Blog Tour: The Forgotten Sister by Caroline Bond

Released: 2nd May

Publisher: Corvus Books

Genre: General fiction

Blurb:

To lose your family is heart-breaking. To be forgotten by them is unforgivable.

Cassie and Erin are sisters. They are close - in age, looks and personality - but there is one crucial difference: Cassie is adopted.

At seventeen, Cassie sets out to find her birth mother. She is hungry for the truth, but she discovers her adoption was far more complicated than even she could have imagined. In uncovering her past identity Cassie learns her adoptive parents have kept a terrible secret from her her whole life, which now threatens to destroy everything she has ever held dear.

A heart-rending, profoundly moving novel about protecting the ones you love from the secrets that will hurt them most, perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult and Jojo Moyes.

My Thoughts:

I went into this novel with a certain expectation based on the blurb. I don't do spoilers, but the story was so much more than I'd thought it would be, in a really interesting and thought-provoking way. It looks at what makes a family, and what can happen when people are forced to protect their own.

I was drawn in originally by the premise (especially as Jodi Picoult has always been a favourite author of mine, and so anything that mentions her within the advertising will pique my interest) What I loved, but didn't expect, was that the plot had some darker, more sinister elements as I read further on, and there were some twists that kept me captivated.

I enjoyed that the author let you see the plot from multiple perspectives within the narrative, and given the family theme I thought that to hear from pretty much all of the characters was a good way to get more development within the book. This also served to show how jarring the points of view were from each other at times, and this gave more insight for us as readers. I also think that the novel overall handled some important themes for young people, and did so with courage and tact.

I can't say much more without giving anything away, other than to urge you to give this a try if you, like me, are a fan of Jodi Picoult or Emily Barr and enjoy an emotionally rich story with a darker edge to it.

Thank you to Corvus (an imprint of Atlantic Books) and Anne Cater for inviting me to be part of the blog tour, and for sending me a copy of this novel for review.