The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham

This is a hard book to review. In my opinion the book is suspenseful in the beginning and has some realism. I couldn't put the book down until I got to the last third of the book. Then the story became to be far fetched and I did not take it seriously. The book succeeds on some levels.
Megan and Jack are expecting their third baby which was an unplanned pregnancy. Meg carries some inner hostility towards Jack because he isn't as thrilled about having another baby and he lets Meg know that. After giving birth the kidnapper wears a disguise as a nurse and tells Jack that she is taking the baby for a blood test. Jack like any other trusting parent hands the baby to the kidnapper and Meg feels resentful and is holding in feelings of resentment towards Jack because she thinks he didn't want the baby to begin with.

Megan and Jack do not have the picture perfect marriage that they appear to have on the surface. Yes, they are blessed with a beautiful girl named Lucy and a boy named Lachlan. But they both are deceiving each other in each doing something that could destroy a marriage. They both have secret's that they don't want the other to find out that they keep hidden from each other. Then to have their newborn baby to be ripped from their lives puts a further strain on the marriage.

Agatha is disillusioned thinking that Jack and Meg have the perfect marriage. She is a grocery clerk that has been stalking Megan often watching Jack and Megan's family from a tree in their back yard. Agatha wants what she thinks Megan has. They are both pregnant and their due dates are around the same time. Not everything is as it seems with Agatha as she has even bigger secrets to keep. If her secret's are discovered her whole life could unravel and she could lose everything including her freedom.

Thank you to Net Galley, Michael Robotham and Scribner Publishing for my digital copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is an amazingly thrilling read and I couldn't put it down for a second! WOW!!!!!! I found myself with a myriad of emotions while reading this one (and this doesn't usually happen unless I am reading a romance novel) and had a hard time NOT thinking about it once I was finished. If your a reader who is looking for a page turner with a unique plot, and intriguing characters than this is your next must read!

“Jack and I had skirmishes rather than battles. We are like Cold War diplomats who say nice things to each other while secretly stockpiling ammunition. When do couples run out of things to say, I wonder. When does the passion wane?”

When do secrets become the norm in a marriage? And how was the dazzling Meghan to know that her secrets will become dangerous to her child? What about the secrets we keep in order to lie to ourselves, to build a life we want but don’t truly have? How do delusions overtake reality so viciously that it endangers strangers? When you first decide to deceive, the moment you involve others, you’ve already lost control.

Two women are pregnant but their worlds are vastly different. Meghan has a seemingly charmed life, one of wealth, beauty, chic friends, a handsome husband, beautiful children and a popular blog. Agatha is her polar opposite, pregnant and alone, working in a cruddy job stocking goods in a grocery store (a job she desperately needs) barely surviving, uninteresting, unloved, nearly invisible. Her one joy is the chance to witness Meghan’s beautiful life, Meghan is the one fresh breeze that sweeps through the depressing store. Imagine Agatha’s joy when she discovers that Meghan and her are both pregnant, share due dates close together and become friends. Agatha doesn’t know Meghan’s dream life is falling apart, that everything that appears perfect and beautiful from afar may have severe cracks upon closer inspection. Agatha has secrets of her own, some devastating, others horrifying. She spends her free time waiting for her reluctant boyfriend away at sea in the Royal Navy to call,and denying to see the bleak reality of her unpromising future. That is when she isn’t busy spying on Meghan and her perfect world in her secret hiding place. How much does she truly know from all her ‘watching’, what doesn’t she see? Both Meghan and Agatha are liars, but some lies are far more poisonous than others.

When a baby goes missing… the reader is privy to a declining mind, as much as a declining marriage, both Agatha and Meghan step in their own mess over and over again. Some mistakes cannot be fixed, some make a mother look downright guilty… where is the baby? No one behaves as you expect, not even when they suspect something untoward is happening. This is any mother’s worst nightmare, and yet the reader feels sorry for the perpetrator. What happens when you’re mind is breaking and no one is there to hear? What do you do when your lies are coming to a head and your life is on the verge of collapsing?

