Ithought this was excellent. A wonderful story, a twisty-turny mystery, and two equally compelling and page-turning . At times very funny, at times heart-wrenching your need a tissue , the plot seen real i was hooked . Thought relationships between the characters - family, friendship, love interests - were so well done, so complex and real to me Also loved the north London setting was good i wss there with them I recommend to you all a lovely warm read

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

For 2019 I have set myself a little challenge of trying to review at least one older book each month from my never ending TBR shelf on NetGalley. Hopefully in this way I'll reduce some of the books that have languishing on that shelf for some time as I'm sure there are some gems waiting there to be read. For January I have chosen The House of Secrets by Sarra Manning.

The House of Secrets is only the second book I have read by Sarra Manning and again similar to the first book I read by this author I found this book to initially be a mixed bag for me. The first half I found slow going and it needed all of my attention to keep up with the various intricacies of the plot. This book requires a lot of thinking and to take the time to absorb what was going on with each character. Time was needed to get to know them and to see how the situations they found themselves in and the life altering experiences affected how they were moving on in the present in Zoe's case and for Libby how she was dealing with the fallout of events in 1936.

Admittedly, I put the book down for a day or two and upon returning to it I approached it with a fresh frame of mind and a new perspective which helped me enormously. I found the second half far stronger than the first and I raced through the chapters eager to see how things would eventually unfold and how the past would connect to the present. So essentially I did enjoy this book after taking some time to really get into it, and in fact it was an excellent exploration of two women separated by many years but connected through the shared experience of grief and loss and how we overcome such personal tragedy, anguish and hardship without it tearing us and our relationships apart and affecting how we live the rest of our lives.

The House of Secrets follows two women who at first appear to have nothing in common and whom in fact never get to meet each other given they are separated by many years. Instead the connection is established through a diary found languishing in an old suitcase. Its only by chance as Zoe and her husband Win move into an abandoned house that needs thousands of pounds poured into its renovation that Zoe discovers an old suitcase shoved to the back of a shelf in her new bedroom. Who left it there? What is inside it? Why is that the only object in a home that was bought in 1936 and never once lived in? Over the years the house despite being newly built in 1936 has given into the ravages of time but the couple feel they can bring it back to its former glory but as they begin the process their relationship is tested to the max. Added to this they are grieving a recent loss which is tearing them apart, more so Zoe as Win refuses to talk about it or even really acknowledge it.

From the start I could see that Zoe was clinging to a knife edge. Her emotions were all over the place and she needed to express how she was feeling without receiving scorn or judgement from Win. But she wasn't allowed to do this, to be given the freedom to express her sadness at this loss which could have take their lives in an entire new direction. Win became a closed book obsessed with house renovations and plans and as the couple realise the challenge of restoring the house was even greater than they imagined, an already fragile relationship of which they have been a part of for over thirteen years is in danger of crumbling just like the walls of the house that need attention.

Zoe needed support, a shoulder to cry on to be be able to feel some joy when it arose but also to howl and shed the pain she was experiencing. She wasn't getting that from Win so upon discovering the suitcase and exploring the contents she takes this as a sign. I suppose she was clinging to any little form of contentment and acceptance that she could gain wherever possible. She finds connections between herself and the author of the diary she discovers amongst some other things in the case. As she read through Libby's diary I thought Zoe established connections because she wanted to see them. She wanted to think that someone else had been through the same thing and she believed through learning more about Libby that it would help her with starting the tentative healing process she so desperately needed. If she couldn't start this process her relationship would be lost forever. Herself and Win were drowning in a grief that Win refused to discuss where as Zoe was the polar opposite and she knew she needed to understand it better in order to take baby steps into the future.

As the story moves forward she sees many similarities between herself and Libby and even though Libby's story is just as heartbreaking as Zoe's, Zoe does find comfort and solace at what she is reading. Soon Zoe becomes determined to discover just who Libby was and why did her suitcase end up in the house? It becomes almost an obsession or a quest and she won’t rest until she has the answers. As Zoe begins her research in earnest strange coincidences make themselves known as if the cycle is repeating itself but will the outcome be one Zoe wishes for? As she embarks upon this journey will it be to the detriment of her relationship with Win or will grief and the pressures of restoring the house just be too much for their relationship to be able to weather the tumultuous storm they are in?

