Skip to main content

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 :(

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Weekend Project: A PVC Camping Lamp Post and Flag Holder

I have seen a few of these around campsites and I knew I would like to have one. The only problem that I had is The Husband. He already thinks we drag too much stuff with us when we go camping and if I had told him my desire to have a PVC Camping Light Pole he would have shut it down quickly! So, that leaves a girl with only one choice: Figure out how to do it by herself. I did some internet searching and found a few road maps on RV forums. They seemed easy enough! I visited the local hardware store for the supplies: An exterior post lantern light 2 inch PVC pipe (I used 5 feet but had to purchase a 10 foot piece) A 3 inch toilet flange A 3 inch to 2 inch Reducer PVC Glue A 12 foot electric cord kit 2 - 3/4 inch PVC Caps I also used a few supplies we already had on hand: White Spray Paint 3 1/2 foot - 3/4 inch PVC Pipe Drill Bits (1 inch and 1/2 inch) Tent Stakes The first step was preparing the lantern light. I could only find black i

Liver Cheese: A Family Tradition

Today is an anniversary date. One of those dates you wish you did not have to remember but there is no way you can forget.  Fifteen years ago today,two days after his birthday, my father died of lung cancer. He was a lifelong smoker and his cancer was aggressive. His battle was short. He fought for six short months after his diagnosis. He knew the chemo was not working and that his time was limited. When he came to this realization he became the best dad in the world.                                                In the days before my father's passing, my family shared some memorable moments. One of those moments centers around the deli meat: Liver Cheese.I would not be surprised if you have never heard of it, or even never tasted it. But I was raised on it as it was one of my Dad's favorite things.  What is it? Well, it is a German food that is actually called Leberkase. It is bacon, corned beef, pork, and onion that is ground together and baked. It comes with a

Tonsillectomy (Warning Photos!)

The Short Chic came down with a pretty nasty case of strep throat back in April. So, when The Boy started complaining about his throat hurting about 12 days later, I was pretty confident that he had inherited his sister's strep. Instead, The Boy was diagnosed with a peritonsillar abscess growing on his right tonsil.  We had to immediately see an ENT  Physician who took a needle and drained the abscess. He removed about 5.5 cc of puss from The Boys throat.and then told us that once you have a peritonsillar abscess you were high risk to keep getting them. The Boy's tonsils were now compromised and needed to be removed.  We were told to plan for a two week recovery so we worked a surgery into our summer plans. Between family vacations, summer sports, and the beginning of school The Boy had his second surgery. A tonsillectomy.  Pre-surgery prepping went well. It must be nice to be young and have healthy veins for an IV! The Boy had lots of pre-surgery visitors. My