The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinksy is truthfully painful. A good novel but with so much guilt that you really start to feel like it's you in the story. It's a can't put down book til the end so that you can see if things come out for better or worse.

Deborah Monroe is mom, daughter, sister, ex-wife, and prominent town doctor to a quite little town in New England. Highly respected and loved, independent, honest to a fault has her life upturned by one little incident. Oh, is it little or bigger than she thinks.

Grace Monroe is a loving, athletic, brilliant, devoted teen who knows right from wrong but the one little unfortunate incident throws her into such an emotional turmoil that you sit and wonder how your own child would react to the same thing happening to her. The entire town knows this teen as truthfully honest and reliable almost to perfection which sets Grace up for emotional pain that is unimaginable.

The story brings into question what lengths we would go to as a parent in order to protect our children. It also questions our ability to handle one crisis following another as an adult especially in a small town where everyone knows everything about everyone. Can secrets truly be hidden in such a small community. Will one little deception tear a family apart not only from themselves but from all prying eyes. Can one selfish person willing cause so much emotional pain and break the trust that has been here for generations. So many questions with too few answers.

The author is brilliant with the actual storyline. With living in Massachusetts myself I can actually visualize all the areas that the author takes us to. Even though this is fiction it could also be someone's real life story. It's something we say can't possibly happen to us but in all reality, "It only takes one time", and it could very well come to pass.

I received this book for free as part of a marketing campaign conducted by BzzAgent, and had never read a book by Barbara Delinsky before (I don't think I'd even heard of her). The cover for some reason reminds me of a book you'd find in the "young adult" section (not where I shop), but I'm always up for trying something new.

The plot revolves around a family and several other people in a small New England town, who (surprise!) all have secrets. That said, I didn't find the book to be overly predictable. There are family tensions, concerns about reputation, and overwhelming situations, and the characters all act in an understandable manner.

The book didn't take a lot of brainpower to read, but it also wasn't complete fluff. I'd say it's a great book for the beach or traveling, something you can breeze through but not feel like you've wasted your time.

I'm sure like most of you I was very excited when I received this book due to the reviews and buzz I heard from others. Unfortunately, the book did not meet up to its hype (well, to me at least!). I found the book to be very slow moving and it actually took me a good few MONTHS to finish this book. And for an avid book reader like me that's saying a lot - I typically can devour a book in a sitting ;-)

The characters started to becoming more annoying than likeable and there were too many other subplots (Karen and Hal, Jill, unresolved issues, etc.) for you to actually feel the suspense I'm sure the author was trying to convey. Had the story been oh maybe 100 pages shorter I'm sure it would have flowed much better, but I must warn you not to rush to pick this one up if you decide to read it at all.

Twenty pages into this book, I thought that it was going to be a good story. Then, it just kind of stopped. The story doesn't flow, and the characters aren't very believable. I stopped reading it about halfway through, so perhaps it got better, but I just didn't want to waste anymore precious (scarce) reading time finding out.

I liked the story but as a one time big Delinsky fan I was disappointed. I liked her books better when she had more romance in the story. And I think the ending was too convenient and too easy.

This was a very easy read. It had some exciting parts. It was a typical Barbara Delinsky book. Worth reading.

Really makes you think about your own life and how telling the truth - no matter how awful it may be to tell - is always the best policy. I was so torn as I was reading this story and could relate to how the mother was handling her daughter in their "situation". Very good book and very realistic - a very nice ending to the story as well.

THE SECRET BETWEEN US deals with the interactions of family. How far a mother will go to protect her child, how a child reacts to knowing they've done something that can never be taken back. It's not a bad story, but it wasn't as fully evolved as I would have liked it to be.

The main problem, for me, was the ending, which I saw as a total cop-out. In the end, the resolutions came too easily, and in ways that made everyone turn out to be a good guy. Things rarely work this way in real life.

This isn't Barbara Delinsky's best story, but it's still good for reading about a family who will do anything to keep itself whole.

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