I found myself more drawn to Libby and what she was experiencing as the story alternated between Libby and Zoe. She was a strong woman who was not going to be brought down by grief or loss but at the same time she was a woman desperate for love and to be loved. It was all she craved. Yes she was independent, she had to be given her husband Freddy remained in Paris to continue his writing as a reporter for a newspaper, but still she felt she had been abandoned by him given the significant events that befell them in Paris. I instantly disliked Freddy for the rash way he treated Libby and how he remained disconnected and absent for the majority of the novel. It was like she had been dismissed and left to carry on and shoulder the burden by herself. He was selfish but by the end he redeemed himself and my opinion of him changed showing we really shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

As for Libby she returns to London and is forced to stay in the boarding house run by Freddy's mother Millicent. Libby treats the place as somewhere to rest her weary bones. She could have stayed there day in day out and moped around harbouring her loss but she didn't. Although she never forgot her experiences that led to such pain and sadness she knew she needed to move on realising that Freddy although she loved him was not the man for her. I loved Libby as a character, she was feisty and a go getter. She was led by her heart whereas common sense and intuition should have come into play when she got herself involved in certain situations. Meeting Hugo Watkins being one of them.

At first I gave scant regard to the circumstances of their meeting presuming it would have little forbearance on the rest of Libby's strand of the story and that within a chapter or two Hugo would be forgotten about. Instead for Libby, Hugo became an obsession and the source of her love replacing Freddy. Hugo gave Libby what Freddy could not and she became consumed with passion. I felt she really rushed into things but again this goes back to the fact I think she was a person who could not be alone. Yes she had her independence but behind it all she needed an anchor and a crutch and she searched for it where ever possible. I didn't know what to make of Hugo and given his own personal situation and his reasons for meeting Libby I began to question his actual intentions and whether they were real at all. Libby has grit and determination but she found herself in deeper than she ever thought possible and as her circumstances change several times over the reader does hope she can find the happiness and fulfilment she so desperately seeks but that seems to evade her no matter how hard she struggles to reach it.

Sarra Manning has masterfully weaved a connection between Libby and Zoe as both women attempt to claw their way back from the depths of despair. A wide range of emotions and lots of vulnerability, suffering and heartache are explored throughout the book and once I reached the half way point I really did feel as if I was transported right into the lives of Libby and Zoe although perhaps I identified and felt more for Libby. There was just something about her that spoke to me and I came to admire and have a deep respect for her. That's not to take away from Zoe at all especially as both women were going through the same thing I think I just found that Libby handled herself in a much better manner. So although my relationship with and understanding of The House of Secrets got off to a rocky start, my opinion did change over time and I can say now I would certainly recommend this book. I'm just annoyed with myself that I left it so long to read this book.

I enjoyed this but was somewhat bemused by the ending. Was Hugo really a rotter all along? Or just pussy whipped by his wife?

This is a brilliant five star book. It's really quite long and you get two stories for the price of one as we have the present day and the 1930's intertwined. Zoe moves into the house in the present day. it was built in 1936 and has never been lived in. Libby is from 1936 and owned the house, when built, she left a small suitcase behind, hidden, containing her diary and some personal items. When Zoe reads the diary we go on a journey with her and Libby. They have a connection and Zoe has to find out exactly what happened to Libby! Read on.

I loved this novel! It had everything I wanted in it - great characters,a plot with dual narratives, and a sense of mystery in working out how certain characters may or may not be connected...

I don't read that much historical romance but I would definitely read more if they were all as engaging as this! I felt that Sarra Manning is particularly great at creating a real sense of atmosphere around the times the two main characters - Zoe and Libby - are living in. I loved the present day narrative which felt refreshing familiar every time I came back from the narrative set in the 1930's. It's amazing how different their lives are, but in many ways are very similar, and that's partly what this novel seems to focus on. 

There were times I really disliked the male 'love interests' but on the whole I really warmed to both Zoe and Libby, increasingly liking them as I read more about them. Sarra Manning has effectively created a a real sense of atmosphere but including hidden or less obvious objects and elements in and around the 'house of secrets'. I personally really enjoyed the switch between eras too, though I know some people don't get along with this type of narrative structure.

I also liked that the plot surprised me at various points; sometimes I thought I knew exactly what would happen, but often it wasn't as black and white as that. I feel that this reflects real life more, and I really preferred that not everything was tied up with a nice bow...

I'd highly recommend The House of Secrets  for anyone looking to read a well structured and beautifully written historical novel, and I will certainly be reading more by this author in the future.

