Author: Rachael Johns
ISBN: 9781489210531
RRP: $32.99
The Art of Keeping Secrets is the latest life-lit by Rachael Johns and I can safely say it’s her best yet. Though I suppose I should add, in my opinion. She has tackled tough but topical issues and she has done so with sensitivity and still a sense of wit.
This book has been on my desk for a couple of weeks and I have been putting it off knowing that I can’t put my review up for another couple of weeks… well I just couldn’t ignore it any longer. And once I started I have been ignoring everything else… washing, eating, family.
There are so many things I want to tell you about this amazing story but I don’t want to take away the impact of reading it for yourselves so I am going to have to be careful how I approach it.
Flick, Neve and Emma are best of friends, they met when their sons started at an elite private high school and hit it off because they didn’t fit in with the rest of the mothers. They certainly weren’t ladies who lunched and though they have careers they love but they aren’t the high profile careers of the other school mums.
As is often the case it’s hard to know whose close friendship came first, the mothers or the sons, but the families all became quite close and spent lots of time together. They became more like extended family than just friends.
The three woman are quite different and their home situations are worlds apart as well but they have an empathetic bond that sees them try to understand the other situations, though it’s always quite difficult to wear another shoes in these situations. They share everything, or at least they thought they did….
It seems that there are secrets in all of their lives and when they come out the collateral damage could be very far reaching.
Secrets are a tricky business, especially if you have been keeping them for a lot of years; the way Flick and Neve have been. It gets to the point where the fear of revealing the truth is a toss up between the reaction to the truth and the anger of the fact that the secret has been between you for so many years. By their nature though, secrets have a habit of coming out in the end regardless of whether you want them to or not.
I read an ARC of The Art of Keeping Secrets so I’m not sure if this is something that changed in the finished copy, but in the copy I read the chapters are headed by the full name of the character whose head we are in for that chapter – and all references in the story are by their nicknames. It took me a couple of chapters to get my head around it but it was no real biggie.
The story is told in alternating chapters by each of the friends as we follow them through a tumultuous stage in each of their lives as their sons are coming up to their year 12 graduations. This story is a perfect example of everything going wrong at once, and I’m going to do something I never do and put a line in here that actually made me laugh out loud.
Neve was right – their lives were a shambles. Someone could write a book about them.
This was just the perfect example, everything went so terrifically wrong all at once that it had to be immortalised…. and it was by the talented Rachael Johns.
Neve’s secret is the first to break and it sees her booking a trip to New York, just days after the three friends were talking about how much they needed to splurge on a girls getaway. In the end Flick and Emma join Neve on her trip to offer support, and soak up the shopping.
The trip offers them some wonderful girl time but it is marred by the stress all three women are under. It brings them together while at times threatening to tear apart even their strong bonds.
All three of these women are strong and independent, they are relatable and realistic and they could be any one of us. They find themselves in situations where it would be so easy to judge, and each of the women find themselves sitting in judgement at one time or another but they also recognise the derogatory effect of judgement and work hard to get past that so they can offer the support that is really needed.
The events faced by each of the women, and in effect the three of them together, show them a new perspective and offer an opportunity for reflection and for change.
The situations faced by Flick, Emma and Neve are not ones that have touched my life, though there are similar ones in my wider circle so these were very new concepts for me to actually try to wrap my head around.
An amazing tale of friendship, love, tribulation and the ability to get through anything life throws at you with the right support network.
Johns has tackled some hard-hitting topics with sensitivity and insight and she’s brought one rather high profile social issue of our times in close and made it personal, and she’s done it well.
This is definitely the best work I have read by Rachael Johns and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
The Art of Keeping Secrets is book #36 for the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge 2016.
Rachael Johns can be found on Twitter, Facebook and her Website.
The Art of Keeping Secrets is available from October 2016 through Harlequin and available to pre-order now from Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
Thank you for letting me read and review the Art of Keeping Secrets! A very realistic story about everyday women just like you and me who have problems that resurface. Sometimes it is just life getting in the way and this story showed some very good examples of that and coming back to haunt you for choices that were made when younger. Woven between 3 best friends it also showed resilience between friends and acceptance of others in different situations. A very easy book to read and follow. Thank you Rachel Johns for creating such a book to entertain and enthrall readers.
I loved the book by Rachael Johns and I found she wrote of female friendships very well. The novel is about three women who have been friends for numerous years while their sons were attending high school. Felicity, Emma and Genevieve are in their forties and have longstanding secrets. They are three strong women and I found the characters relatable. I wish there were more chapters as I felt the story could have gone on for longer. I would reccomend this book for anyone who loves novels with strong female characters.
Rachael Johns The Art of Keeping Secrets was a story that i found to be very interesting and at the same time had me pausing to remember back into my past. Much like in the story myself and two others were drawn into a friendship over a set of circumstances just as the woman in this story began their friendship. Three very different woman yet connected. As the years go buy you feel that you know these friends and everything about them so when one announces that there is a secret they have been keeping it sends everyone into shock and it alters the relationship. This book deals with all the emotion of keeping a secret for years and then being forced into a position where you feel you have to share and then all that comes from finally speaking those words and sharing that information.
I took a little longer to read this book then I really should. It took me into my past and there were times I simply sat holding the book and thinking about past events so for me this book grabbed a few emotions and gave them a bit of a squeeze.
I love Rachaels writing. This is not the first of her books that I have read and it wont be the last.
Australia certainly has a lot of talent.
This is not all happy happy but it is life. All the ups and downs. Its a great Winter read.
You know the old saying ‘A problem shared is a problem halved?’ That kind of sums up The Art of Keeping Secrets.
