My Rating
Book Review
Brenda Novak is one of those authors who should have been firmly planted on my must-read list by now. She writes in exactly the genres I gravitate toward — romance, mystery, and emotionally layered family drama — yet somehow I’ve managed to keep putting her books off. As usual, I’m promising myself to fix that soon and hoping this time I actually follow through.
Overview
The Secret Sister, the first book in the Fairham Island series, blends romance, mystery, and family drama into an engaging and emotionally driven story. Maisey Lazarow is a children’s book author still struggling to recover from a deeply traumatic event in her past. When her brother, Keith, who is battling drug addiction, attempts suicide, Maisey is forced to return to Fairham Island — the very place she swore she’d never set foot in again. Her return, however, turns out to be just the beginning of a series of unsettling revelations.
Family Drama & Relationships
One of the strongest aspects of the book is how Brenda Novak explores relationships in all their messy, complicated forms. The strained family dynamics between Maisey and her authoritarian mother, Josephine, are particularly well done. Josephine, the matriarch of the Lazarow family, comes across as cold and emotionally distant, quick to hand out harsh punishments for even the smallest mistakes. She’s not an easy character to like, but she’s also not entirely villainous. Much like Maisey herself concludes, Josephine is best tolerated in small doses, which makes her portrayal oddly compelling.
Maisey’s relationship with her brother carries its own emotional weight, filled with guilt, frustration, and reluctant protectiveness. Then there’s Rafe — the slow-burn romantic interest — whose push-and-pull dynamic with Maisey feels organic rather than forced. Maisey takes her time opening up to him, which makes their romance feel earned. That said, Rafe’s daughter, Laney, easily steals the show. She’s warm, outgoing, and utterly lovable, adding heart and lightness to the story whenever she appears.
Mystery and Suspense
The mystery element takes center stage in the latter half of the book. While I had a pretty good idea of where the story was headed, watching all the secrets unravel was still gripping and satisfying. Novak keeps the tension steady, making the emotional stakes just as important as the mystery itself.
In All…
The next book in the series focuses on Keith, and while I didn’t particularly like him here, I’m curious to see how the author redeems his character and turns him into someone worth rooting for. If The Secret Sister is any indication, Brenda Novak knows exactly how to balance emotional depth with page-turning intrigue.
Book Blurb
Did she once have a sister? Has her mother lied all these years? Why?
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’s convinced that child existed. So where is she now?
Book Series
Book Links
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Interesting book
Thank you. Yes it was quite interesting with the mystery woven thru it.
Oh
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