What's Yours Is Mine: A Novel About Sisters Who Share Just a Little Too Much [Paperback]

Tess Stimson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2011

Grace and Susannah have grown up to be as opposite as sisters can be. Grace is smart, successful, and happily married—but the one thing missing from her seemingly perfect life is the baby she’s unable to conceive. Beautiful Susannah is like a car crash in motion: Always in trouble, she’s been estranged from the family since abandoning her two sons from a disastrous early marriage. When their mother falls suddenly and seriously ill, Grace reluctantly calls Susannah back home. As the two sisters try to repair their relationship, Grace realizes that Susannah might be the answer to her prayers: Her sister is willing to be her surrogate, to give birth to Grace’s longed-for baby. But when Susannah makes a reckless choice that threatens her life and the baby’s, how far will Grace go to save her sister if it means losing the one thing she wants most?

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[A] brilliantly enjoyable novel about rival sisters and surrogate parenting—quite unlike anything we’ve read in ages. Put it on your bedside table right now!”—Heat (U.K.)

“With twists that will put your jaw in the dropped position, [this is] edgy, funny, unpredictable . . . for women who like it real .”—Daily Record (U.K.)

"Stimson weaves a suspenseful tale of unusual emotional complexity and honesty...The novel's bittersweet ending and its suggestion that all that ends well will not necessarily remain well further complements this intense and heartfelt tale of love and hatred between siblings."--Booklist

About the Author

Tess Stimson is the author of five previous novels, including most recently The Adultery Club and The Infidelity Chain. She writes regularly for the Daily Mail as well as for several women’s magazines. Born and brought up in Sussex, she graduated from Oxford before spending a number of years as a news producer with ITN. She now lives in the U.S.A. with her husband, their daughter and her two sons.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Original edition (June 28, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553386123
• ISBN-13: 978-0553386127
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #565,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tess Stimson was born and brought up in Sussex, England. As a child, she lived for several years in Greece and Africa, before winning a scholarship to Notre Dame School, Lingfield. She subsequently read English at St. Hilda's College, Oxford, where she received the Eleanor Rooke Award (for English Literature), the Dorothy Whitelock Award (for Anglo-Saxon), and was made an Exhibitioner.

After graduating, Tess joined ITN (Independent Television News), where she reported and produced regional and world stories, travelling to hotspots and war-zones all over the globe.

In 1991, she left ITN to write her first book, YOURS TILL THE END, the biography of Beirut hostage Jackie Mann, and moved to Cyprus with her then-husband, CNN correspondent Brent Sadler, with whom she has two sons, Henry and Matthew.

Her first novel, HARD NEWS, set in the world of television news, was published in 1993 to immediate acclaim and became an instant bestseller. Later that year, she moved to Rome, Italy, where she wrote SOFT FOCUS(1995), and POLE POSITION(1996). Both were commercial and critical successes. All three novels were translated into several languages.

In 1997, Tess moved to Beirut, Lebanon, from whence she juggled reporting on the Middle-East for CNN, BBC and NTV (Lebanese television) with raising a family. She also freelanced for UK-based TV stations Sky, Channel Five and other cable channels, and wrote for the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Daily Express, You and Glamour Magazine and The Times.

In 2000, following her divorce, Tess moved back to London with her children. Two years later, she was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Florida, and moved permanently to the US in 2002.

She left USF in 2004 to return to full-time writing and journalism, becoming a regular feature columnist for the Daily Mail newspaper. Her novel, THE ADULTERY CLUB, went straight into the Top Ten Bestseller List on publication in the UK, and was translated into 15 languages. ONE GOOD AFFAIR (previously published as THE INFIDELITY CHAIN in the UK) was released in the US in 2009. It has also been sold to a number of other countries.

Tess' most recent novel, WHO LOVES YOU MOST (previously published as THE CRADLE SNATCHER in the UK), will be released in the US in Summer 2010. Her non-fiction book, BEAT THE BITCH! HOW TO STOP THE OTHER WOMAN STEALING YOUR MAN, is also available now.

