Review: The Secret Sister (Fairham Island #1) by Brenda Novak

Rating: 5/5 stars

Publication Date: July 28th, 2015

Blurb:

Did she once have a sister? Has her mother lied all these years? Why? 

After a painful divorce, Maisey Lazarow returns to Fairham, the small island off the North Carolina coast where she grew up. She goes there to heal—and to help her brother, Keith, a deeply troubled man who's asked her to come home. But she refuses to stay in the family house. The last person she wants to see is the wealthy, controlling mother she escaped years ago. 

Instead, she finds herself living next door to someone else she'd prefer to avoid—Rafe Romero, the wild, reckless boy to whom she lost her virginity at sixteen. He's back on the island, and to her surprise, he's raising a young daughter alone. Maisey's still attracted to him, but her heart's too broken to risk… 

Then something even more disturbing happens. She discovers a box of photographs that evoke distant memories of a little girl, a child Keith remembers, too. Maisey believes the girl must've been their sister, but their mother claims there was no sister. 

Maisey's convinced that child existed. So where is she now?

Review:

I can say that after some time, I have become someone who enjoys Brenda Novak’s books. I wasn’t expecting that considering my past experiences with her books. The secret sister is a captivating book despite a little slowness it might have. When I was forced to take a break from it (dead battery), my mind kept wandering to this story. I can say that I am satisfied with the way things ended, considering that the Secret Sister is a series and I will probably see Maisey, Rafe, Laney and the other characters again. I hope book two will be from Keith’s or Nancy’s point of view. Maye he and Nancy can be together. The answers to pretty much everything were given, but I still feel the need to revisit those characters. As always I want to see (more of) how the characters are fairing.

For some reason I was expecting Annabelle’s fate. I had a feeling that something similar had happened to her. That doesn’t mean though that I didn’t enjoy the book. I won’t comment further because I don’t want to accidentally spoil you. The questions for discussion were an unexpected and welcome surprise. They made me wish I was a member of a reading club because they were good questions. Now, I will have to force someone to read this book in order to discuss the questions.

Ending this review I have to say something for Laney. As it's mentioned in the blurb, Laney is blind. This blindness made me question a couple of things about how children without the ability to see grow up. I wondered how it's like growing up knowing that the sky is blue, but without what blue looks like. I have more respect and empathy for people like her. It must be very tough. Rafe explained what golden looks like by saying that it looks like the way sunshine falls. I loved how her blindness didn't affect Laney and how effortlessly she kept living her life.