I received a digital advance review copy of this book from Lake Union Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

"That summer, she learned to lie." Someone Else's Secret is absorbing book that kept me turning the pages. The book opens with an unidentified character waking from a recurring nightmare connected to an event that occurred on Martha's Vineyard a decade earlier, which effectively sets up a feeling of suspense that carries through the ensuing chapters. The story then flashes back to recount the events of the summer leading up to that tragic event and is told in chapters that alternate between the perspectives of Lindsey, a recent college graduate who has taken a summer job as a nanny for a wealthy family in hopes that they can help her land a permanent job in an art gallery, and Georgie, the 14 year old daughter in the family who feels ostracized from her friends and has a crush on a man in his early 20s. After the tragic event and its immediate aftermath, the book then flashes forward to the present day, again with alternating chapters from Lindsey and Georgie's perspectives.

I greatly enjoyed the first 75% of the book, but the last segment that deals with the present day resolution felt rushed and the ending felt a bit too neatly tied up. The author does an excellent job of describing the sights, smells, and sounds of summer life on Martha's Vineyard, which made the island scenes really come alive in my mind. I would recommend this book to someone looking for a good "summer read" that is well-written and deals with some weighty issues.

Julia Spiro has written an engrossing tale of how one day, one event, can change everything you know about life. SOMEONE ELSE'S SECRET is the story of two young women, both looking to be more like their ideal person. More rich, more beautiful, more popular....just more. Their connection to each other is broken when an horrific event leaves both just trying to forget. But circumstances conspire to cast a shadow on their future that must be confronted. 10 years after, they will both learn that you can't close off a part of your life without losing a part of yourself. Together, they will face their past and learn they do not have to be victims.

This is a powerful read that explores the complex feelings surrounding sexual assault and how power can be wielded to protect perpetrators. At times it felt a bit too stark with the message being that almost all men are predators, but overall I think that Julia Spiro explores the range of feelings of the two female characters very effectively.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Julia Spiro for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You could just feel the angst and awkwardness of 14 year old Georgie and 22 year old Lindsey. It definitely takes you back to those ages and feeling like everyone has it together but you. The story takes place with ten years in between. The middle felt a bit long to me.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The author perfectly captured the struggles young women experience when feeling inadequate to their peers. She also provided the reader with a delightful read with characters that got themselves into situations made this story a big mess of dysfunction.

Someone Else’s Secret by Julia Spiro is an excellent book that takes the reader through a wild ride that is a decade in the making from beginning to end.

We first see Lindsey as a young, fresh, and honestly naive graduate that is working as a nanny on Martha’s Vineyard after undergrad. She befriends the 15 y/o Georgie and it seems all is glitzy, glamorous, and ideal as one would see the privileged and elite through unknowing and rose colored glasses if one was an outsider. Soon we realize along with Lindsey that there are dark, troubling torrents of undercurrent present that leads to a traumatic event that stuns and alters both of their lives forever.

We finally see the eventual outcome (and I feel a satisfying ending but do not want to give anything else away) ten years later.

This is a book that kept me drawn in until the very last page. My heart was racing, especially in the last few pages. It is a book that covers friendship, secrets, ambition, and the fight good and just over hurt and wrong. It is not an easy read at times, but definitely worth the journey.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

Can a secret alter your entire future? It can and it does for Lindsey and Georgie, two unlikely acquaintances brought together by a summer job and connected for a decade through a dark secret. This debut novel by Julia Spiro examines the consequences that come with the burden of keeping such a secret. The prologue sets the tone for the whole book. It hooks you and although it takes some time to get to the big event, it's worth it in the end. Lindsey as the summer nanny and Georgie as the angsty teenager were similar in their insecurities and need for acceptance within the high society on Martha's Vinyard.

The first half of this book was a little slow moving, but the last half really brought it home. Spiro’s writing was refreshing. It didn’t feel like something I’ve read 100 times already. The story alternated between the two and contrasted their experiences of the same events . The last several chapters of the book were heavy and fast. This was a great debut novel by Julia Spiro. I would absolutely read this author again.

Lindsey Davis, a recent college graduate, has no job prospects and spends graduation thinking of how she’ll have to move home with her parents. A favourite professor introduces her to Jonathan Decker, and alum, who needs a summer nanny while his family stays on Martha’s Vineyard.

When Lindsey reconnects with a college classmate on the island, a night of drinking sets off a course of events that reaches a climax at the end of the summer.

