WOW! I used to think I wish I had a sister, and how nice it would be to have someone that knew everything about me and have that wonderful sisterly bond with. After reading The Good Sister I am glad that I had a brother!

I want to thank net galley, Sally Hepworth and St. Martins press for the ARC of The Good Sister in exchange for my honest opinion.

Fern and Rose are twin sisters that grow up with a single mother who is difficult at best. After a childhood filled with drama and tragedy ,they end up in foster care after their mom overdoses when they are 12. Fern, has significant sensory issues that prevent her from leading a fully normal life and Rose as the "good sister" is always looking out for her sisters needs. Fern becomes a librarian and has her comfortable and predictable routine in place when she becomes pregnant and Rose wants to raise the baby after it is born. This is a story about believing in yourself and surrounding yourself with good people, even ones that aren't family.

The Good Sister is about two sisters Rose and Fern. Fern has a sensory disorder so relies heavily on her older sister for guidance. Rose takes advantage of this trait thru the years unbeknownst to Fern. Fern’s life seems to be shaped by one incident that took place while she was twelve years old. Fern has always thought she could not be trusted with anything important because of this incident. Rose has highlighted this throughout Fern’s life.

Fern feels the need to always please Rose and after finding out Rose can not have children of her own she decides to get pregnant and give her baby to Rose. Fern meets a man and decides he is the perfect candidate but quickly falls in love with him. (We didn’t see that coming.)

Fast forward ahead.... Wally is the one to see thru Rose’s manipulation of Fern.

A couple twists and turns. A fun quick read.

This book hooked me from the very beginning. I couldn’t put it down and zipped right through it. I really was expecting quite a different story from what it turned out to be. I loved the main character, Fern, and her boyfriend, Wally. It kept me guessing right until the very end with several unexpected twists.

What I loved about The Good Sister.... I loved how this book was narrated by such an unconventional character(s). I think really kept me on my toes and kept me glued to my kindle. Some family dramas can run out of steam in the middle of the book but Sally kept it hot with so many twists and turns. The characters are everything you ever want in a book..... you will hate some of them love some of them then switch it out.

What a great one! I recently read The Mother In Law, so when I saw this one I knew I needed to check it out!

I liked the interesting take on the gaslighting of the unreliable narrator. I took me a while to work out what was going on, which is great because I’ve guessed the ending to too many thrillers recently. I plowed through this in one sitting and would definitely recommend it to others!

I think I can safely say I've never given 5 stars to an ARC. But this book. Wow. I kind of got an idea of the twist but then the twist twisted. Y'all. This book. Sally, you good.

Ooh everyone loves an unreliable narrator... but how about two? Apparently I do!! This psychological drama is about the family ties that bind and his there really are 2 sides to every story with the truth in the middle.

Sally Hepworth does it again!

The Good Sister is about two twins, Fern and Rose. They grow up with a single mother who clearly seems to have a favorite daughter.

Fern is a librarian who has some sensory processing deficiencies who gets by with a lot of help from Rose. She learns Rose and her husband are trying to have a baby but are having trouble getting pregnant. So Fern decides to have a baby for Rose and becomes friendly with a new regular at the library, Wally.

Over the course of Fern’s pregnancy, you learn snippets of her childhood with Rose and start to question a lot of things about Rose & Fern’s sisterly relationship.

Sally Hepworth kept me on my toes for the last half of the book, as usual. She knows how to write a book that will draw you in and I can’t wait for you all to get your hands on The Good Sister in April 2021.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the gifted e-ARC!

Really enjoyed this book. Great character development. Kept you guessing the true story. Sally Hepworth is a great author. Will look forward to more from her. Thanks to NetGalley for advanced t of this j for honest review.

I am an only child and cannot relate to a story about two sisters. I can relate to a book about regret, evolution, secrets and family. I loved this book just as I love the author, Sally Hepworth. I loved the alternating view points and learning about not only the bond but the history between the two sisters and how both impact each other's lives. A wonderful book to escape 2020.

I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this book! Fern and Rose are fraternal twins who have always relied on each other. Fern has a sensory processing disorder and Rose has always been there to protect her from the world. Fern would do anything for Rose. But as the plot progresses, we find out that Rose has a few secrets and may not be such a good sister after all....

This was a great book and I highly recommend it!

