The Secret Sister

A heartbreaking and moving true story of two sisters separated at birth, and their journey towards finding each other, celebrating the true meaning of family. Helen Edwards grew up in a pit village in Tyneside in the post-war years, with her gran, aunties and uncles living nearby. She felt safe with them, but they could not protect her from her neglectful mother and violent father. Behind closed doors, she suffered years of abuse. Sometimes she talked to an imaginary sister, the only one who understood her pain. Jenny was adopted at six weeks and grew up in Newcastle. An only child, she knew she was loved, and with the support of her parents she went on to become a golfing champion, but still she felt that something was missing. . . Neither woman knew of the other's existence until, in her fifties, Jenny went looking for her birth family and found her sister Helen. Together they searched for the truth about Jenny's birth – and uncovered a legacy of secrets that overturned everything Helen thought she knew about her family. Happily, they also discovered that they were not just sisters, they were twins. Inspirational and moving, My Secret Sister by Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith, is the story of two women brave enough to confront their past, and strong enough to let love not bitterness define them.

You lost her. You'll find her. I want to tell my husband, Guy, everything about my past. Honestly, I do. He's been so wonderful, providing me with a life of comfort and love, a world away from the dark life I had before. He deserves the truth. But if he finds out who I really am, the perfect life I've built will come crashing down around my ears. And that can't happen. Not yet. Not until I find out what his family did to my little sister. A completely addictive thriller that will keep you guessing into the early hours of the morning. Perfect for fans of The Perfect Couple, Lisa Jewell, and Phoebe Morgan.

Did she once have a sister? Has her mother lied all these years? After a painful divorce, Maisey Lazarow returns to Fairham, the small island off the South Carolina coast where she grew up. She goes there to heal—and to help her brother, Keith, a deeply troubled man who's asked her to come home. But she refuses to stay in the family house. The last person she wants to see is the wealthy, controlling mother she escaped years ago. Instead, she finds herself living next door to someone else she'd prefer to avoid—Rafe Romero, the wild, reckless boy to whom she lost her virginity at sixteen. He's back on the island, and to her surprise, he's raising a young daughter alone. Maisey's still attracted to him, but her heart's too broken to risk… Then something even more disturbing happens. She discovers a box of photographs that evoke distant memories of a little girl, a child Keith remembers, too. Maisey believes the girl must've been their sister, but their mother claims there was no sister. Maisey is convinced that child existed. So where is she now?

No one does romantic suspense better than Jayne Ann Krentz. Now, the New York Times bestselling author of Untouchable and Promise Not to Tell delivers a novel that twists and turns into a read that will leave you breathless. Madeline and Daphne were once as close as sisters—until a secret tore them apart. Now, it might take them to their graves.... Nearly two decades after her childhood—and her friendship with Daphne—were destroyed in one traumatic night, a dying man’s last words convey a warning to Madeline: the secrets she believed buried forever have been discovered. Unable to trust anyone else, Madeline reaches out to Daphne and to the only man she can count on to help: Jack Rayner, a security expert with a profoundly intimate understanding of warped and dangerous minds. Along with his high-tech genius of a brother, the four of them will form an uneasy alliance against a killer who will stop at nothing to hide the truth....

New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice makes her dazzling YA debut with this gorgeous, unputdownable story of love, hope, and redemption. When Ruth Ann (Roo) McCabe responds to a text message while she's driving, her life as she knows it ends. The car flips, and Roo winds up in a hospital bed, paralyzed. Silent. Everyone thinks she's in a coma, but Roo has locked-in syndrome -- she can see and hear and understand everything around her, but no one knows it. She's trapped inside her own body, screaming to be heard.Mathilda (Tilly) is Roo's sister and best friend. She was the one who texted Roo and inadvertently caused the accident. Now, Tilly must grapple with her overwhelming guilt and her growing feelings for Roo's boyfriend, Newton -- the only other person who seems to get what Tilly is going through.But Tilly might be the only person who can solve the mystery of her sister's condition -- who can see through Roo's silence to the truth underneath. Somehow, through medicine or miracles, will both sisters find a way to heal?

‘WOW... what a brilliant book... I just loved it.’ 5 stars, Amazon reviewer Can you trust a sister who is a stranger?

For Jonathan, a third generation Greek American who has never set foot in his ancestral homeland, a journey to crisis ridden contemporary Greece will unleash a century of buried family secrets. From the burning quay at Smyrna to present day Manhattan, the Argyriou family has been pursued by disaster. In the 1922 Greco-Turkish War, little Frosso and her sister Erasmia flee as Turkish soldiers descend on their village. Orphaned and destitute, the two girls have only each other to rely on as they scrape together a life in the immigrant slums around Athens. Eighteen years later, Europe is stewing and Frosso is offered a chance for a new life in America by her fiancé Menelaos. Compelled to leave by the impending war, Frosso boards the ship "New Greece" with a heavy heart, but before the ship reaches harbor her grief takes hold and Frosso throws herself into the ocean. A forlorn Menelaos returns to Greece and marries his beloved's sister, Erasmia, and the couple eventually settles in New York. They bestow on their only daughter the haunted name of her departed aunt but the burden of family history ultimately destroys Frosso and compels her son Jonathan to uncover the shadowy history of the Argyriou family. Fotini Tsalikoglou's poetic, atmospheric novel explores the blurred line between history and memory. Psychologically complex and deeply moving, The Secret Sister is a brilliant mediation on the irrepressible need for people to tell stories.

This story offers insights for adoptees who have struggled, as I did, to untangle the shame, confusion, and anger that can accompany adoption. It also opens a window for those who do not know what it is like to be adopted. It is a story about the power of truth. We are not born feeling shamed or rejected; we acquire those corrosive feelings through the actions of others. The source of my shame was not adoption itself but the choices others made, telling lies and keeping secrets from me. People are surprised when I say how ashamed I was to be adopted, in spite of the unwavering love of my parents. Yes, I was loved, but that didn't erase my need to know the truth. As each thread of truth was uncovered, the story of my life became more coherent. Shame, confusion, and anger resolved to understanding and acceptance.