There were too many moments where I found myself saying "Are you kidding me?" to give this book 5 stars. The book starts out with an interesting premise and definitely grabs your attention but from there I just felt like something was missing. This is the story of Jess, a young woman who shows up at a family dinner and announces she is the daughter of their late father/husband. The book is told from altering perspectives of the two sisters, Kate and Lauren. I honestly didn't like a single character in this book except for Kate's husband who wasn't even a main character. I felt like everyone had negative qualities and made poor decisions. I also felt that the characters jumped to a lot of very big conclusions without a lot of evidence and that really bothered me. I did enjoy the twist at the end though you could work it out before the end of the book if you were paying attention. All in all I enjoyed this book but would not say it's one of the best thrillers I've read lately.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Half Sister is more family drama than psychological thriller. It's told in dual point of view by sisters Kate and Lauren. I enjoyed seeing the story from each of their perspectives, but I also felt it would have been a great addition to have a few chapters from the perspective of Jess.
The pacing of the plot was slow at times, with some added filler that didn't necessarily drive the story forward, but it held my attention.

When everything came to a head the story kicked into high gear and propelled at rapid pace and I eagerly turned the pages. All questions were answered and motives uncovered. The mystery was solved, one final reveal...and then it ended. Not in a jaw dropping way, but more abrupt. Short. With a feeling of being incomplete.

All in all, The Half Sister was an ok read. The drama and buildup kept me interested but I was left unsatisfied by the conclusion.

______

*Complimentary copy for review provided by St. Martin's Press. All opinions expressed here are honest and entirely my own.

I'm a huge Sandie Jones fan, and this book did not disappoint. I loved it! So many twists, and I definitely didn't see where it was going to end! Sandie Jones is definitely an automatic buy for me without even reading the plot!

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Once again Sandie Jones has written a story that hold your attention. Kate and Lauren and their family have lunc together every sunday. As sisters are, they are quite different from each other in their own unique way. During their dinner there's a knock at the door and Jess shows up saying she is there half sister. Naturally lunch is ruined and the book goes on to delve into how each girl handles this and how their relationship holds up. I enjoyed this completely and would highly recommend!

The Half Sister by Sandie Jones
I have read Sandie Jones' other books and this one feels similar in tone and style. Domestic suspense, fast paced, lots of twists, short chapters, and alternating POVs. I binged this one in a day to see how my theories panned out. Two sisters, Kate and Lauren discover they have a half sister, Jess, from a DNA test. The two sisters had differing views on this person claiming to be their half sister and I liked that you could clearly empathize with either sister and their reasoning. There were so many questions I wanted to see played out - was the DNA accurate or with, did anyone know about Jess' existence prior to this DNA test, and what were both of the sisters hiding? I thought I had this figured out several times and thought the twists played out well, even if they were a bit implausible.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and Sandie Jones for my arc.

3 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you’ve ever thought about trying one of those DNA tests to discover your ancestry, you just might think twice about doing so after reading this book!

After reading Ms. Jones’ last book - The First Mistake - and really enjoying it, I couldn’t wait to get this one when I saw it was available to request. Unfortunately this book was not as fast-paced or juicy for me.

Two sisters, Kate and Lauren, enjoy lunch at their mother’s house every Sunday since the passing of their father Harry. Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door and it’s a young woman with DNA results in her hand claiming to be their half sister. When I read the synopsis for this book, I thought it sounded perfect!

The story is told in alternating POV‘s between the two sisters. I’m a big fan of this writing style, but this just lacked something. I have to agree with some of the other reviewer‘s comments about including the deceased father‘s (Harry) POV - just to include a little bit more of a backstory.

There were a lot of unnecessary storylines going on and the ending was pretty abrupt, but it was neatly wrapped up in a tiny little bow.

Recommended for domestic drama fans!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press - Minotaur Books and Sandie Jones for my advanced copy to read and review.

This was so suspenseful! I couldn’t stop wondering what would happen next. A woman shows up one day and tells sisters Kate and Lauren, and their mother that she is their half sister. They at first want nothing to do with her, but then she becomes involved in their lives. And then everyone begins to wonder who is telling the truth and who is keeping secrets about the past. Everyone becomes suspicious of the others and their relationships become strained. The story will twist around until the very last page.

