Another tension grabber
What grabbed me from the start was Morris's ability to reel you in to the characters emotions. Disturbing and tension packed, I kept reading feeling I had to get to the end to soften the anxiety I felt.The emotional drama of family relationships, betrayal and honesty is so recognizable in today's society.
Rated of 5
by Joyce (Rochester MN)
Hang on for a Wild Ride!
When Nora discovers her husband is having an affair, her emotions begin a roller coaster ride. Mary McGarry Morris' descriptions of the stages one goes through are unbelievably accurate. What starts as a story of a family's pain, anger and betrayal quickly turns into a page turner when a man from Nora's past arrives in town. Written in tight, powerful sentences, it took all my willpower to keep from reading ahead to find out what was going to happen.
Rated of 5
by Josephine (Goshen CT)
Hard to put down
Two secrets collide to create the tension in this book. The first, an assault years ago, comes back to haunt Nora just as she learns her husband has been committing adultery for at least 4 years with her best friend. Morris weaves the two strands confidently and expertly, heightening tension so that you must keep reading. My only caveat - if you have, or have had, a cheating spouse, her descriptions of the anguish Nora goes through are so accurate that it can be quite painful to the reader.
Rated of 5
by Ray (Selden NY)
Secrets and Lies
Nora and Ken Hammond live an ideal life - house in suburban New England, two kids and work together at the family-owned newspaper. That is, until Ken's betrayal of Nora by exposing a 4-year long affair with one of their closest friends. The secrets, lies and betrayal that ensues among all the lives effected would be enough to create an engaging story. But Nora has her own secret - a criminal one - and a maniacal figure from her past has arrived in town to exact his revenge.
Compelling and well-written, Mary McGarry Morris has scored a winner of a thriller-drama with The Last Secret.
Rated of 5
by Iris, W. Bloomfield, Mi. (West Bloomfield MI)
The Last Secret
What began for me as a seemingly mindless, predictable, slightly elevated version of the "chick lit" genre became a compelling read. While written in the present, more and more information is masterfully revealed in small increments. The characters become more than just one dimensional in their development as the story becomes more and more compelling. This simply told story becomes increasingly difficult to put down. While not wanting to reveal the ending, I can only say that it packed a punch. I would definitely recommend this book.
Rated of 5
by Vicky (Cumming GA)
The Last Secret
I believe I held my breath through this entire novel! After reading the first chapter I was spellbound as well as tense. The author has an unbelievable talent for drawing you in and keeping you beside her main character throughout this painful journey, and I felt every emotion along the way. For those of you who love to "buckle up" for a good read, I highly recommend this book that unfolds one "secret" right after another ... until the very end.
Rated of 5
by Mary (Rohnert Park CA)
A touch of madness The Last Secret is a nearly perfect book. The structure of the narrative and the present tense keep the reader right in the middle of the action, whether the action is external or internal. And the internal is absolutely fascinating, equally if not more suspenseful, a integral part of the plot in a way not many writers can pull off.
The unfolding of the main character, Nora, is brilliant. It's not just of a question of whether Nora has ever crossed into darkness, but if she wants to, if she believes that's all she is at her core. One character tells her: "You're just fighting the wrong fight. All you're seeing inside is sin, when it's your own goodness you should be looking for." What happens if you look and look for goodness but there doesn't seem to be any to find? How does that belief affect your actions? Or lack of action? The battles you pick and the ones that pick you? At some point the lies we tell ourselves and the secrets we keep catch up to us and we can only hope redemption might catch up at the same time. Sometimes it does, sometimes not.
Mary McGarry Morris has written a page-turner that pulls the reader deep into both the psyches of her characters and the reader's own psyche. It's one of those stories that sends you looking for someone who's read it so you can discuss it for hours. So many issues: if no one believes us, are we wrong? Is there ever "one true story"? What constitutes insanity? What is any given individual capable of? Or incapable of? What, if anything, can "subdue the darkness"? And so much more. I can't stop thinking about it. Wonderful book.
Stranger than fiction, blending tragedy and farce, How to Create the Perfect Wife is an engrossing tale of the radicalism, and deep contradictions, at the heart of the Enlightenment.
Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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Can an wiser, older narrator view the past with more wisdom than he might have possessed forty years earlier in the summer he was thirteen? Ordinary...
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U.S. ebook sales up in 2012, but rate of growth is slowing(May 16 2013) In 2012, trade book sales (i.e. non academic book sales) rose 6.9%, to $15.049 billion, and e-book sales continued to grow, although the rate of growth...
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by Lani (Narberth PA)
