PIECES OF MY SISTER'S LIFE

Author: Elizabeth Joy Arnold ISBN: 0385340656 8/2007 FICTION Publisher: BANTAM

Two sisters who shared everything. One unforgivable moment. And a second chance… Once, Kerry and Eve Barnard did everything together: sailing the Block Island harbor with their father, listening to their neighbor Justin’s magical fairy tales, and all the while longing for their absent mother. They were twin girls arm in arm, secrets entwined between two hearts. Until the summer of their seventeenth birthday, when their extraordinary bond was shattered. And thirteen years later, it will take all the courage they can summon to put the pieces back together—at a time when it matters most.…

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Rarely does a book tear at my heart the way this one did. PIECES OF MY SISTER'S LIFE is the retelling of two lives, actually. Twins Kerry and Eve were closer than most siblings ever are, especially since their mother is gone. They pretty much care for themselves, although their father does his best to fill in for their absent mother. It isn't until the girls are teenagers that anything-or anyone-can come between them. When it happens, it happens in a big way. Kerry breaks ties with her sister and it isn't until Eve is deathly ill that the two reconcile. Secrets, long buried, surface and through the haze of pain and suffering, the siblings find each other again.

Elizabeth Joy Arnold has written a gut-wrenching tale of love, betrayal and the bonds of sisterhood. This story is well told, its characters so real they will stay in the reader's mind and heart long after the last page has been turned. I don't think I'll ever forget this book. I laughed, I cried, and I loved PIECES OF MY SISTER’S LIFE.

Kay James