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Sondra Helene
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Appearances: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Sondra Helene (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 1,249 ratings
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Samantha—the fashionable wife of a successful businessman and doting mother of one—struggles to negotiate the spheres of intimacy between her husband and her family of origin. Samantha loves her husband, Richard, and she loves her sister, Elizabeth. But the two of them can barely exist in the same room, which has caused the entire family years of emotional distress. Yet it’s not until Samantha’s sister is diagnosed at age forty-three with lung cancer that her family and her marriage are tipped into full-blown crisis.







A story of love, loss, forgiveness, learning to live with grief, and healing, Appearances will resonate with anyone who has ever experienced tension in their familial relationships—even as it serves as a poignant reminder that no amount of privilege can protect us from family conflicts, marital difficulty, or mortality.
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  1. Print length
    337 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    She Writes Press
  5. Publication date
    April 9, 2019
  6. File size
    1130 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

ATTENTION: The first e-file format OF Appearances had spacing and typo issues due to a conversion error. This has since been corrected. However, if an ebook was purchased prior to Oct. 1, 2019, your purchase might still show these issues. Please email lauren@sparkpointstudio.com directly to replace your Kindle or eBook file, including proof of original purchase. Thank you, and we're sorry for this inconvenience.

2021 Book Excellence Award Winner: Caregiving
2020 Best Book Awards Winner in Fiction: Women's Fiction
2020 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards: Bronze Medal in Fiction – Drama
2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in First Novel (70-90k Words)

“’Sisters,’ the old Irving Berlin song, winkingly covers primal themes of romance and family; this novel tackles them with detail and realism . . . and makes quietly clear how precious any extra time with a loved one can be. “
―Kirkus Reviews

“Appearances gets to the heart of what happens when illness interrupts the good life of a seemingly close family: it strains the bonds of a fraying marriage and tests the love of two impossibly close sisters: one sick, the other trying to prepare for life without her. A tense and moving drama about loss and love and what matters most.”
―Laura Zigman, New York Times best-selling author of Animal Husbandry

“Sondra Helene captures the fragility of human relationships, in all their forms. How brief we are here, how complicated, and how little time there is to put on pretense.”
―Kerry Cohen, author of Lush and Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity

“Appearances is a powerful first novel that is for any woman who has struggled with the complicated roles of sister, wife, mother and daughter. Sondra Helene is a writer to watch.”
―Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times best-selling author of The Perfect Couple

"If you liked Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, read Appearances."
―Beyond the Bookends, "10 New Releases Perfect for Spring Break 2019"

"Sondra Helene writes thoughtfully and believably with colorful settings, complicated characters, and an unpredictable plot. Indeed, her theme of appearances symbolizes the scars and secrets the sisters and their husbands mask from public view and one another. There are no villains in this story, only those characters with hidden unresolved pain. In the end, the author offers no easy answers, only hope."
―BookTrib

From the Author

Appearances is a finalist in the 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for first novel (70-90k words)!

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07G7XZL45
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ She Writes Press (April 9, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 9, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1130 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 337 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 1,249 ratings

About the author

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Sondra Helene

Sondra Helene

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Sondra Helene is the author of Appearances, an award winning book that earned acclaim from the prestigious Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She is a board member and writer at GrubStreet, Boston's center for literary life. Appearances is her first novel. She is a graduate of Ithaca College and has a master's degree from Columbia University. She has studied fiction and nonfiction at GrubStreet, Gotham Writers Workshop, The Sirenland Writers conference, Fine Arts Work Center and Kripalu. She writes about family relationships, sisters, marriage and grief.

Sondra is a past president of The Friends of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a fundraising arm of the hospital. She's also chaired fundraisers for Massachusetts General Hospital and the Lung Cancer Research Foundation. She loves the beach and the mountains. She has two grown children and lives near Boston with her husband and two poodles.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
1,249 global ratings
Great debut novel about the complexities of relationships
4 Stars
Great debut novel about the complexities of relationships
Thank you to BookSparks for sending me a copy!In all honesty, I was bored with this story till about chapter 15. By that point, I WAS SUCKED IN!From the synopsis alone, I knew it was going to be sad. After really getting invested in the characters and complicated relationships it’s both sad, real and endearing.When I just started reading this, my feelings for the husband, Richard, was anger and confusion. As the book progressed, I understood why and I, along with Samantha discovered that their marriage breakdown wasn’t Richard’s fault.Short review: this was an endearing look at the complexities within a family.
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Top reviews from the United States

flibbertigibbet
5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful and Courageous Story. Couldn't Put it Down.
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2019
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This novel was beautifully and accessibly written, enabling the reader to feel the pain and suffering caused by the rollercoaster of hope and disappointment that the protagonist, Samantha, endures in relation to both her sister's progression of cancer, as well as her marriage. The protagonist is grounded and refreshingly self-aware, giving all other characters the benefit of the doubt, as she tries to navigate if there is an objective "right" way to divide her time and attention between family and relationships. You can feel the bravery and growth of the protagonist throughout the story, as she bears the weight of her sister's illness, partnered with her own conflicting burdens in her private life, and ultimately, having to surrender to the cruelties of life and face the question that even if we are able to see our behavioral patterns, can we break free of them, and can we expect others to do the same? The protagonist's actions and compassionate strength are often motivated out of love and morality, always looking to care for others first.

