A great read. I enjoyed reading it and it has a great plot and characters. I also look forward to more books from the author.

Intriguing premise, engaging from page one.

The story a little predictable but I still enjoyed the way the pieces fit together. 

A huge thanks to Avon & NetGalley for gifting me a copy in return for an open & honest review.

⭐⭐⭐

Thankyou to NetGalley,  Avon Books UK and the author,  Tracy Buchanan,  for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The Family Secret in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion. 
I thought this book provided a good read.  
The storyline was well written with well drawn characters.  
Worth a read.

A thrilling read which kept me turning the pages, characters you care for and just brilliantly written.  Great novel!!

Tracy Buchanan is a new author to me and I enjoyed this book and am thankful to NetGalley for introducing me to another wonderful author.

I found the book to be a real page turner which includes romance, adventure and an extra helping of intrigue.  The plot switches from past to present and the author gives us dilemmas which will have you thinking on what you would do in such a situation. The characters are deeply realistic and interesting.

Set during winter, fliting between Scotland and Iceland, is the perefect excuse to settle down, wrap up warm with a cosy blanket and a hot cuppa enjoy this perfect winter story.

Highly recommended read.

This is an average family thriller. I found the storyline quite confusing. There were two narrators, sometimes more, this doesn't normally bother me. Anyway the story did come together at the end.

This book was fast paced. Hard to put down. It flowed well and it was very well written. It caught hold of me and had me hooked from the start . I was literally on the edge of my seat reading this book.

I have always had a bittersweet relationship with Tracy Buchanan's books. I have liked her books, but the relationship never reached love. But this broke the bindings of the old myth of a relationship. I LOVED THE BOOK!! Well, most of it... Read on...

2 stories, 2 POV, 20 years apart, one was Gwyneth in 1989 and the other Amber in 2009. Amber rescues a girl walking along the beach with no coat and shoes and no memory. In trying to help the amnesiac girl, Amber travels to Scotland with her. Gwyneth has her own tale to narrate. She is a cinematographer for a wildlife documentary. During one such shoot, post falling and nearly drowning in a frozen loch, she is rescued by Dylan, and her love story starts...

I really loved this book, it was an emotional journey with twists and turns. This is my first book by Tracy, I'll be reading more. I was drawn to it as I read that it was recommended for fans of Kerry Fisher who I love. I really felt for all of the characters both main and supporting, and I didn't want it to end. A great read.

This story was told between two different timelines. The two timelines alternate between Gwyneth in 1989 and The other in 2009. Amber rescues a girl on the beach who has amnesia and is drawn to her and wants to help her regain her memory. Gwyneth has her own tale to tell about her love story and quite a love story it is....
Tracy Buchanan does a wonderful job weaving her story and her characters are very strong women. This was a delight to read and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys women fiction. 
Thank you to Netgalley and  the publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

It was an okay read, though a whole lot more predictable romance than twisty page turner. Not really what I was expecting from the cover and blurb.

This was a complicated story to read  covering two time lines but with connections. Although an interesting story it didn't really engage me.

This was a great book weaving two different time lines. Gwyneth was rescued in 1989 and is now a wildlife photographer and Amber , who runs a craft shop and rescues a girl who has lost her memory.
I loved the characters and the setting is wonderfully drawn, enabling you to imagine yourself right in the middle of the story. You wonder what secrets are going to come out.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. A mystery with believable characters. I did not guess who was who before the reveal , and enjoyed the journey to get there. Definitely recommended.

