The Teacher's Secret

I enjoyed this book it was a cute sweet romance and i was hooked from the very first page and couldn't put my kindle down while reading this book when i was not reading this book i was thinking about what was happening to the characters and wanted to go back and read this one when i had the chance to read it. This is the first book that I have read by Suzzanne Leal and i will be reading more in the future because i loved her writing in this one

Terry Pritchard is Deputy Principal at Brindle Public School but also teaches a class of year six students in a class known as 6P. He adores his job and is a talented, creative and warm hearted teacher, the sort of man you would want to be your own child’s teacher. He is well liked by his colleagues, the surrounding community and his pupils respect and love him. At the beginning of the new school year a relief principal arrives in school, a temporary position for only one year after which the permanent Principal will once again return to her duties at school. From the word go Laurie, the caretaker principal, dislikes Terry and over the four terms she works in the school their relationship sadly deteriorates. They are as different as chalk and cheese and Laurie cannot tolerate Terry, his philosophies and his practices at all. This is the main story in the novel; a story told in four parts, one part covering each term.
Within the community live other people whose story threads merge and impact on each other. One by one their stories are told and each of these stories is interesting in their own way. All of these characters have their own social circles, opinions and perspectives and their stories merge in the most unexpected ways to bring the novel to a heart-warming finale.
I enjoyed reading this story but thought it was very slow moving at the beginning. However I was invested in the story and I’m very glad that I continued reading on because the pace escalated as the story was further developed. I hated Laurie, the relief Principal. She was stiff, humourless and single-minded – not the type of person to be trusted in the care of children at all. I did not care for Nina’s husband either. He was selfish and cold hearted. My favourite character by far was Terry. I admired his integrity and the empathy he had for his pupils. I was a primary school teacher all of my working life, now happily retired. I worked with teachers like Terry, devoted to their work and their pupil’s welfare. I never met anyone less suited to the job than Laurie. I thought the school scenes were very well informed and realistic, as was the portrayal of Terry’s pupils, their attitudes and worries. Suzanne Leal is a lawyer who has experience with child protection issues and this was reflected in her knowledge of protocols. This greatly added authority and realism to her novel
I would like to thank NetGalley and Legend Press for my copy of 'The Teacher's Secret', sent to me in return for an honest review. I have thought a lot about this novel and would like to award it 3.5*. I really liked the carefully rounded off conclusion to the novel, leaving no loose ends. The issues within the novel were well represented and thought provoking and I will still be thinking about it in the future.

I thought at first all the different characters were never going to link up but gradually and cleverly they did and I loved it.
Gentle twists kept me guessing and so glad to be proved wrong on one... but can't say more or will reveal the plot.
Fabulous book for when you are on holiday & have time to get totally taken up with it. I know because that's when I read it!

Being a soon-to-be teacher I enjoyed every second of this book

The Teacher's Secret tells of a school year in a small Australian coastal school. Terry has been assistant principal for years,but when the principal takes a sabbatical he opts to stay in the classroom - & soon wishes he hadn't! From the beginning Laurie, the temporary principal ruffles feathers. She has very rigid ideas and makes it clear that it is her way or no way.

Terry is very tactile person.If a child needs a hug or to be taken somewhere urgently after school, he doesn't think twice as to how such actions could be misconstrued. Laurie on the other hand seems incapable of viewing this sort of behaviour as anything other than suspicious.The clash is inevitable.

Told through the perspective of many people in the community, this is an engaging read that I really enjoyed. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read it.

I went into this book imaging the worst. It was a bit of a let down (the secret that is). The setting however was very good.

A school in middle America and it is a small town. Everyone knows everyone, no secrets it seems and even if there are skeletons in the cupboards, all are protected from outsiders. A new Principal for the school coming for just a year puts the cat amongst the pigeons. She is new school full of ideas and wanting to keep to regulations and procedures, whereas the school seemed to have got on very well in its old fashioned style of looking after both students and teachers alike. The children are happy, the teachers are happy. What more could one want?

All hell breaks loose though with the new Principal and the sad part is that she thinks she is doing the correct thing in rigidly following the letter of the law. The heartbreak and dissension she brings about is immaterial to her as long as procedure and regulations are followed. Detailing small town life and the quirks and eccentricities of its inhabitants, the progress and lives of the teachers as well as the students, the author draws in a lot of color into this story.

For me the secret was nothing much, it was the activity of the school, the town, the inhabitants that made up this really good story.

Goodreads and Amazon review up on 15/6/2017. Review on my blog October 2017.

Poignant, riveting, heartbreaking and psychologically thrilling!

I really enjoyed this one! Will definitely recommend.

This is a really good solid piece of fiction. It's set in the town of Brindle and centre's on the Brindle Primary School teachers, pupils and their families. There are a few characters who all have their part in the story which comes together brilliantly at the end. I enjoyed this book and it reminded me of Jodi Picoult's writing.

