Best Kept Secrets

I have mixed feelings about this book. Sandra Brown has an excellent gift for writing. She does a lot of great descriptions, dialogue, and anyone who has read at least a few of her books know how sizzling the sex scenes can be. This woman has a gift when it comes to creating colorful, memorable scenes and descriptions, and this was one book that honestly had me wondering who the villain was till close to the reveal. (I knew it couldn't be any of the three guys, but it was a damned good story nonetheless)

Even though I account for the book's age, there's still some sexism that is just blatant, and a few cliches/tropes that Sandra Brown falls upon all too often. At least it was better than 'Sunny Chandler's Return'.

Just finished this book, my sixth of the year so far. After reading the reviews on it, I was hesitant to read it. It is not my typical genre, but I decided to read it anyway. This book was from a Little Free Library that my husband came across.

The age in which it was written is very telling. There is a lot of sexism, even one of the main characters mentions it. The patriarchy is strong in this book, but that is not uncommon in a book written in 1989 with Texas as the setting. Even in 2017, the world is still largely patriarchal.

Murder, romance, suicide, jelousy, loyalty, adult themes and language are throughout the story. I guessed at who the killer was early on, and my assumption was correct, however, if you are not one to guess or show more pick up on the nuances that tell you who it is, the end does have a twist to it.

Overall, the book was good once I got into it. Because of the subject matter, I would not recommend to the younger crowd, 16+ at least, but as a mom of two young children, I am a bit stricter then some. I do recommend a parent reading first before giving to a child, just so you are aware of what they will be reading. show less

Alexandra Gaither is an attorney who finally has the power to get the
justice she needs. Twenty-five years ago, when she was only two months old,
her mother was stabbed to death in a Thoroughbred horse stall at the age of
18. Alex was raised by a very stern grandmother who convinced her that her
mother was killed by one of three men -- two who were her best friends all
through school, and the father figure to both of them. Her arrival in town
causes jaws to drop and tongues to wag. The three men she confronts are not
what she was expecting at all. Each is charming, each is a suspect, and
each one is determined that she not unearth the past. But not one of them
can stop her relentless search for the truth. A retarded man had been
arrested and sent show more away to a mental institution for the rest of his life for
the murder, but Alex is convinced that he was innocent and used as a handy
scapegoat by the real murderer. She has always had only one goal in life --
to find out who really killed her mother and why -- and she's determined to
learn the truth or die trying.

Sandra Brown is one of those authors whose books are either really good or
really lame, IMO. I read one of her novels last month and really enjoyed
it. But this one, unfortunately, falls into the second category for me.
There was just something about this book that set me on edge. It smacked of
incest from time to time, dancing all the way around the subject and
flirting with it for shock value if nothing else. The characters just
didn't ring true, and the only one who did turned out to be the murderer --
a conclusion I came to about a third of the way through the book, BTW. Ms.
Brown can write extremely good novels full of tension, intrigue, and
suspense, but unfortunately, this isn't one of them. I'll give it a 2, if
only because I did stick with it till I finished it. show less

I am in complete agreement with 'Praise for Sandra Brown' found on the opening page of the novel. "She fires your imagination with irrestible characters, unexpected plot twists, scandalous secrets...so electric you feel the zing." Yes indeed, I love to read and I love to read Sandra Brown's novels. This one is no exception. I always try to determine the outcome and I definitely didn't figure this one out. Absolutely a fast page turner that I thoroughly enjoyed from start-to-finish!

My favorite contemporary romantic suspense novel. I like a lot of Brown's books ("Exclusive," "Mirror Image"), but this is my favorite, the one I think is most romantic. The heroine is trying to find out who killed her mother shortly after the heroine was born, and one of her prime suspects (yes, the hero is a good bit older than the heroine--at least 17 years or so) happens to be the sexiest man she's ever met.

This was a fairly well written tale of a small TX town
with several hidden secrets. These are secrets a young
lady attorney is determined to uncover. Secrets she feels
has caused her a lifetime of unhappiness.
After graduating at the top of her class and landing a
job with a top of law firm, she soon approaches
her boos with a request to open a twenty-five year old case
near where they work. After some searching and persuading sh
was granted one month to solve it or give it up.
It was a long, drawn out, beleaguered case. It was also very predictable.
The woman made a profound discovery at the end.
The narrator, Dick Hill, did an OK job of narrating but not exceptional.
There was extreme profanity and crudeness in the conversations.
There were a show more few sexual discussions and a couple of sexually explicit scenes. show less

Like a good who done it, but don't like that right from the beginning it's going to be a romance in the brewing with her playing hard to get. Only finished it cause I wanted to know what happened to her mother.