Kindle of slow ,but over all it worked because of the plot of the story , and it had quite of few things in it that I liked, Secrets, lies, murder , and makes you question everything you thought you knew

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

A book I just couldn’t put down. It got me hooked from the beginning. Really enjoyed this book.
Thank you to both the publishers and NetGalley for gifting me the book

A really good read that kept me gripped throughout. Looking forward to reading more from the author!

This is one of the most boring books that I have read.
I felt the characters were dull and completely disconnected from the story
This wasn’t for me

I just struggled to read this, it was a bit too slow burn for me. The writing was good but nothing happened for ages.

I loved this authors’ first book so was really excited to read this. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations. The story wasn’t gripping enough and there weren’t enough twists and turns for my liking. An okay read - one I liked enough to finish - but nothing special. I wouldn’t rush to recommend this.

Our Dark Secret is a gripping novel mainly set in the 1970’s. Elizabeth is an overweight, socially awkward teenager who develops a mild obsession with the new girl in school, Rachel. An unfortunate link develops between the girls leading to a tragic situation that will live with them forever.
The characters in this book are well developed and various subjects such as self esteem, body image and mental heath are dealt with sympathetically. Although there are many sad elements to the novel, it is also full of humour and light hearted references to 1970’s culture and fashion. The story is fast paced with enough intrigue to keep you guessing, and is topped off with a believable and convincing ending. Highly recommended.

After a bit of a slow start, this murder mystery drew me in. The characters are well drawn and the 70s era is authentically recreated.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Our Dark Secret by Jenny Quintana was a psychological thriller. It's set out in two timelines, Now and then.....which were in 1979 and now 1999, and its about buried secrets, hidden pasts, It's a story of friendship, self esteem, parent-child relationships with terrifying effects of abuse and the bond between two girls called Elizabeth and Rachel but, they're hiding a big dark secret.

What is the dark secret they're hiding?

Twenty years on, Elizabeth wants nothing more than to keep the secrets of their teenage years where they belong: in the past.

But another body has been found, and she can’t keep running from what happened.

Will the truth come out?

I found this book beautifully written throughout.

I highly recommend this book especially as it was a first book I have read from this author and it had me gripped from the very first few pages and I wanted to find out more about the two girls and what happened to them.

Big Thank you to MacMillian Australia and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read.
All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

I don't usually like stories with two different time lines but this one had me intrigued. This worked better than I thought it would. But it is a very slow burn of a read. It gets faster and more pacey as the story goes on, but it was hard to get into right at the start.

Our Dark Secret is beautifully written story that plays out in two timelines, the 'then (1979)' and 'now' (1999). All of the characters are deftly developed by Jenny Quintana as the events that bond two unlikely girls together forever, are revealed. This story is a lovely combination of a sad family drama whilst taking a poignant look at the difficulties facing children coming from broken and dysfunctional families. In doing so, the story successfully interlaces the lives of people who are frequently misjudged.

In Our Dark Secret, I was taken on a wonderful journey predominantly by the rather awkward and frumpy main character, Elizabeth, whose father walks away from his marriage to her mum, and gets involved with Charlotte, mother to the strikingly beautiful Rachel. Rachel becomes the object of Elizabeth's infatuation and also an obsession. This extremely well-written tale was also a gripping murder-mystery that had me captivated from the first page, and trying to guess the killer's identity certainly held my attention. Although the pace of the story was a little slow, the succinct chapters made this a quick read and I still really enjoyed Our Dark Secret.

Reading this novel has inspired me to seek out a copy of Jenny Quintana's well received début, The Missing Girl.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Pan Macmillan/ Mantle via NetGalley at my request, and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for the ARC of this book.
It took me a long time to get into this book and I actually gave up twice and went back to it. I felt the story was a slow burner and it really dragged in places. However, I'm glad I stuck with it as half-way through I started to enjoy it and although it was what I call a slow burner I did eventually enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced reader's copy in return for an honest review. Slow burn of a story that kept me guessing from start to finish. Hooked!

An interesting flashback to 1978 with an insecure girl growing up in a dysfunctional family. A girl-crush leads to drama, uncovering dark secrets and leads to a lifetime of fear and hiding.
Intriguing and believable.
Evocative of childhood in the ‘70s
An honest portrayal of family troubles in the ‘70s

An enjoyable read. Thanks to NetGalley for this free copy in exchange for an honest review

