I thought this took a while to get going and there were bits that felt a little bit too far fetched, I found myself skimming some of the farming bits. Unique though.

The Sister Surprise follows Ava. Raised by her single mother in London, she finds out via live stream at work that she has a long-lost half-sister in middle-of-nowhere Scotland. So she decides to go undercover and volunteer at a local farm in Kilroch in the quest to find her sister. Overall, I thought The Sister Surprise was an easy-to-read and heartwarming novel. While there was a romance element (hello Hot Priest from Fleabag vibes), the book's fundamentally about family and finding yourself. Ava was a likeable protagonist, but I may have loved the supporting characters, Kian and Moira, even more! If you enjoy British chick lit, check out The Sister Surprise.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, but all opinions are my own.

I had high hopes for this one. A woman finds out that she has a half sister in a rural part of Scotland and sets out to find her.

I couldn’t get into this at all. A hot, sweary priest might have been interesting but instead comes off as a cheap copycat of the “Fleabag” character.

Just not for me, I’m afraid.

I absolutely loved the Lonely Fajita so I was really excited to be approved on NetGalley for this book! It was a completely different style of story. I loved how it got into Scottish culture and the differences between life in the city and life in the middle of nowhere. The premise of finding a long lost sister was really interesting and I loved the connections that Ava makes along the way. The heartache and worry was believable and it was such a lighthearted read.

When Ava finds out she has a secret half-sister in a quaint Scottish town, Ava jumps at the opportunity to meet this new family. But, when she arrives and meets her new sister, everything isn't exactly as easy as it seemed. The Sister Surprise is an adorable story with incredibly real and engaging characters. Mann really made the town a place I want to visit and probably spend the rest of my life. The start of the book is a bit slow, but ultimately this is a wonderful exploration of family and self.

4/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Sister Surprise by Abigail Mann
Publication Date: March 25, 2021
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Description from NetGalley...
“Journalist Ava takes a DNA test hoping to discover her roots. Instead, she finds out she has a half-sister … whilst on a live stream watched by 100,000 people. Her boss thinks it’s the perfect click-bait story. Ava just wants to go to Moira’s tiny Scottish village and meet her.

But when Ava arrives undercover as a volunteer farmhand, she realises Moira – who’s her pig-wrestling, chatterbox polar opposite – might not be delighted by the news. And the longer Ava stays in Kilroch, with its inappropriately attractive reverend and ties to her hidden family past, the more complicated this surprise is going to get…”
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Thank you to @NetGalley @harpercollinsuk @onemorechapterhc for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts...
Funny. The beginning was quite good in hooking me in, but the middle dragged on a bit, with Ava telling her truth or not, etc...but once past that, it was good. I enjoyed the quaint Scottish town with its’ mixture of characters. I would have liked there to have been more narrative on the romances going on in the background. Overall, it was an upbeat, funny and quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 stars

The Sister Surprise was a fluffy contemporary that was entertaining, but not quite memorable.

The Sister Surprise was more or less exactly what I expected. It was light, funny, and fluffy, but it isn't a story I'd keep in my head for a while. It was definitely a fun read, but I doubt I'd pick it back up.

When Ava takes a DNA test on live stream (which is a disaster waiting to happen) for her job as a journalist, she finds out she has a half-sister. And promptly pukes her guts out in front of 100,000 people. Luckily, her boss thinks it's a great opportunity and sends her to go meet her new family member. Unluckily, it just so happens that things never go exactly to plan.

While I did enjoy the story, one of the things that brought it down the most was the pacing. It had a good start and finish, but the beginning was a whole lot of sheep, pigs, chickens, and no sister. If we had cut some of the excess material in the middle, it probably would have made a better story.

There was an element of romance for Ava (this is a chick-lit book) but it was a little weak. I think the story could have easily and happily gone on without it. I enjoyed Kian and Moira's thing, but did we really need to get a love interest for Ava?

I liked the idea of the novel and its occasional humor, but it did have its flaws. Overall, I'd call it a fun read, but I don't think I'd buy a physical copy or reread it.

The Sister Surprise was a likeable enough book but it just fell a little flat for me to reach 5 stars. I grabbed this book based on title alone, having a surprise sister myself! Journalist Ava takes a DNA test in the hopes of learning more about her ancestors. Instead, she discovers she has a half-sister... on a live broadcast of 100,000 viewers. Her boss considers it to be the ideal click-bait tale.

All Ava has even known is her and her mother. It’s always been just her and her mother. So when a DNA test at works shows she has a long lost sister, they ask her to go document her trip in finding her. Will her and her sister get long, will they butt beads, can they be any more different?

