Cover Image: The Secret Keeper’s Daughter

The Secret Keeper’s Daughter

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

I was hooked from the first chapter of #TheSecretKeepersDaughter by#SamanthaKing.
Holly has her husband and two children and everything is great. Until her chatterbox daughter stops talking and becomes nervy and anxious.
When she can’t get Marley to talk to her she makes a worry box for Marley to post her worries in.
When Holly reads the notes she becomes even more worried.
A fabulous story of the problems caused when families keep secrets.
With thanks to #NetGalley.

Was this review helpful?

I found this book to be very intelligent, subtle and clever, and oh so beautifully written!
The Secret Keepers Daughter is not a bangs and flashes, in your face elaborately twisty read, it is gentle and (forgive the repeat but it is the perfect word for it) subtle.
I could relate strongly to Holly, with her anxiety and worry for her daughter, the author has perfectly captured the gut wrenching awfulness of your child withdrawing and clearly suffering, it just tears your heart out and I could feel Marley's anguish all through the book.
When you have to read between the lines, and even find the damn lines to read between, it is so easy to come to the wrong conclusion or miss the right one, I wanted to hug Holly and slap the hell out of the adults in her life!
As the author intends I strongly disliked Amy but ended up wanting to hug her too, and after wanting to slap the Heck out of Jordan too I was happy with the ending.
A beautiful book about love, loss and loads more love which I really enjoyed, it is quite different to the books Ive recently read and I will seek to read other books by this superb writer.

Was this review helpful?

Holly's 7-year-old daughter has suddenly become withdrawn, and Holly is determined to find out what has happened to her. The story also flips between the present to Holly's memories of her own childhood, when Amy, the daughter of family friends, moves "temporarily" into Holly's home and family. I was disappointed by this one. None of the big secrets revealed by the end were really worth all the drama, and the prologue of Holly seemingly near death while her children are taken from her was so misleading. Altogether a letdown. 2 stars.

Was this review helpful?

This was a great book! It was a quick read that kept my interest and had a few twists and turns to keep my intrigued.

Was this review helpful?

Who exactly the secret keeper was in this story, I'll keep a secret but this quite slow developing story has many secrets. Holly's daughter Marley has a worry box containing seven secrets her mother needs to decipher. Holly's family is complicated to say the least. Protected by her parents due to a heart condition she struggles to understand the dynamics of their relationship and with her childhood frenemy Amy. Amy has been part and parcel of her life since childhood and well into her marriage. A riveting read

Was this review helpful?

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

This is a gripping tale of family drama, where dark hidden secrets start to unfold. Holly's young daughter, Marley, seems withdrawn, and she introduces a worry box, as a way to communicate with her daughter, with her husband, Jordan, dismissing this as a phase.

The story moves between the present, and some parts of Holly's past (childhood years, teenage years, leading to her marriage to Jordan).

I was gripped from the first page, questioning everyone around her, to who could be trusted and who couldn't.

You are ultimately left questioning, should secrets be kept, or should they be let out?

Was this review helpful?

This was a book that was just alright by me. It has a decent story line and flows well so is pretty easy to read. But there just seems to be something missing.

The story of a girl who stops talking, but why. It felt like it should be more suspenseful and that there should be a big and shocking secret in the end but it just wasn't there. But it was good in the way it made you think about the characters and think about who was good or bad.

It did feel a bit slow and tedious at times but all in all it was worth reading.

Was this review helpful?

I was so excited to read this book, the synopsis does a great job of selling the story, and although this is far from a terrible read, I did take a while to get into this. The pace of the plot was, in my opinion, a little slow going, but I am glad I ploughed through with it, as the revelations made towards the end, tied everything up for me, and made earlier parts make sense. (Trying not to add spoilers here!)

I found some of this relatable, as I know a few people who have used worry boxes for their children, so there may be a few readers that will understand a parent's anguish of trying to find out what is troubling their child.

Although this is an average read, it's still definitely worth a read!

Was this review helpful?

Misunderstandings and mysteries. When her young daughter Marley becomes withdrawn and seems troubled, Holly gives her a worry box to put all her troubles in. When she reads Marley's rather cryptic notes, Holly becomes increasing worried herself, dangerous as she has a heart condition. As the story progresses, it seems her whole family has been keeping secrets for years. Her best friend Amy, a rather cryptic character, is also involved. Great family thriller with lots of twists.

Was this review helpful?

I'm afraid I can't get into this book. Conversations between the characters are painfully repetitive, to the point where a long exchange at the end of one chapter is essentially repeated - in slightly different words - at the start of the next. And both times the conversation is long and meandering. I think the book suffers from a lack of editing and this made it too frustrating to read for me, outweighing my desire to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Was this review helpful?

So I really thought this book was going to be completely amazing but it turned out it was just OK. There was lots of twists and turns and a lot of secrets but I did not like these characters at all And Icould not connect to them I just did not like them.

I also felt like I was reading two different books the first part of the book was great I really really loved it and then when I get to the second half I felt like I was reading something that was not like the first part at all.

I’ve read Samantha kings books before and I expected so much better than what I’ve read, I will however keep reading her stories

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review and give an honest opinion. Oh my thoughts and opinions are my own and only my own

Was this review helpful?

