Guest Post + Giveaway: The Sister Queens

We're talking sister novels today with debut author Sophie Perinot! Join the conversation and enter to win a copy of The Sister Queens!

I absolutely loved The Sister Queens--a five star read for me and the best historical fiction debut I've read in a long time! (Click here to read my review!) I'm very excited to have Sophie on the blog today! Without further ado, please join me in welcoming Sophie Perinot!

I am a sucker for a good sister story. Always have been—way back to the March sisters in Little Women. If you are a sister, if you have a sister, how can you not be? There is something so unique, wonderful, maddening and complicated about the bond we share, woman-to-woman, with our female siblings. Our relationships with our sisters are a constant source of aggravation and amazement in real life so it is only natural we should seek to explore and understand them better through literature.

I use the pages of my debut novel, The Sister Queens, to look at the heart and soul of the relationship between two 13th century sisters – Marguerite and Eleanor of Provence – who just happened to be queens (France and England respectively). But lots of other authors have approached the bonds of sisterhood through fiction. So I decided to start a Goodreads list for “Sister Novels,” soliciting a little help from some of my equally book-addicted friends.

The very first title I added was Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I suspect lots of people view this novel as a story about couples and courtship but I’ve always seen it as a “Sisters Novel.” Jane and Elizabeth Bennet are two of my favorite sisters of all time. Why? Well, I will admit they remind me (strikingly) of myself and my own sister (I am Elizabeth by the way which offers me the chance to be the younger sister for once). But narcissism aside, the way these two Bennet sisters are portrayed—as caring, supportive, best-friends—offers a shining positive example of sisterhood at its best. I suspect that portrayal resonates with countless readers, because the majority of sisters I come in contact with love each other to death. They would lend their sister their last dollar. They are the sisters of Irving Berlin’s song, Sisters, Sisters:

Sisters, sisters
There were never such devoted sisters,
Never had to have a chaperone, no sir,
I'm there to keep my eye on her
Caring, sharing
Every little thing that we are wearing
When a certain gentleman arrived from Rome
She wore the dress, and I stayed home.

All kinds of weather, we stick together 

The same in the rain and sun
Two different faces, but in tight places
We think and we act as one
Those who've seen us
Know that not a thing could come between us
Many men have tried to split us up, but no one can
Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister
And lord help the sister, who comes between me and my man.

Other books currently on the “Sister Novels” list that portray sisters as “comforter in chief,” in times of trouble and “celebrant in chief” in times of triumph include: Little Women, Sense & Sensibility, and all the books from the Little House on the Prairie series. None of these books whitewash or over-simplify the complex relationship between female siblings. The sisters in each have their tiffs and their differences, but loyalty reigns supreme.

And then there are the dark sister books—the ones about bitchy sisters; sisters who steal each other’s boyfriends; sisters who are rivals first and fellow-family-members second (or not at all); and even sisters who ruthlessly sabotage a sibling’s happiness to secure their own. These can be a great read, and surely reflect real life as well. Personal favorites among dicey-sister-relationship books on my Goodreads list include: Michelle Moran’s Nefertiti (in which Nefertiti, for her own ends, is willing to cause her sister to miscarry her child) and The Other Boleyn Girl (I spent the entire book waiting for Mary to slap Anne and slap her good). These women are the antithesis of Katniss from The Hunger Games, or Kate Fitzgerald from My Sister’s Keeper (also on the “Sister Novels” list).

I started the “Sister Novels” list with 15 books. There are now more than 115. If you are a lover of sister-stories, it’s a reading list to drool over. (Click here to check it out!) But there is always room on the shelf for another good book probing the hearts and realities of life as a sister. What books do you think we missed? What are your favorite sister-stories and why? Inquiring fellow sister-story junkies want to know!

Want to win your own copy of

THE SISTER QUEENS?

All you have to do is leave a comment with a suggested title for Sophie's list along with your email address, and you're entered!

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This giveaway is closed and the winner has been selected! Stay tuned for more great giveaways!