My Sister's Secret by Tracy Buchanan

Everything you’ve built your life on is a lie. 
Willow’s memories of her parents are sun-drenched and full of smiles, love and laughter. But a mysterious invitation to a photographic exhibition exposes a secret that’s been buried since a tragic accident years ago. 
Willow is forced to question everything she knew about Charity, her late mother, and Hope, the aunt she’s lived with since she was a child. 
How was the enigmatic photographer connected to Willow’s parents?
Why will Hope not break her silence? 
Willow cannot move forward in her life without answers. But who can she really trust? Because no one has been telling the truth for a very long time.

Having not read Tracy Buchanan’s debut The Atlas of Us I was not sure what to expect from this book but I do like to find new authors so I was looking forward to reading My Sister’s Secret especially after reading rave reviews of the author’s debut.

The storyline alternates between the present day with Willow who has been raised by her Aunt Hope after her parents died when she was 7 in a tragic accident at Sea, then we fall back on the story to the past with Charity who is Willows mum. Willow has grown up with happy positive memories of her parents but everything changes when Willow comes across and invitation for her to attend a famous artists exhibition questions start to arise and it soon becomes clear there are secrets being concealed and Willow is determined to get to the bottom of them.

What a thoroughly addictive read. The author has such an easy writing style to follow, she manages to pull you right in to the storyline straight from the prologue and manages to great the perfect pace to the book which keeps your mind whirling over various scenarios the whole way through.

I love reading books where I find out about a topic that I know very little or nothing about and in this book I discovered submerged forests, the authors writes in beautiful, informative detail about these forests and this really piqued my interest and I soon found myself googling away trying to find pictures of these fascinating forests, the author must have done a fair amount of research on this topic.

I have to admit that as the storyline progressed I thought I had worked out what the twist was going to be and so I thought the book was a little predictable but then what I thought was going to happen did but then another twist happened that came to bite me on the bum!

There was a diverse range of characters all of whom were developed well. Willow was a very determined and direct character who was not going to give up on trying to uncover the secrets even if it meant finding out something that would change her life completely. Charity was my favourite character and her story was a hard and devastating one and at times I wanted to try and help her choose the right path only remembering after that it was too late.

I really enjoyed this book and after being so absorbed in the storyline with its twists and turns, intriguing subject matter and hidden secrets I now can’t wait to go to town and pick up the authors debut book. 

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