Veena’s review of How to Keep a Secret by Sarah Morgan
Women’s Fiction published by HQN 11 Jul 18
“Emotional, riveting and uplifting. If you’ve got a sister, you’ve got to read this book!”—Susan Mallery, #1 New York Times bestselling author. I am a fan of Ms. Morgan’s brand of sweet, charming, emotional romance, plus the endorsement from another go-to author and the fact that I have two sisters of my own made this story irresistible. Then for some reason I got stuck on Chapter 1. I just couldn’t move beyond it…
Families are messy, full of emotion and drama, and this story is definitely all that. Three generation of women winter together on Martha’s Vineyard as they figure out how to connect again. Once I got past the Chapter 1 roadblock, I finally managed to get the rest of the story read in no time at all.
Lauren is the perfect sister with a wealthy husband and a teenage daughter, living the perfect fairy tale romance in London until the day her bubble burst. With the sudden death of her husband, she and Mackenzie are left penniless. Her relationship with her mother has never been ideal, but she has no choice but to come back to her childhood home with her daughter.
Mackenzie is going through her own angst from finding out that she was never Ed’s daughter, and, instead of delivering a eulogy to the person who’s been her father in all but blood, she blurts out that she has no relationship to him. Embarrassed, she can’t figure out how to reconnect with her mother. Plus being a teenager in a new school is not easy at all.
Jenna is married to her childhood sweetheart and they love each other today with the same fervor as they did when they were eight years old. Yet for all the love and perfection, she’s desperate to have a child and it’s just not happening. Can love and marriage survive the punishment and despair of finding out month after month that she’s not pregnant?
Then there’s Nancy. She’s never connected with her daughters, and when all the secrets come pouring out, it’s like each one wanted to spare the other pain and yet in all the sparing, they lost sight of their connection as a family.
I like how all the characters have their own journey and their own stories, but yet they interweave together to keep things interesting.
Grade: B
Summary:
When three generations of women are brought together by crisis, they learn over the course of one hot summer the power of family to support, nourish and surprise
Lauren has the perfect life…if she ignores the fact it’s a fragile house of cards, and that her daughter Mack has just had a teenage personality transplant.
Jenna is desperate to start a family with her husband, but it’s… Just. Not. Happening. Her heart is breaking, but she’s determined to keep her trademark smile on her face.
Nancy knows she hasn’t been the best mother, but how can she ever tell Lauren and Jenna the reason why?
Then life changes in an instant, and Lauren, Mack, Jenna and Nancy are thrown together for a summer on Martha’s Vineyard. Somehow, these very different women must relearn how to be a family. And while unraveling their secrets might be their biggest challenge, the rewards could be infinite…
Heartwarming and fresh, Sarah Morgan’s brilliant new novel is a witty and deeply uplifting look at the power of a family of women.
