Review: The Silent Sister–Diane Chamberlain

Title: The Silent Sister Author: Diane Chamberlain (Author Website)  (Facebook) Genre: Adult Fiction Narrator: Susan Bennett Publisher:  Macmillan Audio; Unabridged edition (October 7, 2014) Length:  10 CD’s / 11.5 hours Source: Audiobook Jukebox‘s reviewer program

About the Book: (from Goodreads.com)

In The Silent Sister, Riley MacPherson has spent her entire life believing that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager.  Now, over twenty years later, her father has passed away and she's in New Bern, North Carolina cleaning out his house when she finds evidence to the contrary.  Lisa is alive.  Alive and living under a new identity.  But why exactly was she on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are being kept now?  As Riley works to uncover the truth, her discoveries will put into question everything she thought she knew about her family.  Riley must decide what the past means for her present, and what she will do with her newfound reality, in this engrossing mystery from international bestselling author Diane Chamberlain.

About the Author:

Diane Chamberlain grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey and spent her summers at the Jersey Shore, two settings that have found their way into her novels. She attended Glassboro State College in New Jersey before moving to San Diego, where she received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from San Diego State University. After graduating, she worked in a couple of youth counseling agencies and then focused on medical social work, which she adored. She worked in hospitals in San Diego and Washington, D.C. before opening a private psychotherapy practice in Alexandria, Virginia, specializing in adolescents. She closed her practice to write. 

Diane Chamberlain lives and writes in North Carolina. She lives with her significant other, John, a photographer, and two sweet Shetland Sheepdogs, Keeper and Cole. She has three grown stepdaughters, a couple of sons-in-law and four grandbabies.

My Review:   Riley MacPherson is a social worker, unsure where her life will lead as she ends of a long term relationship.  She returns home after her Dad dies to take care of his affairs.  Her only living family member is her brother, Danny who is dealing with PTSD after being in Iraq and is not much help to her.  As she begins to go through her father’s things, she slowly discovers family secrets surrounding the suicide of her sister, Lisa.  Riley begins to wonder if she really knew her father.  Danny and Riley were raised by parents that were living any parents worst nightmare, the loss of a child.  Danny is bitter about how his parents were after Lisa’s suicide.  He blamed Lisa and Lisa’s suicide for many of the things that went wrong in his life. 

The character development was very good. You really care about the characters.  I really connected  with Riles, being a social worker myself. I understood her need to fix things.   I loved Riley and wanted the best for her.  I was drawn to the characters and their emotional state of their lives.  The pace of the story builds to the end, making the end of The Silent Sister a real page turner. 

I found the book predictable as I had figured out how the story would unfold, well before it did.  I did not find this a distraction to my enjoyment of the story.   I still wanted to finish to understand the details, emotions and thought process of the characters.   The Silent Sister is told in parallel  story lines, the past and the present in which Riley is slow unearthing the secrets of the past. This was a very  effect style of writing for this story.   This is a very emotional read, so don’t do what I did and listen to it at work, very embarrassing.

My Rating:  4/5 – though very predictable, I really enjoyed The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain.  I was listening to it at work and even had to go to the bathroom once as I was going to cry!  Definitely an emotional read, which I felt was worth the listen.   Silent Sister is an easy, enjoyable read that becomes a bit of page turner towards the end.  Even as I write this review I think of the characters and wonder  what will happen in their lives next. 

My Rating Scale: 1 – didn’t like it; 2 – it was ok; 3 – liked it; 4 – really liked it; 5 – it was amazing

The Silent Sister was also reviewed on the following blogs: Novelicious, Chit Lit Plus, That’s What She Read and 

Happy Reading!

**Disclosure – The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain was received from Audiobook Jukebox’s reviewer program and Macmillan Audio in exchange for a fair review.