the book. The whole story ended up being unexpected, It definitely held my interest, The stuff people do to stay young is crazy, The plane crash that killed Kat and Maddie's parents was still a bit of mystery to me, Was it ever explained what happened to cause the crash How did Maddie survive How was she rescued I have so many questions.
I felt like I got to know Maddie a lot better than her sister Kat, I do know that Kat doesn't make good choices, She picked all the wrong men and then found herself in some scary Mexican spa, I would have loved to read about her experience at the spa before everything went wrong and then how she discovered the truth about what was happening.
I enjoyed the story, characters and writing style, I loved the whole mystery of Maddie trying to figure out what happened to her sister, I hate when characters go off somewhere and never tell people where they are going, This always leads to something bad happening, Maddie is in another country, her sister is already missing, so what does she do She goes off on her own without telling a soul and better yet she doesn't own a cell phone.
I really enjoyed the book, but the ending seemed rushed, Maddie finally gets to the spa and then it's pretty much over and the story wraps up, Everyone is at the spa, mystery solved and then the story jumps a few months, Kat never really tells her side of what happened, What caused her appearance to change hat drastically,
Definitely recommend the book, I loved the mystery side of the book, Remember to tell people when you go somewhere, in case you get held against your will and need to be saved!!! Just leave a note! I read too many of these types of books.
Also LOVED Winks. Looking forward to reading more books by the author,
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Lake Union Publishing through NetGalley, Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own, The beginning of this book starts off well and draws you in, Kat and Maddie are sisters who lost their parents to a fiery plane crash that Maddie survived, For years, Kat has been Maddies rock now, shes missing,
Following Maddies journey to find her sister and overcome her fears and trauma is inspiring, The love she finds and fears letting in along the way is something I empathize with, Trauma will do that to someone, Also interesting is that Maddie is an artist, known for creating masks, which is a motif used throughout the novel,
Told bydifferent narrators, LeClaire does a wonderful job creating different voices and capturing a beautiful culture, However, I believe that the several narrators convoluted some important character building, I felt like there was a lot of build up and not enough actual story, There was so much more that could have been done with these beautiful characters, and it all felt so stunted, The end, especially, felt rushed,
All in all, its a fine read, I think it could have been better, and it may be more for other readers than me, but I really wanted to like this more than I did.
Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion! From the bestselling author of The Halo Effect comes a heartracing novel of love, suspense, and the unbreakable bond between sisters.
The people you love are taken from you, Thats what Maddie DiMarco learned when she survived the plane crash that killed her parents, Fifteen years later, the scars remain, And the ones no can see are hardest to heal, Since the accident, Maddies avoided the unpredictable and uncaring outside world, including any relationshipsexcept for the one with her devoted older sister, Kat, who has always been there for her.
When Maddie meets handsome pilot Jack Moroni, she finally begins to let down her guard, But just as quickly, her hope and trust are once again shattered when a plane crash forces her to revisit her traumatic past.
Maddie turns to her sister for comfort and guidance, only to realize that Kat is missing,
But Kat hasnt vanished without a trace, An investigative journalist, shes left behind a subtle trail of clues leading to the mysterious, mythshrouded Yucatán coast of Mexico, To follow it, Maddie must confront her deepest fearsof flying, of intimacy, and of loss, She hopes that in doing so, she will find her sister, And if shes lucky, she may also find herself along the way, What happens when you take a creepy spa that has figured out how to reverse aging and combine it with a missing sister, a Mexican witch and a handsome pilot The relationship between two sisters forms the backbone of this debut novel
that weaves between character and place but never lets up on the pedal with its twists and turns.
Escape into this fun fiction and enjoy suspense, romance, intrigue and a host of other surprises, I was a little wary of this book based on the first chapter, but I am glad I gave it a shot, It is a simple story in some ways of two sisters who share a bond which has been strengthened by loss and hardship.
We get equal time with each sister to understand their current situation,
One sister is caught in a trap and the other starts a hunt to find her, There are men and other supporting cast thrown in for good measure but they were quite interesting, sometimes I liked them more than the leading ladies.
The rest of the story is punctuated by other characters who are also living in the same town in Mexico and they are placed strategically to try to confuse us about the solution.
The relationships and the emotional quotient of the book were satisfying but as a thriller/mystery, it did not work since we are aware of the background from the beginning.
