I have really enjoyed reading all Faith Hogan’s novels. This again was another 5 star read from me although it take me longer to both be invested in the story and characters.

The novel focuses on the sisters - Blythe and Rae and Blythe’s daughter, Sissy.

Blythe always expected to inherit management of the family hotel but after her marriage to Kit and the birth of Sissy, she is forced out. Instead her sister, Rae takes over after her marriage to Marcus - a former friend of Blythe’s from her college days.

Instead Blythe focuses on the development of Still Water House as a guesthouse. These events form a permanent rift in their relationship.

Rae - whose marriage was coercive and abusive - is forced to evaluate her future after the death of Marcus and the financial plight of the hotel becomes clear. She decides to sell up part of the hotel to allow redevelopment of the remainder.

As she is considering this - Blythe is facing a series of what feels like insurmountable issues - her relationship with her husband is fraying because of her overprotective nature towards their daughter; she is pushing her daughter away particularly over her relationship with an outsider; she cannot countenance the hotel being sold on to someone outside the family and her fear of outsiders is losing her friends.

Can the sisters find a way back to supporting each other and a new future?

A heartwarming story.

Another great read from Faith Hogan. Sisters Blythe and Rae Carney live in their family hotel where it was always assumed Blythe would run one day as Rae doesn't have any interest in it but circumstances change when Marcus arrives on the scene with plans of his own including getting Rae and the Hotel. I loved the way the story was told as it want back to the past so we understood the characters better and also the present where i really disliked Blythe and hoped as the story unfolded she would work things out with her sister as the Hotel starts to struggle.after the death of Marcus.A beautiful, uplifting story, great writing and full of interesting characters that you can resonate with.

An engaging read, where I really felt I got to know the main characters and cared about what happens to them. Set on 2 timelines which eventually meet we learn more about sisters Rae and Blyth from teenagers to twenty years later.

I enjoyed this read. The story between two sisters living on a little island of the coast of Ireland. It’s a present day timeline and then also the back story between the sisters and their family members. A bit harrowing at times and also frustrating - families hey!

You follow two sisters on a small Irish island . Family differences have torn them a part . I struggled at first to get into it as it moves back and forward but you get hooked. Some interesting characters good and bad. It has a nice neat ending . Read it

Venture back to Pin Hill where sisters Rae and Blythe are estranged . Family fortunes did not go as anticipated underwritten by their grandfather . Coercive behaviour , prejudice mother coddling and jealousy underwrite the family tale. There are characters to love and to dislike but all are well portrayed.
A slow start building to a fiery crescendo leading to harmony

This story follows two sisters, Rae and Blythe, who live on a small Irish island. The book moves between the past and the present, showing how their lives changed over twenty years. It’s a bit slow and a bit hard to follow at first but it becomes easier as the story goes on.
There are sad and tense moments, but also hope. Ultimately, It’s a story about family, mistakes, and finding a way back to each other.

Two sisters on an island off Ireland. Blythe proudly runs her family hotel, Still Water House on Pin Island. This year she’s hoping to win a coveted award and believes the woman who rates hotels for the award is coming to stay with them under an assumed name.
Meanwhile, her sister Rae has just lost her husband and is struggling to make her business, the Hope Square Hotel, pay.

Faith Hogan’s books are always a good read, though this one takes a while to get into as it’s on two timelines. Blythe and Rae are the main characters, along with Blythe’s daughter Siggy and husband Kip, a former national rugby player. Will the two sisters reach out to each other when times are tough? The ending is quite dramatic!

Two sisters help run a family-owned hotel. Blythe dreams of inheriting her grandfather’s estate and continuing the family business while Rae has no interest.

In a picturesque rural Irish community, grief, love and family dynamics intertwine to create a plot with elements of sadness and betrayal. Family controlling what happens in others lives so they can’t follow their dreams.

A captivating emotional journey, demonstrating how everyone’s emotions and actions can influence other people’s dreams.

This emotionally powerful read keeps you turning the pages with a few twists and turns.

