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How to Keep a Secret
How to Keep a Secret
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
How to Keep a Secret is written in a different style than we normally see from Sarah Morgan. As with all her other novels, this one flows story to story without hesitation blending all 4 women’s stories into one overall story. Not leaving you feel like you are reading separate stories, another 5 star, well done for Ms. Morgan.

How to Keep a Secret follows the stories of Mom Nancy, a painter who barely had time for her daughters while they grew up. Sisters Jenna, who longs for a baby with her husband (maybe too much), Lauren, who’s husband unexpectedly dies leaving her in chaos with her teenage daughter Mack, who isn’t much into supporting her mother right now. They each are well versed in secret keeping, will they come together as one to tackle them head on.

Each woman has her own story to tell and each is told with passion, compassion, dignity and grace from both their own perspectives and as seen from those around them. Once again Ms. Morgan uses her pen and paper to draw us into this world, surrounding us with new friends who we fight for, care about and are sad when they leave us.

Nancy’s story could be a mother’s story from any age or perspective. She is the breadwinner and leaves the care of the girls up to their dad, “the fun one”. She feels like she has neglected them their whole lives and has no clue how to be there for them now. Having lost her husband 5 years ago she has become a shell of her former self. She has to do some major life adjustments and clean outs to get back to being herself again. Maybe even find love again.

Lauren is dealing with the loss of her husband as well, though in the present not the past as her mother is. She has lost the close connection with her teenage daughter Mack, and has absolutely no idea what happened to cause the rift. At her husbands funeral she finally finds out the reason behind Mack’s sudden departure. As she packs and moves back home to Martha’s Vineyard, can she find peace with her daughter once again?

Jenna has suffered her own personal losses as of late she can’t get pregnant. She has no idea why or how come, she just knows she wants a baby more than anything isn’t being afforded the opportunity. If one more well-meaning person tells her how great a mom she’d be when she finally decided to have a baby, she would spit nails. She’s decided the universe has not. Can her marriage to Greg withstand the constant pressure that comes from trying to make a baby and failing?

Mack is a confused, upset, lonely and borderline angry teenage girl. She just lost her dad Ed and is now having to move across the pond with her mother into her grandmother’s house on Martha’s Vineyard. Nothing about life is fair at this moment. Can she start over in a new place, with new friends and new family?

Ms. Morgan once again tells a beautiful story that has you so wrapped up in the lives of the characters you are quite upset that it has ended. I received a copy of the novel in advance without any expectations for review. Any and all opinions expressed are solely my own. I would advise you to run, not walk, to the nearest place that sells Ms. Morgan’s books and pick up a copy today.
  
Mermaids Singing
Mermaids Singing
Dilly Court | 2018 | History & Politics, Romance
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
See below...
Contains spoilers, click to show
Okay so I finished this book a few nights back but it's taken me until now to be able to write my review down.
I really enjoyed it, couldn't put it down and it has good plot lines that make you NEED to know whats next. You really start to root for most characters and loathe the others. Theres plenty of twists that are completely unexpected, which in some cases you can see a twist coming a mile off so thats a plus.
The reason I put that this contains spoilers is because of how I felt at the end, resulting in my rating only being a 7.
The ending is frustrating!!! I know some writers write their books in sequences (Rosie Goodwin: Days of the week, Annie Murray: Birmingham, Narrowboat Girl etc) so when i reached the ending (AT 1AM BECAUSE I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN) I assumed it had a sequel. IT DOESNT. So many questions, so many plot lines left unfulfilled. For example, Bella was in love with her step son Edward but he is now married and his father dead. The new Lady Mableton wants to adopt Bellas daughter after discovering she cannot have children and wants an heir to the mableton estate, she will stop at nothing to get this child. Kitty tries her hardest to get hold of Bella after she ran off to be with a man she was sold to when she was younger whom she thought was awful (dont even get me started) you never find out if Bella gets contacted!! Her daughter is left with her mother who says she will not let Lady Mableton have her granddaughter under no circumstances. THATS THE END OF THE BLUMMIN BOOK?!! How do they stop this woman from getting the child? Does bella and her beau come back and save the day? Does Edward put a stop to it? Also will Bellas mother (who was known to not be a very nice woman) give the child over at a price, since it would be of character?
DILLY COURT - PLEASE WRITE A SEQUEL AAARGHHH.
  
TM
The More you Ignore me
Jo Brand | 2022
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
31 of 230
Book
The more you ignore me
By Jo Brand
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Celebrity obsession, coming of age and cow shit - an hilarious, poignant and darkly comic novel by the Queen of Comedy.

Alice is a young girl growing up in a dysfunctional family in Herefordshire in the 1980s. Her mother is suffering a mental illness - she is on medication, is put away in an institution, but constantly escapes - while her father, Keith, very sweetly, tries to keep everything together. His in-laws, the Wildgooses, are a bunch of reckless, lawless country bumpkins and can offer very little help or sensible advice, preferring instead to remain in the pub or to use a shotgun to solve life's little problems. The only thing that gives meaning and hope to Alice as she makes her way through childhood, school and teenage trauma is her obsession with the singer Morrissey of The Smiths. She is desperate to see The Smiths at a live gig, but somehow her family always manages to derail her plans. Gradually her mother begins to share her fascination with the rock god and his presence in their lives goes someway to healing her and repairing her relationship with her long-suffering daughter.

This was really good! It was funny and darkly so. It follows the life of a young girl dealing with the effects her mothers mental illness has on her and her father. It’s has a dark underlay that as someone who struggles mentally I can relate too. So much better than I was expecting.