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lashes77's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
thrillerlover's review against another edition
4.0
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I was a tiny bit disappointed because this book was listed in the mystery/thriller section, and it was clearly a fiction book with a little suspense. The only part that was a bit intriguing to me was uncovering the secrets Desi was keeping from her family. I feel for Desi as she tells her story of just wanting the best for her family. She pushes her daughter to be the best and hopes to steer her in the right direction of being successful like herself. She wants to have her marriage to Peter work out, but it's been failing for a long time. Desi is keeping several secrets from Peter and Jules, and when they become known, it changes all their lives.
I really enjoyed reading about this family. I also enjoyed how it centered around a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains with this grand house that Desi designed called The Black House. This family endures so much together. I highly recommend this heartfelt read.
I will post my review on instagram @thrillersandcoffee
I was a tiny bit disappointed because this book was listed in the mystery/thriller section, and it was clearly a fiction book with a little suspense. The only part that was a bit intriguing to me was uncovering the secrets Desi was keeping from her family. I feel for Desi as she tells her story of just wanting the best for her family. She pushes her daughter to be the best and hopes to steer her in the right direction of being successful like herself. She wants to have her marriage to Peter work out, but it's been failing for a long time. Desi is keeping several secrets from Peter and Jules, and when they become known, it changes all their lives.
I really enjoyed reading about this family. I also enjoyed how it centered around a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains with this grand house that Desi designed called The Black House. This family endures so much together. I highly recommend this heartfelt read.
I will post my review on instagram @thrillersandcoffee
jessicamap's review against another edition
4.0
This is my second book by Frey and she really knows how to keep things compelling and make some memorable characters. I don’t think I’d consider this a straight thriller or suspense book but there are some tense parts. So if you’re going into this adjust expectations on the genre – definitely more of a women’s fiction read. Still plenty to keep the reader engaged and all kinds of secrets to go around. I loved the different POVs and the pacing was very steady and consistent. I plan on picking up more from Frey and can’t wait to see what she comes out with next.
jonannlovesbooktalk's review against another edition
3.0
"Secrets of our House" audiobook started off so good, but then???
This is the story of Desi, Peter, and their teenage daughter Jules. Desi has designed her dream house which the family calls "Black House". It has every modern convenience one can imagine. It is a sprawling silver house with a black roof in the North Carolina mountains. Desi is successful, Peter is a great dad, and Jules is a beautiful daughter in love with a local boy named Will. What more could they wish for?
As the story progresses we learn that Desi and Peter's marriage is in shambles. Desi is in love with someone from her past. Peter is unhappy and wants a divorce, but he stays because he loves their daughter Jules. Jules has been accepted at a prestigious college, but does not want to go. She deeply loves Will and wants a life at home with him.
Much of the book is about unhappiness in the family and a controlling selfish mom that I struggled to hear about especially towards the end of the book. I absolutely hate to give a negative review because I love Rea Frey's other books. I personally had issues with this book, but I am probably in the minority. I know from reading other reviews that many loved it. I actually feel this book is 2 stars, but since I felt the writing started out so strong I am going with 3 ⭐⭐⭐.
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to review this audiobook. I appreciate you! The audiobook will be published February 8, 2022.
This is the story of Desi, Peter, and their teenage daughter Jules. Desi has designed her dream house which the family calls "Black House". It has every modern convenience one can imagine. It is a sprawling silver house with a black roof in the North Carolina mountains. Desi is successful, Peter is a great dad, and Jules is a beautiful daughter in love with a local boy named Will. What more could they wish for?
As the story progresses we learn that Desi and Peter's marriage is in shambles. Desi is in love with someone from her past. Peter is unhappy and wants a divorce, but he stays because he loves their daughter Jules. Jules has been accepted at a prestigious college, but does not want to go. She deeply loves Will and wants a life at home with him.
Much of the book is about unhappiness in the family and a controlling selfish mom that I struggled to hear about especially towards the end of the book. I absolutely hate to give a negative review because I love Rea Frey's other books. I personally had issues with this book, but I am probably in the minority. I know from reading other reviews that many loved it. I actually feel this book is 2 stars, but since I felt the writing started out so strong I am going with 3 ⭐⭐⭐.
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to review this audiobook. I appreciate you! The audiobook will be published February 8, 2022.
jhscolloquium's review
4.0
Author Rea Frey's latest book, Secrets of Our House, was inspired by her 2019 visit to the Georgia home of fellow author Emily Carpenter -- a large, black house. She has crafted an engrossing story about "secrets, lies, and betrayals," written during the pandemic when most people were spending significant chunks of time in their homes. Thus, she "couldn't think of a more perfect setting" for her new novel than the fictional Black House that figures prominently in Secrets of Our House.
