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Monday, November 16, 2015

My Secret to Tell by Natalie D. Richards (Review)



Genre:
Young Adult, Mystery
Publication Date:October 6, 2015
Pages:320
Published By:  Sourcebooks Fire
WebsiteNatalie D. Richards Goodreads

My review copy:ARC for honest review
Buy it: 
Amazon ~ B&N ~ Chapters

Synopsis

Emmie's had a crush on her best friend's brother forever. Deacon is the town bad boy who's always in trouble, but she sees his soft side when he volunteers with her at the local animal shelter. She doesn't think he's dangerous…until he shows up in her bedroom with blood on his hands.

Deacon's father has been violently assaulted and Deacon is suspect number one. Emmie's smart enough to know how this looks, but she also knows Deacon's biggest secret—he's paralyzed by the sight of blood. She's sure he didn't do this. Or did he? Because even Deacon's own sister thinks he's guilty…

Quotes

It's getting clearer every day that Perry isn't investigating anything.  This case begins and ends with Deacon for him   but not for me.
It's all as sunny as the kitchen itself.  I pretend I didn't hear them talking about me, and they pretend they are still married.  We're all very good at this game.
I love him so much in this second that it physically hurts.  Because I don't know what to do, but he still believes in me.

My Thoughts

  I fell for Richards knack for spinning a mystery last year, when I had the pleasure of picking up Six Months Later.  I had so much hope for My Secret to Tell and though I enjoyed the read, it was far more different than expected.   This stirred up different emotions both good and bad, but that is what kept me with reading this one.  What's a book without a little bit of internal conflict...

    There is no way I could even begin to deny that the second I start any book with mystery, that I start guessing who is at the bottom of it all.  My Secret to Tell was no exception.  There was mystery and intrigue, characters that each played their own part, and a plot that carried its own mysteries.  Though I would be lying to say the mystery wasn't the main focus; there was so much going on in little sub plots that I felt I may miss something.  Though I guessed right with some things, I have to say there were others that I just didn't.  Richards did a great job of twisting this mystery up into something that made it hard for me to guess who was really at the bottom of it all.  The pacing was well done rather than a few spots that I felt everything lagging a little.  Basically, I enjoyed how this was written but wished that there was less focus on how everything was falling apart around Emmie, and more on the what was going on with the mystery itself.  

  I think my main problem fell with Emmie.  It isn't that she wasn't well developed, because she was.  Emmie is the good girl that is reliable and predictable, with a crush on her best friends older bad boy brother.  This wasn't a problem for me as even though it is not uncommon, characters have their own quirks that make the situation unique.  However, Emmie's quirks never really felt solid to me, and that could quite possibly be just me.  Emmie seemed to have OCD, everything had to be clean and she noticed every little detail when it came down to it, but this never really seemed to play a real part in the book (once again probably something I missed).  With all of this being said Emmie also grew throughout the book.  She learned that you cannot just live for what others expect of you.  I loved that she stuck by Deacon even when his own family wouldn't, even if it was because of her heart not her head.  Though Emmie wasn't for me I think she will be someone that many people enjoy.

  When it came to the supporting characters, I felt conflicted.  Richards really played with my feelings when it came down each character.  Deacon for being the love interest, but I never really knew if he was playing Emmie or if he had feelings he didn't want to share.  This being said he was well developed and I did like him, he had depth and something that helped him feel more human.  My problem was I believed him, but his actions contradicted his words.  With Deacon comes Chelsea, his sister and Emmie's best friend.  Now her...  Well lets just say she is the girl that I both love and want to smack.  The smack feelings came early on too.  For someone that is supposed to be a best friend with no secrets... Well, she just sucks and lets not get started on the attitude she gave out.  However, there were times that I realized it was circumstance doing this to her and inside she was a good friend and person, but this didn't stop the irritation.  Basically these two were both a source of happiness and pain for Emmie, and created the same feeling for me.

  My Secret to Tell was not as riveting of a read as I had expected, but I will not be detoured from picking up other books by Richards because I do love her writing.  This is a solid read that I feel many people that enjoy mystery and contemporary will really enjoy.  I can say that the next book this author brings out, I will pick up because of the fact that she is a reliable author for me.  Pick this one up if you can handle a busy book, with good characters and missing a love triangle.  

Posted by Tiffany

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