It’s a pleasure today to be joining the blog tour for A Sister’s Promise by Caroline Finnerty – published by Boldwood Books on 22nd November, it’s now available as an ebook (free via Kindle Unlimited), in paperback, and as an audiobook. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the publishers for my reading e-copy (provided via netgalley).
A new-to-me author this time round, although I do remember wanting to try A Mother’s Secret back in February and just couldn’t fit it in – but I can see how many excellent reviews it gathered. So let’s take a look at Caroline’s latest…
Sisters Laura and Penny were once close, bonded together after the early death of their mother. Laura always had her younger sister’s back until one day everything changed and Penny disappeared.
Twenty years later Laura finds herself alone and at a crossroad in her life; questioning her marriage and her future.
Meanwhile Penny has spent her whole life running away from her problems until one day she is forced to stop and face the shocking truth.
When Penny turns up on Laura’s doorstep late one stormy night, holding the hand of a shivering little girl, Laura is immediately suspicious of her sister’s motives. Just what does Penny want and who is this little girl?
Penny carries a devastating secret that will test their bond as sisters and is forced to make an impossible choice.
Can the sisters find it within their hearts to forgive and unite before it’s too late?
A “heartbreaking read” said the publishers – and my goodness, they really meant it, didn’t they? My personal preference, I must admit, is for books that make me smile – this one had me opening a second box of tissues, and by the end I felt I’d done several rounds with Mike Tyson. So, I’m going to be honest and admit it perhaps wasn’t quite the right book for me – but I could certainly appreciate the superb way the highly emotional content was handled, and the author writes quite beautifully.
This is the story of two sisters, long estranged. Laura has a comfortable life, and a lovely rural home – paid for by her husband’s successful construction business – where she’s happily brought up her two now-adult children. With the thinking time afforded by her newly empty nest, she’s become increasingly aware of the fragility of her marriage, and the fact that they don’t communicate any more: discovering he’s having an affair, she demands that he leaves and faces the future alone. Neither of them tell the children – that will be better face-to-face, when they come home from university for Christmas.
Sister Penny has been living in Australia, having cut herself from the family after a rather wild youth and an incident – not uncovered until later in the story – that made her feel there was no way back. With her young child Willow, she’s fled from an abusive partner and lives in fear of him discovering their whereabouts – but being mother to her daughter brings her real happiness, their relationship considerably closer than most. A personal health crisis – concerning enough in itself – makes her realise she has no support network when things go wrong, and Social Services are clearly trying to find the child’s father. So she runs – and appears on Laura’s doorstep in Ireland, in a wild storm and in the dead of night, needing the support of family.
The sisters need to rebuild their relationship – one step forward, two backwards at times – but things are easier because of the presence of Willow, and the clear depth of the love between mother and daughter. Laura’s own children are less welcoming – they didn’t even know their mother had a sister, and when they find she’s also failed to tell them about the disintegration of her marriage things become increasingly fraught. But this all largely becomes insignificant when compared with the situation Penny is facing… totally heartbreaking, and I’ll say no more lest I spoil the story.
There was a lot I really enjoyed about this book. Laura and Penny are both very real people, flawed in their own different ways, and their slow return to the closeness of childhood was fascinating to watch and impeccably handled. Four-year-old Willow is beautifully drawn – I’m not always a fan of reproducing child-speak, but felt it really worked here – and she’s very much central to the unfolding story and its sometimes rather harrowing emotional content. And I really enjoyed the focus on family, and the strength both women were able to find within themselves and from each other – yes, it’s an exceptionally sad story, but rather uplifting too. At first, I wasn’t too sure about the ending – but the more I thought about it (this is a book that left its mark, and I thought about it for days…) it was most definitely the right one. And the book certainly isn’t all gloom and despondency – it’s filled with warmth and love, and there are plenty of moments of joy.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, I most certainly would – but do stock up on the tissues. While it wasn’t entirely the book for me, I’d certainly like to read more from its very talented author – I might just be more prepared next time for the emotional journey.
About the author
Caroline Finnerty is an Irish author of heart-wrenching family dramas and has compiled a non-fiction charity anthology. She has been shortlisted for several short-story awards and lives in County Kildare with her husband and four young children.
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