Step Sisters - book discontinued by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Geogeo

The Basics:
Step Sisters was written by Rupert James and published by Cleis Press in 2012. At 470 pages, it's a long and hefty read. An extract from the the author's previous book, Silk, can be found at the end of the story. This 8x5 paperback book sells for $16.95. The book was well written in a British tone. The editing was decent although I found 5 typos--the biggest one where they accidentally used the brother's name when referring to the husband. But for 470 pages, 5 mistakes isn't too bad.

The plot: Basically, this book is set in London, England and is about two families that come together through their parents' hasty marriage. One family, which includes the pretentious father, older sister Elizabeth, and younger, gay brother Chris, is a well-off intellectual family. The second family, which includes the over-the-top ridiculous middle aged mother who is desperate for attention and her breathtakingly beautiful dauther, Rachel. Older sister Elizabeth has a gorgeous yet douche-y and useless drug dealing fiance, Nick, who ultimately falls for Elizabeth's new step-sister Rachel's looks and they have a not so exciting affair. Elizabeth finds out, the families hate each other, years go by. Elizabeth becomes a huge TV Show Host and Rachel a fantastic actress. At first Elizabeth tries to ruin Rachel's career out of spite but then when they have to work together on a new movie, they find out they have a common enemy--ex-fiance Nick who is blackmailing Rachel with sex tapes for lots of money, which threatens to ruin the whole movie deal. So the two step-sisters team together to get rid of him. Their plan is to drug him with Rohypnol and make him confess on video to selling meth to an actress who then overdoses on it, thus making him commit to murder so they can use their video as leverage. Unfortunately, the drug did not react well with the alcohol and Valium he already took beforehand, so he died. The girls cover it up and they are now close sisters again, bound by a secret. The end.

Thoughts: The last book I received from Cleis Press was sexy and kinky so I was excited to read another. Unfortunately, this book is nothing of the sorts. No steamy sex scenes, barely even any passing references to sex. Because I don't particularly care about celebrities, gossip or anything of the sort, the plot didn't interest me very much. I may have also been overanalyzing because there were many instances where I didn't find the characters and their actions believable. But then I'd change my mind, and then I'd change my mind again. For example, Elizabeth, after having her marriage ruined because of a homewrecker, then herself becomes a homewrecker and has an affair with her married boss. Or, Elizabeth has a PhD in Feminism in French novels, but goes on to be a sleazy celebrity journalist, especially after saying how often that she never watched TV and didn't know anything about the business? It just seemed unlikely, but not way off that it was completely unrealistic. I liked that there was plenty of heterosexual as well as homosexual relationships involved, which adds a wider audience.

Essentially, this book passed the time, but was pretty boring in my opinion. The plot did not capture my attention and the lack of sex scenes disappointed me.

If you're into acting and celebrities and gossip, maybe this will be a good book for you, but definitely don't buy this as foreplay reading to spice things up or you'll be wasting your money.

This isn't a book I would ever read again. It wasn't interesting, and it definitely wasn't erotic. It will be going to Goodwill soon enough.