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.

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.

I so enjoyed this book! The story pulled me in immediately & I was hooked all the way through. Three women who don't know each other are connected by events in the past which are explored in different story lines which are well written and generally plausible.

Amber is a young divorced woman, whose daughter died ten years earlier. She runs a small gift shop and manages her life with the help of her mother and aunt who live nearby. She is missing several fingers from her left hand, the result of frostbite at the age of four. Gwyneth is a wildlife filmmaker who has recently lost her closest friend, an elderly filmmaker and her mentor. She has no real roots following his death and goes about her life and career solo. Lumin is a young woman who appears on the beach near Amber's shop with a bloody head and no idea of who she is or where she is from.

Not wanting to spoil the story for anyone, I will simply say that this was an engrossing read that I strongly recommend.

I was gripped from the beginning of this book. Told in two time sets this is a book of families love and secrets and travelling between Iceland and Scotland as the story of amber and lumen unfold. What a great ending when the two time periods join together and we find out that amber and lumen are related after all. I will be recommending this book to my friends and colleagues and give it 5 stars

My first book by Tracy Buchanan, It won't be my last - I really enjoyed this story, nice and easy to read, great characters and based around lovely scenery. Draws you in and leaves you eager to keep reading on to find out all the family secrets, and how the story concludes. Was sorry to come to the end of the book. Will be looking out for more books by this author.

Fantastic little page turner. There’s nothing better than some family drama with a bit of suspense. The characters were interesting and I found overall it was bit of an emotional roller coaster to read.

Amber, divorced and still single, working in her gift shop is still grieving for the child she lost ten years previously. Her child is now her work and she can think of nothing else. 

That is until a girl wanders onto the beach by Amber's gift shop with no recollection of who she is, where she is, why she is there or even her name and age.

Amber senses a story with this girl and the girl only seems to trust Amber. But can Amber help this lost soul when she is in fact still lost herself. 

Gwyneth is a famous wildlife documentary maker. She is never at home always on the way to or coming from the latest project.

Gwyneth finds herself lost in the wilds of Scotland, by a frozen loch and decides to cross it to get some help. It turns out she will need the help. 

That help comes from Dylan McCluskey at home for Christmas. 

Two storylines, twenty years apart and with very different tales to tell. Both could have been seperate stories and Tracy Buchanan has created them so well that you had to keep reading because you knew at some point these stories were going to cross, to connect to unearth the secrets that had been kept for many years. 

Not only are we given excellent characters with flaws to relate to, with guilt and secrets to hide but the author has put it all in some rather bleak settings, the winter at the beach, the snow of Scotland even transporting us to Iceland where the light is not always so bright. All of the landscapes and places bring another layer to the story and add to the whole atmosphere of the story. 

This is a great read and one that you will get hooked by, I had to keep reading to find out the truth, the secrets and who exactly the mysterious girl without a memory was.

A really interesting read a story with plenty of hidden secrets really loved the characters in this book After a young girl is found wandering on a beach having lost her memory and is found by Amber who runs a gift shop there,the story which follows takes many twists and eventually as everything is revealed about the past everything come together in a very unexpected way A story of love and heartbreak written beautifully by the writer of this fascinating novel

Thank you Netgalley for my copy of The Family Secret by Tracy Buchanan. This was definitely a different read to what I normally go for, I though the the storyline was intriguing, gripping and I couldn't read fast enough to see where the story would take me. The Family Secret tells two stories that are so cleverly written and woven together. The first story is of Gwyneth who is a cinematographer making documentaries about wildlife and one day she finds herself trespassing on to private land to grab the perfect shot, however, she falls into a frozen loch and starts to drown. She is rescued by Dylan and they quickly feel a connection and fall in love. The second woman is Amber. Amber has also faced challenges in her life, she lost her daughter to meningitis and soon after her marriage broke down so she now focuses on her shop selling local artisan products, pottery and keepsakes. Whilst working on day Amber sees a girl staggering on the beach, it's winter and the girl has no shoes or coat on. She's completely confused as to how she even got there. Amber Ames her to the hospital and starts her own mission to reunite the young girl with her family. Amber has many problems of her own but they all take a back seat in her quest to help this girl. As well as thoroughly enjoying the relatable characters I enjoyed the description of the different settings in Scotland and Iceland. They were magical, descriptions of frozen waterfalls, icy lakes - I actually felt the biting cold as though I was actually there. As a reader I enjoyed the build up to the connection between the women.

Wonderful book. So many twists and turns. This book definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. I’ll be tea more books by this author

I enjoyed this book but took me a while to get into the story. Set in two different times the story details the lives of Gweneth and Amber. A story of family secrets, lies and love. A little far fetched at times, especially at the end. I have read better by this author.

This book has two timelines and two stories that finally meld together. Gwyneth set in 1969 and Amber set in 2009. Gwyneth is in Scotland and is saved from an icy grave by a local family. Amber has devoted her life to her business since her daughter died. This book is the story of how these two women come together and both end up happy. I've read several books by this author and I usually pick up her new titles. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Another must read by Tracy Buchanan. Told from two different point of view over two time periods but was super easy to follow. Beautiful descriptions of the scenery and surroundings , which I always love !

Good read, complex and interesting charatcers, didnt end the way i thought it would, i really enoyed it.

I found this to be one of those novels where you can basically read the first line of each paragraph because the writing was so trite. I'm not fond of stories where a character has amnesia to the point of not knowing who she is because that isn't very common in real life. I also thought it was a bit much that three of the characters had car trouble (three different vehicles) at different points in the story. Didn't buy that two of the characters who only knew each other for a few hours (but who, of course, slept with each other) felt that they had fallen deeply in love and pined for each other over the years with various ridiculous circumstances keeping them apart. The whole "family secret' was a bit of a letdown too. I could go on and on, but this novel just didn't do it for me. I read the ARC edition of this book as supplied by Netgalley.

Set on two-time lines this follows the stories of two women, one in 1989 and the other in 2009.
When Amber and her mum are out walking on a bitterly cold day, they find a teenager wandering on the beach without coat or shoes and no memory of who she is. She is taken to a local hospital where Amber’s ex-husband is a doctor. Amber feels a moment of guilt about leaving the young women there on her own and decides that the quickest way for her to regain her memories is by more radical methods.
Back in 1989 Gwyneth has to be rescued from a frozen Loch she has fallen into by nothing short of a Prince Charming, Dylan, who is the son the local Scottish land owner. The whole family is so welcoming with a tradition of not turning strangers away and welcoming them to stay and eat. Chemistry isn’t long before it works between the pair.
Amber has many problems from her own past but the pull to help this young women is impossible for her not to listen to. What begins as a mission to help this young girl affects so many lives from the past to present day, including her own. The main characters in the story are so easy to like and get behind and will on to find out who the unknown girl is. Then the back drop story and love story made for the perfect balance.
It is very much a story where the more you find out the more questions it opens up. I loved the setting, a lot of which was in Scotland, that at times felt like it was further back in time than it was. It really is a story of discovery, far more than I ever thought it would be.