EXCERPT: In many ways Neve and Will were closer than most mothers and sons because they were all the other had ever had, but she'd learnt over the years that he closed up if she pried too much.
Hoping he couldn't hear the thumping of her heart, she took a bite of her cake. If Stacey was pregnant, she'd stand by them both; none of this forcing them to get married. Granted she didn't feel old enough to be a grandmother, but nor had she planned on being a single mum and that had turned out all right.
Finally, after he'd almost devoured the cake, Will said, 'I want to meet my dad.'

ABOUT 'THE ART OF KEEPING SECRETS': Little secrets grow up to be big lies…

They’ve been best friends since their sons started high school together, and Felicity, Emma and Neve share everything … or so they thought.

But Flick’s seemingly perfect marriage hides a shocking secret which, with one word, threatens to destroy her and her family’s happiness. Emma is in denial about a potential custody battle, her financial constraints, the exhaustion she can’t seem to shake off and the inappropriate feelings she has for her boss. And single mum Neve is harbouring a secret of her own; a secret that might forever damage her close-knit relationship with her son.

When the tight hold they have each kept on their secrets for years begins to slip, they must face the truth. Even if that truth has the power to hurt the ones they love, and each other.

Perhaps some secrets weren’t made to be kept.

MY THOUGHTS: . . . their lives were a shambles. Someone could write a book about them.' - and someone did. Thank you, Rachael Johns, for such a fun, emotional and moving depiction of the lives of three families as what they thought they knew crumbles around their feet.

Such a web of secrets and lies! They're all guilty, perhaps Emma least of all, but even she is hiding something . . .

There is a strong theme of friendship in The Art of Keeping Secrets, and I loved the way the three women were mostly (there are a few hiccups) there for one another. Their friendship is, alongside their families, the constant in their lives.

The story is told from the alternating points of view of Flick (Felicity), Emma, and Neve (Genevieve) as they scramble to be strong in the face of their own troubles while supporting the others through their own heartaches. There are plenty of humorous and heartwarming moments to balance the sad and the tragic.

This is not some silly, frivolous or dramatically OTT novel, but one where both the characters and their problems are relatable. Johns drops tantalizing hints to the nature of the problems early in the book and builds on this, slowly revealing each secret separately for full impact.

I enjoyed this a lot and will be looking for the follow-up - How to Mend a Broken Heart.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.2

#TheArtofKeepingSecrets #NatGalley

MEET THE AUTHOR: Rachael Johns is an English teacher by trade, a mum 24/7, a Diet Coke addict, a cat lover and chronic arachnophobe. She rarely sleeps and never irons.
She's been writing since she was 17 when she broke up with her first boyfriend when she turned to writing as a form of therapy for her broken heart. It was enlightening to realise that with writing she could create whatever ending she liked.
Rachael lives in the Swan Valley with her hyperactive husband, three mostly-gorgeous heroes-in-training, two ravenous cats, a cantankerous bird and a very badly-behaved dog.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harlequin Australia, TEEN MIRA, via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Art of Keeping Secrets by Rachael Johns for review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own personal opinions.

The Art Of Keeping Secrets was a book I enjoyed, a different genre to what I read but a good change.
Flick, Emma and Neve have been friends since their children went to school. All women are completely different with a completely different set of problems.
This book highlights that what you see isn’t necessarily what it’s like. All three women hold a secret from each other and as the book develops the secrets are divulged but through it all they support each other and rally round to make sure they are all ok. The book deals with some big topics and because I didn’t know which way this book was going to go it was a book I picked up at every opportunity.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Harlequin (Australia) for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

I love these books about friendship after a shared experience such as high school. Felicity, Emma and Neve has all moved on and have different lives and responsibilities. The ups and downs of each woman's life are excellently portrayed and it made me think about my own time at because it's so relatable because of the sense of life obviously not being the same after high school.

It was my first novel by Rachel Johns, and I would very much like to find more of her books.

Thanks to Rachel Johns and publisher for my eARC n exchange for honest and voluntary review.

4 stars

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

They’ve been best friends since their sons started high school together, and Felicity, Emma and Neve share everything … or so they thought.
But Flick’s seemingly perfect marriage hides a shocking secret which, with one word, threatens to destroy her and her family’s happiness. Emma is in denial about a potential custody battle, her financial constraints, the exhaustion she can’t seem to shake off and the inappropriate feelings she has for her boss. And single mum Neve is harbouring a secret of her own; a secret that might forever damage her close-knit relationship with her son.
When the tight hold they have each kept on their secrets for years begins to slip, they must face the truth. Even if that truth has the power to hurt the ones they love, and each other.
Perhaps some secrets weren’t made to be kept.

*3.5 stars*

Veering away from her always-popular rural romance novels, Rachael Johns takes on the subject of friendship and the power of secrets...and the devastating effects they can have...

