Did she once have a sister? Has her mother lied all these years? Why? 
After a painful divorce, Maisey Lazarow returns to Fairham, the small island off the North Carolina coast where she grew up. She goes there to heal—and to help her brother, Keith, a deeply troubled man who's asked her to come home. But she refuses to stay in the family house. The last person she wants to see is the wealthy, controlling mother she escaped years ago. Instead, she finds herself living next door to someone else she'd prefer to avoid—Rafe Romero, the wild, reckless boy to whom she lost her virginity at sixteen. He's back on the island, and to her surprise, he's raising a young daughter alone. Maisey's still attracted to him, but her heart's too broken to risk… 
Then something even more disturbing happens. She discovers a box of photographs that evoke distant memories of a little girl, a child Keith remembers, too. Maisey believes the girl must've been their sister, but their mother claims there was no sister. 
Maisey's convinced that child existed. So where is she now?

Review: I was given an ARC of The Secret Sister for an honest review so this my review.
This is the first full length romantic suspense book from Brenda Novak in awhile and I can honestly say I miss her writing in this area, I love her romance books but her suspense books I have really missed and The Secret Sister reminded me how good she is at keeping the reader guessing.
The characters in this book were all very engaging and easy to like. I loved how well Maisey and Rafe interacted and the romance between them was typical Novak, sweet and hot at the same time if that is possible. As for the mystery in the book I loved how it was told and how Maisey tried so hard to prove that her brother did not hurt their sister that they did not remember existed on purpose because she wanted to help him get better so badly. I am not going to get into the plot because I refuse to talk spoilers but it was so well written it had some great twist for the reader.
I can honestly say I can't wait for the second book in the series to come out to see what happens next and I do hope Novak writes more romantic suspense in the future because she has a talent in this area that she does not use enough.
I am giving The Secret Sister five out of five stars.