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sony08's review against another edition
5.0
10/10
Absolutely loved this book. I have another book by this author that has been on my bookshelf for ages and will now put it on top of my reading pile.
The Secrets Between Us is a story of Sarah and Alex. They have a chance encounter in Sicily, where Sarah goes to try to forget about the problems at home – losing a child and finding about her partners affair. She meets Alex – charming, but mysterious man and his little six year old son to whom Sarah is immediately drawn to.
She agrees to go and live with Alex and Jamie to look after them and their house after she learns that Jamie’s mother Genevieve has left them.
But as she arrives in the small village of Burrington Stoke in Somerset she finds she’s unwelcome by villagers and Gen’s family alike. And when her true relationship with Alex comes to surface things get even worse.
Everyone says how beautiful and perfect Genevieve was so why has she left her family and nobody’s heard from her for weeks?
This is a drama, mystery, romance and thriller in one. You have to keep on reading to find out the truth and you won’t want to put this book down.
Absolutely loved this book. I have another book by this author that has been on my bookshelf for ages and will now put it on top of my reading pile.
The Secrets Between Us is a story of Sarah and Alex. They have a chance encounter in Sicily, where Sarah goes to try to forget about the problems at home – losing a child and finding about her partners affair. She meets Alex – charming, but mysterious man and his little six year old son to whom Sarah is immediately drawn to.
She agrees to go and live with Alex and Jamie to look after them and their house after she learns that Jamie’s mother Genevieve has left them.
But as she arrives in the small village of Burrington Stoke in Somerset she finds she’s unwelcome by villagers and Gen’s family alike. And when her true relationship with Alex comes to surface things get even worse.
Everyone says how beautiful and perfect Genevieve was so why has she left her family and nobody’s heard from her for weeks?
This is a drama, mystery, romance and thriller in one. You have to keep on reading to find out the truth and you won’t want to put this book down.
jo_bookworm's review against another edition
5.0
Sarah and Alexander meet in Sicily, Sarah is escaping her broken relationship and the loss of her stillborn son by being with her sister and brother in law. Alexander's reason for Sicily is not made clear at the beginning as he is there with his son Jamie. There is a connection between Sarah and Alexander and on returning to England, Alexander asks Sarah to come and be his housekeeper and part time nanny to his son, their passionate tie seemingly forgotten.
But then there is Genevieve, Alexander's wife the third person between Alexander and Sarah but the world to everyone else. The village where Alexander lives and brings Sarah to, treats Genevieve as their centre. Locals regard her as a minor celebrity, her beauty; her horse riding ability, her presence brings them joy. Her family are also resident there, but there are secrets that they all seem to be hiding and not acknowledging. The past is slowly catching up with them.
Sarah as an outsider suddenly starts to question everything about Genevieve and it seems Genevieve is starting to haunt Sarah. Everything points to Alexander having something to do with Genevieve missing, is he keeping one secret between them that could destroy everything? The book written in first person narrative brings you closer to Sarah immediately and you begin to question everything that she questions; the noises, the faces, the images glimpsed. It also shows the reader the depth of Sarah's love not just for Alexander, although I think it wavers on occasions but also his son Jamie where no matter what she is willing to protect and love as if he was her son.
For me the strong female characters in this book shone through, there is Sarah as the main central character and Genevieve whose missing presence is just as strong. Louise Douglas starts to let you feel sorry for her, you worry about her missing, but as the book moves on and more is revealed then I started to change my mind. Genevieve's mother, Virginia has the perfect life at the cost of others, and her step-daughter Claudia, Genevieve's half sister is the antithesis to everything Virginia wants from a daughter. There are also other smaller roles, for Sarah's sister May as a confidant and help, Betsy the only village woman who understands Sarah's agony at being an outsider not conforming to the village ideal stereotype.
This book has a resonance of Rebecca and Jane Eyre, the perfect wife and the missing wife respectively but it stands alone from these great classic. It has drawn on Gothic thrillers and builds such tension that you have to keep reading because you start to believe that everything is not as it seems. There are twists and turns within the book, and this surprised me as I could not put all the pieces together where they made sense and come to an obvious clear conclusion. An excellent book from an unknown author to me and if this is the calibre of the writing then I hope to read more.