All in all, a tremendous read, heart wrenching and raw, and serving as a valuable reminder that we should all appreciate the time we have with our loved ones, while also making time to investigate the motivation of our actions and feelings, and allow others the same benefit of the doubt we so often afford ourselves. I loved this novel.
18 people found this helpful
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Eva Lazar
4.0 out of 5 stars Readworthy.
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2019
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Starting out under luxurious circumstances, there is no surprise when disaster strikes the characters in this tale. Drama ensues, of course!

What particularly struck me about this book, is how the main character is not a good person. She is a narcissist who focuses on herself and her own feelings despite the trouble around her – or rather, because of it. She gave me Scarlett O’Hara vibes in how she acted throughout the book.

The story itself is good. The different personalities all interact with each other, not just with the main character, and it really feels as though we are allowed to read a sliver of a dysfunctional, grief-stricken family’s story for a few hundred pages.

There are some factors that somewhat annoyed me, though. The Jewish background the characters supposedly had was pushed a lot, while there were quite many inconsistencies between Judaism and the lifestyle the characters live. Right off the bat, there is mention of mouth-watering shrimp, for example. Another factor was the allegedly fluent French the main character was supposed to speak. Although I have only a very rudimentary understanding of French, I noticed quite many flaws.

This is the kind of book that is easy to read, has an interesting premise, and leaves the reader feeling quite good about themselves. I quite enjoyed it!
One person found this helpful
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Brenruth
3.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, one, maybe two, dimensional characters.
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2019
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This book is well-written, very accessible and readable. It perfectly captures the lifestyle of certain very wealthy, largely oblivious, Eastern MA people. Although it dealt with very serious themes, I didn't feel very much. The characters were shallow and two-dimensional at best. Despite many flaws, it was a good job for a first book. I would certainly take a look at her second.
3 people found this helpful
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Lisa
5.0 out of 5 stars What an incredible, well written, emotional novel! I couldn’t put it down!
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2019
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I absolutely loved this book! I read it in a weekend. The author’s style of writing, powerful emotions, character development and ability to draw me into her story are amazing. I tend to start books and not finish them, unless of course, I can’t put the book down. With Appearances, I absolutely had to keep reading. I loved the Boston and Newton references (many of the places with which I am familiar). The relationship between Samantha and her sister reminded me so much of my own relationship with my sister. What an incredible first novel! I can’t wait to read the sequel (I do hope she will write one!).
5 people found this helpful
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june Rhodes
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting writing concept
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2019
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The way this book is written is unusual as it jumps from years span to different characters which I found hard to follow in the beginning. She brings up men coming home to England at the end of WWII bearing mental scars similar to the PTSD that we are seeing in our brave warriors nowadays and how they were treated so differently back then, her characters are well rounded and the ending is a huge surprise. Sorry reading!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to believe this is a first novel
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2020
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I was quite surprised to learn after finishing the book that it’s a first attempt by a new writer. It is an insightful book dealing with finesse with difficult subjects. I could not put it down. Until almost at the end there are not the editing errors that seem to be becoming far too prevalent. A section of the text was repeated in its entirety a few pages later as the main character prepared for the cleansing/renewal ceremony. That will be easy to fix. There are a few other small errors towards the end, which seems odd given how clean of such errors the rest of the text is and because it story itself is so good I did not downgrade my rating.
One person found this helpful
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Florida Dreamer
5.0 out of 5 stars What to do about Elizabeth!
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2019
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Family struggles. We all have them at one point or another. At times the relationships between Samantha, her sister Elizabeth and her husband Richard seemed over the top. Richard accused Samantha of siding with her sister and pushing him away. Drop into that situation sister Elizabeth dying of cancer. Hard to relate to the intensity of their struggles. What came thru very clearly was Elizabeth's fight with her cancer. For me it brought back memories of my husband's battle with pancreatic cancer a few year ago. A far too accurate description of what cancer can do. An engrossing read - putting aside that I felt like giving them all a good shake once in a while because they were being so dense and unfeeling.
2 people found this helpful
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ShawnM
2.0 out of 5 stars Poor editing and characters I really couldn’t relate to
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2020
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What a bunch of self-absorbed, entitled, clueless characters. I kept waiting for something monumental to happen and change them for the better. Even when something major (death of a main character) happened, it didn’t result in much improvement. The main character was more interested in dropping expensive brand names like litter along the highway than she was in having a truthful moment with her family. Sorry I wasted my time with it.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Heather Baird
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down
Reviewed in Canada on September 4, 2019
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I find it hard to get through many books but I loved this one so much I read it within 2 days. Caught my attention from the start. Very happy I came across this one!
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maureen botka
5.0 out of 5 stars Truly lovely tale of joy, heartbreak & sadness within a Jewish family
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2020
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About a strong relationship bond of sisters which tests the marriage & family harmony when one of them develops cancer. It portrays the personal & wider impact the disease and the balancing act needed to prioritise their individual needs. It tests the main characters to their limits. Really enjoyed the read and learned more about the Jewish faith.
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Ramankutty Puthanpisharath
5.0 out of 5 stars Book review
Reviewed in India on November 1, 2019
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Good
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Brigitte K
5.0 out of 5 stars Moving
Reviewed in Germany on September 5, 2019
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A touching book on loosing a loved one to cancer, the mourning process and the relationship with your significant other, your family and how we are shaped by our childhood. And last but not least it’s about your subconscious biases, our expectations and how they can lead to separation - and what helps avoiding that possibly.
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nicky
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in Canada on September 15, 2019
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This is a good read. Well written and lots to reflect upon re relationships and self behaviour. Well worth the read
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