‘The Good Sister’ is a compulsively readable story about Fern and Rose, twins in their late 20s who are inextricably linked. The story is written in first-person perspective by both the sisters, but mostly by Fern. Fern is on the Autism spectrum and leads an independent life—living by herself and working at a library—with the exception of her relationship with Rose. Rose appears to have the perfect life, is married and desperately wants a baby. As the story unfolds we begin to learn about dark episodes from their childhood from bother sisters’ perspective. Their stories begin to diverge giving the reader questions as to what has really happened. The plot is a little slow in the middle, but the questions involving their pasts and what would happen kept me hooked! Overall, a quick and intriguing read.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. Rose and Fern are twins. Fern has sensory issues and when they were younger, Fern did something awful. Rose has been covering for her since, blaming it on Fern’s oddities. Or is it Rose that has issues? The book was slow to start and written like a romance but then took a turn! Good read! #thegoodsister #sallyhepworth #apr2021

This book was not at all what I was expecting, but in a good way. While I believe the genre is a thriller, it was also very much a heartwarming book about the bond between two sisters who have a very rough childhood. One of the sisters is on the autism spectrum, which brought even more depth to this book. And on top of that, there is a pretty sweet romance that made me very emotional towards the end. Mystery, romance, suspense, family drama...this book has it all. Highly recommend for fans of this genre!

A funny thing happened: I posted a review for a different book here, in error. I've deleted that review and will come back here and add in one for The Good Sister as soon as I can. With my apologies!
Here it is: This was an enjoyable and engaging read. The two voices (each sister- Fern and Rose) initially threw me because there was such a different tone that I initially thought, "whoa, am I still reading the same book?"
This becomes clearer much later in the book as we find out that Rose is an unreliable narrator and manipulative in her "journal." The characters of Rose and Wally were delightful. I really enjoyed their relationship. I felt the depictions of autism to be fairly on target (I have an adult son on the spectrum). Thanks for an enjoyable suspenseful read.

A compulsive page turner. I couldn’t put this one down. The story of twin sisters, one a librarian with a sensory processing disorder, the other wanting to have a baby but unable to. They have a secret in their past that ties them closer together. Highly recommend for the family dynamics and suspense that keeps the reader engaged until the end.

If any of you have sisters, you know all about the precarious nature of sisterhood. Rose and Fern are twin sisters and they're practically attached at the hip despite their differences.

Rose is the short, round, responsible one with a husband and a charmed life. The only thing missing is a baby to complete the family. Fern is the tall, willowy, introverted librarian who is averse to touch, light, and noise stimulation, thrives on routine, and would do anything to make her sister happy. 

Both sisters are keeping secrets, and as you know, secrets ALWAYS have a way of coming out. The twists and turns will keep you guessing who's the good sister until the very end, 

I love that Sally Hepworth writes about a character with sensory-processing issues without making her into a freak, and hope more authors follow suit to normalize people who see and process the world differently.

An excellent physiological thriller! Great storyline about a sociopathic mother and her twin daughters. But, really, who had the physiological problems? Thank you NetGalley for giving me this ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review. #netgalley #thegoodsister

Holy cow, this book was incredible! The Good Sister is my first Sally Hepworth book, and I think I've found a new favorite author to add to my list! Reading about fraternal twin sisters Rose and Fern starts one way and then takes a whole new direction. Rose and Fern are twenty-eight years old. They didn't have a great home life; their single mother overdosed when they were twelve, and they went into a foster home. Their mother always favored Fern and verbally bashed Rose. Rose always felt she had to protect Fern because Fern is on the spectrum and is highly sensitive to touch, noise, and crowded places.

The story is told dually by Rose and Fern, and we feel Rose's pain as she must be the responsible one. She is married, a businesswoman, and trying to have a baby. She must always be on call to manage Fern's life as she has trouble doing the most simple of things and often gets herself into awkward situations and needs rescuing. We learn very early on in the story that Fern did something terrible when she was twelve, and Rose covered it up. Rose's husband can't take all the stress and takes a job in London, and now she has to worry about her marriage.

Fern is an intelligent woman and works as a librarian, a job she loves and manages to do quite well. She meets a man there who lives in his van, and they become close friends. These are some of the story's basic facts, and I must say that I was mesmerized in reading them. It just gets better from here, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a little psychological twister. At first, I intended to give it four stars, but after realizing there was nothing I didn't like about it, I decided it deserved five! I thank St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this remarkable book! #netgalley #thegoodsister

Compelling Family Drama. This one was pretty wild. On the one hand, you've got one twin sister who seems to be Autistic, though that word is never once used. Instead, Hepworth simply claims various "sensory processing disorders" (many of them very similar to this Autistic's own, fwiw) and shows this twin taking things very literally, not reading people very well, etc. IOW, classic signs of Autism - but again, that word is never once used in the text. Which is both cool and irritating. The other twin is a diabetic that feels she must always protect her Autistic sister. Except... let's just say the twins don't always remember the same events the same way. ;) Deeper into the book, a much larger conspiracy develops that really turns the back half of the book to near breakneck speeds. And then those last words... Truly excellent book, even without the use of the one word, and very much recommended.