“I think you were born with music in your soul,’ he said, looking at me in a way that made my insides smile. ‘What you choose to do with it is up to you.”

The Other Half Of Me is a novel by British author, Katherine Slee. At the age of eight, Beth Franks is “the girl who would wake in the night and feel compelled to sit down and play the music in her soul.” Her dad James shows her how to make sense of all the music she carries around in her head, how to connect with the magic of music in the world around her.

By her mid-teens, it’s clear she has a talent for song writing, especially in collaboration with her best friend, Isaac Hardy. She carries music in her soul and dares to dream that one day she might be good enough to have her songs played on the radio. And played, they are, but it’s a source of heartbreak.

Eighteen years on, she feels she’s sitting in the background of other people’s lives. It feels like I’m existing instead of living. Playing piano in an old-fashioned London hotel and giving piano lessons is hardly reaching full potential, but she finds it hard to care since her older sister Lucy, the one person who she believes truly understood her, has died.

“My mind flooded with a lifetime of memories, pictures of the past that all included her. The idea of carrying on, of living in a world, making new memories, having the audacity to create music when she wasn’t there to hear it was just too much.”

Lucy, having watched Beth abandon what makes her truly happy, and keenly aware of her own, imminent mortality, goes to a lot of trouble to draw her younger sister out of the slump she’s in, even from the other side of the grave. Her husband, Harry, her father James, and Isaac are all enlisted and armed with riddles and clues to send her down a path of rediscovery.

It’s a long road before she gets there, though, and the reader’s patience with Beth’s negativity is required. Her family and friends have sound advice that eventually filters into her brain: “Regret is nothing more than a waste of time, pickle” and “Maybe if you actually did something with your life, instead of blaming everyone around you when it goes wrong, then you wouldn’t feel the need to constantly compare yourself to Lucy.”

She eventually accepts that “You always put Lucy on a pedestal, believed her to be perfect. But she was just as broken as the rest of us.”

Slee paints an effective picture of grief and regret: “When you lose someone, you lose the version of yourself that you were to them. Not only that, but all the memories and jokes, all the years that we were a part of together.” Ultimately this is a heart-warming and uplifting read, enhanced by the inclusion of the lyrics of four of Beth’s songs.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing.

I recieved this book as an ARC and I’m thankful I got to read it. It’s a beautiful story about self discovery, grief and so much more. It’s about Beth who lost her older sister to cancer, but she didn’t just lose her sister, she lost herself years ago and her sister decided to help her before she died so she arranged for things after her death to reach Beth and help her to find to herself again.
The story is beautiful but I still felt like something has been missing which is why I can only give it 4/5 stars, but it’s such a quick read and definitely worth it.

Lucy was always the perfect sister but now she's gone and Beth is deep into grief. The only thing that helps is her music (watch for the song lyrics!) but then an unexpected gift arrives from Lucy- a puzzle. Beth has repressed something that happened (no spoilers) when they were younger, something that their family blamed her for when she was the victim, and now she's going to face it. This is an emotional story that swings on the sibling relationship. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A well written and thoughtful look at grief, acceptance, and forgiveness.

This book had me up into the wee hours! I couldn't put it down. It's full of hope, loss, betrayal, and love lost and found. As a representation of a sibling relationship, it's very true to life and while the actual plot is fairly predictable, the way it's written kept me hooked. Initially, I couldn't decide if I liked Beth, or just pitied her, but by the end, I was firmly in her corner. All the characters were interesting and well defined, and the story with its dual timelines unfolded easily.

This was heartbreaking but also heartwarming (a good mix really). Beth's journey through her grief was relatable, but also quite distinct due to several factors of her past revealed later on in the book. The writing was pretty good, and I really enjoyed the incorporation of music throughout the entire story and the extra layer of feeling that it added overall.

I thought the flashback chapters were a great addition to the book, and it created almost a mystery-like atmosphere to why Beth turned out like she did, and what was needed on her quest to figure out Lucy's puzzle. I thought it started off a bit slow, but I really got into the book towards last half of it when more of Beth, Lucy, and Isaac's pasts came to light. Overall a 4-star read for me.

This short book is a page-turner, sentimental and the central idea is about how we deal with the problems in our lives.
We follow Beth, who recently lost her older sister Lucy. We go back and forward in time, seeing what happened between them. The main plot is a treasure hunt that Lucy sets up for beth to do after her death, mainly to help her move on.
We get to see Beth and where she is with her work, dreams, and ambitions, as well as her relationships with her family and friends.
There were parts that a found cliche but didn't stop me from keep reading the book.

This book left me with mixed feelings. The plot itself is great and I was immediately hooked. I loved how the chapters go back and forth between past and present, and little by little, we find out why Beth ended up where she is in life: alone, depressed and uninspired.

However, the big reveal of the thing Beth did to make everyone mad at her left me confused. I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just say I kept waiting for something else to come up because I couldn't believe that was it. It doesn't make much sense to me that her loved ones would blame her and be so unsupportive after something that happened when she was a teen and which she was the victim of.

That being said, I have to praise the writing for keeping me invested in Beth's story even when things were frustrating me.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to experience the early edition of this book.

The best one of this summer reads so far. A page turner and one that you can not put down.
Highly recommend!

