I loved the setting of this book and the very realistic interpersonal relationships. However, I found it a bit confusing...this might be because I read it on the kindle so it wasn't as easy to go back and see the context of certain conversations. Overall a quick fun read.

In all honesty, I had a hard time getting into this book.. I kept getting the girls all mixed up, and had trouble with past and present. Not sure why as I usually can quickly get wrapped up in a murder mystery I could be because I was reading an e-book.. The plot of the book sounded very intrigiuing--just the fact it was about 5 women on a reality show was enough to draw my interest. You would expect there to be lots of drama, jealousy, backstabbing...think real housewives but single women. I should have taken notes when I started it so I could keep up with who was who...and maybe if I was able to spend more time reading the book in one sitting, it would have been easier to keep up with. The author is a good writer, no doubt, it was probably just me having a hard time with the book. But if you liked her first book, I'd say give it a try! You may have a completely different opinion than I did! I received an e-book ARC of this from Netgalley for an honest review.

This book was incredibly intense and filled with drama from the first pages to the very end. I loved the drama and suspense added to the Real Housewives-esque premise. I was turning pages late into the night on this one.

The book chronicles the filming of the latest season of the reality show "Goal Diggers," which follows the lives and loves of five successful young businesswomen in New York City. Like on any "reality" show, the drama is ramped up and palpable on air - and it appears some of that has found its way off camera. The book opens with the fact that one of the show's stars is dead - how and why are revealed as flashbacks show the events of that fateful season.

I loved the dark atmosphere that pervades the book - every single is hiding things and lying to each other and the outing of those secrets is pretty huge. There were several twists I didn't see coming at all - I reread some passages to make sure I was understanding them correctly!

I also loved all the characters in their own way; they were each pretty terrible people, but fascinating and lovable in their own ways.

This book has a great mystery and some great twists, but its got as much drama and cat-fighting as it does thrills. As such, like "My Mother the Liar," it's not necessarily for people looking for a hardcore mystery/thriller. But if you love good, juicy dramas with a hint of mystery, this IS the book for you! This is the perfect book for a road trip or an airplane ride - a time when you just need to escape and be pulled into another world.

I gave it four stars because the revelations in the end came fast and furious - it left me with a couple follow-up questions.

Overall, this book is one of my favorites from one of my favorite new authors.

This book is going to be a delicious summer read on the beach for sure. Fans of reality tv (think housewives) will love this book.

This book was entertaining. I am now a fan of Jessica Knoll and will be on the lookout for her. There were some slow spots for ne, but overall, I enjoyed it.

I had really high hopes for The Favorite Sister, especially after reading The Luckiest Girl Alive and really liking it. This book just fell short of the mark for me. I am a self-professed reality TV junkie, and enjoy unwinding with a nice glass of wine and watching mindless television. I know that the producers carefully craft these storylines, but that is part of the appeal. I enjoy my books with drama as well, but towards the end, even I was grasping at straws to enjoy the book. It seemed a bit too forced, and all the characters extremely loathsome to read their dialogue. While I did appreciate the very real portrayal of reality TV stars, and their forced dramas, this book was just too much of nothing. I found myself laughing at the characters' behavior, which I think was the point(?), but the ending? I didn't love it. Finding out about Vegan Jen in the end, just left me saying "that's it?" Really looking forward to another book by this author, I do feel she is an extremely talented writer. In the end, I felt that this was not a "must buy" book. The library, yes, perhaps, but that's about it.

Can't review, it archived the same day I downloaded it.

I found this book initially really hard to get into. It was mainly told from the point of view of 2 of the women in a reality TV show, Brett and Stephanie, while also mixing in the interview that Kelly (Brett's sister) is giving after the show has ended and Brett has died.

I think the difficult part of the book was figuring out who each person was and how they related to each other. Although a description of everyone is given at the beginning of the book, it isn't very easy to "flip" back to it in an e-book. I initially thought Kelly was Brett's love interest, but then who was Stephanie, it was all a little confusing.

I almost gave up on the book, but then after reading a few reviews with spoilers I was surprised at the ending, so I wanted to finish it and see how everything played out. The last few chapters really made the book for me, it was a surprising end to the drama going down between all these women.

First line: I take my seat with the grim poise of a fallen soldier’s widow.

Summary: When one of the stars of a reality show dies it is a shock to everyone. We delve into the complex lives of the cast and slowly learn who killed Brett.

Highlights: I liked the author’s debut novel. And the cover is really pretty.

Lowlights: The first two chapters were such a mess. Too many characters. I had no idea who anyone was and could not keep the story straight. And reality TV is definitely not for me in book form or on TV.

FYI: Did not finish.

Favorite Sister” by Jessica Knoll

I would like to thank NetGalley, Author Jessica Knoll and Publisher Simon and Schuster for the ARC of “My Favorite Sister” by Jessica Knoll for my honest opinion and review. The Genres for this Novel are Women’s Fiction, Fiction, with an essence of Suspense and Mystery. I feel there is also an element of satire in this as well. The story takes place mostly in New York City.

The author describes her characters as dysfunctional, complex, complicated, diverse,and possibly pathological. The main characters are wealthy, successful women who are in a reality show called “The Goal Diggers”. They each have a goal, or charity they are supposed to be supportive of. The whole setting reminds me of “The Real Housewives”.

The producers set the stage for betrayals, lies, and what viewers might want to see. In their real lives, these women are competitive, jealous, have dark secrets and do not play nicely together. They aren’t a good example of sisterhood. What is totally unexpected is murder.