I really liked the characters of Ava and Moira. They were cute and likeable and you wanted things to work out in the end. However, the story was one note for me and kind of dull. A slow story with a very short climax. It’s cute and nice, but somewhat predictable and overplayed.

A light hearted, entertaining read from Abigail Mann.
Great characters brought to life and some moments when you find yourself laughing out loud.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the oppurtunity to read this ARC

I enjoyed a nice easy read of this well-written book.

The author Abigail Mann knows her stuff and chose a topic that is very modern and interesting. Where do I come from? It was a lovely journey following our main character Ava as she explores where she is from.

A great way to spend a few hours escaping the world.

Links to Amazon and social to follow.

What I love the most about this story is that it wasn't easy to guess how things will turn out. Its charming and witty and the characters are well developed. It is a fun, quick read.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really enjoyable cute read. There are some funny moments between Ava and her new found sister and friends. I really liked Ava's character - just how full of character she is. When her boss undermines her and changes up her published journal she makes it right not only with her sister but the towns people as well. I loved how positive she was and how she could place her self in others shoes.

If you are looking for a cute little story about connectivity this is a great read. The DNA/ Ancestry testing is pretty popular now so something like this could be pretty believable.

This book was pure fluff, in the best way! After the year we've all had this book was the perfect escape and gave me a great excuse to just switch off for a couple of hours.

The Sister Surprise by Abigail Mann is a mix of comedy/family drama with a sprinkling of romance and is a lot of fun once it gets going. I did feel the opening couple of chapters were superfluous to the main story and introduced several characters that didn't really lend anything to the main narrative. As such the opening felt a little too like padding.

That said, once Ava is finally faced with the aforementioned 'sister surprise' and heads off to Scotland, the story really picks up pace. Once in the village, Mann's comedy writing shines through and there are so many laugh-out-loud moments that you can picture vividly. The interactions with the temperamental farm animals were particularly hilarious. We are also introduced to plenty of interesting characters and a few twists and turns that set the story up for a satisfying denouement. I did feel that the romantic twist was perhaps just a little too flimsy, but as this wasn't the main focus of the story it sufficed. Ultimately this was an enjoyable read and I would happily read more of Abigail Mann's work.

Overall Rated: ❤❤❤❤
Heat Rated 🔥
Emotional Rated: 😂😂😂

Favourite Quote:

I’m not sure how, but it seems like the more layers he puts on, the more attractive he gets. I can’t imagine what would happen to my resting heart rate if he put on a hat.

**Thank you to @onemorechapterhc and #Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily**

What would you do if you discovered you had a half-sister...live on the air? Ava, with more than a little pressure from her boss who wants the whole thing liveblogged, decides to head up to the tiny Scottish village where her hitherto unknown sibling lives and have a bit of a reunion. Not, of course, that it's that simple.

Abigail Mann's The Sister Surprise reads like a warm hug. It's got a lovable, yet very human cast of characters, from Ava and her eco-warrior-cum-PTA-workhorse mum, to the inhabitants of the village Kilroch, which includes a hot vicar, a cinnamon roll of a young farmer in well over his head, and of course, Ava's half-sister, the bubbly Moira. And the hijinks these characters get up to are both genuinely amusing (let's just say, farming is not as cute and fuzzy as cottagecore memes make it seem) and just plain genuine. The jokes stem organically from the story, which runs along at a nice clip and comes to a satisfying, well-earned conclusion. The Sister Surprise is, unsurprisingly, an entertaining, engaging book, and just the feel-good read we all need now and then.

Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter for the advance review copy!

Last year, I read and adored Abigail Mann’s debut rom-com The Lonely Fajita, so I was delighted when the wonderful people at One More Chapter invited me to read her follow-up. I was involved in the cover reveal for this book months ago and I’m happy to say that the story inside is just as cute as its appearance.

When Ava finds out the results of an ancestry test live on social media and promptly vomits all over the studio, she takes it as a sign that she should probably get away from her life as a journalist in London for a while. Tasked with an assignment while there, she makes her way to the Scottish village of Kilroch to find Moira, the half sister that she has only just discovered exists. Staying on a farm that is in danger of financial ruin, Ava learns both the basics of rural living as well as some long buried secrets about the father she never knew.

Although at first glance, the communities of Dulwich in South London and Kilroch may seem worlds apart, there are some very strong similarities -primarily in the way that news and gossip travels fast. The people of Kilroch are very interested in Ava as soon as she arrives and this is very typical of small town life. In fact, I think the author depicted the atmosphere of a tiny, self-serving community perfectly. Once I was in Kilroch, it really did feel like I was a whole world away from anywhere else.

