I loved this story. A murder mystery surrounding a cast of seriously flawed reality tv stars = the perfect setup. It quickly drew me in and I had a hard time participating in life while reading it. Would definitely make for a great mini-series on HBO in the vein of Big Little Lies. Perfect followup to Luckiest Girl Alive.. Jessica Knoll has an incredible knack for creating characters that you dislike, but still root for.

Well written but very different from Knoll's previous book. Will find an audience with fans of reality TV and catty women. The characters are universally unlikable which will make it hard for many readers invest in their drama, but reality-TV bingers may feel differently.

This was an exciting read that I had a hard time putting down. I enjoyed this novel much more than Knoll's first, Luckiest Girl Alive.

Book examines the "reality" TV life of 4 women who are successful in their own right. Many twists and turns pop up when reading from 3 of the wonmen's POV.

This was one I could not put down...thank you NetGalley for the free read!

I was drawn to this book because while I don't watch reality programs I have some strange pull toward books about reality programming. Perhaps these books confirm what I suspect, that they're an exercise in cut-throat debasement for the chance at fame but more often results in infamy. I think this book disabused me of the notion that people at least were compensated well for the self-inflicted damage. My fascination and horror have deepened accordingly.

This is deep in unreliable narrators and as there's a murder revealed at the beginning, there was no leaving for me, until who did it and why were revealed. There's a fair bit of brand slush to power through but I'm sure it's to add to the patina of the brand neurotic characters.

There's a lot of commentary about women, feminism and tokenism (I found the insight here very well done) but what this story lays bare is that women are never going to be unilaterally on the same page with regard to furtherance, collectively or individually. More than anything else, power and power-adjacency drove these women and that felt all too real and nothing any amount of hashtags and Instagram stories will circumvent. So that leveled it up from just a frothy vacation read and made me more somber by book's end but that in itself was a welcome surprise. The plot builds and momentum strengthens over three parts (the final part being the tightest and best) so this is one you need to just stick with until the 50% mark when it quite takes off. Knoll's witty turn of phrase is also on fine display here and I have a fair bit highlighted (her best is doled out on Stephanie and Brett, respectively.

I'd definitely recommend this (just in time for Memorial Day weekend reading. Hello Summer!) and look forward to Knoll's next.

I received a free galley of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

When left to my own devices, I don't watch much reality TV. I can't do it. I'm not being judgmental. Trust me. If you saw half the stuff that ends up on my DVR, you would know that. Reality TV just isn't really my thing. Unless we are talking about, "The Great British Bakeoff," or shows about hoarders or addicts or murder. Those I can do. Throughout the years though, I have caught quite a few episodes of Kardashians and Real Housewives because my sister used to be a Bravo Channel addict. She got better, or she got busier. I'm not really sure to be honest.

I read the description of this book and thought it sounded fun. I may not like shows about Real Housewives but I love a juicy story with a dash of murder and the author's last book, [book:Luckiest Girl Alive|22609317], was rather entertaining so why not?

The book is about the women who star in a reality show called, "Goal Diggers." At the very beginning we know that one of the women, Brett, is dead. The story alternates between three points of view; Brett (in the past unless it's Ghost Brett.), Brett's sister Kelly and another woman on the show, Stephanie. It is part murder mystery, part a novel about the complicated bonds of sisterhood. It's also a sort of expose on the reality TV world and how it often sets women up to hate each other and tear each other down.

Overall, I enjoyed it. It was entertaining but not all fluff. My two things that made this a three star instead of a four or five were the length and the ending. I think some editing could have tightened it up because at the 75% mark, I was ready for it to be over. As for the ending, much like the author's first book, it just felt off to me and sort of haphazard. These weren't deal breakers. I'll definitely read more by this author as I liked this one better than [book:Luckiest Girl Alive|22609317] so I'm curious to see what else she comes up with. I bet it will be fun!

Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy.

First, thanks to NetGalley for providing me an advance copy of The Favorite Sister in return for an honest review. That makes writing this review so difficult.

I honestly found this novel appalling and think its release is extremely badly timed and tone deaf. We are at long last living in a time when women are standing beside one another in the era of Time’s Up, and with The Favorite Sister we have a novel that depicts only the worst of women tearing down other women. As a woman who has had a very successful, lucrative career, I find this insulting. And I have dozens and dozens of female friends who I have met over the years, mostly at work, who would agree. The characters in The Favorite Sister are caricatures and not at all representative of the women in my life.

That said, this novel may well appeal to the many people who love The Real Housewives franchise. I am not one. The novel follows 5 women who “star” in a reality series about successful, diverse, millennial women. In the first chapter, the reader learns that one of the women is dead, and the rest of the novel alternates between present and past to tell the story of how, when, and why. As I said, the characters are caricatures and as such, it takes about 60% of the book before you can tell one character from another. I never could identify Jesse vs. Jen vs. Lauren vs. Lisa. This made the book a chore to read. The five leading ladies are liars, cheats, glory hounds, and the reality show on which they star is appropriately titled “Goal Diggers.” In the end, you don’t really care why/how the one woman died, you just wish she had had taken everyone out at the same time.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jessica Knoll’s The Luckiest Girl, but The Favorite Sister doesn’t deserve anyone’s time.