What a great read! Full of turmoil, betrayal and all kinds of love.

Elizabeth Franks (Beth) had big dreams, but a few misguided decisions, and the death of her sister Lucy, and Beth’s life is a mess - until a puzzle left by Lucy sends Beth on a trail through memories, heartache and truths.

"Our dreams are just pieces scattered all over With nowhere particular to go’ Galaxy girl, Elizabeth Franks"

This is a story of regret, guilt and grief, which sounds like a hard read, and it is full of emotion, but it didn’t feel difficult. I’m not musical in the slightest but I thought the background story added depth and intensity to the main characters and the plot.

I have to admit to start with I found Beth’s self-pity irritating, and the sisters are very polarised characters - maybe to the point of cliché but, being written in the first person, I soon came to understand this really was the vehemence of Beth’s feelings of inadequacy, and idolisation of the ‘perfect’ Lucy.

The Other Half of Me is one of those books that I wanted to read constantly and yet I didn’t want to finish, and I will miss now that I have.


Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The People You Meet On Vacation meets My Sister’s Keeper with a bit of Coyote Ugly thrown in.

Losing her big sister, Lucy, to a brain tumor while dealing with the choices that led her life to feel stagnant. Elizabeth doesn’t know what to do or how to do it, but she knows her life has been utterly disappointing to herself and everyone she cares about. From beyond the grave, Lucy forces Elizabeth to face the music- and move on with her life.

It’s heavy, gripping, heart wrenching and beautiful.

This is my first Katherine Slee book, but it definitely won't be my last!

I admit that I was drawn to the cover more than the book blurb, but I ended up really enjoying this story. So much so, that I read it in one sitting.

It has so many great elements:

*Lovely sibling relationship between Beth and Lucy. It made me tear up and want to call my own sister several times.
*Great friends-to-lovers subplot.
*Poignant song lyrics that I wish I could actually have a playlist of.

Will definitely be adding this to my re-read shelf!

Beth lost Lucy - her sister. A brain tumor that would come and go until, one day, she was gone. Lucy's existence was gone but the memories and hurtful feelings revealed themselves in Beth's life every day. Beth was not the perfect daughter, not as much as Lucy. Her life was like a shadow following Lucy needs and her popular personality and the only thing that made her truly happy and alive was music. Playing on her piano, writing her songs and suddenly the world disappears. But now, her dreams of becoming a songwriter are shattered, forgotten as a couple of events happened in the past that cannot be changed. Still, as the past cannot be changed there is always a glimpse of hope for the future. Lucy left something for Beth. Slowly she starts to reveal the meaning behind those memories. What happened and what it might happen. Forgiveness and love.

This book is about finding yourself as the world feels unlivable. When your dreams, your passion, is running away from you. When there is no hope or happiness or love. Until there is.

Personally I connected with the main character because I am, as well, in love with music since I remember me as a person. Dreams can change, it's true, but the passion for music will always be there. I recommend this book, although I feel like jumping between the present and the past chapter by chapter was making me distracted. And my health anxiety suffered a little bit while reading this journey of Lucy's brain tumor. Besides that, I think it was a beautiful story.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this eARC.

Since the death of her big sister, Beth has felt lost, a shadow of her former self. It’s been years since she abandoned her youthful musical aspirations and settled for playing piano in a hotel bar; when she lost Lucy, she lost the one who was always there to encourage her, the one who stopped her from giving up on life entirely.

In her grief, Beth finds herself sinking deeper into the rut Lucy was forever trying to lift her out of. But then a posthumous gift from Lucy, a puzzle box, arrives weeks after the funeral, containing clues that Beth must follow to reopen long-closed doors to the past—including memories she’s been running from for years.

As she reluctantly follows the trail, rediscovering friendships she discarded on her downward spiral, Beth realises that she lost her way long before she lost Lucy. But is it too late to find her way back to the hopeful, trusting person she was before—and to finally start living the version of the future that Lucy always wanted for her?

First off, Thank you so much for letting me review this wonderful book! I absolutely adored this book! I enjoyed the characters and the story! The story flowed great and had me reading and finishing the book in no time! I highly recommend this book! Stunning, a page-turner which stays long in the memory!

This was an engaging book that kept me interested throughout. I found Beth and Lucy compelling and strong. The book was a good length and pacy. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you NG and the publisher for the chance to read.

“The Other Half of Me” is by Katherine Slee. In some ways I really liked this book and in other ways, it just didn’t work for me. This book, at times, was incredibly sad but at other times I found myself frustrated with the attitude Beth (the main character) had toward seemingly everything. I realize - and acknowledge - that grief is a difficult emotion to deal with - both mentally and physically. I also acknowledge that Beth was deeply into grieving - both the loss of her sister but also at “what could’ve been” in her life.

I think Ms. Slee’s over all idea of this book was what interested me. However, I didn’t find myself enjoying reading this book all the time, especially some of the stories in the past. People are complex and this book shows that. While the idea of a “treasure hunt” was interesting, it didn’t always work for me. Overall, I’d rate this a 3.5 read, rounded up to 4 stars.

It was just like any other book to start with, what I don't get with other books is the heartfelt emotion inside every sentence. I've also never had a book make me cry almost all the way through, this one did! I would read this over and over again