Sandie Jones is a must read author for me and once again she did not disappoint, love all her books. Thank you publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Sandie Jones does it again.! Another great suspenseful read. She keeps the reader guessing till the end. It will be easy to hand sell this.

I really enjoyed the premise of The Half Sister - but unfortunately I found the execution to be a bit lacking. While I did enjoy the beginning of this and the back and forth POV between two sisters who have recently discovered that they have a half sister they never knew about, I found this novel to be a bit too-slow burning, and too predictable overall.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I believe this is my second book from this author and I wasn't too terribly a fan. The story was good, and I felt connected to the characters, or at least like I knew them and was invested. However, there were parts of the story that just drug on and some pieces were insanely repetitive, it was like "yes I get it, so and so XXX so and so" [Trying to avoid spoilers of any sort]. The story was a bit predictable and slow in some parts and then just kind of came to a weird conclusion (the climactic scene). For these reasons I'm going to give the book 3 stars.

I was given an ARC of this book through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. This is another great book by this author. The story has enough twists and turns to keep you interested and turning pages. But sometimes you just have to shake your head and wonder why the women in these stories can’t see what seems obvious to everyone else, or why they question their grasp on the situation. But with that said, it is a great book!

At first, this book moved really slowly for me. I was trying to figure out if I should even keep reading.... Yes! Keep reading! This book was soon full of twists and turn and layers upon layers of everything I didn’t see coming. This may be my favorite Sandie Jones book yet!

I was a huge fan of The Other Woman so I had huge expectations going into this book. While it didn't live up to my expectations fully, it was still a good book and had a lot of good selling points to it. I loved the dynamic of Lauren and Kate. Then throwing Jess in the mix. You have one sister who is willing to accept her with open arms and the other one who has red flags being raised up all over the place. Its an interesting mix and makes for an interesting story. However, about half way through, it falls a little flat and became very predictable and almost bland. It was still a good book, just a little bit of a let down.

Talk about throwing a family in turmoil. Kate and Lauren are sisters and they get together every Sunday at their mom's house for dinner. One Sunday there is a knock at the door. Jess asked if Harry is there. Harry is their dad and had died a year ago. No one believe Jess and they make her leave. Their mom is really upset about this revelation. Kate and Lauren are envious of each other. Not knowing what each other's lives are really like. Kate is happily married and child free where as Lauren has kids and no time to do anything. Then this new person comes into their lives with DNA to prove who she is. It kind of makes Kate and Lauren butt heads on the matter and then the secrets start coming out in the family.
I really enjoyed this and had a feeling how it was going to end.
I received this from NetGalley for review.

With The Half Sister, author Sandie Jones has joined the ranks of novelists exploring the ramifications of DNA testing.

Lauren and Kate long had very different relationships with their father, a successful divorce attorney. Kate feels that Lauren treated him with contempt for many years prior to his unexpected death from a heart attack. The jealousy the sisters feel for each other is palpable. Lauren is envious of the successful career as a journalist Kate enjoys, interviewing celebrities and attending red carpet events like the Oscars. "Kate's life just looks more exciting," Rose reminds Lauren, assuring her that what she does -- raising children and working as a midwife -- "is far more worthwhile." Lauren's boyfriend, Justin, dumped her when she was seventeen years old, setting off a downward spiral into experimentation with drugs and men. When she stopped punished herself and regained control of her life, she married Simon, an obnoxious boor, and they have three beautiful young children in whose lives he takes no active role. Lauren loved Simon in the beginning, but he works only sporadically and has become increasingly jealous, controlling, and physically and verbally abusive. When a sudden opportunity to re-visit her choices and perhaps start a new chapter in her life presents itself, she explores the possibilities with great trepidation and guilt. She is not prepared for the truth she learns about what actually happened all those years ago and, more importantly, who was responsible for the events that derailed her dreams.

Kate and her husband, Matt, met when they were both reporters at the same newspaper, but when Kate began work at the newspaper's rival they were free to pursue their relationship. They have kept their struggle with infertility a secret and, as the book opens, Kate has another embryo implanted, hoping that this time she will be able to carry the baby to term. However, she needs to keep her anxiety level in check and be cautious during the first critical weeks. The emotional upheaval brought on by the sudden arrival of Jess and her claim to be the younger daughter of Kate's beloved father, Harry, are definitely an unwelcome complication in Kate's life.