Highly recommended.

The Sisters of Hope Square is a tender, quietly gripping story about family, legacy, and the dreams we carry long after life has pushed us in another direction. Faith Hogan captures the ache and beauty of sisterhood with such a gentle touch, weaving Blythe and Rae’s lives together in a way that feels both intimate and deeply relatable.

Blythe, with her polished guest house and carefully curated success, is a woman who has built a life she’s proud of, yet can’t quite shake the feeling that she’s living in the shadow of the future she once imagined. Rae, newly widowed and exhausted from holding the Hope Square Hotel together with fraying hands, is a woman who never wanted the legacy she inherited — but took it anyway, out of duty, love, and a desire to honour the family name. Their tension is beautifully drawn: not dramatic or cruel, but rooted in years of unspoken disappointment, misunderstood choices, and the quiet grief of watching someone else live the life you thought was meant for you.

Pin Hill Island is rendered with a lovely sense of place — peaceful, weathered, full of memories — and the hotel itself becomes a symbol of everything the sisters have lost and everything they still might save. As Rae faces the possibility of letting it go, and Blythe wrestles with the life she built versus the one she wanted, the story deepens into something warm and poignant. It’s about forgiveness, second chances, and the courage it takes to admit that the people we love can hurt us without ever meaning to.

This is a heartfelt, emotionally rich novel that explores the complicated ties of family with honesty and hope. Perfect for readers who enjoy character‑driven stories full of warmth, gentle drama, and the promise that it’s never too late to fight for the future you once dreamed of.

With thanks to Faith Hogan, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC

I was asked by NetGalley to review this really emotional story recommend a box of tissues when you read this.

Blythe with her sister Rae are helping to run a family owned hotel. Blythe would love to inherit her grandfathe's estate and run thefamily business wheras her sister is not interested in this. Set in rual Ireland, there is family issues, controlling what happens so there is no dreams to follow. This story is emotionally charged with such sadness, betrayal and love thrown into the mix, with twists along the way ensuring the reader reads to the end.

Recomended read from Faith Hogan and due fdor publication June 4th 2026.

Sisters Blythe and Rae were brought up in the family hotel and Blythe always wanted to carry on with the family business. Life did not turn out as planned and the book is best at describing the relationships between the characters: not just the sisters but marriages, first loves, parent and child, and within the whole community. Only 4 stars because I struggled with the ideas of parents having such set expectations of their children, and anyone being so obsessed with a business, it just didn’t work for me.

This is the story of two sisters living on an island off the coast of Ireland who have been brought up helping out in their grandfather's hotel.
Blythe feels she is sure to inherit the hotel ,after all it is her life and she knows the business inside out. Rae,her younger sister helps out but running the hotel is the last thing she ever wants to do.
The lives of the sisters is torn apart by the actions of one narcissist man. Secrets are kept and lives changed.
Any book written by Faith Hogan is sure to be a good read and this one is no different.
I loved it and couldn't put it down.

The sisters of Hope Square – 4 stars

Having read The Bookshop Ladies by Faith Hogan, I was looking forward to reading this book. It is a story of 2 sisters and their hopes and dreams for the future which doesn’t quite work out the way they hoped. I found it a bit hard to get into and took me a while to take to the characters. The book is written in a historical way from the point of the main characters so kept jumping back to 15 years ago. Once I got used to this and got to know the characters I did enjoy this book.

This story is about two sisters who used to be very close until circumstances distanced them. They live on a small Irish island where everyone knows everyone else. The book moves between past and present, following their lives, marriages, mistakes and ultimately finding each other again. A very emotional book and, as always, very well written by Faith Hogan. Recommended.

Another great read by Faith Hogan, looking at the lives of two sisters whose grandfather owned a hotel in Hope Square.

Blythe loved the hotel as a young girl and her dream was to run it one day, Rae her sister loved animals and her dream was to work with them.

Fate dealt Blythe and Rae with devastating news when her father was killed in a car accident and their mother never fully recovered.

