Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Book Review - The Secret Keeper - Kate Morton

This would make a great gift for Christmas.

 The Secret Keeper

Title: The Secret Keeper

Author: Kate Morton

Review:   When I started this book I was sure that I knew who the title was about, but as I read I realized that I was wrong.  The beginning made me think that I wasn't sure this was my kind of book, but as I read I feel in love.  I loved this book, I discovered what happened as the book unfolded.  The characters, their lives, their losses and their triumphs are all contained in this story.

I loved this book and yet I am having a difficult time telling you why.  The characters were real, their struggles were real and yet it was also beautiful.  I had several guesses about what was happening and who everyone involved was, and I was correct, but it did not take away from the book when the secrets were revealed.

Einstein said, “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”  This is a story of a women who was forced to live for others to avoid the life she had been given.  She discovered love for others in service and a love to last the ages.  Also the narrator is a woman who had devoted her life to the stage forgoing a family and love….the reason?  I think you will figure that out.

The whole book is wonderful, the ending wrapped up the story, but not too neatly to ruin the realism.  This book goes between the past and now, WWII, 1959, 1961 and 2011.  It is a good size book, but well worth the read.  If you enjoy historical/modern tales of love, loss and life, you will enjoy this book.  Excellent writing with great flow, I will now have to read the rest of this authors back-list.

This is a book that will haunt you and you will think about it long after you turn the last page.


Publisher:  Published October 9th 2012 by Atria
ISBN:  9781439152805
Copyright: 2012
Pages: 461
Quick Review: 5 stars (out of 5)
Where I Obtained the Book:   Sent from the publisher for review.

Synopsis: 1961 England. Laurel Nicolson is sixteen years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.

Fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress, living in London. She returns to Green Acres for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday and finds herself overwhelmed by memories and questions she has not thought about for decades. She decides to find out the truth about the events of that summer day and lay to rest her own feelings of guilt. One photograph, of her mother and a woman Laurel has never met, called Vivian, is her first clue.

The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams, the lengths some people go to fulfill them, and the strange consequences they sometimes have. It is a story of lovers, friends, dreamers and schemers, play-acting and deception told against a backdrop of events that changed the world.
Kate Morton
Author Biography: Kate Morton grew up in the mountains of southeast Queensland, Australia. She has degrees in Dramatic Art and English Literature and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Queensland. Kate lives with her husband and two young sons in Brisbane.

Kate Morton's books have been published in 31 countries. The House at Riverton was a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2007 and a New York Times bestseller in 2008. The Shifting Fog (now The House of Riverton) won General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2007 Australian Book Industry Awards. Was nominated for Most Popular Book at the British Book Awards in 2008. Her second book, The Forgotten Garden, was a #1 bestseller in Australia and a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2008.

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