Half Sisters: A Novel

Written by Virginia Franken

Narrated by Jess Nahikian

A single lie becomes a defining moment in a family’s life in an unforgettable novel of psychological suspense.

After being gone for two decades, Maddy’s half sister, Emily, is back in town to settle their late father’s estate. Emily’s not the troubled girl Maddy remembers from their volatile childhood. Apparently, all is well. It can’t possibly matter anymore that Maddy married Emily’s first love, but the pictures Maddy finds on her husband’s phone tell a different story. Suspicions of an affair are hard to ignore.

Then again, Maddy hasn’t been herself lately. She’s increasingly confused. She’s losing items that are precious to her. She forgets where she’s going. The line between what’s real and unreal has become a blur. Even the damning photos have disappeared. Though her state of mind starts to become everyone’s cause for concern, Maddy refuses to believe she’s losing her grip on reality. But the one thing she can’t deny is the secret from the past that rewrote all their lives—a secret that’s ready to come out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jun 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781713656579

Virginia Franken

Virginia Franken was born and raised in the United Kingdom. She graduated from the University of Roehampton, in London, with a degree in dance and worked on cruise liners as a professional dancer before changing tracks to pursue a career in publishing. Franken currently lives in suburban Los Angeles with two kids, a dog, an overweight goldfish, and one bearded dude, in a house that’s just a little too small to fit everyone in comfortably. She gets most of her writing done when she should be sleeping. This is her first novel.

Reviews for Half Sisters

[carole888fort · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Half Sisters by Virginia Franken gives a whole new meaning to family drama. As per the title, the main characters are Maddy and her half sister Emily, who moves into Maddy’s family home in her teens, when Maddy was a few years younger. Until then, the girls had not known of each other, which made the transition to a new family dynamic difficult, to say the least. But the family did its best until a terrible incident resulted in Emily being forced to leave, not to return until the death of their father, decades later. This is when everyone’s true colours are revealed. Virginia Franken has drawn complicated characters . It’s difficult to determine which of the sisters is the most detestable and dishonest. There are also great secondary characters who make this story even more challenging. The plot evolves in a most satisfying manner, giving the reader plenty of characters and incidents to love &/or hate. The story alternates between the sisters’ teen years and their reunion as adults many years later. Half Sisters is fast-moving and akin to watching a car wreck. It’s always difficult to determine which one is the bad seed. Highly recommended. Thank you to Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.