Kate refuses to believe that her father was unfaithful to her mother. But Rose's reaction is surprising and it is clear she knows more than she is willing to divulge. When it is revealed that Lauren submitted her DNA to a website for analysis in order to learn more about the family's heritage and ancestors, she insists that she merely wanted to bring the family together by widening their circle with other family members. Jess explains that she was put up for adoption as a baby and, not realizing he is dead, is hoping to meet the father she has never known. She too uploaded her DNA profile and was notified that she and Lauren are a match. Lauren also received the notification -- three months earlier -- and is legitimately shocked when Jess shows up, unannounced, at Rose's house. She only expected to find distant relatives, but regrets having submitted her DNA because "all it's served to do so far is to make people say things and hear things they weren't ready for."

Kate is convinced that Jess is not really their half-sister but is, rather, a scam artist looking for "any family" to attach herself to, perhaps for financial gain. And she interprets her mother's distress as a reaction to painful news about her long marriage to the girls' father. Lauren ponders why "everybody [is] conspiring against her, when all she ever wanted to do was bring her family closer together?" In an effort to clear her father's good name and determine if Jess's motives are indeed duplicitous, Kate employs her investigative skills to discover Jess's real identity, learn about her background, and expose her as the fraud Kate believes her to be. Matt suggests that Jess has "somehow cooked the results."

The Half Sister is an entertaining mystery and a drama about female family members. Jones explores the relationship between Lauren and Kate as details about their parents' marriage come to light and Lauren struggles in her own troubled marriage. Regrets, resentments, and misunderstandings between the siblings surface, and force them to reevaluate the assumptions they have made over the years about each other's lives and feelings. The depiction of the sisters' complicated love and loyalty for each other, tinged with competition and grudges, is credible and poignant. Although deceased, Harry is a prominent character in the story. As the truth about past events comes to light, in part because the girls realize that they ascribed erroneous meanings to things they observed, Jones validates the girls' perceptions that they were each raised by a very different men. Their experiences and relationships with the father they knew were divergent. Kate has kept Harry on a pedestal for thirty-four years. Lauren's anger and bitterness toward Harry and his actions have fueled her choices for many years, but revelations about her pivotal seventeenth year cause her to reassess everything she assumed to be true. Jones also explores the mother-daughter relationships, which are as complex as those of sisters, although in a less intricate manner while deftly and touchingly depicting the girls' reactions to what they learn about their mother.

Jones keeps the story moving at a quick pace as Kate zeroes in on the shocking truth about her father, her parents' marriage, and Jess's real identity. The Half Sister is clever, inventive, and full of surprises. Once all is revealed, Jones provides a satisfying and believable conclusion for characters with whom readers readily identify and relate.

The Half Sister is an entertaining family drama, told from the alternating perspectives of Kate and Lauren, that also serves as a cautionary tale. Yet again, readers who contemplating submitting their DNA to a third party for analysis would be wise to proceed guardedly lest they find themselves confronting relatives and family secrets that complicate their lives in unimaginable and unforeseen ways.

The half sister was just meh for me. I was expecting more of a thriller aspect, it was more of a family dispute. It wasn’t a bad book by any means, I was just expecting more twist that would wow me. I did love the different POV between the main characters. Would I recommend the book, yes I would. It was a quick and easy read.

I was generous with my stars because I loved the other two books I’ve read by this author. This one just didn’t work so well for me.

It was slower than her other stories, more drama than mystery. There were some twists, not all of them were unexpected. It wasn’t as satisfying as her prior work but I really enjoy her writing style and will check out future work. I still would recommend for someone looking more for a family drama.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and St. Martin’s Press for a copy in exchange for a review.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately, this one did not grab me at all and I bailed even before half way through.

I tried hard to like this one. The description made it sound like something right up my alley - as a genealogy buff and someone who has had their DNA added to the Ancestry.com database I have often thought "what would happen if I got a close match to someone who I didn't know about." This definitely sounded like a promising read but it was way too full of fluff trying to be suspenseful and it was very cliche in some spots (like of course because a mother is overwhelmed with her children cheats on her husband, who is also a big jerk - too predictable). It also had some confusing parts when they tried to do a weird sub-plot about the mysterious half-sister potentially being mothered by one of the sisters at age 16. Really weird. Not my cup of tea!