When We Were Sisters

by Beth Miller

A funny, poignant debut about female friendship and dysfunctional families

I never think of Laura as my stepsister, but that's what she is.

Once they were the best of friends, inseparable as only teenage girls can be. That is until Miffy’s Jewish father ran off with Laura’s Catholic mother and both of their families imploded—as well as Laura’s intense relationship with Miffy’s brother. 20 years later, they’re all about to meet again.

This novel is perfect for reading groups, and for fans of Maggie O'Farrell and Zoe Heller.

Genres: Humor, Book Club, Family, Fiction, Womens Fiction, Relationships, Family Drama

400 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2014

Reviews

[Aditi · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”

----Elbert Hubbard, an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher


Beth Miller, a debut English author, has penned a heart-touching contemporary story, When We Were Sisters about two friends being step sisters and how this relationship changes the course of their whole loves, moreover, it's also about facing with the harsh realities that come with sudden decisions made by a parent in a child's life.

Synopsis:

A funny, poignant debut about female friendship and dysfunctional families

I never think of Laura as my stepsister, but that's what she is.

Once they were the best of friends, inseparable as only teenage girls can be. That is until Miffy’s Jewish father ran off with Laura’s Catholic mother and both of their families imploded—as well as Laura’s intense relationship with Miffy’s brother. 20 years later, they’re all about to meet again.


Laura and Miffy were literally inseparable as teenagers, spending most of their afternoons in Laura's bedroom by trying on makeup or discussing about boys they are going to marry in the future or other girlish stuffs. This was twenty years ago, but their inseparable and unbreakable bond of friendship tore apart when Miffy's father left her family to be with Laura's mother. The gravity of each and every relationship changed when the best-of-best-friends-turned-into-stepsisters and mostly Laura's relationship with Miffy's brother, Danny, changed forever, resulting in both Miffy and Danny to blame Laura for their father's abandonment.

The writing is extremely coherent and bold. The narrative is kept funny and witty even though the story is an emotional one. The prose is free-flowing with a fast pace.

The plot progresses smoothly as Laura goes through with her bad marriage with a cheating husband, pregnancy and the death of her step father, which leads her face-to-face with her step-brother-cum-ex-boyfriend, Danny. The shifting narrative from Laura to Miffy where Miffy narrates the past twenty years ago, what possibly led to drift them apart from one another.

The theme of this novel focuses lot on changing family dynamics when a father divorces his family leaving behind his children and wife for another woman, which ultimately leads to dysfunction in the household. The book centers around a Jewish household thus Jews ideas, customs etc are vividly depicted into the storyline.

The characters are strongly developed by highlighting their flaws and strong abilities, thus making them look very real. The main characters have all been a victim of divorced parents, especially those belonging from a broken household. The voice of the protagonist, Laura, is really fun who don't give any care to the pain that she is suffering from an infidel husband. I loved those parts when Laura suddenly started to imagine a talk show programmed or a documentary related to how she wanted some of the characters to behave around her. Miffy, on the other hand, with her sweet nad sad demeanor demands for sympathy as well as pity from the readers. Honestly, I loved both of the protagonists who voiced their stories between two shifting timelines.

The backdrop is vividly captured by the author of North west London as well as Norfolk and so is the time period of 1970s and the year 2003. The book also focuses on womanhood, feminism as well as woman power, but keeping in mind about the effects on a family. In short, this is a very captivating as well as engaging novel that kept me glued till the very last page and with such various kinds of deep and raw emotions, at times, I was laughing hard to feeling tears at the corners of my eyes.

Verdict: A must read book for all contemporary fiction fans.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Beth Miller, for providing me with a copy of her book, in return for an honest review.

[Malia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When We Were Sisters" was different than what I had expected, less sinister for one, and more humorous, which I'm not complaining about. The story centers around Melissa and Laura. It is told in the present and through flash-backs to the past by both women. I won't give away much of the plot, but it is very much a story about friendship, family, love and loss, but also about forgiveness. Sometimes something that seemed so huge in the past, is really not a big deal when we examine it in the present, and in a way, this book reminded me of that. It's not chick-lit exactly, nor is it a mystery, but something wavering pleasantly between the genres. I look forward to reading more by this promising author!

Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com

[Louisa Treger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put this novel down and read it far into the night! It’s about the damage wreaked on family and friendships when your best friend’s mother runs off with your father. This traumatic event has severed the friendship between Miffy and Laura; they are reunited years later, when Miffy’s father dies. Cleverly weaving between past and present, Beth Miller brilliantly captures complicated dynamics and dysfunction. The central question the novel poses is: can the mistakes of the past be rectified?
The characters are strong and engaging; flawed, yet you can’t help liking them. At the heart is Laura, helplessly repeating history by marrying someone else’s husband, just as her self-absorbed mother did before her, and trying to prise another man away from his wife.
This is an assured debut: funny, moving and raw. Beth Miller’s prose is beautiful; her dialogue, in particular, is pitch-perfect. I thoroughly recommend it and look forward to more books by this author.

[ReadAlongWithSue ★⋆. ࿐࿔catching up · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, great introduction to reading one of Beth Millers books, I haven't had the pleasure before, so a nice experience for me.

We can see how lies, affairs can break up families but, we can see strongly how the effects domino on the children.


Its a shame to have the two girls lost touch, and then had to meet up over 20 years later. No one knew what would happen or how receptive each other would be.

Really nice little story I though.

I would like to thank Random House UK, Ebury Publishing via Net Galley for the chance to read and review this

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a first novel and a surprisingly assured début. It's the story of two women who were friends in their early teens and meet again in (not quite) the present day. That's barely the half of it though as the reasons for the breach in their teenage friendship become clear and the tensions and secrets at work in their reunion are gradually revealed.

For those of use who grew up in the UK in the 1970s the scenes from the past are painfully familiar and quite hilarious. The adult characters are unreliable, vulnerable, human and completely engaging.

I'm not a big fiction reader but sometimes only a novel will do. Especially if its this one.

[Jacqui Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I blame this writer for my lack of sleep over the last few days! A great read with plenty to think about, lots of believable characters, and funny bits too!

[Suze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura and Miffy are best friends, almost like sisters. They spend a lot of time together and they share so many happy memories. Everything changes when they become real sisters. When Miffy's father and Laura's mother become a couple, suddenly their children are no longer in each other's lives. More than twenty years later Miffy and Laura finally meet again when something happens to Miffy's father. Even though their parents have been married for years their children haven't seen each other again ever since the day their parents became an item. Laura's missed her best friend from childhood and her gorgeous brother. Miffy has grown into a beautiful, confident woman. Laura's life isn't that wonderful. It used to look like everything was the other way around, but was that really the case?
The story is being told through two voices, the grown-up Laura and the child Miffy. Miffy had to go through so much as a child and Laura hasn't always been the most safe friend, but they did have fun together. Laura has so many problems in her life and now Miffy isn't the best friend she's ever had, but they do have good times together. Laura's falling apart bit by bit and she isn't handling things very well, not at all actually, so she needs someone by her side.
When We Were Sisters is the story of two sisters who lose each other in a tragic way and who find each other again in a tragic way as well. They both have their flaws and I can't say I liked everything about them. The story is really, really good. Laura can be selfish and crude, but she's also vulnerable and has never had someone she could rely on. Miffy is such an innocent child who has to lose that innocence way too quickly and that leaves scars. Both of the women have been damaged by decisions of other people. They have lost each other once, but at some point they will need each other again. This is a story about how much damage it can do when two people separate and when one of them meets someone else. Divorce is never easy and in this particular story the parents never gave it any thought what their decisions would do to their children. That was so sad to see. When We Were Sisters is no fun fairytale, it's real and sometimes raw which is what makes it such an interesting and fascinating read.

[Sarah Jasmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura is in her late thirties. She’s stuck in the back end of Wales, pregnant and worried about her husband’s wandering interest and the lines she’s getting around her eyes. She’s also acerbically funny and used to being the most beautiful woman in the room. Once, she was the most important friend in Melissa’s life. Then Melissa’s (Jewish) dad, Michael, ran off with Laura’s (Catholic Spanish) mum, Olivia, and the door was slammed very firmly shut on that stage of their lives. Now Michael is dying, and his death is the one thing that will bring them all back into the same place. Oh, along with Danny – Melissa’s brother, Laura’s first love, now Orthodox, married, and the father of five.

