Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Book Review: THE SECRET SHE KEPT


Title: The Secret She Kept

Author: Cathryn Grant

Publisher: Inkubator Books

Pages: 287

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐


The Prologue, written in the first person past tense PoV of Nadia Fairchild, offered too much detail about something that wasn’t all that relevant to the main plot of the book. After shooting a certain Dr Flaherty, Nadia reveals her plan of inflicting merciless death on Ruth.


Ruth and her husband are a successful power couple. Their business, the Second Chance Wellness Center, is a huge success. Life is smooth, until she takes on a new client, Nadia, who is altogether too curious about Ruth’s life. Soon Nadia reveals a devastating secret to Ruth, demanding $50,000 in exchange for her silence. But the sum is too big for Ruth to raise, without letting her husband know. How will Ruth ensure Nadia’s silence?


The book is written in the first person PoV of Ruth and Nadia, in alternate chapters.


My feelings towards Nadia were conflicted. It was easy to feel sympathy for her, knowing that she had suffered grief at the death of her adoptive mother and rejection by her birth mother. I had to remind myself that she was a cold-blooded killer.


I hated Cheryl, Ruth’s mother, for the gaslighting she had done.


Towards the end, the book began to feel repetitive. The final action sequences were not very convincing. Nor were the motives that propelled the characters believable. There just wasn’t enough of a build-up of character.


But the book concluded on the right note, reinforcing the novel’s theme of acceptance.



(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 


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