26 Jun 2014

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.


Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper. All original content on http://pettywitter.blogspot.co.uk/ is created by the website owner, including but not limited to text, design, code, images, photographs and videos are considered to be the Intellectual Property of the website owner, whether copyrighted or not, and are protected by DMCA Protection Services using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Title 17 Chapter 512 (c)(3). Reproduction or re-publication of this content is prohibited without permission.

13 comments:

Kelly said...

It's a shame you didn't enjoy this one. I like to read books like this occasionally (as you said, it can be refreshing for stories with "real life problems"), but it sounds like it really missed the mark.

Suko said...

Thank you for your honest and well-written review. I prefer that some characters be strong, rather than weak or spoilt, as well.

Barbara said...

What a shame! I love the title, the cover of the book and the first sentence and was half way to ordering a copy until I read your thoughts. I’m disappointed but will give this one a miss.

Brian Joseph said...

You make an interesting point. Characters so full of flaws can be just as simplistic and thus unengaging as characters who show no flaws.

Sherry Ellis said...

The premise of the book sounded intriguing. Too bad it didn't meet expectations.

Melissa (Books and Things) said...

Too bad it just didn't work for you. I do like flawed characters, but too much is... well, too much. Brilly review as always!

StarTraci said...

With a start like that I thought it would be great. I am sorry to hear that it didn't offer a strong female. I guess I won't be adding it to my reading list.
:-)
Traci

The Bookworm said...

Sounds like it started off well, but then turned into too much drama.

Stephanie@Fairday's Blog said...

Sounds like it started off well, but sorry you didn't feel a connection to any of the characters. Thanks for sharing.

Alexia561 said...

Sorry to hear that you didn't enjoy this one. I've found that I'm losing patience with weak female characters lately, so don't think this one is for me as I'd probably be too irritated with them all! Hope your next read is more to your liking. :)

Literary Feline said...

Oh no! It's too bad after such a promising start, it didn't stay that way. I'm not a huge fan of books about secrets involving infidelity, although I read them now and then.

Melliane said...

Oh I'm sorry it was finally difficult to really get into the book or to relate to the characters, it's quite difficult. Too bad because not perfect characters are always interesting to discover.

Lindsay said...

Sorry this one wasn't a hit with you Tracy, thanks for the honest review.