Tess is married to Erik Oliver, with whom she has a daughter, Lily. She lives in Vermont with her husband and three children and is working on her next book, WHAT'S YOURS IS MINE.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting look at two sisters, July 1, 2011

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What's Yours Is Mine: A Novel About Sisters Who Share Just a Little Too Much (Paperback)

Thanks to her sister Susannah's destructive behavior, Grace feared pregnancy. However, in her thirties, she suddenly hears her biological clock ticking away. She and her husband Tom decide to have a child. Fourteen months later and a cost of a ton of pounds, Dr. Janus informs Grace she can never conceive. Because of Tom's heart defect, adoption is also out. Strategic thinker Grace plots her next child campaign even as she almost abducts a baby.

In America, Homeland Security informs Susannah that she will be sent back to Great Britain. Between ex husbands, alcohol, drugs, and sex with anyone even when she was married, Susannah knows arguing is futile. When their mother Catherine suffers a debilitating stroke that leaves her comatose, Grace demands Susannah come home, which she does. In Oxfordshire, Susannah becomes a surrogate mother for her sister, but though pregnant she still drinks and sleeps with everyone. As she tries clean up, Grace and Tom head to divorce court with custody becoming an issue.

This is an interesting look at two sisters whose lifestyles are dramatically different yet in many ways the same as each tends towards obsessiveness bordering on destructive compulsion. Numerous medical crises become a gimmicky conflict resolution technique that severely detracts from the family drama as does a bit of whimsy involving their mom. Still fans will wonder how much is too much sharing between sisters.

Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars PACKS AN AMAZING EMOTIONAL PUNCH, July 19, 2011

By 

Real Word Wizard (Oxford, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What's Yours Is Mine: A Novel About Sisters Who Share Just a Little Too Much (Paperback)

An extraordinary book that keeps you guessing right to the end. Sharply observed and well-paced, this is streets ahead of the normal run-of-the-mill summer chick-lit. Stimson's characters are complex and fully-rounded, a mix of strengths and all-too-human flaws, and even their most edge-of-the-seat actions and decisions are completely believable.

The author perfectly captures the complicated blend of sibling rivalry and love and loyalty that often characterizes the relationship between sisters, and dares to ask the difficult questions all too many lesser, lazier writers avoid.

The novel is up there with the best of Jodi Picoult: it made me cry, and laugh, in equal measure, and I found myself thinking about it long after I'd put it down. Tess Stimson writes with a deft and light touch, and the book is a surprisingly quick read - perfect for the beach. For anyone looking for a thought-provoking, entertaining, intelligent summer read, this is the ideal choice. It has all the guilty, satisfying pleasure of a rich bar of chocolate.. but none of calories....

3.0 out of 5 stars Sisters who share too much, July 18, 2011

By 

Sacramento Book Review "Sacramento Book Review" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What's Yours Is Mine: A Novel About Sisters Who Share Just a Little Too Much (Paperback)

Written in the first person by four different narrators, this interesting and complex story about sisters doesn't get started until the third chapter. Don't give up on it. Although one narration requires quite a suspension of disbelief, it makes for pleasurable reading in the style of a Bridget Jones-type account. Grace is the accomplished and happily married big sister who is burdened by a careless much married, free-spirited sister named Susannah. The author manages to get the sister annoyance factor and love, which the main characters share, just right. Anyone familiar with //King Lear// knows that sisters can sometimes be worst enemies.

While some of the many sex scenes have a slight cringe factor, the stories move along well with just enough twists and turns to properly depict the sibling rivalries and entitlements that sisters share. The heart of the book is family relationships and how far we push each other. How did these sisters become polar opposites? And, is a reconcilement possible? It takes an almost divine intervention to make this unlikely event happen. Grace needs a baby and Susannah has three. Susannah needs a kidney and Grace has two. In //What's Yours is Mine//, ownership is hotly contested.

Reviewed by Julia McMichael