As a farm volunteer who knows absolutely nothing about the reality of farms, Ava has a few hilarious ordeals while running her first errands. The rather harried, patient Kian, who has inherited the farm from his ailing grandfather, talks about the animals as if they’re his children and this leads to some rather funny lines from him that Ava misunderstands at first. Their friendship is really wonderful to watch!

Ava is a very socially awkward, anxious protagonist and I’m pretty sure that means she’ll resonate with a lot of readers. Kilroch is blessed to be temporarily hosting an extremely handsome young minister named Ross, who takes a shine to Ava, much to the dismay of the other women in the village. I knew that as soon as Ava set her sights on the most sought-after man in the village for her love interest that I’d be in for some cringeworthy flirting and hilarious mishaps. When the chapter of their first date rolled around, my suspicions were confirmed!

Moira turns out to be an old family friend of Kian’s family and it transpires that she has been in love with Kian forever. She and Ava become fast friends a long time before Moira discovers the truth. I understood Ava’s reasons for holding it back for so long but I can’t pretend that I didn’t get hugely frustrated with her for not just coming out and saying it. Instead, Moira found out in the worst way possible.

Moira is a fantastic character who has big dreams but is afraid of leaving her mum and life in Kilroch. She is smart, sassy and apparently incredibly understanding because it doesn’t take her too long to forgive Ava for not telling her the truth sooner. I think this was the only part of the book where I wasn’t quite sure if this matched up with the probable reality. I would have liked to see Moira resist a little more to Ava’s attempts to apologise, therefore creating a bit of tension between them. But I am also happy enough to take this as a thoroughly light-hearted, joyous read!

Some of the descriptions of early morning Kilroch make me want to pack up my things and never go anywhere near a city again. The slow pace and tranquil atmosphere surrounding the village make it seem like some kind of pocket of serenity that is the perfect place to disappear. Knowing that there are places like this in the world causes the ending of the book to make so much sense to me.

The Sister Surprise is a funny, cute story about discovering the roots and finding where you truly belong. There is also a romance element, so I guess it could be considered to be a rom-com. However, the focus is on Ava and Moira coming to terms with a truth they should have known long ago and realising that they don’t need to let the past hold them back. It’s a wonderful, smile-inducing novel that you can escape safely into.

Abigail Mann's world is cozy, her storytelling is charming, and the overall impression of The Sister Surprise is that it's a warm, honest book, with lovable characters. While it has a slow start, it picks up speed once Ava gets to Scotland to find the mysterious sister from the DNA test. For me, it was a four-star read because the climax and the resolve of the family drama were a bit unfulfilling and rushed.

The one thing I loved about the book is that it stayed true to following the siblings' storyline and didn't dissolve into romance madness. Though there was enough of it, and it was great to see Ava forming a real friendship, and not an affair, with the first village man life threw in her way.

Thanks to the publisher for giving me a free copy of the book, all opinions are my own.

The last trip I went to included a stop in the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides. While I was there for a (photographical) hunt for a basking shark, I did drive by plenty of crofts and farms on the way to the boat that would take me on my fruitless (in terms of spotting a basking shark) journey. I left a piece of my heart in the Isle of Lewis and promised myself I would go back there to retrieve it.

Then the pandemic struck and I have been following all the precautions dictated by the CDC which means that travel is not anywhere near my radar just yet. However, one of the things I discovered during the lockdown days was the show This Farming Life which took me on a vicarious journey that included Scottish crofts in the Isle of Lewis.

This is just to say that I loved the fact that parts of this book is set in a rural area of Scotland, a place I have come to respect and admire. I also enjoyed the plot. The exposition could have been edited down a bit, but once Ava arrived in Scotland, it was hard for me to put this book down.

Many thanks for the advance copy of this - I DNFd about a quarter of the way through. There's a fine line for me between making the main character endearingly annoying or downright irritating, and Ava crossed it, I'm afraid. I think I'm perhaps a little too old for the intended demographic, but it grated on me - self confessed stationery geek Ava but it's spelled 'stationary' (perhaps something proof reading will pick up before publishing), the cruel way Ava finds out about her half sister, which no-one seems to really care about, and the fact the place she goes to in Scotland doesn't exist.
I understand why you would do that, - perhaps because you haven't visited Scotland very much, or because you wanted the place in your head to be written down from its composite parts which don't exist in real life, but it's sp set in our world in other ways, I didn't understand why a real place in Scotland wasn't chosen instead,
Thanks for the copy and I know lots of people are loving this - it just wasn't for me.