Julie's Review: The Other Sister

Author: Dianne Dixon
Series: None
Publication Date: November 1, 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Pages: 400
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Psychological Thriller
Rating: 4.25/5
Bottom Line: Kept me guessing until the end
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: One sister has everything. Her twin hates her for it. Would life be better without Ali? Probably. At least then people might think about Morgan. Ali's always gotten everything ― she doesn't even realize how much Morgan resents her. Ali also doesn't realize that when she shuts Morgan out entirely, she will unleash a chain of events that show just how dangerous the underside of love really is. As their lives spin toward something neither one of them can control, a terrifying crime reveals how those who know us best can destroy us...or save us. ~amazon.com  

Review: The Other Sister will have you guessing until the very end what is really going on. I swear I changed my mind on the direction of the story a couple different times. Morgan and Ali are twins and while they share a tight bond, often enough it is one that is more of intense dislike than of love. Morgan views her life as subpar compared to Ali's. Ali has everything including the love a Matt, who Morgan met first. Morgan has always felt that Ali is the golden child and that everything in her life has always been fantastic. In one word, Morgan is envious of Ali.

Ali on the other hand seems to have it all but she's not cocky about it. She loves her life and has dreams of her own. She wants to open her own restaurant but she's willing to work hard for it. She's also very much in love with Matt, so when he throws her a curve ball and announces he's taken a job in Hollywood, she marries him and goes with him. At this point, I had to question Ali and if she really had everything like Morgan thought. There were enough red flags with Matt, that I actually thought she might bail on him and stay in Rhode Island and follow her dreams.

What Ms. Dixon does very well is create the tug and pull of sibling, especially twin, rivalry. Twins really do take it to a whole other level. She also writes so that you vacillate between which sister you side with. For a long time, Morgan drove me crazy but the break from Ali is what she needed to figure out that she put herself in Ali's shadow. She needed to understand her own worth and quit keeping herself in her sister's shadow. For Ali, she had to shake the feeling of carrying someone around and always being responsible for Morgan. She also has to deal with a tragedy that puts a greater divide between her and Matt, since their marriage is already shaky.

I definitely didn't see the twists and turn coming until the very end. I really did think the novel was taking a different direction. I have to say that I would highly recommend  The Other Sister
for fans of psychological thrillers.


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Alice's Review: The Book of Someday

Author: Dianne Dixon
Series: None
Publication Date: September 3, 2013
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Pages: 335
Obtained:  Borrowed
Genre:  Women's Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Wonderful character driven novel with a surprising ending.
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary:  Three women. One stranger in a shimmering silver dress. Whatever binds them together has already destroyed one life. It just might consume them all. Someday, Livvi Gray will break free from her past. Someday, she will escape her recurring nightmare about that stranger in a shimmering silver dress. Someday, she will have a family of her own. Now she's found Andrew, and someday seems to be right around the corner. But there's so much Livvi doesn't know. Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, she will come face-to-face with the stranger from her dream-an encounter that will alter Livvi's future and crack open everything she knew about her past. Livvi is swiftly moving toward the ultimate turning point in her life-and she's not the only one. Linked by an unforgettable mystery, photographer Micah and young mother AnnaLee are also being rapidly drawn into a web of devastating secrets about the unexpected ways in which we choose to protect-and betray-the people we love. ~amazon.com

Review:  I am a lover of short stories. This novel reads very much like a short story. In fact, you could probably read each character’s story as a standalone as one is not needed to benefit the others. Yet, as they are told in alternating chapters, they are forever entwined, linked in a way I never expected. The only common factor is a woman wearing a pearl button shoe. I thoroughly enjoyed how this novel came together. I couldn't have guessed it and I was quite surprised.