Who can guess that a moment of female camaraderie will open someone to danger beyond their wildest dreams? The terror of this novel is in the plausibility. We’ve seen stranger stories ripped right out of the headlines. What is more terrifying than a story that could be a true crime horror? Yet, it also manages to provoke feelings of tenderness and invite questions about the state of mental health. It reminds us when unthinkable things happen to someone, they carry it in their cells, that human beings should be far more involved in the healing and others held accountable for what happens to victims. Sadly, that isn’t the reality. The truth is, so many people are on their own, cast out when they should be heard, supported, and healed. This novel is disturbing, yet all the characters made me feel it’s more than just a thriller/horror. Horror? Yes, because what people do to each other is far more horrible than any imagined monster.

I couldn’t put it down, I found myself in both Agatha and Meghan’s shoes. Though living in two separate worlds, they have one vital truth in common- neither woman is what she seems, and their lies are going to change both their lives. Everything will be exposed.

Publication Date: July 11, 2017

Scribner

I read this is being compared to In a Dark, Dark Wood and Girl on the Train so of course I was quite eager to jump into this thrilling novel; I was not disappointed and felt the comparisons eerily accurate.

Pages will fly by faster than you expect as you develop this need to not stop until you find out all the answers. Problems arise around every twist and turn with no apparent way for Robotham to possibly answer everything within the one book but somehow he does. Unlike most suspense books I’ve read where there inevitably comes that one major moment where everything explodes, this one was more like gently crashing waves slowly releasing the answers a bit at the time.

You will be bombarded with plenty of secrets and lies which should come as no great shock considering the title but there is also a great deal of astute psychological examination of people’s motivations, actions and emotions. Robotham does a fantastic job in his character development as well as his view on human psychology particularly its darker side.

I have to say, for a man, he captured the female voice, psyche and personality scarily well in this book as he allowed his 2 main female characters to narrate this story. It’s not often I am unable to find fault in a male author who decides to dive deep into the female mind but Robotham earned my respect for his deft handling of his characters even more so since the women were pregnant. He managed to avoid the pitfalls of stereotypes men often paint pregnant women into which made his storyline all that much better.

A baby has been kidnapped .....

Meghan is keeping a significant secret from her husband Jack.
They have two small children, Lucy and Lachlan. Meghan is pregnant -again- with their 'oops' pregnancy.
Meghan runs a 'mummy' blog. Jack works for a sports TV network. Their marriage has the 'packaging' looks as if "all-is-dandy". - Good looks, money, the right circle of friends!

Agatha, single, works in a grocery store stocking shelves. She's keeping a significant secret from her boyfriend Hayden, who is away at sea with the Royal Navy.

This is one of those page-turning psychological-perplexing stories that might have you wavering in thought --but never any hesitancy of eagerness to know how this story was going to conclude.

My overall thoughts were this: I WAS HOOKED --I NEVER WANTED TO STOP READING -- and there were definitely 'TROUBLE-IN -PARADISE' type situations .... where I was shaking my head wondering....."ok, how ya goin solve this problem?".... "and this problem"? ..... but when I finished the book.... I was mostly left with very subtle emotions. THERE WAS NOT HUGE TWIST.....WHICH WAS FINE WITH ME.....
.....instead I was left thinking about the scars people live with--suffering and loneliness -- destructive behaviors, trying to make sense of of lies, manipulations, motivations for distortions, the effects from inadequate parenting skills, and the sadness of shocking sudden loss.

This next excerpt was very sad to me...as I think there is truth in this quote. To 'some' degree --( even those with no history of mental illness), often people have a very critical inner voice of themselves.....which looks a little like Agatha's inner voice:
"The creature is blaming me--listing my mistakes, my stupidity. I'm useless. Pathetic. I have failed again. What did I expect? I am going to lose it all--my baby, my fiancé, my freedom... I have no right to happiness. Like wealth, or beauty, it is given to others, not to someone like me".

There are many *secrets* in "The Secrets She Keeps".....and many lies. There is also much 'depth' into the psyche of people. One last thing I thought about: if a person is able to lie easily - accept their own unhealthy behavior--just by reinforcement alone it seems to me that the person would be perpetuating their own suffering. So....
I felt a little sad for the characters ( WHICH WERE VERY WELL DEVELOPED) .
I don't consider this novel a 'chiller-rush'. I have a little 'more' respect its psychological 'quest' than others with lightening - bolts and firecrackers!

