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A review by kbranfield
Our Little Secret by Roz Nay
4.0
4.5 stars.
Roz Nay's debut, Our Little Secret, opens with lead protagonist Angela Petitjean being questioned by the local police in the disappearance of a woman named Saskia. It is not until Detective Novak starts interrogating her that she begins telling him about her tangled history with Mr. Parker, aka HP, and an interesting, and somewhat disturbing, picture begins to emerge.
Angela's family moved around quite a bit for her father's job and when they settled into Cove, VT when she was 15, she was a bit of a social outcast until HP befriended her. Thick as thieves and extremely close, the two were inseparable until after high school graduation. HP remained in town whereas Angela felt pressured by her parents to go to Oxford for a year of university. This decision is a HUGE turning point in both her and HP's lives and unexpectedly leads straight to why she is suspected in the disappearance of Sakia.
I have to confess that I initially felt very sympathetic toward Angela. Her relationship with her parents is rather strained and her mother is pretty horrid. The frequent moves made it difficult for Angela to maintain friendships and their move to Vermont occurred at a critical point in her life. HP was a lifesaver when he stepped in and became her friend, so it is no surprise she feels rather territorial and protective of what they shared.
It is not until after the situation in Oxford plays out that my empathy for Angela's plight took a nosedive. Had she made other decisions,everyone's lives would have turned out for the better. She refused to see (and accept) what was staring her in the face and she made choices that put her and everyone around her on a collision course with disaster. Even knowing this, the novel's ending took me off guard and I was a little stunned to discover the truth about what happened to Saskia!
An impressive debut by Roz Nay, Our Little Secret is definitely a page-turner even though readers might be a little hard-pressed to like the characters. The storyline is compulsively readable and I was genuinely surprised by the novel's somewhat stunning conclusion.
Roz Nay's debut, Our Little Secret, opens with lead protagonist Angela Petitjean being questioned by the local police in the disappearance of a woman named Saskia. It is not until Detective Novak starts interrogating her that she begins telling him about her tangled history with Mr. Parker, aka HP, and an interesting, and somewhat disturbing, picture begins to emerge.
Angela's family moved around quite a bit for her father's job and when they settled into Cove, VT when she was 15, she was a bit of a social outcast until HP befriended her. Thick as thieves and extremely close, the two were inseparable until after high school graduation. HP remained in town whereas Angela felt pressured by her parents to go to Oxford for a year of university. This decision is a HUGE turning point in both her and HP's lives and unexpectedly leads straight to why she is suspected in the disappearance of Sakia.
I have to confess that I initially felt very sympathetic toward Angela. Her relationship with her parents is rather strained and her mother is pretty horrid. The frequent moves made it difficult for Angela to maintain friendships and their move to Vermont occurred at a critical point in her life. HP was a lifesaver when he stepped in and became her friend, so it is no surprise she feels rather territorial and protective of what they shared.
It is not until after the situation in Oxford plays out that my empathy for Angela's plight took a nosedive. Had she made other decisions,everyone's lives would have turned out for the better. She refused to see (and accept) what was staring her in the face and she made choices that put her and everyone around her on a collision course with disaster. Even knowing this, the novel's ending took me off guard and I was a little stunned to discover the truth about what happened to Saskia!
An impressive debut by Roz Nay, Our Little Secret is definitely a page-turner even though readers might be a little hard-pressed to like the characters. The storyline is compulsively readable and I was genuinely surprised by the novel's somewhat stunning conclusion.