The story opens at the home that Desi designed in the North Carolina mountains just outside the little town of River Falls. She runs a successful interior design firm in Chicago, while Peter, her husband, is a former Marine sniper who has made a career of training urbanites in tactical self-defense. He has also taught their daughter, Jules, to be a survivalist, and she will need those skills as the summer unfolds. Seventeen-year-old Jules is artistic and athletic, an academic achiever who is scheduled to begin her first semester at Columbia University in New York in the fall, majoring in biomedical science. She is painfully aware that her parents' marriage is in trouble. Their relationship has become increasingly "bitter, silent," with the two of them growing further apart with each passing day. Desi is lonely in North Carolina, missing the city, its energy, and her work. But she and Peter have agreed to spend the summer at The Black House for the specific purpose of deciding if their marriage can be saved.
Desi is receiving text messages from Carter, the man she loved, but hadn't seen or spoken with for years until she recently ran into him at a farmer's market. She regrets having given him her business card because now he wants to get together with her. Worse, she thinks she sees him in town. Desi isn't "sure if she secretly wants Carter to show up or if that would literally be the worst thing that could happen." On top of that, her brother, Tommy, has shown up unannounced. Tommy served with Peter and Carter in the Marines and, as a result, has suffered from PTSD and mood swings, struggled with drug addiction, and tends to appear only when he needs money. A drifter, he has just returned from Morocco and will stay with Desi's family until he decides to move on again.
Secrets of Our House is a tale about choices, and how decisions one makes about life always have consequences. Sometimes the impact of those choices is unforeseen and even unintentional, but there is no escaping the ramifications, even if, as in Frey's tautly-constructed story, they only manifest many years later.
And for Desi that's exactly what happens as the story unfolds. Jules has fallen in love with a local pilot, Will, who is four years older than she is. He has a close, loving family, all of whom have rallied around his mother, Lenore, who has terminal lung cancer. Jules loves River Falls and the close-knit community she has become part of -- almost as much as she loves Will, with whom she has become intimate. She wants to defer her studies to remain in North Carolina with her father, who dreams of building a survivalist course there. But Desi is determined to keep Jules from making decisions Desi fears she will later regret. Desi, of course, has the benefit of hindsight that Jules lacks. And plenty of regrets of her own.
For Desi, "what was supposed to be a relaxing summer has instantly turned complex." Carter is communicating with her and stirring up old feelings from which Desi has been running for many years; her brother has arrived without warning; Jules' relationship with Will is deepening and, from Desi's perspective, threatening to derail Jules' future; and Peter is becoming "less and less emotionally unavailable," despite the fact that they agreed to give their marriage one last try.
Desi astutely senses that her past is about to catch up with her and she cannot "escape herself." To give her emotional conundrum context, Frey details, at expertly-timed junctures, the choices Desi made many years ago, as well as her escalating desperation to keep long-buried secrets from coming to light. "Was her entire life really about covering up who she really was?" she ponders. Frey also explores the factors that played into Desi's decision-making all those years ago -- a desire for "stability and protection;" genuine but very different feelings for Peter and Carter; and copious amounts of guilt about her actions. Desi concluded long ago that "she needed certain and familiar, not wild and unpredictable." Frey skillfully and compassionately portrays Desi's inescapable internal struggle to finally and conclusively reconcile the war that has raged between her heart and mind for two decades.
Peter has always been a dedicated father to Jules, but often withdrawn and unreachable in his relationship with Desi. He promised to leave the Marines once they were married, but broke that promise, serving several more tours before finally coming home to stay. Did he have reasons for making that choice about which Desi has remained unaware? If so, why has he never told her the truth? Jules is decisive and committed to the life she is designing for herself, but earnest and loathe to disappoint her parents, especially her mother, in any way. With respect to Jules, Desi is well-meaning but, like every parent, makes mistakes. And her failure to appreciate the impact of her actions on not just her daughter's life, but others' lives, as well, could prove catastrophic and heart-breaking.
Frey heightens the dramatic tension and suspense by placing her characters in life-threatening situations that force them to put their differences aside and work together to ensure the survival of those they love most. In the process, revelations -- some shouted in anger and frustration at inopportune moments -- come amid critical, strategic decision-making. Desi and Peter have also long harbored resentments, jealousy, and anger toward each other and, individually, experienced profound disappointment and sorrow. The truth comes to light as they navigate an unspeakably harrowing crisis in the wilderness that could cost them everything they hold dear.