Everyone has a few little secrets in their closet right? Nothing’s different for 3 best friends who think they share everything. But Emma, Neve & Flick each have something they are holding close to their chests, eating them up inside.
The 3 ladies have been close friends & confidantes ever since their sons went to high school together & the book opens with their kids’ final year formal send off party being held at the house of former husband to Mumsy divorcee Emma. Her taxisermist pal Flick & Flick’s husband Seb are always on hand to cushion the blows & insults from Emma’s ex. And glamourous single Mum Neve seems to have it all together, or does she?
I found the characters in Rachael Johns’ book believable & relateable. Their seemingly everyday lives have enough twists & turns to keep you intrigued & guessing.
Will the friends eventually realise that sharing secrets can be liberating & bring them closer? I can’t tell you, it’s a secret 😉
Well! Rachel Johns has done it again but I agree I think this has to be her best write so far saying that her other books were great too.
An excellent read which I couldn’t put down but had to once or twice just to feed the family then straight back to the book to either have a little giggle with the writer or to shed a tear in another section.
Three strong but different characters that entertained through the book & also made me stop & remember some painful memories which I most say friends helped me through.Secrets will out in the end so they say or will they?
I really enjoyed this book & would recommend to my friends as we all stick together no matter what.
Rachael Johns enthrals her readers yet again with her second foray into the contemporary life literature genre with the release of her newest book, The Art Of Keeping Secrets. I am so glad Rachael Johns has decided to take this direction in her writing, as I really do believe that she has the knack for conveying issues close to women’s hearts.
At the core of The Art Of Keeping Secrets are three very close knit female friends, Emma, Flick and Neve. Their friendship is rock solid, having developed when their children entered high school together. It is obvious as soon as the story opens that the three women share a special bond. It seems from the outset that these women know each other’s ins, outs and unique quirks. However, what they don’t know is each of them is harbouring a pretty big secret, that will rock the very foundations of their current lives. Neve gets the ball rolling on the secret front when she drops a big bombshell regarding the identity to the father of her child. This leads the trio on a whirlwind trip from Australia to New York, where more secrets are confessed.
Rachael Johns never fails to wow me with her novels and The Art Of Keeping Secrets is certainly no exception. The Art Of Keeping Secrets is Johns second offering in the life literature genre and it clearly highlights Johns strength as a writer. Johns tackles some contemporary and very relatable subjects in this novel from love, marriage, affairs, separation, divorce and single parenting, to career choices. These are balanced with the overarching theme of the novel, which is based on airing out long held secrets. The secrets, when they come, are pretty explosive. One secret in particular had me drawing my breath in from complete disbelief. I even re-read the passages, as it was a shock that I definitely didn’t see coming. Johns manages to tantalise her readers this way for the majority of the novel, gradually revealing pieces to a bigger puzzle surrounding the secrets these women hold. It was a big drawcard for me, as it wiled me to turn the pages as fast as I could and also prevented me from putting the book down. Readers will find the combination of natural and relatable dialogue, along with characters that are realistically drawn, but with flaws any person can sympathise with, greatly appealing. Although The Art Of Keeping Secrets does not have a rural feel, I would have to say I enjoyed this novel just as much as the rural romances Johns is famous for. The movement in setting from Australia to the States was covered well by Johns. I loved the feel of being a sidekick on the trio’s big trip to New York, it was most enjoyable reading experience. Fans new and old will also appreciate Johns flair for romance which was a captivating feature of the novel.
There is no doubt Johns can spin a fantastic yarn around the bonds of female friendship and the knocks life deals out for the everyday woman. The Art Of Keeping Secrets is another very successful and memorable addition to the Rachael Johns collection.
Thank you Beauty and Lace for selecting me to read The Art Of Keeping Secrets,
Well Rachel Johns has done it again with this book it is a wonderful read,
This book is about the beautiful friendship between three women and their family’s, and the secret each woman has,
I am not going to reveal in this review what the secrets are as I don’t want to spoil for other readers, the secrets are revealed throughout the book,
The book flows from chapter to chapter beautifully,
Once I started to read this book I found it very difficult to put down, just had to know what was going to happen next,
I would recommend this book as it is excellent 10/10
Reading all the reviews above there is not much more I can say about this great book. Rachael gets better and better with her writing and I believe Life-Lit is an emerging genre and I hope that Rachael produces many more books in this genre. I think we can all relate to the circumstances of the three women featured in this book, that’s what makes it such compelling reading. It did take me a little while to get my head around the main characters and the sub-characters but once I did I couldn’t put it down and read 150 pages in one hit! I did like the very subtle dark moment towards the end of the book as well 🙂
Thanks so much to Beauty & Lace for the great opportunity to read an ARC of this book.
What an amazing story this book unfolded!
I found it to be easy to read, hard to put down, and I enjoyed the friendship between the 3 main characters, as I too have friends like them that I went to school with almost 50 years ago, and we still see each other often. So I found the story to be believable, and well told.
I cannot really add much more than the above readers have said. I thought I had figured out the ending, but I was wrong! Although I was surprised at how it ended, it fitted in with the rest of the story,
Thank you Beauty & Lace for the wonderful chance to read an advance issue copy of this great book.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
PS I picked up an error on page 438. ” Neve and Jeremy” should have been Neve and James.
Me too! But being an ARC this is quite common. It was found and fixed before the final copy was printed.
Good to know
Thank you SO much to Michelle for organising this book club and to all you wonderful women for reading THE ART OF KEEPING SECRETS. Your feedback has been so amazing and encouraging that you’ve made me really excited for this book to hit the shelves. xx Rach!