The Good Sister by Gillian McAllister @GillianMAuthor @PutnamBooks

The Good Sister by Gillian McAllister is now available!

This was my first book by Gillian McAllister and I really wasn’t sure what to expect here with the premise to the story. I was pleasantly surprised with just how real, raw, brave, insightful and compelling this story was. Gillian McAllister is definitely an author I will be looking at to read more from. 

The Good Sister is a gripping, riveting story that digs deep into the dynamics of two very different sisters, their relationships with their husbands and their conflicts with motherhood as the courtroom drama plays out after one sister is accused of murdering her niece. 

Gillian McAllister does a great job here weaving a suspenseful courtroom drama with some very interesting family dynamics here in this story. I am not a big fan of courtroom drama and at times I found it a bit repetitive however it is very effectively done here as we see the different perspectives of the events in real life for the characters and then in the courtroom. It’s incredibly tense and tough to read at times as we find out what happens to eight week old Layla. 

I loved just how real the characters are with their emotions and the dynamics here with the characters. I felt it was a unique take for a thriller as there were so many different thriller ways this could of went or added drama that could have been added that wasn’t. The unique insight to this one kept it compelling and I was turning the pages as fast as I could to get to find out if Becky really was the Good Sister. 

The ending came together so well making this one such a gripping and riveting story with so much to think about and discuss making this one a great one for a group discussion. I highly recommend. 

I received a copy from Edelweiss

I was so anxious reading this book, I wanted to find out what had really happened and part of me did not want to know! The pacing was excellent, the characters really came to life and were realistically flawed. The really interesting part was the parents of the sisters. How do you sit in the courtroom while one daughter is on trial and one is mourning the loss of her child? Can you support both of them? Somehow the family seemed to stay strong.

I found the writing to be very well done and the story flowed for me while I worried about these characters. How can anyone deal with this situation? Grief and anger mingled together and family ties were definitely strained.

The story told is very powerful and addictive. You really won’t be able to put this one down as the chapters switch back and forth between Martha and Becky, along with chapters told through POVs of various witnesses right before they testify in court, which makes for an intriguing read since that upped the emotional intensity of the book.

More than just being about how Layla died, the novel is about the relationship between these two sisters and how they must deal with this tragic death, the accusation, the trial, it’s aftermath and the impact it’s made on them as sisters and as individuals. It’s also about a family torn apart, mother, father, brother, sister, husband, and how they must overcome such horrific tragedy even when their family is divided. From Stephanie’s Novel Fiction