This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR
Lacey Gears is a twenty-eight-year-old deaf artist with a chronic fear of getting married. She has just discovered, via an anonymous tip-off, that she has a twin sister, who, it turns out, looks almost identical to her. Monica, unaware of Lacey’s existence, can’t understand why her book signing has been abruptly cancelled. She doesn’t recall insulting the bookstore manager, but being a motivational speaker and self-help guru, she continues with her tour, occasionally her boyfriend, and co-writer.
Lacey is in love with her supportive, boyfriend, Alan, but knows that when she goes off the rails and attempts to seduce her artist friend, Mike, with whom she shares a studio, Alan is not going to find it easy to forget what he’s seen. When she discovers that her twin can hear, she decides to find out exactly what made her parents decide to keep the hearing twin, whilst choosing to desert her in a home where she had hardly any happy memories of her childhood.
As Lacey begins to unearth long-kept family secrets, she opens up old wounds and as events go from bad to worse, she sets in motion situations she could never have imagined.
This book is so cleverly written and the voice of each twin, Lacey communicating by signing, and Monica by speaking, is beautifully executed. It not only has interesting characters, and a plot that keeps you riveted the entire way through, but also keeps you guessing what happened to Lacey when she was young, and why her parents kept her twin and not her. Who really is the most damaged of the twins? Will Alan be able to forgive Lacey for her betrayal of him, and will the twins ever be able to have any sort of relationship or understanding?
Nothing turns out as you assume it will. At one point I was sure I knew the answer, but by the ending, I discovered I hadn’t. A great story and well worth reading.
9/10