If you don’t take this book too seriously, you might have some fun reading it.
Disclaimer: I’ve received an advanced reader copy via NetGalley, this doesn’t influence my opinion or review. Thank you to the author and the publisher for providing me with a reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Personal Experience:
Quote:
“Isn’t that how life should be? Always looking for any small success, both yours and your friends, to celebrate?“
Who should read it? If you like reading about work drama, friendship & revenge.
Would I recommend it? Not particularly, but I wouldn’t discourage it either.
I’ve picked this book because I thought this was the perfect light and fun read for a week night. However, it had the same problem as many other books which I start and never finish: It didn’t hook me right away. I ended up reading it on a plane, many months later, and I believe this was the only reason I was able to finish it.
It did take a while for the story to start developing, and when it did, all I could think was: “Is this all that this is?” Perhaps this is me, and perhaps this is not my style of book. I did, however, end up having fun reading some of the parts of the book.
If you’re into work drama and friendships-gone-wrong, you’ll enjoy going through Holly’s daily life and office conspiracies.
Without revealing too much, here are some things I liked about this book:
🧡 Side Characters & Narration
Okay, so not all of them, but overall, the way Holly described the characters was fun and engaging. Since the book relied on the main character as the narrator (Holly), this was important! This is my favorite part in a light read: a narrator has to be fun, light, and not take themselves too seriously. The side characters were are all surprisingly detailed, and Holly’s best friend Dee was quite funny. In my opinion, it was a good thing that Dee’s behavior was unrealistic and farfetched (I mean, who has the time for all that detective work, and is this really how a 40yo behaves in the real world?). Without a bit of exaggeration and unlikely scenarios, I think this book would have been dull.
🧡 A Fun Type-Of-Drama
Holly had real problems to deal with, pretty serious ones, in fact. However, it was difficult to pay attention to these, because I was too invested in her office drama and side detective work. I am not sure if this is a good thing or not, depending on the author’s goals, but since I was expecting a light and fun read, I got what I was looking for.
Now what I didn’t like as much.
🌧️ The pace and plot’s predictability
I thought the pace was unnecessarily slow and it dragged when it shouldn’t. Perhaps because most of the plot was so predictable that it didn’t grant a slow pace. Predictability is not always bad, but the wait made some chapters less interesting.
🌧️ Curious to know what happens next? Not really…
As mentioned above, I felt I kept reading this book because it was entertaining somehow due to the way the story was told. I wasn’t especially invested or curious about what would happen to any of the characters. In fact, I was pretty sure I could guess the ending.
🌧️ Why so naive?
I struggled connecting or relating to Holly. You just found out that your best mate is not who she says she is, and you regret having told her all your secrets. So what do you do now? You go ahead and do the same mistake, over and over again, with everyone else. You’d think that this experience would trigger at least some caution in regards to who you’re sharing your details with. Instead, as soon as Holly gets her first suspicions about Roz, she tells everything to a stranger who rents a room in her house, a coworker she barely exchange a word with, and a cast member who could potentially ruin her whole career. I forgive this because it felt it was part of the comedy.
Overall, “Tell Me a Secret” was a fun read that is not intended to be taken too seriously. If you can live with the farfetched and unlikely scenarios, and the unrealistic behavior of the characters, then you might enjoy a light and fun read.
