I had not read Sandie Jones's other best selling books, but now I want to go back and read her previous books because I liked her character development and realistic conversations and emotions. THE HALF SISTER pulled me into the plot on page one; however, although this book is billed as a mystery thriller, the mystery is a little lacking. It does not actually get started until quite a ways into the book, and a few things seemed a bit improbable. I still enjoyed the book because of the human interest of the two sisters and the sudden appearance of a young woman claiming to be a half sister. In addition, Kate and her husband are dealing with repeat doctor visits for in-vitro fertilization in their quest to have a baby. Kate's very successful career is just not enough as she would like to have children. As can be expected, the emotional letdown is extreme when all of the time, effort, and money with the doctor seems to be down the drain. Kate's sister Lauren has three children, and this seems to make Kate even more sensitive than she might be otherwise. On the other hand, Lauren seems to envy Kate's free time and fast paced business world life. As the story progresses, Kate loses interest in writing stories about people's repeat plastic surgery procedures when she feels there are more important things going on. The main issue really turns out to be the half sister: who are her parents, really?