Rate this book

The Ugly Sister (2011)

by Jane Fallon(Favorite Author)

3.24 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0141047259 (ISBN13: 9780141047256)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Penguin

review 1: My lovely mother in law gave me this charity shop find last summer. Having had a somewhat tough Xmas and New Year with very little reading time, I picked it up in search of some undemanding chick lit. I don't know why but I assumed it would be a fluffy romance. In fact while there was some romance of a complicated kind, the book had more depth than I was expecting. Abi is a single mother who has grown up in the shadow of her older sister, glamorous supermodel Cleo. She attributes her sense of not having fulfilled her own potential to her feeling of inferiority in the face of Cleo's fabulous life. Over the course of a summer spent with Cleo and her family, Abi reassesses her assumptions, her sister and her own life. An enjoyable, well written read.
review 2: As ... morethe title implies, this is a story about two sisters, one who is gifted with physical beauty and the other with intellect. Abi, the younger of the two sisters has spent her life in the shadow of her ‘stunningly beautiful sister’ called Cleo. She is actually called Caroline but she changed it to Cleo because Caroline sounds quite ordinary. Cleo was head hunted to become a model when she was 16 – with her rise to fame came the attitude to match with it too. As I read her story, she reminds me of Naomi Campbell with her tantrums and attitude. Abi on the other hand is down to earth and although she is the clever one, she did not obtain a degree because she had a child at a young age. The two sisters had a good relationship pre Cleo’s modelling career but they drifted apart once Cleo became famous. The story opens when Abi was invited by Cleo in her palatial home, twenty years later. Abi has now a daughter studying at uni. She couldn’t say no to the invitation as she was looking forward to being reunited with her sister. But she was in for a shock. She realised that Cleo only invited her so she could baby sit her two very spoilt nieces while she is attending castings to revive her dying modelling career. As Abi moves into their lives, she wrestles with uncomfortable feelings with her unhappy brother-in-law Jonty. A bond between them was formed. At this stage, I cannot help but feel sorry for Cleo in a way – trying to grasp for whatever is left with her flagging career and her looks and perhaps also losing her husband? She is an insecure woman and with her youth gone, she hasn’t got much going for her. However as the story progresses, you get to know each character and feel for each one of them. There are morals in this story and I like the way the story ends. less

Download links for: The Ugly Sister

Advertising