Secrets of Our House is an absorbing, entertaining, and richly emotional examination of a family that has been careening toward a crossroads -- a reckoning -- for a long time. Having now arrived there, she illustrates how each character reacts and adapts when the truth is known, and what they decide is best for each of them moving forward. Will they be able to forgive each other, and themselves, in order to forge new, healthier relationships with each other?
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
The story opens at the home that Desi designed in the North Carolina mountains just outside the little town of River Falls. She runs a successful interior design firm in Chicago, while Peter, her husband, is a former Marine sniper who has made a career of training urbanites in tactical self-defense. He has also taught their daughter, Jules, to be a survivalist, and she will need those skills as the summer unfolds. Seventeen-year-old Jules is artistic and athletic, an academic achiever who is scheduled to begin her first semester at Columbia University in New York in the fall, majoring in biomedical science. She is painfully aware that her parents' marriage is in trouble. Their relationship has become increasingly "bitter, silent," with the two of them growing further apart with each passing day. Desi is lonely in North Carolina, missing the city, its energy, and her work. But she and Peter have agreed to spend the summer at The Black House for the specific purpose of deciding if their marriage can be saved.
Desi is receiving text messages from Carter, the man she loved, but hadn't seen or spoken with for years until she recently ran into him at a farmer's market. She regrets having given him her business card because now he wants to get together with her. Worse, she thinks she sees him in town. Desi isn't "sure if she secretly wants Carter to show up or if that would literally be the worst thing that could happen." On top of that, her brother, Tommy, has shown up unannounced. Tommy served with Peter and Carter in the Marines and, as a result, has suffered from PTSD and mood swings, struggled with drug addiction, and tends to appear only when he needs money. A drifter, he has just returned from Morocco and will stay with Desi's family until he decides to move on again.
Secrets of Our House is a tale about choices, and how decisions one makes about life always have consequences. Sometimes the impact of those choices is unforeseen and even unintentional, but there is no escaping the ramifications, even if, as in Frey's tautly-constructed story, they only manifest many years later.
And for Desi that's exactly what happens as the story unfolds. Jules has fallen in love with a local pilot, Will, who is four years older than she is. He has a close, loving family, all of whom have rallied around his mother, Lenore, who has terminal lung cancer. Jules loves River Falls and the close-knit community she has become part of -- almost as much as she loves Will, with whom she has become intimate. She wants to defer her studies to remain in North Carolina with her father, who dreams of building a survivalist course there. But Desi is determined to keep Jules from making decisions Desi fears she will later regret. Desi, of course, has the benefit of hindsight that Jules lacks. And plenty of regrets of her own.
For Desi, "what was supposed to be a relaxing summer has instantly turned complex." Carter is communicating with her and stirring up old feelings from which Desi has been running for many years; her brother has arrived without warning; Jules' relationship with Will is deepening and, from Desi's perspective, threatening to derail Jules' future; and Peter is becoming "less and less emotionally unavailable," despite the fact that they agreed to give their marriage one last try.
Desi astutely senses that her past is about to catch up with her and she cannot "escape herself." To give her emotional conundrum context, Frey details, at expertly-timed junctures, the choices Desi made many years ago, as well as her escalating desperation to keep long-buried secrets from coming to light. "Was her entire life really about covering up who she really was?" she ponders. Frey also explores the factors that played into Desi's decision-making all those years ago -- a desire for "stability and protection;" genuine but very different feelings for Peter and Carter; and copious amounts of guilt about her actions. Desi concluded long ago that "she needed certain and familiar, not wild and unpredictable." Frey skillfully and compassionately portrays Desi's inescapable internal struggle to finally and conclusively reconcile the war that has raged between her heart and mind for two decades.
Peter has always been a dedicated father to Jules, but often withdrawn and unreachable in his relationship with Desi. He promised to leave the Marines once they were married, but broke that promise, serving several more tours before finally coming home to stay. Did he have reasons for making that choice about which Desi has remained unaware? If so, why has he never told her the truth? Jules is decisive and committed to the life she is designing for herself, but earnest and loathe to disappoint her parents, especially her mother, in any way. With respect to Jules, Desi is well-meaning but, like every parent, makes mistakes. And her failure to appreciate the impact of her actions on not just her daughter's life, but others' lives, as well, could prove catastrophic and heart-breaking.