The Book of Someday is the stories of three women. Livvi is a literary sensation, Micah a world famous photographer, and AnnaLee a young mother trying to hold her family together. Thinking about it now, I believe these women have something else in common besides the woman in the pearl button shoe. Each woman is beautifully damaged, broken in spirit and soul. As we get to know them, they reveal the depths of that damage. It’s difficult to describe them without revealing too much of the novel.

I like Livvi initially. She came from a broken home, had a father who was there but not engaged. She had a stepmother who was a monster to her. She carried her experience deep within her, hiding her truth from all who know her. It is only with the love a man that she begins to acknowledge her past. Towards the end of her arc, I didn’t particularly care for her. The decisions she made tarnished her character and turned her selfish and greedy. At least that is how I saw her.

Micah was a wonderful character. She was the opposite of Livvi: a horrible woman in search of absolution. I didn’t like her at all, with her black soul and narcissistic ways. As her story is exposed and we learn her truth, we can see why she’s that way. It wasn’t pretty, but it made sense. I didn’t like her any more in the end than I did in the beginning of the novel, but I appreciated her darkness.

I can’t quite figure out how I feel about AnnaLee. Sometimes I really liked her and how caring she was for her daughter and husband. Other times I saw her as this judgemental, bitter woman who was never happy. I covered both extremes on the spectrum.

Overall, I think this is a great novel. I love that it was told in alternating chapters. I love that I didn’t figure out the ending. I love that it truly made me gasp in shock. It was pretty darn awesome. I didn’t feel any connection to the characters but I was still invested in their story. I kept reading because of morbid curiosity. I had to know what was up with the woman in the pearl button shoe. The only flaw I found was the disenchantment I felt towards Livvi in the end. I expected more from her and was a bit disappointed at the outcome. I think I would have been happier with a real resolution.

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Julie's Review: The Book of Someday

Summary: Three women. One stranger in a shimmering silver dress. Whatever binds them together has already destroyed one life. It just might consume them all. Someday, Livvi Gray will break free from her past. Someday, she will escape her recurring nightmare about that stranger in a shimmering silver dress. Someday, she will have a family of her own. Now she's found Andrew, and someday seems to be right around the corner. But there's so much Livvi doesn't know. Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, she will come face-to-face with the stranger from her dream-an encounter that will alter Livvi's future and crack open everything she knew about her past. Livvi is swiftly moving toward the ultimate turning point in her life-and she's not the only one. Linked by an unforgettable mystery, photographer Micah and young mother AnnaLee are also being rapidly drawn into a web of devastating secrets about the unexpected ways in which we choose to protect-and betray-the people we love. ~amazon.com  

Review:  The Book of Someday is an exquisite novel that looks at how our past haunts us and then releases us. We are introduced to three women in the novel: Livvi, Micah and AnnaLee. Livvi opens the book as a young girl in fear of her father and yearning to be somewhere, anywhere else. Micah is a famous photographer who is going to have a bomb thrown in her lap that causes her to revisit her unpleasant past. AnnaLee is a young mother living in the house that she grew up in with the possessions that her parents collected and the fact that she's ashamed of husband.

Their stories will break your heart. They will make you want to release your past and embrace the present. They will make you wonder what happened and what will happen. Will Livvie face her dark past? Will Micah make peace with hers? Will AnnaLee accept her husband for who he is and isn't?

Ms. Dixon doesn't an excellent job of being ambiguous throughout the novel. She gives you enough of a path of crumbs to follow them to the connection but leaves out enough that you question your own theories. You wonder if the lady in the shimmering silver dress and pearl button shoes is mystical. What is her connection to all three of them? I loved the way that it was discovered.

My only complaint is the ending! I closed the book wanting more! What happened to them?! Did they find peace and happiness? I'm all about not having a neatly tied bow but wow! This book will have me thinking for weeks, maybe months.

If you are a fan of mysteries with a mystical bent, then The Book of Someday is for you. It is a book that makes you think, get a little misty-eyed and go WTH?!

Final Take:  4.75/5

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for my copy of the novel for review.




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