The
Other Sister by Dianne Dixon 400 pages
The cover of this book beckoned me. The old brown
suitcase on the old chair is just too much to resist. When I was about 20 pages
into Dianne Dixon’s new novel, The Other
Sister, I wasn’t sure that I would finish it, much less like it. It’s the
story of twins Morgan and Ali. Morgan comes off as whiny, lost in feeling sorry
for herself. I’m glad I didn’t give up on this one; by page 50, I couldn’t put
it down.
Morgan and Ali are fraternal twins, different as two
people can be. Ali is drop-dead gorgeous, has a sexy figure and is intelligent.
Morgan didn’t inherit those qualities from her parents. She’s rather homely,
dumpy, and it too wrapped up in her pity-party. But there is another reason.
She hates Ali. Her sister ended up marrying a guy she saw first, Matt, and
thought she could snag. But he was never really interested in Morgan.
After Matt
loses his job, he teams up with a buddy in Hollywood as a writer/producer. The
money pours in, irritating Morgan all the more. Then as Ali and Matt are
preparing to move to a more palatial home, Ali is the victim of a violent
crime. Even on this night, Morgan spews angry accusations at her sister,
leaving Ali to feel completely vulnerable and alone.
The couple does a great job in keeping what happened
to Ali a secret. Morgan feels that there is something wrong, but she ignores
it.
I can’t give much more away, but Morgan’s character
evens out to where I actually felt sorry for her. One of the things that drove
me nuts in the early pages was the overuse of the term “the underside of love.”
Readers don’t need to be told that, they need to be shown. And as the story
picked up, so did the lack of giving away plot lines in the guise of
foreshadowing. Dixon really needed a better editor for this one.
I give The
Other Sister 4 out of 5 stars.
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