The House of Secrets is a story of 2 women who lived 80 years apart but have lived in the same house. Zoe and her husband Win have bought a lovely house in London which is in need of a lot of repair, in one of the rooms they discover a suitcase with some personal items and a diary written by someone called Libby who lived there during 1936. The story switches between the 2 women - Zoe is recovering from the loss of a baby and from the diary so is Libby. I struggled to get into the book to begin with but then the stories started to get interesting and I wanted to know what was happening with Libby. There were some sad bits and I shed a few tears - lovely book to curl up with .

fell in love with the pretty cover of this book,I adore roses so was drawn straight away. I know, you should never judge a book by it’s cover, but believe me, this one really carried on, on the inside too.

The storyline had me gripped & the characters were truly well written into this dual narrative novel set in the 1930s and the present day.

Historical reading isn’t my normal genre but I really enjoyed this book.

I am a massive fan of Sarra Manning. She was actually one of the first authors who I discovered when I got into teen books. When I saw this book I knew I had to read it. Especially as it looked to be in the same kind of style as Manning's last book, After The Last Dance. I liked the fact it was set in the past and the present with two storylines in tandem with characters linked in unknown ways. I do think that I loved After the Last Dance more. I connected with the characters better in that and the book destroyed me but this one was brilliantly written and impacted in a different way.

I will say before you continue, this review will contain spoilers and it’s the only way I know how to fully talk about this book so I apologise now. I want to be able to talk about everything. Now, let’s continue.

I loved the present day story of Zoe and Win moving into a rundown project house which was a true fixer upper. Their discovery of a suitcase and a diary owned by Libby was brilliant and seeing the two go through the heartbreaks that they had was amazing. I mean, they broke me, I almost cried at some moments of their relationship. I adored Win and how he wasn't perfect but he was so utterly in love with Zoe and he was so scared of losing control of his life and losing her. He was not the perfect man but he was the one I would have wanted to.

As for Libby and her story, she was fun and enigmatic and I adored her. She loved so easily and even when she was at her lowest she had more personality than many of the men she loved. I felt for her throughout her ordeals and I wished she had had a better go of things in London because most of the men in her life were beasts, even Freddy. She deserved more than she got.

The part of both the stories which I really loved was the fact both Zoe and Libby had suffered miscarriages. Both had lost a child they had never even gotten a chance to know and the way it was written about, was utterly brilliant. I think that is why I adored this book as much as I did. Miscarriages and discussions of the difficulties of both getting pregnant and being pregnant are rarely discussed. Pregnancy is only ever allowed to be a joyous fantastic thing but sometimes things go wrong. There were statistics quoted in the books that mean there will people you know who have suffered and may never have spoken about it because it is taboo. I really loved how it was written about. People were sympathetic to their plight but didn't understand and it was the kind of thing to 'move on' from. No one recognised the connection felt to that unborn child and I loved how it was acceptable to grieve what could have been. That was what stood out me.

Seeing the struggles of Libby and Zoe and Win and how they mirrored each other was truly amazing. I never felt like I cared about one story more than another and that rarely happens for me. I connected to the characters and I wanted them to get their happy ending. I don’t feel like the book went quite where I wanted it to, but then it went the way it needed to and I loved that. I did predict a plot twist, though. It felt very obvious but I still liked it.

As a whole, I adored this book. Once it got going I was hooked and every time real life got in the way of reading it I was upset. It may not have put me through the emotional ringer like After the Last Dance but it did hit me hard and it will stay with me for a while yet.

I was lucky enough to go to a glamorous and sophisticated party to launch this book last night: I am of course open to being bribed with unusual cocktails, fizz, and fabulous canapes – but luckily there was no need. I had already read the book and absolutely loved it, so could consume everything on offer with a clear conscience. (I pretty much knew in advance that I would love it – see my enthusiastic post about Sarra Manning’s last book, After the Last Dance, here on the blog.)

This one has a great setup – two distinct storylines, one contemporary and one in the 1930s, linked by a London house in a way that isn’t revealed to begin with. Zoe and Win, above, have moved into a long-empty house, trying to rebuild their relationship after something went badly wrong. They are doing it up, even if Zoe sometimes feels that they’ll be
working long past retirement age, coach parties swinging past to take pictures of the house that hadn’t been lived in for 80 years, then had the builders in for another 40.
Meanwhile, more or less alternate chapters tell us the story of Libby, the owner of the green dress, knocking round 1930s London (not in the house of the title…) after an unfortunate series of events of her own. We first meet her, quite splendidly, acting as the fake adultery partner in a divorce case – a fascinating feature of 1930s life that also comes up, memorably, in Evelyn Waugh’s Handful of Dust, and is mentioned in Dorothy L Sayers Busman’s Honeymoon – see this blogpost for more details. (The arcane 30s divorce rules are laid out and explained in the book – I had never really understood them before.)