Meet the narrator of Our Dark Secret, Elizabeth Valentine. Despite her great name she is a highly complex character, who invokes your sympathy when the author introduces her, detailing her background and home life. Set in the late 1970’s it’s clear from the beginning that Elizabeth is one of life’s misfits, destined to forever be watching from the sidelines. Bullied for her size from an early age, she cuts a sad lonely figure, not helped by her tendency to tell lies.
This is a beautifully written novel, evoking memories for those of us who well remember the era but the pace is slow with the author preferring to drip feed details. I think this is what is commonly known as a slow burner of a book but may well lose the interest of some. Certainly the promising beginning caught my interest and I was intrigued to discover Elizabeth’s dark secret. The author has captured beautifully the pain Elizabeth and her mother endure when her dad leaves them for another woman. Clearly this occupies much of Elizabeth’s day to day thoughts as we witness her home life falling apart with her mother destroyed by the betrayal. I found this heartbreaking although Elizabeth isn’t the only victim here since elder daughter Rebecca is left behind when Mrs Wright absconds with her younger daughter Melissa to start a new life with Elizabeth’s father. To be abandoned by someone you love (she’s a daddy’s girl) is made even harder when they choose another child over their own flesh and blood. You can feel the sorrow and anguish in Elizabeth’s words as she grapples with her new unwanted circumstances, feelings that will resonate with many. Her father, a bit of a ladies man definitely doesn’t deserve her adoration and made me quite angry at how easily he casts her aside. However as the storyline develops I found myself losing patience with Elizabeth as her self pitying and self centred nature seems to intensify along with her creepy obsession with Rachel. Obviously this sad lonely girl just wants a friend, desperately so, someone to love and the fact she’s never fit in is so well conveyed in these pages.
The past haunts present day Elizabeth, with the reader left to guess for the most part what this dark secret is. All we know is a skeleton has been found on the wasteland near Elizabeth’s former home but who is it and why is it there? Dark it is indeed as all the threads come together, finally making sense and I found myself enjoying the ending, having started to lose interest halfway through. Elizabeth definitely redeems herself in my eyes in these last pages (sorry no spoilers here!) which are again sensitively written, offering perhaps some light after years of darkness.
Whilst the slow pace may not be to everyone’s liking I urge fellow readers to pick this novel up to appreciate the beautiful prose. It’s a sensitive novel capturing teenage angst, love, friendship and a disturbing dark secret.
My thanks as always to the author and publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read in exchange for an honest review.

Slow burning storyline with great characterisation throughout. Kept guessing until the final part of the story.

Unfortunately I really struggled with this book and at times felt like giving up on it. I did however stick with it but found it dragged and only got interesting at the final few chapters. Sorry but just not for me.

1978 - All Elizabeth had ever wanted was to be like every other fourteen year old girl,she didn't want to be lonely,weak,ignored Elizabeth. She wanted a best friend,someone she could share gossip with about boys and the make up and fashion tips that she got from My Guy and Oh Boy magazines. Then in the summer of 1978,which was also coincidentally the year before they found the first body, Elizabeth had her first encounter with beautiful, red headed Rachel. An encounter that would swiftly turn into an obsession and be the catalyst for a chain of events that would still be haunting Elizabeth's conscience twenty one years later.

1999 - Elizabeth is shocked when her old neighbour informs her that a second body has been discovered on the wasteland where Elizabeth used to have a secret den when she was younger. She knows that it is only a matter of time before the body is identified and the dark secret that she has kept hidden for so long will be revealed. So she decides that it's time to tell the truth about what happened all those years ago.

This mesmerising story is narrated by adult Elizabeth and flips back and forth between 1978 and 1999,there was also a couple of chapters that were set in 1969 and 1977. There was also references to the pop culture of the late 1970s like My Guy and Oh Boy (I preferred Jackie myself) and The Generation Game which brought back memories of my youth. Poor Elizabeth had quite a few striking similarities to myself when I was younger, I also felt like a outcast both at home and at school, the one who never got chosen during games and no one wanted to sit next too during school lessons. Events in her home life also mirrored what happened when I was younger so I couldn't help feeling a close connection with the teenage version of Elizabeth. We only get to know Rachel from Elizabeth's perspective so you have no idea what her opinion was of Elizabeth and if she actually thought of her as a friend or wether she was just using her for her own means.

Our Dark Secret is a extremely well written tale of relationships and also a gripping murder mystery that had me totally captivated from the first page, the mystery of who the killer was and the identity of the second body discovered in the wasteland kept me guessing and frantically turning the pages. The characters were vivid and diverse, a number of them were no who they appeared to be. I read this outstanding thriller in one sitting,I just couldn't put it down. This is my first favourite read of this year, worth far more than five stars and very very highly recommended.

"I didn't stop to consider that Rachel was a girl who under normal circumstances wouldn't have taken the time to say hello; that we were acquaintances, flung together through the misbehaviour of our parents. I was creating a fairy-tale friendship and the problem with fairy tales is that they're packed with bad characters as well as good. In fairy tales, it's obvious who those bad character are; in real life, it's more difficult to tell."

Clever but overweight and shy, Elizabeth is a teenager living unhappily in a Chelmsford suburb. Hero-worshipping her irresponsible and undeserving father and tolerating her distracted but well-meaning mother, Elizabeth longs to fit in. Friends Debra and John at school are the other outcasts, so when new girl Rachel arrives, she tries to obsessively catch her eye. Rachel appears to have it all, is pretty and immediately popular, but doesn't encourage Elizabeth. The pair are thrown together after their parents begin an affair. When a local woman, Peggy, is murdered where Elizabeth plays, she realises she saw Peggy with a man on that same day. Who is he and what does this mean for Elizabeth and Rachel?

Our Dark Secret tells the story of two girls, two deaths, separated by two decades. Told from protagonist, Elizabeth's perspective, the novel moves between 1979 and 1999. This enables the story to be told as well as Elizabeth's grown-up perspective to be put on it, as she fears the dark secret will be revealed. I found Elizabeth rather difficult to relate to, perhaps because she took little responsibility for her own agency, wallowed in what she felt was her lot; however bearing in mind her childhood, with selfish parents, this is understandable. I wanted so much more for her. Rachel too was distant, again understandable considering the circumstances revealed as the novel progresses. Slower in parts, particularly to begin with, setting the scene, pacier in others, I didn't enjoy this as much as I expected. Well written, but a slow-burner, leaving me wanting more for Elizabeth.