Review: The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll

Synopsis from Good Reads:

When five hyper-successful women agree to appear on a reality series set in New York City called Goal Diggers, the producers never expect the season will end in murder…

Brett’s the fan favorite. Tattooed and only twenty-seven, the meteoric success of her spin studio—and her recent engagement to her girlfriend—has made her the object of jealousy and vitriol from her cast mates.

Kelly, Brett’s older sister and business partner, is the most recent recruit, dismissed as a hanger-on by veteran cast. The golden child growing up, she defers to Brett now—a role which requires her to protect their shocking secret.

Stephanie, the first black cast member and the oldest, is a successful bestselling author of erotic novels. There have long been whispers about her hot, non-working actor-husband and his wandering eye, but this season the focus is on the rift that has opened between her and Brett, former best friends—and resentment soon breeds contempt.

Lauren, the start-up world’s darling whose drinking has gotten out of control, is Goal Diggers’ recovery narrative—everyone loves a comeback story.

And Jen, made rich and famous through her cultishly popular vegan food line plays a holistic hippie for the cameras, but is perhaps the most ruthless of them all when the cameras are off.

I received a copy of this title via NetGalley. It does not impact my review. 

The Favorite Sister will be available May 15, 2018. 

Despite not being a huge fan of Luckiest Girl Alive, I wanted to give Jessica Knoll another try. Unfortunately, I was even less impressed with The Favorite Sister.

At the beginning of my E-ARC copy of the book, there is a letter from the editor promising the following: “Ferociously paced, brilliantly plotted (just WAIT for the ending), twisty and whip smart…” “…so shocking, and so un-put-down-able…readers everywhere will be blown away.” I feel like absolutely none of that was true. The pacing was very slow (and the chapters were SO. LONG) and I was not shocked by one single thing that happened. I felt like there were plenty of clues that anybody who has read a book remotely similar would be able to predict all the “twists” before they were revealed.

The story is told from the point of view of three different women on the reality show Goal Diggers (heavily inspired by the Real Housewives franchise). I did like the reality tv angle and it was probably my favorite thing about the book. I felt like there was good character development for those three women, but the rest of the characters – including two other women on the show – could have been a little more fleshed out. All of them were awful, though. There was really nothing sympathetic or redeeming about these women. It was really hard to care about what happened to any of them. The only emotion I occasionally felt was disgust.

Overall, The Favorite Sister was just not for me. Though I liked the reality tv setting, the characters were just awful and the plot left a lot to be desired. I’m sure there will be people who will enjoy this, I just wasn’t one of them.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 2 Stars

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