We follow the two stories in parallel – Zoe and Win are working out their own problems, while also trying to find out more about Libby, reading her diary which is in the suitcase, and watching the story unfold at the same time as we do. By the end there is a real cliffhanger about Libby’s story – I read a lot of crime novels, but few of them kept me as tense as waiting and hoping and dreading how things are going to pan out for Libby.

And, as in the earlier book, Sarra writes so well about women, and men, and their lives. These are real people, the kind you can imagine as your friends, they have faults and annoying traits, but they also have their charms and quirks. I thought the relationships in the book were very well done. When writing about After the Last Dance, I said about the heroine Rose
She is a great character – not a goody-goody, nor promiscuous, but somewhere in between. She is very sharp and smart and human. She also has an excellent interest in her clothes …
And that could apply to Libby too. 

There were various fine clothes moments in the book, but in the end I felt I had to go with Libby’s cherished green dress, which she wore to be married in. The drawing is from a collection of NYPL fashion illustrations of the 1930s. The photograph, from Kristine’s photostream, is a little too late, but seemed to be the right kind of green dress, and the mysterious head in shadow is in the spirit of the plot.

I took some photos at the booklaunch, but as is traditional with me they were all unusably terrible, so the photo of Sarra above is from her Twitter feed. She is a great friend to this blog – we met online, and are constantly swapping book recommendations. Thus, she has cost me a lot of money over the years – because anything she recommends I immediately buy – but I do forgive her….

I had no idea what this was going to be about because I hadn't read the synopsis due to Sarra Manning being an auto buy author for me. I loved her last historical novel and so I knew I was probably going to like this one too. The premise behind this novel, two women who live nearly 100 years apart are linked somehow and Zoe finds sharing her pain and her difficulties with someone she has never met, someone who is long gone cathartic and healing. I don't want to say too much about the storyline because then you can go into it with a clear head as I did but I thought the whole thing was done really well. The issues covered had great comparison across the ages and yet both women's struggles were easy to relate to.

The structure of this novel is a dual narrative, we switch between LIbby's story and Zoe's story. Zoe and Win are struggling to cope with their issues and the fact that they have just moved into a fixer upper isn't helping. Both sides of the story are third person but Zoe's part is very much about moving on and moving upwards whereas Libby's story reveals slowly, building up and up. Sometimes we have things in Zoe's story that give us clues as to what kind of ending Libby is going to have and I thought the two were tied together really well. I listened to this on audiobook and there weren't different narrators for the two so it was slightly less easy to discern which storyline we were following but it was generally pretty straightforward to work it out.

As I say, both of these women had stories one could relate to and it is safe to say that feeling don't change and wither over time. Zoe is obviously dealing with some grief and so we really do see her personality changing as she comes to terms with this more and more over the course of the book. There are moments where she suggests that she is beginning to feel more her old self and it was great to see her grow over the course of the book. Libby also grows as we get to know more and more about her. I think that she has to learn certain life lessons and that is sometimes hard to deal with but both of these women start out on the back foot and grow stronger and stronger as the novel progresses.

There are some sad moments in this novel, some difficult moments but there were also some moments that made me laugh and moments that made me want to say 'go get 'em girl!' which was just a great balance. I had a little trouble with the dual narrative in the beginning, as I say I think this would be avoided by reading the paperback or ebook rather than the audio but the narration of the audio was great too so... I really enjoyed this read and it is safe to say that Sarra Manning is definitely still an auto buy author!

Whilst the story was intriguing - a house, a suitcase and two women 80 years apart - the delivery was less spellbinding, although I did like the final chapters.

Whilst the story had its merits, sharing the challenges of relationships and pregnancies across the time span, the characters themselves weren't sufficiently rounded enough to provide depth of character. I didn't really warm to any of them except the dog (and I much prefer cats!)

Sad to report that this didn't blow me away and I finished it to see what happened rather than because I had to read just one more page.

3*

Thanks Little, Brown Book Group UK and netgalley for this ARC.