The story unfolds from two main angles. There’s Laura in 2003, chronicling the awkwardness of adult and family relationships in the present. Being an adult, she can look back at the tumultuous events of the past with the benefit of hindsight. However, adulthood also brings the distorting blur of nostalgia, and Laura is not a narrator to trust implicitly. Then, interspersed, is Melissa’s voice, as recorded in her journal from 1979. In between the highs and lows of crushes, batmitzvah preparations and arguments about make up, Melissa (aka Miffy) is picking up on some worrying undercurrents, though it never crosses her mind that anything could happen to threaten her safe, normal family.

These two first person viewpoints, looping, contrasting and contradicting their way across the decades, build a rich and convincing world. I especially loved the Polaroid tones of London at the tail end of the Seventies: it was never like that growing up in Swindon! I know from reading this post that Miller was heavily pregnant along with Laura, a happenstance that gives real physicality to Laura’s uncomfortable final trimester. I can only hope that the real world birth was less dramatic than the fictional one…

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Miffy's father abandoned his wife and children and ran off with Laura's mum, the effect on both families was momentous and catastrophic, not least because Miffy (aka Melissa) and Laura were the best of friends who shared absolutely everything. Twenty years later, the time has come for them to meet up again, with interesting results. The discomfort of two families meeting again, for a rather sad event, is done with a lightness of touch with the inevitability of time passing lying perhaps more heavily on Laura than on Miffy.

The story unfolds gradually, sometimes in the here and now, and sometimes in the past, but as it starts to combine and coalesce you get a real sense of two families at war with themselves. Much has occurred to cause this rift and no one is entirely blameless. What I loved was the way in which the author made you see all sides of the story and allowed a glimpse into the complexities of modern family life. I particularly liked the clearly defined chapters which allowed both Miffy and Laura the chance to share their own particular version of events. As victims of circumstance, both Miffy and Laura come across as rather forthright young women, both flawed in their own way and both living life in their own indomitable style. The other characters that flit into and out of the story are entertaining and add real interest; some of them were more likeable than others but all have their own role to play.

I found the book to be an enthralling read, with a confident style of writing and some rather wry snippets of humour which made me smile.

When We Were Sisters is an assured début novel by an author who I am sure will continue to go from strength to strength in future novels.

[Martine Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a rare day I read something narrated in such a smart and funny voice as this wonderful debut. Laura, the lead narrator is a fully rounded personality that I found myself chatting back to in my head, a woman brimming with sad but hilarious wise-cracks. She’s surrounded by sharply depicted characters who also live and breathe and flirt and generally flounder in the messy tangle of family life. What I especially liked were the witty little stream of consciousness asides, the seeing life as a game-show or documentary – this is pin-sharp prose that feels genuinely polished. With dialogue like this I can see Beth Miller writing for the screen. If you want to laugh as you recall the horrors of both your teen and middle years, and turn the pages in eager pleasure as the clever plot unspools, go out and buy this book.

[Fionnuala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Family Drama at it's best!I loved this story. It's made up of love and loss and friendship but the sum of all parts is a book that will make you smile (Laura) and make you wince a little (Danners and his poor wife) and make you cry (Miffy). It's told in both present time where Laura is pregnant and dealing with her wayward husband (He'd have been under the patio if he was mine) and the past where Miffy reveals the details of the event that almost destroyed their two families. I read it in two days and am already missing the sisters...

[Bookread2day · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melissa and Laura were the best of friends, inseparable as only teenage girls can be. Melissa nicked named Miffy. Miffy and Laura would talk and dream together about when they get married and what there perfect man will look like. That is until both of their families imploded in the wake of a controversial affair creating a rift that has never healed. Twenty years on, they're all about to meet again. The chapters are set seperately one for Miffy and one for Laura

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book, the characters are brought to life so well that by the end of the book I felt that I really knew them. The book is written from the point of view of each of the two main female characters, who as teenagers were very close and after being apart for some years come back together. It details the effects on them of their dysfunctional families and relationships, but also shows how strong some bonds in relationships are.
A great well written and sensitive read.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a pleasurable read - and funny! The characters and their tensions are so well drawn, and the story romps along at a great pace. I particularly liked Laura, probably she was the more acerbic of the two sisters, and really enjoyed all the Jewish cultural references. There was a lot of familiar ground for me!