A Gripping Thriller:
Amber runs a seaside gift shop with some help from her Mum and Aunt. She is a divorcee, her marriage to hospital consultant, Jasper unable to withstand the loss of their daughter, Katy, to meningitis at the age of four. Amber has never really got over her loss but has carved a happy life of sorts for herself with the help of her Mum and Aunt.
That is to change when a young girl appears on the beach with no memory of who she is or why she is in Winterton Chine. Amber takes the young girl to hospital and from there an adventure begins which will take Amber and Lumin (the young girl's "given" name) all the way from Winterton Chine to the Highlands of Scotland as they search for Lumin's family and past.
The novel is set in 2009 with flashbacks to 1989 where we read the story of Gwyneth, a wildlife photographer. Clearly the two stories have a common link but what is it? Well read this wonderful book and you'll find out. Full of mystery and intrigue this novel had me guessing right till the very end when all was revealed. A feel good thriller with a happy end.

Brilliant. Twists and turns in all directions. Intriguing but full of warmth. It felt like a real family, not fiction!

Two lives intertwine as both are affected by events during the freezing wintertime.

When a teenage girl washes up at Amber’s beachside gift shop, she finally has a purpose after loosing her own daughter years before. Gwyneth is taken in by a Scottish family in the remote highlands but what are they hiding?

From the premise I was expecting to love this book, however, whilst it was intriguing I didn’t find it totally convincing.

This is the first book I’ve read by Tracy Buchanan but certainly won’t be the last. I found this book had just the right amount of intrigue to keep me wanting to turn the pages.  

The book is centred around Amber who runs a quaint gift shop on the seafront form those wonderful huts you see in some seaside towns, and a mysterious girl who Amber, her mum and Aunt found one morning with no coat on and shoeless walking along the beach unsure where she is or even who she is. 

The story is told in alternating chapters which also is two different timelines, one being 1989 and one in 2009. 

The story follows the mystery of who the girl is and the lengths that Amber goes to, to help her. 

All in all, a really interesting story and a book that I found had an ending that to me was perfect! 

I read this book courtesy of a copy provided by NetGalley and Avon books and my review is my honest opinion.

The early copy I read of this book is my first by this author, and I’m grateful to receive a  copy through NetGalley. It is extremely well written and beautifully edited, which I always appreciate. This story has a lot of emotion and fascinating family dynamics.  I also enjoyed the mix of past and present to give the needed background.

The Family Secret by Tracy Buchanan is the first of her books that I’ve read. Although I liked it, I didn’t love it, but maybe that’s because it is romantic fiction, a genre that I don’t read very often.

It’s an emotional family drama set in two timelines. The narrative switches between the two periods – one in 2009 written in the third person present tense and the other in 1989 – 1996 in the first person past tense, so the timelines are easily distinguishable. The two storylines eventually merge. However, it begins with a prologue in which an unnamed woman drowns in a frozen lake, watched by an unnamed man. As I read on I was wondering who they were and what had led up to that scene and how it fitted into the main part of the book.

There are plenty of secrets and several twists in the story. In 2009, Amber Caulfield comes across a young girl is found stumbling along the beach at Winterton Chine on the south coast of England, not wearing a coat or shoes and unable to remember who she is, or how she got there. Amber who has her own problems decides to help her remember who she is and to reunite her with her family.

The second storyline, beginning in 1989 is full of secrets too. Gwyneth is a wildlife documentary filmmaker who gets lost as she’s driving in the Scottish Highlands. She comes across a lodge overlooking a loch. It’s Christmas Eve, freezing cold and snowing, so she decides to ask for help, but seeing a ptarmigan gets out her camera to film the bird and steps onto the frozen loch, the ice cracks and she falls into the water. Fortunately she is rescued by Dylan McClusky and taken in by his family. She is made welcome but it soon becomes apparent that this is a dysfunctional family with a number of problems and secrets. Gwyneth too has a troubled background and a big secret that she keeps well hidden.

 It’s a novel about love, loss and guilt, but it’s a bit too predictable for my liking, with rather too many coincidences that weren’t very convincing. But it’s an easy and enjoyable book to read and it kept my interest to the end. I liked the vivid descriptions of the landscape and wildlife both in the Scottish Highlands and in Iceland in the depths of winter, bringing the settings to life.