Great setting, highly enjoyable book. I really enjoyed it, read it in a couple of days. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This is Suzanne Leal’s debut novel and what a novel it is. I read the synopsis and I was immediately intrigues. I just knew that I had to read it and I am so glad I did, because I absolutely loved it but more about that in a bit.
There are many characters in this book and at times I did have issues fathoming out who was who and what was what. That’s more to do with my memory though. I loved the mixture of characters that were in this school, town and book. I did really feel for Mr. Terry Pritchard who was deputy head of his school. He and his wife were unable to have children of their own and I think he compensated for this by throwing himself into his work and trying to be the best teacher he could be. He has a bit of a clash with the person who is sent in to stand for the current principal. One day, it all goes wrong for Terry when there is an incident between him and a pupil. It was interesting to see how one incident could be perceived in different ways and the difference in what was deemed to be acceptable behaviour in the different generations.
This book appealed to me on so many levels. I found the child protection element really interesting and to see how one action could be perceived in different ways. I used to work in Child Protection myself, firstly in a children social services team and then secondly I was a case worker for the Disclosure & Barring Service. My main role for the DBS was to read case files and then assess whether or not that person should be allowed to work with children and/ or vulnerable adults. As I was reading I found myself carrying out an assessment in my head. I became so engrossed in the story that I began to live it so to speak. There were certainly times when I was talking out loud to the book as the situation or the characters did something I didn’t agree with. I know it’s a work of fiction but if I really get into a book, the characters seem to come alive and I can just picture the action taking place in front of my very eyes. It took me a little while to get into the book and it’s true that the story isn’t very fast paced but that is an advantage in a book like this, which deals with some serious stuff. After the first couple of chapters, I became addicted to reading and I couldn’t put the book down. I had to read on because I needed to know what happened and I needed to know if my theory panned out. There are certainly a few twists and turns to this story. There is a huge degree of authenticity to this story as the author is a lawyer who has experience in the child protection arena.
I did enjoy reading this book and it definitely reminded me of being back at work, which was a good thing as it meant that despite not having worked for a little while, I still had the knowledge and the instinct. I would recommend this book to others but particularly to those who like more of a slow burn type of novel. I look forward to reading further books from this author. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a well deserved 4* out of 5*.

Good story - fast paced and lead with every chapter. Strong characters

A new year is about to begin at Brindle Public School and Assistant Head Terry Pritchard is looking forward to the new term. He has been working at Brindle Public School for many years and has seen a range of generations come and go through the school gates. He loves his job - he loves the children, and the children love him.
However, the arrival of temporary principal, Laurie Matthews, looks set to turn this school year on its head. She is determined to make some quite severe changes throughout the school and comes armed with her own ideas and procedures- much to Terry's dismay.
The pair clash from the offset when Laurie moves Terry's classroom and makes it abundantly clear that she is unhappy with the way that he operates. She is a stickler for protocol and without even realising, Terry often ends up doing things that don't follow Laurie's regulations.
We see the fraught relationship between the two quickly deteriorate over the four terms that the story is set, meanwhile we also get to delve into her lives of some of the other residents of Brindle.
We hear from Nina whose private life is collapsing before her very eyes as things become strained between her and her husband. We also hear from Mel; once a pupil herself at Brindle Public School she now has children of her own. There's also Sid and Joan; massively intriguing characters who had fascinating background stories that I couldn't wait to uncover. I was interested to see how the characters would be linked together but Suzanne Leal weaves their stories together in a very intelligent and gripping way.

The cast of characters within this novel is wonderful. I assumed the story was going to be solely based around Terry, and whilst he is undoubtedly the lead, it was great to have so many other character's stories intertwined with what was going on (although my only criticism is that it took me a while to get it straight in my head exactly who was who, as we are introduced to so many people in quite a short space of time...But that could be down to my awful memory!) I liked the way that these characters were together yet apart as the story progressed and once I did get my head around who was who I became fully submerged and invested in these characters lives.
I really liked Terry. It was clear how passionate he was about his job and that he only had the pupils best interests at heart. However, in the current climate I could see how some of his actions and intentions could easily have been misinterpreted. It's a bit of a tricky one - and as much as I disliked Laurie, as soon as I learnt more about her background having worked for child protection, I could see how she was picking up on certain things that Terry was harmlessly doing and interpreting them as something else.
Laurie did really annoy me, especially to start off with. Reprimanding the pupils for dancing in assembly? What a kill joy. I could see why Terry disliked her and she certainly did herself no favours.

The way in which the book is written is very clever, and leads to a gradual unfolding of the story. Just as one character's story seems to be progressing, that chapter would end and we would move on to the next character which is a really clever technique employed by Suzanne to build tension within the story and keep you guessing as to what might happen.

I love books that are set around tight-knit communities that contain shocking secrets, and The Teacher's Secret fits this bill perfectly. It is cleverly written, extremely well researched and is one of those 'Just one more chapter' kind of books. You know the sort - you promise yourself just one more chapter and three hours later you still haven't moved.

Full of scandal, tension and with a set of extremely well-drawn characters, The Teacher's Secret is definitely one to add to your TBR. It reminded me of Big Little Lies by Liane Moriaty (which, incidentally, is one of my favourite books ever so this is a massive compliment.) The plot is a strong one and is cleverly played out. This is a book that is at times unsettling, yet is full of heart and emotion at the same time.
I'm really excited that this is only Suzanne's debut...I think we can expect big things from her in the future. Watch this space...