Addictive! I absolutely loved reading this book and found it very difficult to leave it alone! Full of twists turns and messages that I thought I could work out but actually was way off and couldn't wait to find out the family secrets at the end. Left me wanting more and disappointed that I had come to the end. of the book. Highly recommend this and can't wait for another book by this author. 5***

Was this review helpful?

A gripping family drama uncovering many secrets that in hindsight they wish could be hidden again. When Holly's seven year old daughter seems withdrawn, she introduces a worry box. As secrets come to the forefront you get gripped by the story and the twists that it takes. It keeps you gripped right till the end.

Was this review helpful?

Unfortunately I didnt really enjoy this book, although saying that, I did continue reading to the end. It was just very slow for me, few twists and turns which kept you wanting to read on, jumps a bit from two timelines too, which was a bit confusing at times.

Was this review helpful?

After reading the blurb of this book I was really looking forward to a tense and gripping read. It was a good read but not one that I was totally gripped by. I expected more from this book and found it a little bit slow at times .

Was this review helpful?

I’d like to thank HQ and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Secret Keeper’s Daughter’ by Samantha King in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

When Holly and Jordan’s seven-year-old daughter Marley becomes unusually quiet and withdrawn Holly suggests she writes messages to slip inside their ‘Worry Box’ but as she reads Marley’s seven messages she soon realises they’re going to cause worries for herself too.

‘The Secret Keeper’s Daughter’ is a family drama that spans the years from when Holly aged seven first meets the perfect Amy to the present time and is narrated mainly by Holly to Marley. Happily married to Jordan and with new baby Benjamin, or ‘BB’ as Marley has nicknamed him, Holly starts to question whether she can believe or even trust the members of her family. This is a suspenseful thriller that kept me reading well into the night, it’s full of drama, suspicion, and unanswered questions that the twists and turns in the final chapters were finally able to answer. It’s a gripping and easy read that I enjoyed and can recommend.

Was this review helpful?

The Secret Keeper’s Daughter, focuses on Holly, and her daughter, Marley. Marley has started to act suspicious, not speaking, and spending time in her room. Rightly so, Holly begins to worry. She creates a worry box for Marley to share her thoughts. Holly becomes even more concerned by the “worries” that are shared by Marley. What is happening to her daughter? This book focuses not only on current family issues and secrets, but also, those of Holly’s past. There are twists and turns that I never saw coming. I recommend this book to readers interested in thrillers and suspense. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Unfortunately I’m not a big fan of this book.
I did find that the two timelines played along very well together. It was very fluid and not jumpy so easy to distinguish where you were in the story.
It's a slow burner, very much about paranoia, and past family secrets. Less thriller and more of an ongoing dialogue between characters and also the inner voice of the main character, Holly. I didn’t find the twists/ secrets to be a surprise, even a little predictable.
I did not like Holly as a character. I could not connect with her at all. She was not likeable, almost weak with the whole Amy storyline.

Was this review helpful?

Holly Aitken, snug in her cottage in a holiday village on the Suffolk coast of the North Sea, loves her husband Jordan, her new baby Beni, and her seven-year-old daughter Marley, absolutely and unconditionally.

So when Marley, typically a bright and bubbly chatterbox, begins to exhibit strange and unsettling behaviors, Holly finds it hard to quell her rising panic, despite her husbands assurances to the contrary. Holly, who suffers from a congenital heart defect, is used to being “handled” - after all, extreme stress in her condition can be dangerous, if not downright deadly - but Holly knows, deep in her heart with all the certainty a mother can bring, that something is just not right.

In trying to coax answers from her troubled and uncommunicative child, Holly decides on a strategy allowing her daughter to post pictures and written messages day by day into a “Worry box” - a modified shoe box they set up together - that she’s hoping will serve as a safe and controlled release-valve for Marley’s self-generated fearful messages.

The process, as it unfolds, is both fascinating, and terrifying, - without giving the plot away (no spoilers here!), it soon becomes apparent that Marley has a story to tell, and one that is brimming with “secrets”. The challenge of course, for Holly and the reader, is how to interpret Marleys cryptic and childlike messages. Parsing out Marley’s story becomes all the more intriguing when set against the backdrop context of Holly’s complex and unusual family - including her enigmatic husband Jordan, her dramatic and beautiful foster-sister Amy - as well as her somewhat sinisterly handsome neighbor Phil.

The author has several tricks up her sleeve and I enjoyed the twists and turns as the plot unfolds, as well as the themes explored and interwoven throughout the narrative. In particular, the very interesting thought that, although it may not always be apparent to the adults around them, children are always watching. And as to what they exactly may be seeing, well, that’s a whole other interesting thought.

A great big thank you to the author, NetGalley and HQstories for an arc of this book.

Was this review helpful?

Holly has the perfect family- a loving husband and two children. However, when her daughter Marley withdraws into herself she knows something is wrong.
She is so worried she introduces a memory box into which Marley can post notes about her worries. At first they seem as though there is nothing to raise concerns but then they change and when she reads "secrets make me sad" she begins to question her family.
What will she unravel when she starts searching for answers and will her family ever be the same again?
Look out for the twist at the end!

Was this review helpful?