The Secret Sister (Fairham Island #1) by Brenda Novak

Contemporary Romance and Mystery

From Goodreads:

Did she once have a sister? Has her mother lied all these years? Why?

After a painful divorce, Maisey Lazarow returns to Fairham, the small island off the North Carolina coast where she grew up. She goes there to heal—and to help her brother, Keith, a deeply troubled man who's asked her to come home. But she refuses to stay in the family house. The last person she wants to see is the wealthy, controlling mother she escaped years ago.

Instead, she finds herself living next door to someone else she'd prefer to avoid—Rafe Romero, the wild, reckless boy to whom she lost her virginity at sixteen. He's back on the island, and to her surprise, he's raising a young daughter alone. Maisey's still attracted to him, but her heart's too broken to risk…

Then something even more disturbing happens. She discovers a box of photographs that evoke distant memories of a little girl, a child Keith remembers, too. Maisey believes the girl must've been their sister, but their mother claims there was no sister.

Maisey's convinced that child existed. So where is she now?

Did her sister exist?  Was she pushed?  Did Keith push her?  Why has she never been mentioned? 

All of that is part of the mystery of The Secret Sister.  Maisy Lazarow get much more than she expected when she returns home to Fairham Island.  Instead of helping her brother and mending fences with her Mother she bring an age old mystery out in the open.

She also reconnects with Rafe Romero and finds that romance has not disappeared from her life.  The Secret Sister has a great setting, interesting characters and a mystery with more than one twist and turn.  I was very surprised by the answer to the four questions I started the review with. 

This is the start of a new series by Novak.  I did see a nice collection of secondary characters but really did not see the hook for future stores that sometimes appear in a new series.  It looks like whoever will be featured next will be a surprise.  It does leave me with another question.  Will it also be a romance wrapped in a mystery?

Mira published The Secret Sister by Brenda Novak in 2015.