The storyline of this book has promise, but the last several chapters of this book drag on. When the summer ended, I expected a couple more chapters to wrap up the story. In addition, there is a lot of repetition in and between chapters so that on many occasions the same point is made multiple times. Lastly, the timeline feels inconsistent and harried. I struggled to keep up with how time was moving and passing.

This was not a well-executed book. I skimmed the last few chapters because I wanted to finish it, but was ready for it to be over and didn’t want to spend the time reading it closely.

Teenagers, summer, an incident that unravels and changes their friendship. It is hard to watch it happen, but holds your attention until the end. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity.

Let me begin by saying this is truly a good story but it is very slow on the takeoff. When I say slow I mean very slow! Almost like nothing really starts picking up until well over halfway into the book! I actually couldn't stand any, not one single character, until that point.

Lindsey irritated me more than any of the rest though with her shallowness. I formed a strong dislike to her at her college graduation when she kept acting so ashamed of her hard working parents being there when all the other students parents were so rich and privelged like persons. I mean really them folks gave her life and abundant love and bent over backwards so she could accomplish going to that prestigious college and all in the first place and her act like that? She was just so whiny and poor me ain't got no job for the summer and I'm gonna have to move back home with my parents and then gets offered this nanny position with an upscale family at Martha's Vineyard and it's like she's been slapped in the face because it wasn't the type job she wanted!

Georgie the oldest child in that family is just getting to that age of exploration of new things, and wanting to make her own money, and falling in love for the first time and so on and is embarrassed for folks to know she has a nanny but her and Lindsey do eventually form a nice relationship until something so earth shattering happens that leaves them not speaking to one another for ten years which is the point the story really kicks off and I didn't want to put the book down.

#someoneelsessecret #juliaspiro #Netgalley #arc #netgalleyreview #bookreview I'm not even sure where to start. So. Let's start with this first. This book should come with a #triggeralert this book took a left turn and honestly I didn't even see it coming. We have a newly graduated college student. Her future plan? To be a curator of art. She's offered an opportunity. But. In order to get that helping hand she must nanny for this creepy older rich man and his cold wife. As she navigates summer. Love. Friends. The children. You'll find yourself enraptured with her story. As summer ends 😱 #booksofinstagram #booknerd #booklover #books📚 #bookaholic

This was definitely a book relating to current times. It was well written with an engrossing plot. I liked some of the characters and some I didn’t, but I won’t spoil it for you and tell you who was who. There was a lot of emotion involved in this story and I felt spent by the end.
Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

4 Stars for this tangled drama!

After college, Lindsay is desperate for a job in her field, but they are hard to come by without a recommendation, So she takes a summer job as a nanny and in exchange her rich employer to introduce her to the right people. But Lindsay never expected the summer job to impact her life as it did. She is the nanny for a 5-year old rambunctious boy while trying to befriend his 14-year old sister. The mother has a hard exterior and doesn't show any love toward her children while the father is absent a lot of the time.

This story is about being young and falling in love. It is also about a working class girl and a rich man's world. I really felt for Georgie ... she was a rich girl with no friends and no self worth. Lindsay kinda pissed me off because all she wanted was materialistic things and to belong in the world of the rich. I found the story very good although it did drag when they were in the year 2009 and then I found that the ending was rushed in the year 2019. But it is definitely a good debut novel..

I received an early copy courtesy of Lake Union Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a little different than I expected. Most of the book is spent 10 years in the past sharing the summer that Lindsey nannied for a family on the Cape. The book fast forwards 10 year to the present and this Is when the book gets really exciting and shows the power of women. After reflecting on the book I really enjoyed the way it was written and I really loved the power of the characters.

Georgie and Lyndsey tell this tale of a poisonous secret kept from the time they were 14 and 22 respectively. Lyndsey is the nanny for Georgie's family during the summer of 2008. She's meant to be minding the young son while they're on Cape Cod but she engages (rather immaturely to be honest) not only with Georgie but also Brian. There's a fair amount of angst and drama even before the bad thing happens. The novel turns on a topical issue, which Spiro, a good storyteller, has handled well. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

When I sat down to write the review for “Someone Else’s Secret” I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not. It was well written so I finished it in about 2 days, but dealt with a topic that was a difficult trigger for me. It was a bit slow in parts and I struggled to figure out where the story line was headed.