[Gerda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first novel by the author, I'll be looking out for her next novel. Very suspenseful at times, though it didn't fully deliver a cause for all that suspension in the end. I didn't particularly like the main character, but she didn't deserve the neglect treatment for so long either.
It might have had a bit more in depth characters, but over all a very good read.

[Kathie Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! The main character, Laura, is funny, witty and so relatable. I laughed out loud reading it. We all have some sort of dysfunction in our families and reading how theirs played out is so relevant. To put humor in bad situations makes life a whole lot more enjoyable. Great writing for a debut novel! Looking forward to her next book.

[Benetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, not least because I grew up in an area of North London where there was a big component of Jews who had fled Nazi Germany and settled to bring up their children. So the mix of cultures, even in secular families, is so familiar. I also had intense friendships across those "boundaries", so all of this resonates strongly.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this wonderfully written, sensitively portrayed tale of two women and the past that tore them apart.

[Lisa Laub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great read! Witty, fun story. Loved the characters. Actually laughed out loud at parts. Looking forward to Beth Miller's next novel!

[Cinita Nestiti · Rating 4 out of 5]

It reveals the secrets carefully without losing touch with what's present. And oh those in-mind scenarios are lovely!

[Diane Woodrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read a more tense book. I kept waiting for something awful to happen and it didn't.
Really well written and just looks at relationships especially when one person has a skewed view of things and won't take any responsibility for their actions. I think that was where the tension came in.
Really enjoyed it

[Tanya Boulter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure why I finished this book maybe I thought it was going somewhere it didnt?

[Natasha du Plessis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story and some of the characters. This story is about a normal family with their ups and downs and what happens when parents divorce. Sometimes sad and sometimes very funny.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just couldn’t get into this book. Gave up 1/4 of the way in.

[Lisa Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A complicated tale of family, friendship and divorce, I found Beth Miller's new novel an easy read, with highly relatable characters. The pain of a divorce is captured perfectly and shown through the eyes of both Miffy and Danny, whose father leaves their family to set up home with Laura's mother. Laura, whose father left years before, doesn't seem to understand why Miffy and Danny feel the way they do, and the story of their reconciliation is both touching and upsetting in places.

I liked Laura, but also disliked her in some places - she is funny and sarcastic, but also manipulative and more concerned with her own feelings than others around her, however it's more that she's not perfect, than that she is malicious. I felt for Miffy - put in an awkward situation on more than one occasion by Laura, and also in turn by Laura's husband, she is portrayed as fairly naive and innocent.

This was a touching novel, with a hint of scandal, and one that I would recommend - if (like me), you are a child of divorce then the characters are easy to relate to, and the subject matter is handled in a very sensitive way.

[Victoria Goldman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as an Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley.

This is a story of how extra-marital affairs and divorce can break up families and leave children's lives in tatters. When We Were Sisters follows the paths of two girls in North West London in 1979, as they turn into teenagers. The girls' lives change when two of their parents run off together to make a new life in Norfolk. When the women meet again as adults, over two decades on (in 2003), they (and their families) begin to address the past.

The story of When We Were Sisters is complicated by the fact that one family is Jewish and the other is Catholic. I took an instant dislike to Laura, as she was very disrespectful of her step-family's religious observance and was intent on causing mischief, although her character did improve slightly towards the end of the book. I enjoyed the references to Edgware, where I grew up in the 1970/80s. However, I felt that the way some of the more observant Jewish characters were portrayed was a bit unrealistic.

Overall, however, this was an enjoyable, quick and easy read.

[Ciska · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review

The story is told from different perspectives in different times. Laura mostly takes the current day while Melissa tells her part in the past.
As they are totally different people I did not really get the feeling we got the whole story from both sides. This was not disturbing the story but it made that I missed a certain connection with both woman. I had hoped on more insight in Danny his part of the story.
The story does not hold a lot of surprises though there are a few parts that take a bit longer to develop and get cleared up.

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I call these sort of novels non-stories. No real mystery, no huge revelations, just life as it is. Not my typical cup of tea, but an entertaining way to spend a lazy summer day.