Blythe was away in Dublin studying for her final exams when she received the phone call.... she fled Dublin and never completed her course. She had met a determined young man on the course and went out with him a few times. At the funeral he turned up to pay his condolences and wormed his way into the hotel and married Rae taking over the hotel. Blythe turned the family home into a Guest House with her husband.

Rae is widowed and struggles to run the hotel, Blythe's daughter helps out at times, and realises the hotel is in financial trouble.

The story is at a reasonable and keeps you interested until the end.

Faith Hogans books are always reliably good and I enjoyed her latest very much. Her settings in Ireland are so evocative and the characterisations spot on. A lovely story well told. Many thanks I would recommend.

The Sisters of Hope Square

This was such a lovely, comforting read that pulled me in straight away.

From the very beginning, it felt like slipping into a warm blanket easy, soothing and impossible not to enjoy.

The characters were so likeable and I found myself completely drawn into their world. It’s one of those stories that feels gentle but still keeps you turning the pages.

This would be the perfect book to take on holiday, relaxing, uplifting and just a really enjoyable escape.

A beautiful read and one I’d definitely recommend.

I feel very lucky to have read this early through NetGalley, with the book due out in June.

Lovely to return to Pin Hill, this time with Blythe and Rae who are sisters and both own a guest house/hotel on the island.

There's lot of family issues in this book. Blythe as the older sister expected to run The Hope Square Hotel, eventually taking over from her grandfather, but due to circumstances it went to her younger sister Rae. Blythe ended up with another family house that she turned into a guest house but she always felt as if she missed out on her dream of running the hotel.

Both get married and Blythe has a daughter, but neither are particularly happy with their lot. Blythe because she isn't running the hotel and because of an incident that happened to her when she was younger and moved off the island for a period of time, and Rae because her marriage wasn't as happy as everyone thinks because of her bullying husband, who has passed away.

When Blythe's daughter gets friendly with an 'outsider' who has moved to the island and then wants to move off the island to continue her studies, things come to a head and lives start unravelling as Blythe can't control everything anymore.

I really couldn't take to Blythe, even though I sort of understood her reasons, she was hard work, and her family were very patient with her controlling nature. Thankfully the rest of the characters were interesting. As usual a good read, with an explosive ending!

Following the lives of the sisters of hope square this book was a good read . Blythe was hard to warm to given her regimented views on life and people. A big drama at the end that ultimately cleared a lot of lingbstanding issues.

An enjoyable book set on the Isle of Pin Hill off the Atlantic coast of Ireland. Based on the stories of two sisters, Blythe and younger Rae from their close childhood through an estranged adulthood and subsequently resolving their separation, albeit somewhat drastically. Told through both of the sister's sides plus those of Blythe's teenage daughter, Siggy and husband Kip, over the previous thirty four years to the present day. Plenty of drama and ups and downs with well drawn characters over the generations and touching upon control, discrimination and general family turmoil with underlying love.

A lovely and sometimes sad story. It is about two sisters, Blythe and Rae, who have become estranged mainly due to them setting up two different hotel/guest house in the same place. Blythe always thought that her grandfather would gift her the hotel and she worked tirelessly to prove her worth. Blythe met Marcus and she thought he was the love of her life but that was not meant to be. On returning to Pin Hill to take over the business things changed. Rae met Marcus and as he knew about the hotel he made inroads to the grandfather to let Rae take it over with his supervision and marrying Rae to make sure things went accordingly to his plan. Rae did not realise at the time that this was his plan all along having met Blythe and she did not know until it was too late that he was a bully. Blythe took over the family home and made it into guest house and made it a success but the two sisters became separated by jealousy and loathing of Marcus on Blythe’s side. Things eventually improved when Rae was widowed but it took near bankruptcy of the hotel, a fire and an almost tragedy before the two of them reconciled. The book delves into many issues mainly of jealousy, hurt feelings and feelings of being let down. I enjoyed this book. The parts where Blythe’s husband and daughter are in the book were lovely and made the book more down to earth.