But then there is Genevieve, Alexander's wife the third person between Alexander and Sarah but the world to everyone else. The village where Alexander lives and brings Sarah to, treats Genevieve as their centre. Locals regard her as a minor celebrity, her beauty; her horse riding ability, her presence brings them joy. Her family are also resident there, but there are secrets that they all seem to be hiding and not acknowledging. The past is slowly catching up with them.
Sarah as an outsider suddenly starts to question everything about Genevieve and it seems Genevieve is starting to haunt Sarah. Everything points to Alexander having something to do with Genevieve missing, is he keeping one secret between them that could destroy everything? The book written in first person narrative brings you closer to Sarah immediately and you begin to question everything that she questions; the noises, the faces, the images glimpsed. It also shows the reader the depth of Sarah's love not just for Alexander, although I think it wavers on occasions but also his son Jamie where no matter what she is willing to protect and love as if he was her son.
For me the strong female characters in this book shone through, there is Sarah as the main central character and Genevieve whose missing presence is just as strong. Louise Douglas starts to let you feel sorry for her, you worry about her missing, but as the book moves on and more is revealed then I started to change my mind. Genevieve's mother, Virginia has the perfect life at the cost of others, and her step-daughter Claudia, Genevieve's half sister is the antithesis to everything Virginia wants from a daughter. There are also other smaller roles, for Sarah's sister May as a confidant and help, Betsy the only village woman who understands Sarah's agony at being an outsider not conforming to the village ideal stereotype.
This book has a resonance of Rebecca and Jane Eyre, the perfect wife and the missing wife respectively but it stands alone from these great classic. It has drawn on Gothic thrillers and builds such tension that you have to keep reading because you start to believe that everything is not as it seems. There are twists and turns within the book, and this surprised me as I could not put all the pieces together where they made sense and come to an obvious clear conclusion. An excellent book from an unknown author to me and if this is the calibre of the writing then I hope to read more.
heather626's review against another edition
3.0
Sarah is trying to redeem herself and gather what is left of her life. She meets Alexander by chance. He whisks her away with the promise of a new life. She will help care for Alex's son, Jaime, and care for the house while he is working. The only problem.......Alex's wife is missing. Everyone in town knows Genevieve and is at a loss by her absence. So many secrets are being kept. How can Sarah compete with this missing woman? Alex promises Sarah Genevieve just up and left him and Jaime. But what if something more sinister happened?!
I love the premise of The Secret Between Us by Louise Douglas. At times, I found myself glazing over the chapters, skipping pages here and there, I was intrigued and very curious at the beginning. the middle of the book dragged and the ending was the perfect ending.
Special thanks to NetGalley, Louise Douglas, and BoldWood Books for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 3.5 stars
#TheSecretsBetweenUs #NetGalley
I love the premise of The Secret Between Us by Louise Douglas. At times, I found myself glazing over the chapters, skipping pages here and there, I was intrigued and very curious at the beginning. the middle of the book dragged and the ending was the perfect ending.
Special thanks to NetGalley, Louise Douglas, and BoldWood Books for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 3.5 stars
#TheSecretsBetweenUs #NetGalley
lm_henderson's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing book!!!I literally couldn't put it down as loved the descriptions,characters and the way the author built up such a feeling of tenseness,I was half scared to death but couldn't leave it alone.It's not the sort of book I'd usually read but is more in the vein of 'Rebecca' as builds up such an atmosphere.Great stuff.
lizziestewart's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
strictlydancer12's review against another edition
2.0
Firstly, I found the plot preposterous- woman meets a man, they have literally two short conversations and a quick sexual encounter, then she agrees to move in with him - hundreds of miles from her home - and look after his child!! Who would do that?! Especially when the guy isn’t particularly nice to her or forthcoming with conversation.
At no point does he seem romantically interested in her at all (only in the bedroom) and the child is horrible to her, yet she becomes besotted with them both! It also annoyed me that neither Sarah nor Alex really had a proper conversation. Even by the end of the book, she still doesn’t tell him about her stillbirth.
The way the author adds hints of paranormal activity is terrible - ‘...I looked up and saw the dead woman staring at me! Oh, no , actually it was my reflection’. Ridiculous.
