Despite the nearly universal glowing reviews of Luckiest Girl Alive, I found the book overly clever and a little cringe inducing. I thought that the author took what could have been a truly compelling story and trivialized it resorting to often to colloquial language and shallow characters. It bugged me but there was enough promise in the work that I wanted to see what else Jessica Knoll could come up with.

I picked up The Favorite Sister with the above in mind.and really wanted to wnjoy the work. Fortunately, I enjoyed this much more as it didn't read so much like a Cosmo article. The characters are intentionally shallow at the beginning but as we learn more about them and motivation become clearer, it became difficult for me to turn away from the train wrecks of their lives. I often tell people that I love stories about broken people, and this story is full of them. I can't decide, however, if this is a celebration of the absurd culture that flocks to reality television or the beginning of the backlash intended to reveal how the general populace has been manipulated by people like Andy Cohen in an effort to attain advertising dollars. (Let's hope the latter)

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend to those would either enjoyed The Luckiest Girl Alive and those , like me, who were slightly put off.

I received a free e-copy of The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll from NetGalley for my honest review. First off I wanted to say that I loved Jessica Knoll's first book, Luckiest Girl Alive, so I was very happy to get a free e-copy of The Favorite Sister.

This is a story about a reality TV show called Goal Diggers. Brett and Kelly Courtney are sisters and the show's stars. The reality TV show is all about self made women. The sisters have a lot of secrets and there is a lot of jealousy. There are also three other women, all being very competitive. Women, jealousy, the pressure of being beautiful and the best at all they do then leads to murder.

There is a lot of drama and backstabbing. The book is very well written. I give Jessica Knoll a lot of credit for the work she put into this book. My only problem with the book is there were so many different characters it got confusing at times.

As a fan of some "reality" or unscripted tv shows, I found this behind the scenes story very interesting. The descriptions really fit what I imagined happening on this type of show. Although we find out early on who suffers an untimely death, there are many surprises throughout. And when you think you have everything figured out, you will be wrong! The ending completely blew me away!!!

I received an ARC of this book on Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
This book was a real clusterfuck but it was a glorious clusterfuck. It was less of a psychological thriller and more of a book about how evil women can be to each other, especially when men a d money are on the line. Someone is murdered, but it feels secondary to the plot, which seems to be more focused on class and mean girl tactics, as did the author's previous book. I loved her last one, and if you did, you'll like this one for sure, but it may be too dark and nihilistic for the general public .

An intriguing look at life behind the scenes of a reality tv show, exposing the lengths we will go to for fame and success.

Reading this book was a bit of a chore for me. There were too many people, mainly women, all involved with a reality tv show. I had a hard time keeping everyone straight. I didn't care for any of these characters. They were all selfish, vain, cruel and incredibly egotistical. The reality show angle was good, but that wasn't enough to hold my interest. The only reason I finished this book was to find out what happened to Brett. And when I did, it was no biggie. Shoulder shrug.

I don’t enjoy shows like The Real Housewives of (Whatever City They’re in Now). If I did, I think I would have enjoyed this book more.

The book features a group of women who are in a reality show similar to the above mentioned. While they aren’t all wives, they are all ambitious, bold and vicious. And I hated them.

It can be really hard to read a book where you dislike every character. Aside from their basic personalities, they tended to lecture. There would be paragraphs of lectures on everything from race to feminism to LGBTQ issues from various characters. I almost deleted the book half a dozen times. I only kept reading because the author kept reminding us we had a murder coming up. (Honestly, I found myself wishing the entire cast of the show would be murdered en masse – that’s how much I hated these women.)

But a little past the 50% mark, something happened. Secrets came out – shocking ones. And I kept reading. I still hated these women, but I had the oddest satisfaction in knowing that, based on these secrets, I was 100% right in hating them. To be truthful, I was reading strictly for the satisfaction of watching these awful women fall. (Yeah, not very nice of me, I know.)

And then our murder – and what a murder it was! I’ll just say that it certainly didn’t happen the way I expected to. And then when you find out another truth -wow!

As for the ending of the book, it’s not pretty. But it fits perfectly with our awful characters.

I don’t know that I’d read the author again. I hated our characters and really didn’t like myself very much as I gleefully cheered for their downfalls. But I got a wow of an ending!

I enjoyed the writing in this novel, but the story line less so. Many of the characters were not sympathetic at all. The twists and revelations not always believable and for Steph to try and take out the entire group at the end wasn't really believable....it could happen but I was expecting something more clever. But again, liked the voice of the author/characters.

At first I wasn't sure if I liked this book, mainly because the characters are pretty unlikable. Though they were unlikable, they were relatable in a lot of ways. The beginning was a bit slow, but the action and drama really picked up in the middle of the book. If you like the Real Housewives or other reality TV, then I think you would really enjoy this book.

This story just wasn’t for me. Let me know your thoughts on this one. Maybe a different perspective is all I need to give it another shot.

This is so different from anything I have read lately. It has all the power of a great psychological suspense novel with a modern edge- taking place behind the scenes of a reality tv show similar to The Real Housewives. I, myself, am a sucker for trashy reality shows and often wonder what is real and staged. This story gives a cool look into the secrets behind the "stars" of the show. It starts off with an interview describing a murder of one of the castmates, then goes back in time to uncover the twisting tale of deceit behind the event. I just LOVED this juicy novel!!

Thanks Netgalley for my free copy of this book for an unbiased review.

Struggled to get through this one. Wasn't attached to any character and it was hard to really see where it was going at times. Not my favorite! Definitely love the author's previous title much more than this.

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