This was a toughie for me to give a rating for. I was glad to see Johns branch out into another genre - it must be hard to want to break away from what has made you so wildly popular. And there are a lot of elements in this book that I associate with her previous rural novels: great friends; a strong cast of characters who bring their own stories and histories to the table, adding depth to the story; hidden elements to their lives that slowly reveal themselves; and the resolutions to those problems. This book covered all of those things really well.

I just had a small problem actually connecting to the three women. They felt a little underdone, superficial - and the sense of eye-rolling drama was a bit much at times.

Did I like the book? For sure - there was plenty here to keep me engaged.
Would I read another "women's fiction" novel by Johns? I would consider it...


Paul
ARH

Three engaging, vulnerable women and the secrets they keep. At times strong, yet somehow battered by their life experiences, we feel ourselves drawn into the drama of their lives and the tough decisions they are forced to make. The author did an amazing job of creating characters we immediately identify with and enjoy. Highly recommend

I loved this book. It describes how three friends support each other in bad and good times. I'd definitely buy this book for a friend.

Rachael Johns is fast becoming one of my favourite Aussie female authors.
The Art of Keeping Secrets had me totally engaged from the start and I really enjoyed how each chapter was broken up to focus on one character at a time while still managing to meld all of the story together as one.
I loved all three of the main characters, Felicity, Emma and Neve and thought they were all portrayed in such a realistic manner. I felt like I could relate to them all in some way or another.
I also really liked that although there were snippets of romance in this book here and there, it wasn't the main focus and there were so many other meaningful and engaging parts to the story line. This book literally had me going through a variety of emotions ranging from sadness one minute, to anger the next and then seriously happy.
Rachael Johns is definitely one author I get excited about reading now and I would highly recommend this book as her best one yet in my opinion.

This is the story of Neve, Emma and Felicity who met through their sons who are now in year 12. They are best friends who share everything, or do they? Felicity, a taxidermist and her husband, Seb appear to have the perfect marriage. Emma is a single mother to three children after her husband cheated on her and left her for the younger, more attractive model. She’s a travel agent and struggles financially and in addition, has been suffering daily headaches. Neve is also a single mother to Will who after 18 years wants to meet his absent father. One night Neve reveals the devastating secret about her son’s father. Her friends are shocked but realise, that they too, have kept their own secrets. Neve’s ambition to locate Will’s father results in a trip to New York. Simultaneously, a life changing event relating to Felicity’s marriage occurs and she flees to New York with her friend for a break. Is Seb the perfect husband everyone thinks he is? And what would be a trip without the third of their trio? So, all three friends travel to America and learn that they must face up to the crises in their lives. Emma can no longer ignore her headaches and health issues. It is a warm and engaging story of their journey and about the decisions they choose to make. Johns is skilled at delivering relatable and likable characters and ones with various faults. This is a fun, easy chick lit read from one of the Queens of romance.

3.5 stars - There is a reason I don’t read a lot of women’s fiction. Call it “Chicklit”, call it “life lit” it’s all the same. No guarantees. Because it’s all about the woman’s journey, and while it might include love, it doesn’t necessarily include a Happy Ever After.

Thus said, with three main protagonists, surely there is hope for 1/3 of a HEA or even a 2/3 chance. At least so I hoped when starting The Art of Keeping Secrets by Rachael Johns.

The main character is Felicity, known as Flick. She is the dominant personality out of the three friends we meet in this story. She is married to Seb, the perfect man, with an adult daughter Zoe about to be married and a son Toby close to graduating from high school.

Her two close friends resulted from the friendship between their sons starting high school five years ago. They do book club every second Friday and generally hang out together.

Emma is a divorcée with three children. Caleb is the same age as Toby and her twin daughters, Laura and Louise are younger. There are a lot of people to keep track of in this book. Her ex husband Max and and his young second wife Chanel are constant irritants.

Neve is the single mother of Will, the third boy in the friendship circle. She is the first of the protagonists to discover that secrets can’t always be kept forever. It is Will’s desire to know his father that starts to push the three women towards what will come close to breaking their friendship, but in the end could bring them closer together.

With three points of view, mostly taken in turn, we get a very intimate view of the lives of Flick, Neve and Emma as their lives begin to unravel for very different reasons. The choices they made in the past, the choices they must make in the future, all come together to challenge all three woman and their families.

It is the friendship between the women that is the focus of the story and for anyone with friends who’ve helped them through hard times, they will appreciate the dynamics of this trio of seemingly mismatched women who take the tough times together.

I found it a little slow in the middle but it picked up in the second half and at the risk of being spoilery, it isn’t all bad news at the end. Not really my preferred type of book but well written and if you do like that kind of story, engrossing.