THE SECRETS WOMEN KEEP.

THE SECRETS WOMEN KEEP by FANNY BLAKE.

SOURCE: The fifth of six books won celebrating the blogoversary of Lindsay over at THE LITTLE READER LIBRARY

THE BOOK {According to the back cover}:Rose waits for her family to arrive at their villa in Tuscany when a casual glance at her husband's phone tips her world upside down. The text reads simply: 'Miss you. Love you. Come back soon.'

Daniel has always been popular with women, she knows that. But until this moment she has had no cause for worry. Has something shifted within their marriage without her realising?

As the family gathers for the summer break, Rose's faith in Daniel is shaken. How well does she really know him? She fears that, after decades of marriage and children, the man who lies beside her at night is lying in other ways too. Then events take a tragic turn.

FIRST SENTENCE {September: Chapter 1}: The dark outline of the doorway framed a section of the sun-drenched garden beyond, the brilliance of the outdoor colours such a contrast to the house's shady interior.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 219}: One of his passions, before he was almost too drunk to do much more than prop up the bar and throw what few hotel profits there were down his throat, was reading. He devoted one room in the hotel to his extraordinary collection of natural history, local interest and history books.

MY THOUGHTS: Essentially the story of Rose, her best friend, Eve, who also happens to be her sister-in-law and their spouses. The Secrets Women Keep is a tale of what goes on behind closed doors, the story revolving around relationships full of deceit and half truths. The adage 'Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive' summing it up perfectly.

Though starting out well (I'd even go as far as to say it was quite refreshing to have a novel in which things weren't all hunky-dory, the characters incredibly flawed rather than perfect) after a while the constant deceit and marital melodramas became depressing, the characters, displaying little other than their flaws, one dimensional and tedious.

A novel I simply couldn't immerse myself in other than on the most superficial of level. Given the title of the book I was hoping for at least one strong female character, either main or secondary, instead of which I got a cast of weak and in Anna and Jess, Rose's daughters, spoilt women none of whom came alive for me.

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