I was intrigued enough to keep reading as I wanted to find out what happened, but it wasn’t until 3/4 of the way through that I started to enjoy it more. I didn’t figure out the ending. I also found it extremely implausible that after she returns to Manchester after her breakdown, her sister, who has up until this point been 100% against Alex, and Sarah’s choices to be with him, suddenly gets excited about Sarah’s sleuthing and encourages her to prove his innocence!
I started this review giving the book 3 stars because I enjoyed the last quarter, but in writing this review I have reminded myself of the myriad of things wrong with the book. Back down to 2.
At no point does he seem romantically interested in her at all (only in the bedroom) and the child is horrible to her, yet she becomes besotted with them both! It also annoyed me that neither Sarah nor Alex really had a proper conversation. Even by the end of the book, she still doesn’t tell him about her stillbirth.
The way the author adds hints of paranormal activity is terrible - ‘...I looked up and saw the dead woman staring at me! Oh, no , actually it was my reflection’. Ridiculous.
I was intrigued enough to keep reading as I wanted to find out what happened, but it wasn’t until 3/4 of the way through that I started to enjoy it more. I didn’t figure out the ending. I also found it extremely implausible that after she returns to Manchester after her breakdown, her sister, who has up until this point been 100% against Alex, and Sarah’s choices to be with him, suddenly gets excited about Sarah’s sleuthing and encourages her to prove his innocence!
I started this review giving the book 3 stars because I enjoyed the last quarter, but in writing this review I have reminded myself of the myriad of things wrong with the book. Back down to 2.
happylatitudes's review against another edition
4.0
Louise Douglas is my Summer beach reading for 2021 -- I've raced through four of her novels in a month, but didn't feel inspired to write a review until I finished The Secrets between Us. With clear parallels to Daphne Du Maurier’s classic, Rebecca, and so soon after the new Netflix adaptation of that novel, the plot of Rebecca was fresh in my mind and I couldn't help but notice the clear themes of both books running parallel. In The Secrets Between Us, Alexander and Sarah meet on holiday and they have a lightning-speed romance. Sarah doesn't hesitate to move in with Alexander, albeit as his "housekeeper" to keep up appearances in front of his former in-laws. There are several convenient ploys in the novel -- for example, it’s always useful for this kind of story when you’re somewhere with a crappy phone signal, leaving you isolated from those you need in your time of need. At the same time, it’s nice to have internet access as a possibility, when a good Google search is your first port of call when trying to track down long lost acquaintances who may hold the key to a missing person’s fate.
This is Sarah’s story, but it is also Genevieve’s story, as she was Alexander's first wife, and has mysteriously disappeared. Sarah is seemingly obsessed with Alex’s estranged wife, not helped by the fact that her name is mentioned everywhere she goes. The circumstances under which she left are odd, but not impossible, but with the woman’s family convinced Alex was directly responsible, no one is going to rest until the truth comes out.
There are several other plot similarities to Rebecca -- the scene with the dress, for example, the familiarity of Genevieve's dog, the revelation that Genevieve wasn't the perfect, ideal wife that she was initially presented as to Sarah, and so on... Louise Douglas even mentions Du Maurier in the book, as a nodded acknowledgement of the parallels.
I guessed the novel's outcome around three-quarters of the way through (having read way too many murder mysteries over the past year) but the ending was still gripping and suspenseful.
This is Sarah’s story, but it is also Genevieve’s story, as she was Alexander's first wife, and has mysteriously disappeared. Sarah is seemingly obsessed with Alex’s estranged wife, not helped by the fact that her name is mentioned everywhere she goes. The circumstances under which she left are odd, but not impossible, but with the woman’s family convinced Alex was directly responsible, no one is going to rest until the truth comes out.
There are several other plot similarities to Rebecca -- the scene with the dress, for example, the familiarity of Genevieve's dog, the revelation that Genevieve wasn't the perfect, ideal wife that she was initially presented as to Sarah, and so on... Louise Douglas even mentions Du Maurier in the book, as a nodded acknowledgement of the parallels.
I guessed the novel's outcome around three-quarters of the way through (having read way too many murder mysteries over the past year) but the ending was still gripping and suspenseful.
kswhite16's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
chrissireads's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book which is the first I have read of Louise Douglas'. It was really well written, gripping and eerie in parts. I thought I had predicted the ending... but I didn't, which is always a sign of a good writer! I shall be checking out the other books Louise has written!