There is the extra tale of another pair of sisters that does not end as happily as our main protagonists which adds to this The Orchid Sister's status as a family drama than anything else.
It was well narrated and overall a pretty interesting read
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely made up of my own reading experience.
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Warning: the entirety of this review contains spoilers
Writing a book about pregnant brown women pregnant brown teens! being forced to abort their babies so the fetuses might be used to rejuvenate white women is never a good idea.
Its most certainly not a story a white woman should write,
Lets go by parts, The book is told from multiple perspectives, with the main ones being Maddies and Kats, The supporting cast consists of multiple Mexican characters, and I swear I wanted to pull out my hair every time I started reading one of their chapters.
The “Spanglish” in which its narrated was incredibly irritating and distracting, it severely ruined the prose in my opinion, because it was pointless and added nothing to the characters saying “calle” or saying “street” is the same, saying “padre” and saying “father” is the same, saying “cerveza” and saying “beer” is the same, et cetera.
Adding the words doesnt make the characters any more Latino than they already are and neither does their exotification and their obsession with mysticism.
As a matter of fact, that only adds to the pile of alreadythere offensive stereotypes: cheating men, “temptress” women, “magical” old ladies, and characters with visions to the past in which the protagonists are being sacrificed to the gods.
Nothing I, as a Latina woman, appreciate,
I dont appreciate the main characters, either, They are meant to be women with careers, smart and sharp, yet they are so incredibly dumb its mindblowing, An example: when Madison realizes Kat has gone missing and calls the police, she lies to them about having talked with Kats doctor.
When she finds evidence that her sister might be having drug problems, she hides it and keeps it to herself, She ditches Jack in Mexico to go look into the mysterious spaslashclinic that the cab driver is too scared to see and she goes without any way of communicating with the outside world.
And not just Maddie, oh, no, Kat is just as bad, Going back to get the treatment thats aging her instead of making her look younger, blindly trusting the shady doctor with armed guards outside of his spa, ruining her first chance at escape by swallowing the pill she couldve hidden in her mouth as she did later, once the chance had been thrown away, not telling absolutely anyone where she was going Do I need to go on Most of the problems these people have wouldve been easily fixed if they had just talked to each other.
Frankly, the best thing about this book is the bond between the sisters, It was made believable, they obviously loved each other and I really appreciate that, I just wish the Mexico plot and characters had been better handled, because that way this would have been a completely different story.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me a free ARC in exchange for a honest review, All thoughts expressed here are my own, So when I started this book I was thinking wth It quickly engrossed me though, I enjoyed Maddie's fighting spirit, I loved Jack's dedication. There are a few things in the book that had me thinking, "ya right", but isn't that always the case in a romance/fictional book
Overall I would read again.
. . this is a great easy book to read on a vacation or a couple days by the pool, The Orchid Sister is a poignant story of fear and love, Maddie loses her parents in a plane crash, She still has her sister, Kat, Imagine two against the world, Such an unbreakable bond forms between the sisters, Maddie wants nothing to do with any other relationships, Years later, Maddie opens her heart to a man, Unfortunately, more tragedy for Maddie, and her sister is missing, Maddie must confront every fear now, She must fly in a plane, She must face the fact that her sister may be gone forever, It's gut wrenching to even think about the choices Maddie makes, The bond between sisters made her a strong woman who can face these challenges, Will she find Kat This is a tragic yet lovely story, The characters are loveable and engaging, I recommend for anyone who enjoys a good read that you can't put down, Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review, Series: No.
Genre: Mystery,
Cliffhanger: No,
Content Warnings: Plane crash, Dealing with death. Fire burns. Abortion.
Read if: you are a fan of mysteries with a hint of magic/folklore,
The Orchid Sister was one of the first books I was approved for on Netgalley, Unfortunately, it was buried under my TBR mountain and I was unable to come back to it until recently,
This book gave me a touch of mystery, family, romance, selflove, fantasy, folklore, trauma, and courage, Going in, I was expecting nothing, but I was enraptured with this world and felt for the characters,
From the first chapter alone, this story has proved to be very intriguing, I enjoyed the pacing and the different revelations you will find as you go, I was fascinated by the overall plot points of this novel, and I was not expecting that this was where I will be brought by this read.
Overall, an absolutely amazing read!
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Much thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this complimentary copy, This review is voluntary and opinions are fully my own, Also, all quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy,
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Anne D. LeClaire