The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll ~ 384 pages ~ published 5/15/18 by Simon & Schuster

 

Goodreads Synopsis:

When five hyper-successful women agree to appear on a reality series set in New York City called Goal Diggers, the producers never expect the season will end in murder…

Brett’s the fan favorite. Tattooed and only twenty-seven, the meteoric success of her spin studio—and her recent engagement to her girlfriend—has made her the object of jealousy and vitriol from her cast mates.

Kelly, Brett’s older sister and business partner, is the most recent recruit, dismissed as a hanger-on by veteran cast. The golden child growing up, she defers to Brett now—a role which requires her to protect their shocking secret.

Stephanie, the first black cast member and the oldest, is a successful bestselling author of erotic novels. There have long been whispers about her hot, non-working actor-husband and his wandering eye, but this season the focus is on the rift that has opened between her and Brett, former best friends—and resentment soon breeds contempt.

Lauren, the start-up world’s darling whose drinking has gotten out of control, is Goal Diggers’ recovery narrative—everyone loves a comeback story.

And Jen, made rich and famous through her cultishly popular vegan food line plays a holistic hippie for the cameras, but is perhaps the most ruthless of them all when the cameras are off.

What I Thought:

Let me preface this review by saying that I am generally not a huge fan of thrillers. I tend to stay in my YA/historical fiction bubble, but I have been trying to branch out and broaden my horizons lately. When I saw this book on NetGalley, I thought that it sounded interesting, so I requested it, and I got it!

I went into this book having already seen that it was not getting great reviews. However, I had an open mind because my tastes will sometimes vary wildly from others. That was not the case this time. From the very beginning, I was not a fan of this book. The characters were awful to one another. There was not one likable gal in the bunch. As the book went on, I kept hoping that one of them would have some sort of redemption arc…but, alas, they all just became worse and worse people as the story went along.

I understand that not every book can be all sunshine and rainbows, but these women were just the absolute worst! They were constantly catty with one another, constantly backstabbing, constantly spouting off the most awful opinions. The main focus of the book, Brett, was my front-runner for my favorite for a large portion of the book. By the end, I was disappointed with her as well, but I won’t tell you why because spoilers 😉

As far as the writing style goes, I wasn’t a big fan of the way that Knoll would hop from talking about the present to something that had happened in the past within the same paragraph. It was done with no warning, and was extremely confusing to figure out what was going on a lot of the time.

I did give this a higher rating than I would have otherwise because, by the end, I actually was hooked and wanting to figure out who the killer was. I was able to guess who it was, but not until close to the end. As that was a big part of the book, I had to give some kuddo points for that!

My Rating:

2.0/5.0

I gave this book 2 STARS. I really hated all of the characters, but it kept me intrigued enough to want to solve the mystery, so I felt that deserved slightly higher than the otherwise terrible rating I would have given.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Are you interested in learning more about this book? Check out the links below!

Jessica Knoll’s Website

Jessica Knoll’s Twitter

The Favorite Sister on Goodreads

Purchase The Favorite Sister on Amazon

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Have you read this book yet? Are you a fan of thrillers? Have you read any other books by Jessica Knoll? Let me know down in the comments! 

 

Love and happy reading,