Sweet, sorrowful, and safe. If you like a good cozy romance with a touch of melancholy.

I can remember reading Sarra Manning's Diary of a Crush column in Just Seventeen and J17 magazine when I was growing up, and loving Dylan and Edie and all their friends.  Since then, I've read nearly all of the books she's published, and there hasn't been one that has disappointed me.  A couple hold secret places in my heart (Nobody's Girl and Unsticky), and The House of Secrets looks set to join them. 

The House of Secrets - Sarra Manning


The book splits between two timelines, one in the 1930s focusing on Libby, a thirtysomething whose husband has abandoned her after she lost their baby, and the second in present-day London, with Zoe and Win also recovering from an horrendous miscarriage where they didn't realise Zoe was pregnant until it was too late.  Their stories are connected by a house in Highgate, bought for Libby in the 1930s, and bought by Zoe and Win 80 years later, and something contained within draws Zoe to Libby's story...

There seem to have been a lot of books published recently where there are multiple timelines, and this appeals to my short attention span as the story moves from period to period and back again.  At first, I was much more enamoured with Libby in the 1930s, feeling outraged by the behaviour of her husband Freddy (who reminded me an awful lot of Esmond Romilly, is that just me?), and Libby's determination to pick herself up and avoid being brought down by her vile mother-in-law struck a chord.  In contrast, Zoe and Win's present day troubles took longer to draw me in, but once they did I was rooting for their story to end well - even though, for a lot of the time, I thought their happy ending meant that they wouldn't end up together.

It's not giving too much away to say that both stories contained within The House of Secrets share more than a common house, but the heartbreaking loss of a child before its birth, and Zoe tries to find out what happened to Libby once she finds a suitcase filled with her possessions (including a diary and a baby's outfit) in the house - the house which had not been lived in until she and Win bought it.  I couldn't be further away from being in a similar situation to that of both Libby and Zoe, but that should never be a barrier to enjoying good fiction, and as the book progressed I found myself racing towards its conclusion as I was desperate to find out how it ended.  Unusually, I couldn't predict the ending - as I mentioned above, I wasn't convinced there was a happily ever after for Zoe and Win, and Libby's situation with the too-good-to-be-true Hugo also looked desperate as the book went on.  Without wishing to give anything away, I was happy with the way that both tales ended, but because I read the latter third of the book so quickly I definitely need to read The House of Secrets again.  More than once, and hopefully with a giant mug of tea and Dolly Mixtures to hand....

I read Sarra Manning's After The Last Dance last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. If anything, I enjoyed The House of Secrets even more. Like After The Last Dance it focuses on two different eras, two different women and the house which connects them. I love dual time-line plots with a bit of a mystery about this so this book was just perfect for me.

Both the main characters, Libby in the 1930s and Zoe in the present day, have suffered loss and are trying their best to move forward. Zoe and husband Win have bought a large run-down house in London and hope working on the house together will be the fresh start their relationship needs. Rather mysteriously, the house hasn't been lived in since it was built. Zoe finds a suitcase in the house which contains intriguing items such as a few baby clothes, a wedding dress and a diary. Zoe begins to read the diary and finds it belonged to Libby. Discovering they have experienced similar sad situations, Zoe is determined to find out what happened to Libby, hoping that they will both find happy endings.

I was just as keen as Zoe to find out what happened to Libby and happily, as a reader, I was able to find out much more than Zoe could from the diary. The story was told from both women's points of view as the focus moved back and forward from the present to the 1930s. It was perfectly paced and written in a way that had me wanting to keep on reading to find out what happened next for each woman. Sometimes I found Zoe to be judgemental towards Libby but of course, she didn't have the advantage of knowing the whole story, just her assumptions from Libby's diary. I enjoyed both women's stories equally, finding them to be very believable and both rather brave in different ways. I must just mention that Beyonce was an excellent addition to the story. Yes really, you'll need to read it to see what I mean!

I confess to having something in my eye at some points but there were most definitely smiles too. The House of Secrets is a lovely book about not losing hope, believing in love and second chances.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. House of Secrets is set in two time periods and follows the lives of two sets of people, with a link to a mystery house. Libby lives in 1936, she has lost a child through miscarriage and even worse has been deserted by the father and her husband. Zoe and her husband Win buy a house that was built in 1936 but never lived in. Now it is run down, full of dry rot but they have put in a bid and have won the house