Reviews

So, I wasn’t really sure about whether I would enjoy this book, but I decided to give it a go. Although the book itself isn’t necessarily bad, I don’t think it’s for me. I think I’ve started a few Jane Corry books before, but I didn’t finish them, and I must admit, it took me an age to read this book. I desperately wanted to enjoy it, but for some reason, every time I got close to getting sucked into it, it just wasn’t enough to actually do it. We follow various POV’s throughout the book. Primarily, the book follows Emily as she makes a mistake at her job being a nurse. When she is let off, she goes and visits her dad, whom she hasn’t seen in a while. She doesn’t tell him why she goes to visit him, but when she gets there, she finds he has a carer, called Francoise. Immediately, she takes a disliking to Francoise, and thinks she’s either there to take his money or, even worse, to TW kill him. They have an incident quite early on where her father almost falls off a cliff, and Emily starts to suspect Francoise is the reason. As we go on, Francoise tries to be nice but Emily is uninterested, and they soon start to suspect each other of foul play. Her father starts to lose his memory from dementia, and then he asks them both for an extra dose of morphine to help him go. When they do the post-mortem, they find cause for concern, as someone has fed him an overdose of morphine. The two girls point fingers at each other, desperate to blame the other. When Emily’s dog almost drowns, and Francoise saves him, they finally come to a truce. They find out that Francoise is actually partly related to Emily’s dad, and that is why she has come to find him, not to steal his money. Emily finds it hard to believe - she doesn’t want to think about her father cheating on her mother - but the DNA test comes back positive. She’s, naturally, very annoyed, but the two girls eventually grow closer together. Eventually, they find out that the morphine was actually prescribed by someone else, and even though Emily was framed (by Francoise) by putting a morphine bottle in her bag, they find out that the both of them are innocent, only guilty of loving their father. It’s a shame though, because the knowledge of the morphine overdose comes when Emily is already going through legal action with her job. In the end, she is suspended for a year, but she can return afterwards. Additionally, Emily ends up marrying her childhood sweetheart, Nick, and they have a baby together. Unfortunately, Emily finds out that there was a mix-up with DNA tests, so Francoise isn’t actually related by blood, but she doesn’t want to hurt her - and she likes having a sister - so she keeps quiet.

As I’ve said before, this had a very promising plot, but the execution just wasn’t there. Creatively, I think some of the choices made in this book often didn’t make sense. Sometimes I was a bit confused as to what the genre was. It was painted as a murder-mystery, and then it was ruled as a TW suicide, but there was mystery and then no mystery, and it was just quite a confusing mixture of plots, for me personally. I like intertwine-able plots, but this just wasn’t working for me. Also, it was very hard to figure out what the focus of the plot was, and that made it difficult to read at some points. I also think because there were so many plot twists, it made the actual reveal very lacklustre, and often made the actual plot a little hard to follow along with. It got a little boring after a while.

Moreover, I think sometimes, the author honed in more on details that weren’t actually necessary, and some of the more important parts of the plot were just briefly touched upon. As Emily spends most of the book worrying about this big mistake she made at her work, I would have thought we’d have more suspense, more dire consequences, just something that would make all the anxiety throughout worth it - in the most tragic way possible - but it felt like a very trivial matter. We spent a lot of time talking about the ‘murder’ of their father, but it was actually not a murder - of sorts - and then the whole reason for Emily going to see her father is over in a few chapters. And then the rest of the book, a good chunk of it, there’s not really much added to the plot, but it goes on for so long.

The characters themselves weren’t even that likeable. I like a real character, one with raw emotion, but I just wasn’t a fan of Emily, nor her father, nor Nick. I quite liked Francoise at some points, but it doesn’t seem in her character to plant the morphine bottle, and it doesn’t really make much sense to add it to the plot, only to tell Emily about it later. I just didn’t bond with the characters as much as I hoped I would, unfortunately.

There were a few aspects I was quite fond of. The blossoming friendship between Emily and Francoise I was a massive fan of. I think that was really developed well, and I liked it when they bonded, I thought it was quite sweet. It didn’t feel forced, it just felt really nice. And Francoise’s character is just beautiful. I loved reading about her, and her journey. And the fact she calls Emily ‘Emilee’ instead of her name is just a really neat addition, so I quite liked that.

Overall, nothing really quite fitted together as much as I thought it would. Quite disappointing, but I still have a few books of Corry’s to read, and I’m hoping they redeem her.

Content Warnings

anna62's review

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

viennajury's review

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Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

emmab86's review

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5.0

Excellent couldn't put it down

mystikai's review

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4.0

I went into this blind, I thought it was a psychological thriller, but it reads more like a domestic drama, it started off great, then drifted to okay, there was no shock in the reveals which I was hoping for as I continued to read.
The book surrounds three people. Emily, a midwife who is on suspension, her father Harold and his carer/home helper, Francoise, all are keeping secrets.

I enjoyed Harold’s entries in the book as they were from his time in the war, it was very interesting.

I have read Jane Corry’s other books and really enjoyed them, this one was different, it was okay and I know a lot of my friends would enjoy it, as I did. It just wasn’t what I thought it would be.

3.5 stars

hannahlouise1066's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

dorsetreader's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

nzlisam's review

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3.0

It was all a bit mediocre!

A serious incident on the job sees Midwife Emily Gentle fleeing to her childhood home in Cornwall to care for her ailing father – Harold Gentle. But, when Emily arrives, she is greeted by an unwelcome surprise – her father has hired a career, Francoise Alarie. She’s young and pretty, and Emily’s disturbed by the close, unnatural relationship she witnesses between Francoise and her father. There’s just something about her Emily doesn’t trust. What secrets is she hiding? Because Emily knows all about secrets. So does Harold.

Based on past experience, a Jane Corry psychological thriller is a guaranteed multi-layered mystery with phenomenal twists that keep me guessing right up until the last page. Unfortunately, We All Have Our Secrets was more domestic family drama, parent/child relationships, with a side romantic subplot than suspenseful thriller, and the drama was average at best. There were unpredictable twists, but they were kind of meh, and after finishing I was like, “Is that It?”

POV’s alternated between Emily and Francoise, with Part 1 narrated by Emily, Part 2, Francoise, etc. There were also italicised diary entries penned by Harold Gentle dating back to 1945 when German occupied France. Having both Emily and Francoise as POV’s didn’t really work for me, as they tended to overlap in regards to the reveal of secrets, resulting in repetitive plot points. I also thought this novel was overly long especially towards the end.

The writing was Jane Corey’s usual high standard, and just because this one didn’t work for me, doesn’t mean I’d give up on her. The first three books I read by her were 5 star reads, and the fourth, a four, so she is definitely a talented author. Here’s hoping her next book is a return to form, and is more thriller than drama.

I’d like to thank Netgalley, Penguin UK, and Jane Corry for the e-ARC.

Out now!

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