Book Review for HOW TO KEEP A SECRET by Sarah Morgan

5/7/2018

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 challege, 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.

WOW. I'm in awe with deep admiration towards Sarah Morgan's ability to tell a heartfelt story, even more so than before, if that is even possible.
How To Keep A Secret was an emotional journey of four women of three generations through lives battles on stormy seas.
From grief, anger, betrayal, and devastation, to joy, love, passion, and the sense of accomplishment I took each step with the ladies, feeling the range of emotions, living through the heartbreak to finding peace and accepting the new normal while cheering them on and loving each moment of it. I was completely lost in the world the author had created, wanting to linger there as long as possible while needing to inhale the tale as fast as I could, to find that satisfying, gratifying, exhilarating point where the life for that one moment is as perfect as it can be, where the end departed me from the tale that had brought so much more to me than I dared to expect.
While the story as a whole is a very entertaining and beautiful tale of women, family, sisters, mothers, and daughters, love, and the fragility of life, it also had me reflecting those relationships in my own life, seeing things from the different point of view, and suddenly growing and maturing right along the characters. What a beautiful, unexpected gift that turned out to be.
Each of the four women in the tale gets their chance to tell part of the story from their own point of view. There is the turbulence of a teenager, the confusion, the anger, the need to be accepted while worried about being too much and abandoned. There is the love, and frustration, of that teenager's parents, how to survive the gusty waters. There are the sisters who have always been there for each other, yet seems to have kept some substantial secrets. There are the three marriages, their strengths, their weaknesses, and their fails, and jubilees. There are the mother-daughter relationships that never seemed to work yet suddenly gets a new point of view, new strength, when looked from the different angle, with honest eyes. And there is the romance, the tangible, palpable feelings between couples who truly are soulmates, who get each other, understand each other, and accept the shortcomings and cherish the endearing qualities. There are many characters, with different kinds of relationships, yet never for a minute was there any confusion or overwhelm to keep everything in order.
How To Keep A Secret, while vastly entertaining, thought life-lessons and sorted out all possible kinds of relationships one can face through life. It brought me smiles and sighs of contentment, had me tear up, even broke my heart a bit, but it also brought lots of loving healing, new possibilities, and refreshingly realistic solutions to lives many problems. A book that makes you feel like you have learned valuable lessons and a new way to look at some things in life, that kind stories are rare gifts, priceless, precious stories, that you want to spread the word about, cherish them for days to come.
A must-read, unputdownable story that will touch your heart and mind
~ Five Spoons

USA Today bestselling author Sarah Morgan writes romance and contemporary women's fiction and her trademark humour and sensuality have gained her fans across the globe. She is a 3 time winner of the prestigious RITA® Award from the Romance Writers of America and has been nominated five times. Sarah lives near London, England, and when she isn't reading or writing she loves being outdoors.