At this point I do want to mention that not every book is a good fit for every reader. I struggled and found this difficult to get into. At the beginning, many of the scenes seemed repetitive. I also didn’t enjoy the backstabbing, plotting and aggressive behavior of the women. This was a difficult read for me, and I did stay the course. I would suggest that many readers keep an open mind and may find that the setting and story are a perfect read for themselves.

Calling all fans of reality TV!! The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll is going to be for you if your guilty pleasure is binge watching reality TV, because that's exactly what this book read like. Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of this author's first novel, Luckiest Girl Alive, but after reading this book Knoll has a believer in me! This book also had a little bit of a Fitness Junkie vibe, but dealing with reality TV AND fitness, and not just fitness.

The Favorite Sister is about a cast of women on a New York City reality show called Goal Diggers. The dynamic between these women (even including the 2 that are sisters) is a messy and explosive one. This book is packed with alliances, backstabbing, and SO MUCH drama. Exactly what you would (and should) expect from a book about a reality show. The book jumps around from people quite a bit and there are quite the list of characters, but I found it fairly easy to follow along and keep who was who straight.

No way to get around it though, this book is a drama. It's definitely not a thriller or suspense, and I wouldn't really say it's too mysterious, even though there is a mystery aspect. You are basically reading this book for the delicious drama of a reality television show.

Final Thought: Besides the fact that I am more than a little obsessed with the beautiful cover of this book, I really enjoyed it in its entirety. If you love reality TV and drama I am almost certain you will love this book too! I cannot wait to see what Knoll comes up with next!

The Favorite Sister in 3-ish words: Sassy, Dramalicious & Symbolic

3.5/5 Stars
Goal Diggers is a reality series for ambitious working women, but no one expects season four will end in murder. Brett started her own spin studio that donates bikes to girls in need in Morocco. Brett’s sister Kelly is the newest cast mate, but is dismissed by the veteran cast. Lauren is fun! She’s an alcoholic pretending to be sober on the new season. Jen’s vegan food line made her famous but her zen personality on camera vanishes as soon as the producer yells cut. And Stephanie, a bestselling author, is the oldest cast mate fearing her time as a young millennial has come to an end. The five together cause drama on screen but fictional storylines soon merge into reality.
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I thought the concept and murder part of this book was great, but the execution of the reality series and the relationships between characters fell a bit short for me. I found the book a bit boring in the middle and most of the characters extremely unlikeable, but that could have been the point. The last 40 pages kept me on the edge of my seat but I wish the rest of the book was as good as the end.

My review can be found on my GoodReads account at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1335387-kelly

3.6 stars rounded up to 4.*

This book is the novel version of a stay-at-home-evening-in-your-pajamas-binging-The Real Housewives. It's great fun, engaging, entertaining and full of vivid characters...but when you're finished you feel slightly disappointed in yourself for not having higher standards for entertainment.

The Favorite sister is the story of five ridiculously successful Millenial women who fancy themselves modern feminists and star in a reality TV program that is meant to detail their lives supporting one another and making the world better through their visionary companies, products, and brands. I enjoyed the characters, even when I was left confused if they were meant to be caricatures. It is also the story of murder, selfishness, the ills of our celebrity, brand, image-obsessed culture, and on some very different plane...it is the story of the relationships that these women forge. Often despite themselves.

I didn't love this book, but it was different and entertaining and for many of my friends that love a good binge-watching session-this book will be a great suggestion for a summer read.

*I received an ARC of this title through the generosity of Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not for me. I started it three times and could not get into it. The beginning has so many characters and there's so much happening that it was really hard for me to keep up with what was going on. When I finally did get past that initial 10%, it simply was not a book I enjoyed.

I'm surprised I had a hard time enjoying this book. As a fan of Real Housewives, I thought for sure this would be up my alley. But these characters seemed way more out of touch than the actual Real Housewives (is that even possible?!?!) Plus, it added insult to injury when the characters would give jabs at others that actually could have been digs toward me... "First in line on pumpkin spice latte day..." GUILTY! "Cornfed blond from Ohio..." Ummm, check! I could go on, but it's just not worth it.

The twists at least made it interesting, but weren't enough to win me over. Not one I would recommend...

First of all thank you to netgalley and Simon and Schuster for allowing me this opportunity! I was very excited to get this advance copy and I fully expected to love it. I have heard great things about this author and my guilty pleasure is The Housewives series. I was not able to finish this book. I have only had this happen once. I usually push through and it always picks up. This story line was so hard to follow. The characters blurred into each other and I was unable to make a connection with any of them. I read 50% of the book and the plot never moved. I felt like I was watching a episode of Seinfield- reading about a bunch of nothing except it wasn't entertaining. I wanted to love it!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster's for providing this ARC in return for my honest review**

Jessica Knoll has once again written a thought provoking, risque for lack of a better word, novel. I can always count on Knoll's writing to evoke a mix of emotions from me, successfully pushing the envelope and hitting all the elements of a classic thriller, The Favorite Sister was overall a fairly quick and entertaining read. Similar to my last reservation with The Luckiest Girl Alive, Knoll's novels usually end with a strangely unfinished and unpolished scene, almost rushed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of The Favorite Sister!!

This is my first novel by Jessica Knoll and I went in very excited to read it with all the hype.

Personally the characters weren’t my favorite to read about. It was a very slow start (filler details) but eventually picked up. It was a cute read!

If The Real Housewives is your jam, then this is your bread and butter-read it!!

This is a very well written book, but too slow for my liking. It took quite awhile to get into it and honestly it was a struggle for me to finish it. It just wasn’t for me apparently. I will give her other books a try though.

While I did enjoy this book, I really liked Jessica Knoll's 1st book more. Not sure if first book was better or if was I so just excited for the second book that I set the bar too high.