The Favorite Sister sounded like it was right up my alley because I read books in this genre all the time. I'd rate it 2.5 stars and am being generous by rounding up. I enjoy some reality shows so between the genre and the reality show theme, I really wanted to like this. Unfortunately I didn't finish. At about 60% of the way through the book I just gave up.

There were so many characters that I had trouble keeping them straight. I found myself going back in the book, trying to remind myself who was who.

I also didn't really care about any of the characters. They seemed mostly one-dimensional and worried more about how to stab each other in the back than anything else.

That said, please try this book for yourself. I always tell people not every book is for every person and there are loads of people who might just love this and think I'm crazy for my opinions, so please, try it if you are at all interested.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Amazon would not let me review as not published yet

I really liked this book. It was fun and trendy, and fast-paced. Some characters I was rooting for, others I had just as much fun rooting against. I absolutely LOVED this author's previous book, Luckiest Girl Alive— so I can't say that I felt as strongly about The Favorite Sister, but definitely close. A perfect beach read for summer 2018!!!

I love reality TV so I couldn’t wait to read this. This book is about five women who are successful and are on a reality TV show. We all know reality tv comes with drama, jealousy, back stabbing, and so on. So the same and much more occurs in the book. During the new season of the show, a murder occurs. The book goes back-and-forth between the past and present. It was a great read and I enjoyed it very much.

I think this book might be for a niche crowd. The characters were not well formed, I connected little with them and had no interest with them. I am also not a fan of reality tv. This might be for some, but it was a little too slow and failed to capture my attention.

I was given this book for my honest review.

Unfortunately, I didn't finish this story. The storyline was quite confusing and didn't flow well for me. I wanted to like it, and who knows, maybe I didn't give it enough time, but it just didn't keep my attention.

Above all else, Jessica Knoll is excellent at capturing the NOW. Her ability to tap into the zeitgeist and drag out salient, compelling narratives is impressive. She also writes about women for women. I found it refreshing in Luckiest Girl Alive and downright delightful in The Favorite Sister, a book where men do exist, but only on the periphery.

I highlighted loads of one-liners and paragraphs of internal dialog; the book is rife with them. A standout, that made me laugh out loud:
"Wait a minute, I think-gasp, as I glide above a mannequin outfitted in so much velvet Prince would take offense."

Plot-wise, I feel that the unmasking of reality show secrets was tackled well by Unreal so nothing is particularly shocking, but tension is achieved with both the circumstances surrounding the murder and some ugly reveals. But I'd mostly recommend this book for the glimpses inside these women's heads.

Lovers of Real Housewives and other reality TV shows will be drawn into this book. The plot surrounds a group of women on a similar type TV show. While it could have focused on the filming, editing etc. that was not the focus of the book. I really liked the premise of the book but it fell flat for me. The characters were hard to like and at many times hard to distinguish from one another.

Overall the mystery was good enough, I didn't want to stop reading, but it was just wasn't as enjoyable as I was hoping.

I wasn't a big fan of Knoll's "The Luckiest Girl Alive," but because it did get so much hype I wanted to give Jessica Knoll a second chance. And I'm glad I did. The Favorite Sister revolves around the lives of 5 women starring on a reality television show, "Goal Diggers," and one of them ends up dead. You see the good and the bad in each of the women as they turn it on for the camera and claws come out behind the scenes. The novel switches between the views of Brett and Stephanie in the past and present day Kelly. I really enjoyed having the different perspectives. Knoll wouldn't have been able to shed light on the characters the way she did without this.

Even though you know going into it that someone is murdered, it's not a suspenseful novel. I think a little more suspense is the only thing I was left wanting from this. I love some good reality TV drama though, and The Favorite Sister certainly delivered on that.

Note: I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get into this book. I was interested in the fact that this have multiple POVs and the overall premise. However, I began to lose interest within the first third of the book. There was too much narration and inner monologue. This made the story drag, and I couldn't slog through it. I gave up about a third of the way through.

This is a 3.5 star book all day long. It had a ton of plot twists and, in the end, nobody’s hands are truly clean. I have to be in the mood for the current reality tv phenomenon, but if you enjoy it then this is totally the book for you.
Thank you for the advanced ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Sorry but I cannot recommend this book. Possibly there are some paragraphs and/or pages missing from the advance copy I received of this book but at times the story jumped from one group of characters to another with no transition leaving me totally confused. I think this also contributed to my not being able to get to know the characters.

I enjoyed this book. It was a quick entertaining read and had lots of twists and turns. Each time I thought I had figured things out.... bam. Another turn. I enjoyed the reality star setup and a glimpse into the secret lives behind the off cameras.

Great story! Looking forward to reading more by this author! Highly recommend!