Review: The Twin's Daughter by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Synopsis:

Lucy Sexton is stunned when a disheveled woman appears at the door one day…a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lucy's own beautiful mother. It turns out the two women are identical twins, separated at birth, and raised in dramatically different circumstances. Lucy's mother quickly resolves to give her less fortunate sister the kind of life she has never known. And the transformation in Aunt Helen is indeed remarkable. But when Helen begins to imitate her sister in every way, even Lucy isn't sure at times which twin is which. Can Helen really be trusted, or does her sweet face mask a chilling agenda?

Pages: 400 pages (Hardcover)
Publisher:Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Released: August 31, 2010

Back in August of last year, I heard about The Twin’s Daughter. I instantly loved the premise, the cover, and the promise of twists and turns. However, it wasn’t until just recently when I had the chance to finally read this novel.

Let me just start by saying that this exceed my expectations. The book starts with Lucy, the narrator of this novel, opening the door and finding her mom’s twin sister on the doorstep, the sister she never knew her mom had. Aunt Helen is quickly accepted inside the family, but there is something off about her. Unlike her sister, Aliese - who was raised in a wealthy household, Helen grew up in a rough orphanage and was constantly told that she was the unwanted child.

Even though we don’t see much of Helen’s past, you do feel some sadness over what happened to her. But I couldn’t help wonder if she also had some resentment towards her sister. Enough resentment to go single white female on her.

A lot more happens in the book, but I don’t want to ruin the fun of anyone planning to read this. Just know that there are some twists, with a second helping of turns, mixed in with some betrayal, and a dash of romance.

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Overall:

As I was reading this I had different feelings. There was excitement as the climax approached and I was trying to guess what happened. I also felt sadness, over the two twins and their lives. And I did have moments of happiness, as I read about Lucy and Kit. Their romance is both cute and endearing, a stark contrast to the rest of the book.

The Twin’s Daughter has to be one of my favourite reads of this year. When I was reading this I, and I imagine many others, probably thought this would be predictable, but boy was I wrong. There were times when Lucy would be oblivious to things that were happening around her house. As a reader, this usually frustrates me, especially, when it is something that is incredibly obvious, but in this case it didn’t. Whether it was due to innocence, grief, or whatnot, it made sense for Lucy to not really understand what was happening. I found myself making excuses for her, especially by the end when we were both wrong on so many levels.

I can’t say enough about this book. If you haven’t read this yet, do so immediately!

5 stars