The story grabbed my attention from the first page but there were some annoying errors throughout:

* Ivy League is a group of premium American universities. Oxford is in England and has nothing to do with the American group.

* And, having lived with the family for a period of time, how could the main character not have yet worked out where plates lived and what the towels looked like?

* Why did she spill her guts to the police officer without a lawyer present? Why did the police not caution her before she did so? Nothing of what she said up until being charged could be used in court.

* The "Australian" character used mainly New Zealand expressions in her dialogue. I'm sure any Australians who read this will be a bit confused.

I can't think of when a New Zealand pinot noir producer last used corks in their wine.

Some better research and editing may have helped but the whole story is just a waste of time when you read the ending. How annoying. ( )

Young love… first love, sets the stage for this author’s debut novel. The story goes to show that we may not always know people as well as we think we do...what they are really capable of…and to what ends an entire town would go to protect them. If you are an avid true crime fan you will really enjoy this book. ( )

Ugh, the reasons I didn't like this are a bit of a spoiler, so let's just say, unsatisfying conclusion. Unreliable narrator in the annoying way! ( )

I think this was a fairly good book, kind of a thriller but not as intense as I'd hoped. The love triangle between LJ, HP and Saskia was pretty messy and I really enjoyed it. You really feel sorry for lots of the characters and really gets you thinking. I also felt dislike for many of the same characters.

I did like the narrative of LJ telling the whole story in the time she was in the interrogation room.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for sending me this early readers edition in exchange for my honest review. ( )

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. ( )