Book Review: The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown

The Truth about Keeping a review schedule, it's really hard for me.

A stunning coming-of-age tale from poet and writer Savannah Brown.

Sydney's dad is the only psychiatrist for miles around in their small Ohio town.

He is also unexpectedly dead.

Sydney believes the crash was anything but an accident. And when the threatening texts begin, and June Copeland - homecoming queen and golden child - appears at his funeral out of nowhere, she's sure of it.

But through Sydney's newfound relationship with June, she's given a glimpse of a life without the darkness of an unresolved grief and the chance, just maybe, of a fresh start.

Until it's clear that the secrets won't go away, and the truth might bring everything crashing down...

Imperfect friendships, the shadow of grief and the sweet pain of romance - this is a poetic, thrilling ode to being human

I first heard about this book when Savannah Brown did a video announcing it but I can't actually remember how much she said about it in that video, but I've been keeping a lookout since.

The main character Sidney is gay and has a Queer friend. This is an established fact at the start of the novel and is just a fact about the character. Homophobia is a topic of the book and the character was previously outed. This is not a major part of the book but also is, like real life. I mean, yes the character is gay and that affects the way people treat her but that's not the story. It does have a Queer romance. You know what I mean. Hopefully.

This novel's plot does have thriller elements and it could be written as a thriller. The main reason I wouldn't classify it as a thriller due to pacing and that's not where the emphasis is. It reminds me of Cat Clarke's book (which are I love and are also often Queer), in its dark contemporary dealing with real things and a bit of mystery but has more focused on character development.

I really liked the writing style of this book, it's pretty sometimes without being too much. It's told in first-person and works great for the story.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Noises in the Night. I really like this book and I wish I was a better reviewer. I mean I'm literally reviewing when I should have reviewed it last year, but you can still buy it now.

Read: 5/3/2019 to 17/3/2019
Reviewed: 20/03/2019 - 26/02/2020
Published Date: 7th March 2019
Publisher: Penguin
Source: Netgalley/Owned
Content Warning for Book: Death; Death of a Parent; Domestic Abuse (Mostly off-page); Homophobia; Harsementl Stalking; Life endangerment; Being Outed; Forced Outed;
Content Warnings are given by the author. I also have trigger warnings and things this book contains in my tags as always (my old system).

Disclaimier: I received e-arc of this book from NetGalley and the Publisher. I also brought it before I finished reading it and I late with my review again as this came out on 7th March 2019.

Book Review: Remember Me by D.E.White

Ava Cole, wanting to stay in Wales like a adult and not a seventeen year old.

Fifteen years ago Ellen Smith vanished from the woods near her small Welsh village. Never to be seen again.

Eight people were in the woods that night: eight splintered lives, eight people hiding a terrible secret. But who can remember the truth?

Now, Ellen’s best friend, Detective Ava Cole is all grown up back in the village where it all began, and everyone is asking the same question.

What really happened to Ellen?

Filled with shocking discoveries and traumatic memories this fast paced thriller is perfect for fans of Friend Request and Close to Home.

A woman originally from the states, moved to Wales as a kid, had a baby and left him there, went back to the states, the kid's dad is dying so she goes back and deals with the terrible thing they did in the woods. Then plot happens.

Everyone has this shared secret, this secret is also used to threaten Ava Cole by a person who has this secret also, so Ava Cole justifying her shitty behaviour with this was kinda dumb. Maybe if this character was introduced as being more spiteful than sense. The thing is the more you know about this whole situation, the more you're like: "hur, well you really were all the place at 17, Cole". Her actions are explained by having postpartum depression and not having a support group. A much of bad parenting happens in this book.

This book has two narrators, one the antagonist in first person and close follow third person of Ava Cole wandering around Wales, I know it was a specific area of Wales but I have terrible memory, and this was library book I no longer have. This works well, it wasn't frustrating obvious who the unknown narrator was but also you're able figured it out.

The audio book has single voice actor, she does a decent job, especially when she has to do Welsh, American and Southern English because Southern English is obvious the standard narrator voice we all must adopt (okay, I get the choice of using newsreader voice over fun accents for the narrating parts but I will still make unhelpful digs about it).

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Reality TV. This feels like a set up for a series with Ava Cole investigating, but decided to start with the middle book of the series, where MC goes back to their roots after their first big mystery. This does appear to be D.E.White debut, but it's just the debut of the pen name, she writes as Daisy White. Not sure what I think of this if it is a series, maybe I would read the next one if it is the start of a series.