Published 4th June 2026 by Aria.
From the cover of the book:
All Blythe Carney ever wanted was to become a hotelier and run her family's business, the Hope Square Hotel. But fate, and her grandfather, intervened and it fell into her younger sister Rae's lap, taking her dreams with it. Now Blythe owns Still Water House, the most exclusive guest house on Pin Hill Island, but she can't help but feel she's still not living the life she was meant to.
Rae Johnson had no interest in taking over the hotel, her dreams lay elsewhere, but when she ended up with the family business her sister had set her heart on, her sense of duty to continue their family legacy with her husband was too strong to ignore.
Now, fifteen years later, newly widowed Rae is struggling to keep the hotel afloat and she knows that selling it could be the final straw in her already fragile relationship with her sister.
What do you do when your sister lives the life that you'd set your heart on? And when the perfect storm is brewing, surely, it's time to put aside the jealousy and disappointment that can tear a family apart, and fight for the future you have always dreamed of?
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From her childhood, Blythe Carney longed to take over the family business, Hope Square Hotel, on Pin Hill Island. The hotel was in her blood, unlike her younger sister Rae, but when the moment for Blythe to step into her grandfather's shoes came, he gave the hotel to Rae. Blythe was devasted by this unexpected blow, and even though she inherited her family home Still Water House, which she and her husband Kip have transformed into a luxury guest house, she still feels something is missing from her life.
Rae Johnson was never interested in taking over the family business. Her sister Blythe was always the natural heir to Hope Square Hotel, but when love came calling in the shape of smarmy, ambitious hotelier Marcus Johnson, she found herself blindsided by her grandfather's plans. Their grandfather's betrayal opened up a gulf between the sisters that has never been breached.
Fifteen years later, Marcus has died leaving Rae with a raft of debts and no idea how to make the business pay. Her only option is to sell, but this might be the final blow that breaks the relationship between her and Blythe, who sees Hope Square Hotel and Still Water House as the legacy of her daughter Siggy...
There can be few relationships more complicated than that between sisters, and the brilliant Faith Hogan explores just about every ounce of those complexities in this book, the second one of her Ballycove spin-off series set on Pin Hill Island.
The story weaves beautifully between the present, and the past, taking you on an emotional whirlwind that explores the twists of fate that have brought Blythe and Rea to a pivotal moment in their relationship that might finally bring their fragile truce crashing down. The voices of Blythe, Rae, Blythe's beloved daughter Siggy, and Blythe's husband Kip carry the threads of a story that has more than its fair share of tear-jerking family dramas.
Once close, and sure of the paths their lives would take, Blythe and Rae offer two sides of a messy tangle of heartache and recriminations. Blythe is the dominate character, and the trickiest to come to terms with, given her strong opinions and dogged determination to keep Siggy close, no matter how much you come to understand the experiences that have shaped her. It is easier to take Rae to your heart, who also had little choice in the overall scheme of things, and was saddled with a marriage that was not what it appeared to outside eyes. Caught in the crossfire sit Siggy, smothered by her mother's hopes and fears, and lovely Kip who has been gradually pushed to one side by Blythe's obsessions.
Faith works her magic by totally immersing you in themes of love, loss, sibling rivalry, betrayal, prejudice against outsiders, class, and sexism in this small community, echoing through the timelines and voices of her characters - always her specialty. My heart took a pounding through all the carefully-crafted turns, on the way to an ending suitably full of hope for the Sisters of Hope Square. I particularly enjoyed the thought-provoking way she echoes her themes in the parts of the story about Blythe and Rae's German grandmother and new arrivals Val and Danial. The appearance of familiar faces from the stunning first Pin Hill novel, The Women of Ocean's End, was a lovely bonus.
I always know I am going to need a boxful of tissues with one of Faith's books, and I think the combination of tender and poignant moments in this story might make this the most tear-jerking of her novels yet. I am already looking forward to the next one.
The Sisters of Hope Square is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Aria, Head of Zeus for sending me a copy of this book.
About the author:
Faith Hogan is an award-winning, million copy best seller. She is a USA Today, Irish Times Top Ten and an Amazon UK Number 1 Best Selling writer of contemporary fiction novels. Her stories have charmed readers around the world - she's sold internationally and translated widely. She writes grown up women's fiction which is unashamedly uplifting, feel-good and inspiring.
The Bookshop Ladies was shortlisted for an An Post Book Award in 2024.
The Sisters of Hope Square is her brand new summer read coming June 2026. It is a gripping and poignant story of two sisters divided by jealousy and disappointment who must put their differences aside to save the inheritance that drove a wedge between them decades earlier.
She writes twisty contemporary crime fiction as Geraldine Hogan.
She lives in the west of Ireland with her family and their Labrador named Penny. She's a writer, reader, enthusiastic dog walker and reluctant jogger - except of course when it is raining!
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