Very well done....'authentic' ! Congrats to the author, Michael Robotham ( my first experience reading him - and not the last I hope)

Thank You to Scribner, Netgalley, and Michael Robotham

Very compulsive read, I races through it in 2 days because I Needed to know what was going to happen!!!

Meghan and Agatha are both pregnant. Agatha idolizes Megan and her seemingly perfect life, watching her take the kids to school every day through the window of the grocery store where she works. She also watches the family in their home from her little hiding spot facing the house. The perfect family living the perfect life: the handsome TV presenter husband, the 2 adorable children and beautiful Meghan. Agatha is lonely, her boyfriend is away at sea for months, she has barely any contact with her mother who lives in Spain and she's haunted by her awful childhood and recent past.
When the opportunity presents itself for her to meet Meghan, she grabs it and the women bond over baby stories and she gets invited to Meghan's home, a home she is already quite familiar with. Meghan has no idea who she has invited into her life, a life that will be irrevocably changed.
I empathized very much with both women, getting to know their stories as we're being told their stories from their own words. The stories are heartbreaking, sad, and the book gets more and more intense as you get further into it. I had to remind myself to breathe as the tension was ratcheted up with every chapter.
As usual, Michael Robotham has written another nailbiter, this is such an intense psychological thriller, I literally felt my eyes were going to bleed! He's one of my favorite authors, and all his books are simply terrific.
Thank you, Netgalley, Scribner and Michael Robotham for the eARC.

Highly recommend for mystery and suspense fans! Although I miss Robotham's regular characters, he does a bang-up job with this story. And I hope his next novel features Cyrus as a lead, otherwise what a tease with his backstory!

If you are in the mood to re-read The Girl on the Train, please pick up The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham. If you are in the mood to read a mundane, boring plot, that's been overused time and time again, with a super not so shocking "twist", please feel free to pick up this book.

Agatha is pregnant, and the woman that she stalks, Meg, is also pregnant. Meg lives a seemingly happy life, with her husband and two children, while Agatha is dealing with a relationship problem, and a not so wanted pregnancy. Agatha can't stop watching Meg, for what reason I do not know, but Meg has some secrets of her own, and she hopes that no one, especially her husband, finds out.

Then the "twist" happens, which honestly took way too long to get to, and the plot up until then was so boring I couldn't wait to put this book down. I had half a mind to DNF this book, but I was really hoping it would get better...spoiler alert...it didn't. The twist wasn't even that surprising, especially considering that Agatha would literally sit in shrubbery to spy on Meg all day long.

I'm over this book, I don't want to ever see it again. Disappointed isn't even the right word to use. 1 out of 5 stars from this girl. I received this book from Netgalley.

A mediocre suspense novel about a woman who kidnaps a baby. Why? Well, she hasn't had much luck with the other babies she's kidnapped before. Yep, she's that kind of crazy. I just felt that the story was too predictable and too cliched (infidelity, yummy mummy groups, etc.). I actually skim read parts of the story and didn't feel I had missed any vital information.

What a fantastic psychological thriller!!! I was on the edge of my seat the entire book! I really don't want to dive into the premise because the synopsis does a great job of giving you the basis of this novel and I feel any details I would add to it would be spoilerish. The blinder you go into The Secrets She Keeps the better. Michael Robotham does an incredible job with the timing of this book, the well placed twists and turns literally had my jaw dropping. I love reading a mystery/thriller that has me stumped and when I had no conspiracy theories by 20% in, I was all the more mesmerized and had to find out what Mr. Robotham's genius mind had created for the outcome! Of course I'm not going to touch on the ending, but I will say WOW!!! The Secrets She Keeps is a 5+++ star book that is a 2017 favorite for me!! Go check out this must read!!

With The Secrets She Keeps, Michael Robotham has written one of the most exciting novels of his career in my opinion! What a premise for a story! I don't want to give anything away, so let me just say READ THIS BOOK! This is why he is one of my favorite thriller authors! Always superb! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this great book!