Shadow Sister by Katherine Scott Jones Blog Tour

About the Book

Book Title: Shadow Sister
Author: Katherine Scott Jones  
Genre: Woman’s Fiction  
Release date: August 28, 2018

Working on her father’s vineyard allows Sarah Lanning to bury memories of a lost love and a career that might have been. But then her fractured family receives word that her estranged sister, Jenna, is dead, leaving behind an unexpected request: that Sarah travel to Bolivia to scatter her ashes. Accompanied by pilot Chase Maddox, Sarah embarks on an Andean journey that tests her devotion to home and exposes Jenna’s secret life. Each staggering discovery creates new mysteries—until the last, which leaves Sarah questioning everything she understood about family loyalty. At a crossroads, she must decide whether truth is worth the cost of forgiveness—and whether she can lay claim to a future of happiness without it. Bittersweet and bold, Shadow Sister explores the mysteries of the human heart and the bond of unquenchable love.

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My Review

This novel took a while to grab me but when it did, I could not put it down. There were early allusions to troubles and I grew a bit impatient. All was revealed little by little as the narrative alternated between the present and the past. While the technique can be troublesome, it worked well in this novel. We discover secrets as Sarah does and that made me sympathetic to her character.

There are many family relationship issues in the novel and that kept my interest. Like any family, I suppose, there are secrets and when they are uncovered they can be life changing. Another issue Jones included deals with the work of NGOs in less developed areas. Sometimes the humanitarian improvements made can change a culture that has been unchanged for centuries, causing unrest or other trouble. That idea was thought provoking.

My favorite line from the novel: “[Jenna] liked to say stories had a way of bypassing the intellect and creeping through the back door to the soul.” (Loc 2964/5308) Ah, maybe that's why we read fiction.

I recommend this novel to readers who enjoy a well crafted story dealing with family relationships.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

About the Author

Katherine Scott Jones grew up in cities on every U.S. coast and overseas as her family moved with her father’s Navy career. Seattle became home when she married her husband twenty-eight years ago. After graduating Whitworth University with a degree in communications, she established herself as a freelance writer before turning her hand to fiction. She blogs about books that celebrate beauty at www.katherinescottjones.com. Katherine and her husband have two teenage children. Shadow Sister is her second novel.

Guest Post from Katherine Scott Jones

Shadow Sister: Outtake Reel By Katherine Scott Jones Much as I love a good movie, my favorite part often comes at the end when the director includes outtakes—those false starts and bits from the making of the movie that wind up on the cutting room floor. In a similar vein, I’m going to let you in on some of what went into the creation of my novel, Shadow Sister, but did not make the final cut. Shadow Sister is a work of inspirational women’s fiction with a global accent—written for women with a heart for complex relational issues as well as a passion for biblical justice. It is the story of a vintner’s daughter who travels to Bolivia to scatter her estranged sister’s ashes. There, she unravels secrets that test her devotion to home and make her question whether truth is worth the cost of forgiveness. Shadow Sister explores the mysteries of the human heart and the bond of unquenchable love. Now that you know a bit about what it is, come along as I pull back the curtain and share an exclusive peek at what Shadow Sister is not. Working Titles It took me a while to finally land on the right title. Early contenders: – The Sweetness of Light – Variations on Shadows and Light. Characters It also took a bit of experimenting before I found the right combination of people and places: – Sarah, the main character, was originally a marine biologist. I first imagined the story set in Seattle before moving it to the fertile plains of Eastern Washington wine country. – Sarah was originally engaged; and Chase and Rachael were involved. – The gender of Matilde’s baby changed from what I first plotted. That simple switch got me unstuck from a perplexing snag of writer’s block. – Names: o Nicole, Stasi, Rees, and Stephen were all main-character names I considered and rejected. o Little sister Sarah and big sister Jenna began as litter sister Jenna and big sister Kate. Then Jenna became Somer and finally Sarah, while Kate became Jenna. o Sassy Britches is named after an actual racehorse by the same name. Unused research Of course, story exploration turned up far more tidbits of interesting info than I could possibly fit into the pages of a novel! Some of what I wished I could have used… – Bolivian fun facts o Customs.

• Bolivians tend to eat outdoors when it is not raining. Many men do not feel comfortable eating in front of strangers, so they will often face a wall or sit hunched over their food when they are eating in public.
• Cha’lla is a ritual blessing drawn from Catholic tradition, indigenous religious ceremony, or—typically—a combination of both. Performed by a yatiri (spiritual leader) or Catholic priest, a cha’lla ceremony is performed whenever a new building is finished to ensure future peace in that building.
• Many Bolivians believe in karisirus, or night phantoms. These harmful spirits catch people out after dark or when they’re sleeping. Legend says that they split their victim’s stomach and extract some of the fat.

o Drinks. While the traditional Bolivian beverages api and mate de coca are featured in Shadow Sister, several others are not:

• refresco (fruit juice with a dried peach at the bottom of the glass)
• tostada (a mixture of barley, honey, cloves in water)
• chicha (homemade corn beer)
• singani (made from grapes, a cross between wine and whiskey)

o Language. Spanish, Aymara, and Quechua are Bolivia’s three national languages, and they differ from each other greatly. For example, the number one in Spanish = uno, Aymara = ma, Quechua = hoq. – Quotes: o On wine: “Wine is sunlight held together by water.” ~ Galileo o On art: “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” ~ Thomas Merton I hope this glimpse into what didn’t make it onto the pages of Shadow Sister piques your interest for discovering what finally did!

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I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through Celebrate Lit. My comments are an independent and honest review. The rest of the copy of this post was provided by Celebrate Lit.