The Secret Keeper

Last review for today...I hope you enjoy (contains spoilers)
  

The" Secret Keeper by Kate Morton" book review

During a summer party at the family farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel Nicolson has escaped to her childhood tree house and is happily dreaming of the future. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and watches as her mother speaks to him. Before the afternoon is over, Laurel will witness a shocking crime. A crime that challenges everything she knows about her family and especially her mother, Dorothy—her vivacious, loving, nearly perfect mother.
Now, fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress living in London. The family is gathering at Greenacres farm for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday. Realizing that this may be her last chance, Laurel searches for answers to the questions that still haunt her from that long-ago day, answers that can only be found in Dorothy’s past.

..........................................................................................................................................................................

I have to admit this is not the kind of book I would normally read. This is a book that contains romance, drama but it's also a bit like a thriller, a genre that I normally never read. But I'm open to everything so I thought why the heck not and I started to read this book. I have never read a book by Kate Morton, so I didn't know what to expect. I started reading this story about six months ago. But after reading the first twenty pages I was kind of bored. So I stopped . A while ago I started reading the book again, but I stopped after about the same amount of pages like the last time. About two weeks ago I started again and after I pushed myself a bit  at the beginning I started to like it .

 As you might or might not have read the description above: This book is about a teenager, that witnessed how her mother killed a stranger. Over the years the girl-Laurel tries to forget what she had seen. She focuses on her career. But fifty years after this traumatic event, Laurel is forced to face her past again. Her mother's life is coming to an end. Dorothy, her mother gives away information in a weak moment that attracts Laurel's attention. She then also gets help from her little brother, who was also a witness of the murder. He was a baby, but he always seemed to know that something was off. 

Laurel learns about the past of Dorothy. When Dorothy was young she always wanted more in her life. She moved to London to fulfill her dreams only to realize that life is a lot harder than it seems. Although her career doesn't work out Dorothy is in a happy relationship with a photographer called Jimmy. He's also not really successful, but it's war and he's lucky with a roof over his head. One day Dorothy meets Vivien Jenkins. She's the wife of a successful author who is twice her age and they live in a big house opposite the house Dorothy works in. Dorothy feels a connection between her and Vivien, both have lost their families due to tagic events and she believes that they are the best of friends. One day, she visits Vivien in her house, but she doesn't seem to recognize her and embarasses her in front of her husband Henry. Dorothy is filled with rage and because of that she wants Vivien to have a taste of her own medicine. She pressures her boyfriend Jimmy into getting to know Vivien. Because of the love Jimmy feels towards Dorothy  he does what he is told and he starts to get to know Vivien. But she is nothing like Dorothy told him she would be. She is kind and selfless and he slowly starts to fall for her. Dorothy gets what she wants and she takes a picture of an intimate moment between Jimmy and Vivianne. She sends a letter to Vivien that pressures her into giving her money. Unfortunately the letter is opened by Vivien's husband. And the thing that nobody knows about him: he is abusive towards his wife and considers her as"his". He doesn't like to share and he doesn't want his wife to have friend or kids because then he would have to share. That explains why Vivien acted the way she did towards Dorothy. It was an act of protection. After almost killing his wife Henry tells her that he has taken care of Jimmy by drowning him. Vivianne who can barely walk makes her way to Dorothy's to tell her that she is in danger and that she has to go somewhere far away. While they talk a bomb hits the apartment of Dorothy. And this is the part that I never saw coming. Dorothy dies due to her injuries. But Vivianne survives and in the right moment she says that her name is Dorothy. She goes to the place that Dorothy wanted to go to and lives a happy life as "Dorothy". She gets a second chance- meanwhile everyone back in London believes Vivien is really dead-including her husband who wants to seek revenge on the real Dorothy. When he finds her he notices that "Dorothy" is actually his wife, but before something can be done he is killed. I had to read this part over and over again because I couldn't believe that this actually happened?! Also if you wondered : Jimmy survived, after almost drowning, barely, but he survived. He also lived a happy life, which he deserved, but he was the first to discover that Vivien was "Dorothy", because he went to see her one time to see if she was doing ok.

It's quite interesting how the book is sectioned. One section includes several chapters- The section begins with the name of a character, for example : Dorothy. The story will evolve around this person, but only a small part is written out of their point of view. So it also includes the point of view of the people around the person. If the section was about Dorothy, the point of view could have also been Laurel's who is searching for Dorothy's past or Jimmy's P.O.V. Another interesting thing is that the story is constantly junping between past and present. At the beginning it was pretty confusing, but after a while you actually started to like this change and this type of writing never gets boring. I was pleasantly surpised how the story turned out and the plot twist completely blew me away! Although this is not my usual type of read I 100% enjoyed it and I will definitely read more books that are written by Kate Morton! Which you should do too ;)

4 out of 5 cupcakes