Slow. Then Wow. This debut book is very much a slow burn. A recent college graduate circa 2009 becomes the nanny for a Martha's Vineyard family, only to realize that there is much going on behind the scenes. One of her two charges, a 14yo girl, is coming of age at the same time and realizing that things are not always as they seem. Then, right around the 2/3 mark, The Event happens. Beyond saying that it ties into #MeToo, which is general enough to note a wide range within a given type of event, I'll say no more about The Event itself. But both women experienced it, and the back quarter (ish) of the book flashes forward a decade to how it has shaped both of them. To the #MeToo era itself, though this is never directly mentioned in the text by that name. And it is here the book ends, with some of the heaviest punches outside of The Event itself. But who knows, maybe, for me, that was due to my own life and how I know all too well how trauma can shape a life, and thus identified remarkably well with a now early 20s and mid 30s female despite being a late 30s (ugh) male myself. Truly a remarkable debut, and I'm very much looking forward to more from Ms. Spiro. Very much recommended.

Someone Else's Secret is an entertaining read. It tells of two young women who both desperately want to fit in with their 'in' crowd.

The main story takes place in 2009 with the ending occurring in 2019. It alternates narratives between Lindsey Davis, 22, a scholarship student and recent art graduate from Bowdoin College, a small but prestigious college; and Georgie, 14, a girl from a privileged family, who is experiencing all the teenage angst of body changes, suddenly being "cut" from her crowd, striving for independence, wanting a boyfriend, hoping to fit in again and trying to be seen as older than she is.

Lindsey, unable to find a job after graduating, takes a position as a nanny for a wealthy couple with two children who summer in Martha's Vineyard. Her professor-advisor arranged the job for her, telling Lindsey that the couple has good connections to the art world and she feels confident that by summer's end, Lindsey will have a job in her field. Lindsey, a girl from a modest background, had trouble fitting in with the high-brow and exclusive crowd at college. The last thing she wants to do is to serve as a nanny and to be surrounded again by entitled people who make her feel like a fish out of water, but she needs the job, and hopes her professor is correct that it may lead to a job in the art world.

Jonathan and Carol Decker, Lindsey's employers, are the parents of Georgie, 14, and Berty (a boy), 5. Carol is stand-offish and emotionally unavailable to her family. Jonathan is a guy who likes to party, is often away, and when home, gives Lindsey the creeps.

Lindsey and Georgie, both trying so hard to fit in, develop a friendship of sorts. Georgie sees Lindsey as beautiful and confident, Lindsey sees herself in Georgie's youthful struggles. A traumatic incident occurs at summer's end that will change the lives of both of these young women forever.

The author develops the female protagonists and captures their emotions very well, and her dialogues are realistic and believable. She also deftly handles the main subject of the book (no spoilers). I'm giving it 3 stars because despite all the good qualities mentioned, there is a tendency towards repetitiveness that detracted from the overall read for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for allowing me to read a digital ARC of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.

4 stars / This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com on 14 June 2020.


Lindsey is about to graduate from Bowdoin with an art degree, but as yet she cannot find an internship or a job in her selected field. During the graduation luncheon, her professor introduces her to a family in need of a nanny. The last thing Lindsey wants to be is a nanny, but the family collects art and have connections that could help Lindsey. Plus, the job is to spend the summer on Martha’s Vineyard. How bad could it be?

Georgie is almost fifteen. She chose not to go to sleep away camp this summer so she could spend the whole summer on the Vineyard with her family. The only catch is that she has to work if she’s skipping camp. Georgie hopes she can get hired at the coolest place on the island. Maybe if that happens, her lifelong friends will let her back in the circle.

The book opens with a dream sequence but without telling us who is having the dream. Just that it is happening ten years after the summer on the Vineyard. It foreshadows something terrible that will happen. Gives us some insight into the fact that though Lindsey and Georgie were hoping for the perfect summer, the summer was not so perfect after all.

I felt like the book was a bit on the slow side to start, but as it progressed, it picked up steam. Both characters are trying so hard to be something other than their real selves. It’s kind of tragic how they want to fit into worlds that perhaps aren’t the best fit for them. The story is well written and quite the enjoyable read. The prologue sets the tone, and most of the novel is spent waiting for the other shoe to drop. In the end I greatly enjoyed this read.

*3.5 stars* Sign me up for any book set in summer on Martha’s Vineyard! Julia Spiro delivers a dramatic and entertaining story of two young adults, Georgie at 14 and Lindsey at 22, who are just trying to find themselves in the summer of 2009. One night late that summer changes the course of both their lives forever. 10 years later they reconnect and attempt to get much needed closure. The 2009 summer part of the book had a seemingly abrupt ending, especially after describing the summer in such detail.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.