glad I read this book! Loved!

I enjoyed Jessica Knoll's first novel, Luckiest Girl Alive, and was excited to receive an ARC of The Favorite Sister. This novel was not as easy to read as her first book and I had a hard time staying with this story as I felt it was confusing and rambled on at times especially in the middle of the book. I did finish the book and was glad I did as the ending was quite a surprise. The story was about five successful women starring in a reality show and all five women are quite unlikable characters. All the women are ruthless and would do whatever it takes to stay in the spotlight! Yes, even murder!
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an honest review.

Two and a half months later and I’m finally done. This was not my kind of book. I can’t enjoy a book when not one redeeming character exists! They are all horrible human beings looking out for numero uno. The book goes back and forth to different time periods and it is confusing in the beginning as you try to learn who all the different characters are. What I learned is they are all shallow and selfish. I could barely wrap my head around the manipulations and nasty vitriol these characters sling at each other. Much of it played like a soap opera, so I could see this being a movie, but not one for me.

I do have to give credit for the twists and turns in the book. I may not like the people, but the story does take some unexpected turns.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

I read Luckiest Girl Alive a few summers ago and I was completely hooked. I've been super excited to see that it's been optioned for a movie, I can't wait to see it. So obviously, I was super excited to get a copy of Favorite Sister.

I'm not a big reality TV watcher, except for Flipping Out and years ago, I watched Keeping Up With the Kardashians, when they were a lot funnier and a lot more normal (hard to believe, right?). But I read Us Weekly and People while I'm floating in the pool, so I feel like I'm pretty up to date on the Real Housewives, without ever watching any of them.

Let's just say reading this book didn't inspire me to become a regular viewer. These women are honestly repulsive. You usually have at least one character to root for, but in this group, there wasn't one person that was innocent. Or even nice. Or ethical. Completely unrootable.

Brett is an old girl on Goal Diggers, but somehow her sister, Kelly has just become part of the regular cast, along with her teenaged daughter. That could cause enough drama, but Brett, the chubby lesbian and Stephanie, the gorgeous erotic author are clearly on the outs. What could these former roommates have against each other? I could see where I was being led, but the shocking twist didn't shock me too much, as I felt like whoever was sleeping with whoever, they all deserved each other.

It's probably a very accurate look at reality television, but it's a very sad look at the state of our relationships as a society. Some women would lie, cheat, betray in every way just to stay on television.

I read it all but it left me depressed, however, I've read a lot of other reviewers that loved it.

I made it 30% of the way through this before finally giving up. I just can't spend my time reading something I don't like. The premise sounds like it would make for a good story...
It follows a bunch of women on a reality tv show called Goal Diggers, kind of like "Real Housewives of" ...they're supposed to be representing their humanitarian type companies in the show and share how they're using their wealth for good but of course it's all fake. I could handle it if it was just annoying characters being petty and selfish but this wasn't the only issue I had. The structure was set up to switch between alternating narrators, Kelly, Brett, and Stephanie. I just couldn't gain momentum with any of them because I didn't care. I was hoping for a whodunit. Even as far as I got, she didn't build any suspense. I guess if she does consider this a suspense novel, she should have provided more suspense earlier.

I would still like to thank Net Galley for providing me with an advance copy to read in exchange for my honest review. This book is now available to purchase. I'd possibly recommend it to readers who are looking for chick lit. I guess it could be appealing to teenage readers, as well.

2.5 stars

The favorite sister revolves around the cast of a feminist reality show, with the main characters consisting of the 4 leads on the show, as well as their romantic partners and producers.

For something that’s supposed to be fast-paced, I felt like this dragged a lot. Because we switch narrators often, a lot of the details are rehashed, just from someone else’s perspective. Adding to this is the element that many things are presented as facts, and then we later learn that they are lies. It took me about until I was about 50-60% of the way through the book to really get into a rhythm and want to know what actually “happened”. Even then, the end fell a little flat for me.

This plot-twist filled thriller with “evil” women seems to be popular as of late, so if that’s your thing, you might like this one as well.

Entertaining story that keeps you guessing until the end. As an unashamed fan of reality television, this was a perfect summer read for me. Great characters. I never saw the end coming.

Let me preface this review by saying that I am generally not a huge fan of thrillers. I tend to stay in my YA/historical fiction bubble, but I have been trying to branch out and broaden my horizons lately. When I saw this book on NetGalley, I thought that it sounded interesting, so I requested it, and I got it! 

I went into this book having already seen that it was not getting great reviews. However, I had an open mind because my tastes will sometimes vary wildly from others. That was not the case this time. From the very beginning, I was not a fan of this book. The characters were awful to one another. There was not one likable gal in the bunch. As the book went on, I kept hoping that one of them would have some sort of redemption arc...but, alas, they all just became worse and worse people as the story went along. 

I understand that not every book can be all sunshine and rainbows, but these women were just the absolute worst! They were constantly catty with one another, constantly backstabbing, constantly spouting off the most awful opinions. The main focus of the book, Brett, was my front-runner for my favorite for a large portion of the book. By the end, I was disappointed with her as well, but I won't tell you why because spoilers ;) 

As far as the writing style goes, I wasn't a big fan of the way that Knoll would hop from talking about the present to something that had happened in the past within the same paragraph. It was done with no warning, and was extremely confusing to figure out what was going on a lot of the time. 

I did give this a higher rating than I would have otherwise because, by the end, I actually was hooked and wanting to figure out who the killer was. I was able to guess who it was, but not until close to the end. As that was a big part of the book, I had to give some kuddo points for that! 

My Rating:
2.0/5.0

I gave this book 2 STARS. I really hated all of the characters, but it kept me intrigued enough to want to solve the mystery, so I felt that deserved slightly higher than the otherwise terrible rating I would have given.