Things I Never Told You by Beth K Vogt

This is a deeply relationship focused novel. Most of the relationship issues deal with sisters. Payton still struggles with the death of her twin sister at sixteen, even though it has been ten years. Johanna is the oldest and thinks she is best at directing her sisters' lives. And then Jillian gets breast cancer. There are hidden feelings of hurt and memories of events better to be forgotten.

There is much readers can learn from the family relationships. The family doesn't do God, as Payton says, so the lessons to learn are general relationship ones, not Christian based. There is a good Christian witness that comes in near the end of the novel.

There were a few things about the book I did not like. The points of view change. Payton is the main character and we experience her life through her experiences and thoughts – first person. The other more major characters are presented in third person. The views frequently change within a single chapter. I just do not like that style of creating narrative fiction. I also felt the book was too long for the plot and was somewhat repetitive. I had to admit I skimmed over some of it. A novel of this style is generally about one hundred pages shorter and that would have been better.

Readers who enjoy a relationship driven novel about sisters might like this one. None of the characters really grabbed me although that might come from having a family of all sisters myself. Some of Vogt's novel was too close to home to be pleasant.

My rating: 3/5 stars.

Beth K. Vogt is a multi-award-winning author of nine contemporary romance novels or novellas. She is an established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International. She blogs for Novel Rocket and enjoys speaking to writers' groups as well as mentoring other writers. She lives in Colorado with her husband and their youngest daughter, who loves to play volleyball. You can find out more at www.bethvogt.com.

Tyndale House Publisher, 432 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book through Celebrate Lit. My comments are an independent and honest review.