Frey heightens the dramatic tension and suspense by placing her characters in life-threatening situations that force them to put their differences aside and work together to ensure the survival of those they love most. In the process, revelations -- some shouted in anger and frustration at inopportune moments -- come amid critical, strategic decision-making. Desi and Peter have also long harbored resentments, jealousy, and anger toward each other and, individually, experienced profound disappointment and sorrow. The truth comes to light as they navigate an unspeakably harrowing crisis in the wilderness that could cost them everything they hold dear.
Secrets of Our House is an absorbing, entertaining, and richly emotional examination of a family that has been careening toward a crossroads -- a reckoning -- for a long time. Having now arrived there, she illustrates how each character reacts and adapts when the truth is known, and what they decide is best for each of them moving forward. Will they be able to forgive each other, and themselves, in order to forge new, healthier relationships with each other?
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
mauibeachreads's review against another edition
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Wow! I wasn't sure where this book was going when I started listening, but I definitely wanted to find out. A slow burn, the tension kept building and building, with a sense of some kind of impending disaster - I honestly wasn't sure if it was going to end up with a horrible accident, one of the characters murdering another, or even some kind of catastrophic natural disaster - all I knew is something was coming. The author did a fantastic job of gradually building suspense and that feeling of doom, but without me being able to specifically identify how she did it. I love that - the invisible magic a writer has of combining words in just the right way to lead you where they want you without you knowing how they're doing it! I'm sure the narrator of this audiobook had something to do with it. Initially, I wasn't sure I liked the voice - it seemed a bit bland, but soon I forgot I was listening to a book and was just completely strapped in for the ride. Character development was great - I felt like I knew each of these characters personally (it still feels like these are people I've actually met IRL) and was invested in the outcome of each of their stories. Highly recommend to anyone who loves a good family drama, slow build sort of thriller (I definitely felt like I was reading a thriller, although I don't think it's billed as that). I'll read anything else I can find by Rea Frey now!
Thank you to NetGalley, the author Rea Frey, the talented narrator Samantha Desz, and Macmillan Audio for the advanced audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author Rea Frey, the talented narrator Samantha Desz, and Macmillan Audio for the advanced audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
ranjkrish88's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
audiobooks_sweettea's review against another edition
medium-paced
4.0
If you love a beautifully written family dramatics story, then look no further than that of 𝐑𝐞𝐚 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐲'𝐬𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝑶𝒇 𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝑯𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆. It is a gripping, page turning experience from the first page you read. 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐲'𝐬writing style is unique for sure!
The characters within the pages truly brought things to the story that kept me up late into the early morning hours. I needed to see what was happening to Desi, Peter and Jules. Their lives were not perfect. Far from it. But the trip to North Carolina and The Black House…..well, let’s just say that the secrets and lies that light is shed on, will leave you on the edge of your seat with your jaw dropped.
I definitely recommend this! The characters are great and the plot line captivating! This is one that I’ll keep on my shelf to read again! Hats off, 4 stars and two thumbs up to 𝐑𝐞𝐚 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐲 for a beautifully chiseled novel!
*I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Author/Publisher and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*
randi_reads's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
4.0
I am so glad that I didn't read any reviews or even the summary about this before reading so I didn't have any preconceived notions of what this was about. It's a family drama with some unbelievable and tragic events throughout.
It's told in two POVs--Desi, the mother and her seventeen/eighteen-year-old daughter, Jules. They along with Peter, their husband/father are in North Carolina for the summer. It's a last ditch effort to save Desi and Peter's twenty-year marriage. Peter has been harboring resentment/anger towards his wife for all of that time. It's interesting to find out why.
This is a somewhat predictable story where I guessed how two things would turn out, but I still enjoyed it. I kept turning the pages, because Peter intrigued me. I would have loved to have his point of view.
Thank you to Suzy Approved Book Tours, St. Martin's Press and the author for an advanced review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
It's told in two POVs--Desi, the mother and her seventeen/eighteen-year-old daughter, Jules. They along with Peter, their husband/father are in North Carolina for the summer. It's a last ditch effort to save Desi and Peter's twenty-year marriage. Peter has been harboring resentment/anger towards his wife for all of that time. It's interesting to find out why.
This is a somewhat predictable story where I guessed how two things would turn out, but I still enjoyed it. I kept turning the pages, because Peter intrigued me. I would have loved to have his point of view.
Thank you to Suzy Approved Book Tours, St. Martin's Press and the author for an advanced review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.