This is an exceptional look at love, life and grief.
It was a great book with a great cast of characters.
An excellent book

Review: Rival Sisters

Rival sisters centers around sisters who are divided by loss. hannah and Nat grew up very close together, but after losing their mother and being unable to control their grief hey now live incredibly separate lives. However, throughout this book they realize that they need each other more than ever!

This book explores a very splintered family dynamic. All the emotions felt raw and real, and i think the characters were written really well- However, i will say that i didnt necessarily like any of them which is why i didnt love the book and some of the decisions they made throughout the book really frustrated me because with the smallest bit of communication things could have been resolved (im also not a fan of unlikable protagonists).

Overall this was readable, but i didnt love it.

This was definitely a hard book to maintain interest in. The saving grace for this book was the grandmother. She was extremely special and offered so much to her family. I did not care for either sister and felt that the plotline was extremely predictable and just completely dragged on and didn't really go anywhere. The con was just dumb and I could not understand anyone with any sense falling for this. This just made the whole thing not plausible. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

Great book. Highly recommend and will most defiantly read more by this author and suggest to others!

I really tried to link this book, but it just wasn't for me. I thought the plot was interesting, but the characters needed a little more development. This was a DNF for me.

Nat has a problem, her sister Hannah....these two couldn’t be any further apart, yet through a strange twist of internet activity, they become each other’s confident and actually strike a friendship.
This story is a light read with serious themes which makes it a book hard to put down!
The characters are in twined in a way the reader can see but the plot doesn’t elude to, until much later in the book, this keeps the reader interested as they are the ones joining up the dots.
A story of differences, feuds and friendship.

Rival Sisters tells the story of two sisters Nat and Hannah who since the death of their mother when they were teenagers, they once close relationship has turned bitter. I enjoyed the fact that neither were as perfect as they first appear and they learn more about themselves and each other as the plot unfolds.

I have moved Guy's other novel A Life Worth Living that I got from Netgalley to the top of my TBR list and have high hopes for.

Highly recommend!!!!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

Very much enjoyed this read!!
I loved the relationships and the ups and downs not only between the sisters, but with the rest of the family as well. Great read!

Well this was certainly an intense, emotional read.
The characters drew you in with their unique personalities and they added new layers to this already moving story.
The plot was structured perfectly and really captured my attention from the beginning.
A beautifully written book that I found gripping. and moving.

I really enjoyed this book....Nat and Hannah both lost their mum in their teens, and rather then bring them closer, their relationship is fractured....now adults they are brought back together. Really lovely story with well written characters.

An interesting book which tackles and focuses on a tough topic. I enjoyed reading this and I like the author’s writing.

Loved the realness of this story. I went through a cycled love-hate relationship with each character, which, I think, speaks to the truth of this plot line! Difficult topic and so well written.

Rival sisters

This book is about a family. The heart of the book is about two sisters, but we have a cast of supporting characters. The sisters mother dies 10 years earlier. Their father has since remarried and they all live in Australia where the novel is set.

Nat is the younger sister, a little wild, led by her heart. Hannah is quite the opposite in there every situation has a pro and con list, a right and a wrong way of doing things. After the death of their mother, their relationship is fractured and doesn’t seem to recover. Hannah does her best to control everyone and Nat is a free spirit. In adulthood, Nat is trying to figure out how to manage her life and manage a growing gambling addiction, while Hannah is trying to keep a secret hidden of her own.

I have said this before, but I love a book where a sister relationship is at the heart of it. Sibling relationships can be so complex and interesting and I love the way the author depicts the push and pull between Nat and Hannah as they navigate their delicate relationship.

Aside from the conflict between sisters, there was so much going on in this book it was kind of ridiculous at times. The author kept putting up different obstacles and creating new conflict so often that the characters didn’t get a chance fully develop. There was no space or breathing room. They were constantly in reaction to external circumstances. It was a way to move the story along, because I was invested. But, I felt the book would have benefited from fewer conflict, and more character development.

There was a character, the grandma, who was in early stages of dementia. That struck a chord with me because I’m familiar with that, having a close family member experience the same thing. I just had a hard time connecting emotionally to the characters because there was just so much going on.

Loved this book. I did not know what to expect as this is a new author to me, but, I was pleasantly surprised good story, well written and definitely recommend a read

An interesting and sweet family story. The characters are well developed and engaging with lots of good imagery.
On the whole, a good book.

Hannah and Nat are sisters but are polar opposites which is exacerbated by the death of their mother when they are teenagers. Hannah is married and has a young daughter and her live revolves around risk assessments which she not only does for work but brings it home as well, she is very anal about doing the right things and being very critical of others.

Nat is a bit of a free spirit and is very devoted to her work with the less fortunate and has a habit of not being able to keep a job because she takes pity on people and wants to help them out even if it means breaking the rules. Consequently she has little or no money and is kicked out of her shared accommodation because she can't pay her share of the rent.

White night Phillie is their 89 yo grandmother and offers Nat a proposition to live with her which will get Hannah off her back about moving into supported accommodation because of her age. Nat agrees but very soon is drawn into a gambling addiction which threatens to take over her whole life and the lives of her family.

Louise Guy tackles some pretty interesting topics throughout this book - gambling, addiction, control, adoption and family

✏️ “Stay true to who you are and don’t won’t worry about other people. Good things will come to you if you’re patient, you mark my words.”
✏️ “You should never make assumptions about another person’s life. You have no idea what they might be going through.”
~Louise Guy, Rival Sisters
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Told from the POV of two sisters Hannah and Nat, this was a heartwarming family drama which I must admit brought a tear or two to my eyes towards the end. Hannah and Nat, once very close, can’t seem to be in the same room for too long before rubbing the other the wrong way. Each of them has been dealing with the tragedy of losing their mum in very different ways and after her death they stopped really communicating with each other. Their knowledge of each other is based on what they “think” and not on what they know. I can’t say that I loved either of the two sister’s characters, but I could understand some of the actions they took even though I didn’t agree with all of them. I did however love their grandmother Phyllie’s character. She saw who they really were inside as many a grandmother would. It was a good read. This was the first book I read by this author, looking forward to reading the others.
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Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

Hannah and Nat are sisters that once were close. But the sudden death of their mother sent them walking through different paths. Several years had passed and their personalities are almost opposed.
Almost not knowing about each other's troubles, they're both going through difficult times when something unexpected happens. Will they find the way to mend things between them?
Rival Sisters is a well developed story, the pace is good and the characters are real. I specifically enjoyed reading the lovely Phyllie.
Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Lovely book. Thanks for the e-ARC NetGalley. The characters were so profound and gripping, looking forward to read more books by the author.

I enjoyed this book as well as this author's other book on Netgalley, "A Life Worth Living." Good beach-blanket books.