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Book Review: The Secret Keeper

I have been so busy watching movies on my Road To Oscars that I have neglected reading. This past weekend, having no movies to see, I caught up on my reading. One of my goals this year is to increase the amount I read. Last year I averaged about a book a month and this year I want to increase that by 100%.

                                                

I just finished reading The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. My husband jokes that he can tell when I am totally into a book, he will catch me reading with every glimpse he makes. Although it took me a few days to really get into this book, I found it addictive and I could NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN!

The book is set in England and flashes back and forth in time. It begins with a young adolescent Laurel, sneaking away from her families celebration of her baby brother's birthday. She is hiding in her childhood tree house dreaming of her future when something catches her attention. She looks out of the tree house to see a stranger approaching her mother and her baby brother. Her mother has words with the stranger and then uses a family heirloom to kill the stranger. The incident is never discussed again in this family.

The book changes times and goes forward. Laurel has left home, leads a full time and has become a famous actress. Her mother, Dorothy, is in the hospital dying. Laurel becomes determined to finally understand what happened on that long ago day.
                                                             
The remainder of the book travels back and forth between Dorothy as a young woman coming of age in the midst of World War I in England and Laurel's journey to piece together memories and clues from her mother's past to answer the question that has haunted her her entire life. We are also introduced to a third key person, Vivian Jenkins, and a section of the book is told from her perspective. Vivian Jenkins is Dorthy's  closest friend during the war and seems a critical role in the death of the stranger who appeared at Laurel's home that long ago day.

As indicated above, I found the story started slow. The author is very descriptive in her writing and it takes some time to work through all of that. But once it grabbed me, I could not wait to figure out what happened. I was hypothesizing {A word my 4 year old daughter just started using!} about what happened and how the story would end.  The ending had a nice big twist to it, one that I found myself very happy with. In fact, I think the big twist made the whole book.

                 
                                                          

Our book club is meeting on the 17th and I am looking forward to hearing what the other women thought about this book.

Next month, I am reading a classic. Looking forward to bringing it to you!

Happy Reading!


Comments

  1. I love reading and I made a resolution to read more last year. This year, I added more books to my list and I am well into a record year. Sad thing is that when I get into a book, I have a hard time putting it down even to get to sleep :(

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