I got this book from NetGalley after I read one of their random promotion this book is great emails. I didn’t realise it was a Mills & Boon title until it was on my shelf. I probably wouldn’t have requested it if I’d known. I associate Mills & Boon with cheesy, OTT heterosexual romance. I had no idea they published LGBT fiction. I loved this book. Sophie and Nora’s story is familiar. They fall in love as teenagers and enjoy a passionate summer together. They’re caught and betray each other and Nora moves away and cuts Sophie and their home town out of her life for eighteen years. Sophie marries and forces the truth about her sexuality deep inside herself. Nora returns and things sort of explode. I loved the way the author portrays the power of first love. You never forget your first love, the first person who made you feel something. They always have a hold over you. I loved the setting, Lychfield in Texas, a small town full of small-town prejudice and small minds. Everyone wonders why Nora left all those years ago. If Sophie comes out will she be accepted or become a freak show? What about Sophie’s marriage to Nora’s old boyfriend? This is a complex story, beautifully told. I loved it so much.

Nora and Sophie were best friends in a small American town with plans to go to college together and the whole world at there feet. Until one day Nora and her dad have a huge row and Nora leaves to join the army leaving Sophie in the small American town. Sophie married Nora's boyfriend, Charlie, a lawyer who has his eye on becoming a senator. and Sophie is settled to being a supporting wife.
The story begins with Nora returning home for her father's funeral and of course she has revisit all that lead up to her leaving.
I loved it. Really refreshing angle for a romance.

I was pleasantly surprised with this book! When I first saw the title I was given the impression that this book may have a slightly cynical side to it but I couldn’t really be more wrong.

The character development was amazing and you felt like you really got to know Nora and Sophie (I think Sophie especially) really well. The struggles and emotional turmoils that they both go through is evident from the start and you feel a caring towards them.

My favourite relationship was that between Sophie and Nora, the dynamic was just amazing but I think the relationship between Sophie and her daughter, Logan was a very close second. For me this was the most emotional part of the book and reading Sophie put herself out there really strikes up emotion for every reader.

At first I wasn’t hooked on this and if I’m honest, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it as you could predict the main ending to a certain extent. However I was soon hooked and there were so many events in the book that I really didn’t see coming.

I would definitely recommend this if you enjoy love stories - this also feels more realistic and isn’t a classical fairy tale romance! It reminded me of Cecelia Ahern’s books to a certain extent

Nora is returning to her home town in Texas, after eighteen years away. It's the last place she wants to be, as she will have to face seeing her ex-boyfriend, Charlie, now married to her best friend, Sophie. Nora felt completely betrayed by the events of the summer eighteen years ago, when all she held dear was destroyed. Can she move past her hurt to find her way back to her best friend? As they spend time together, it becomes clear that Nora's certainty about the betrayal, is beginning to waver.

There is a surprise in this story, and I really liked that I didn't predict it. It's hard to review without giving away a spoiler, so I will say only this. The Secret of You and Me is a wonderful exploration of love, forgiveness and courage in the face of judgement and narrow-mindedness. It celebrates love in all its guises and shouts out loud - be you - unapologetically!!

First off, this book is a Persuasion retelling! Persuasion is one of my favourite Austen novels so you just know that's a point in its favour. But this is a lesbian retelling of Persuasion about childhood best friends, Sophie and Nora, who fell in love in a small town in Texas. Best friends who had a massive falling out and then Sophie married Nora's high school boyfriend and stayed in said small town. Yeah, I know, it's a lot. It had all kinds of drama going on and that is what made it fun to read.

I had no expectations going into this. It was marketed as an LGBT romance which immediately drew me in. That's all I knew, I read the book's summary and that's it. I wasn't certain it would be a usual romance (the romance waters are getting murky with women's fiction sneaking up in there) but I am here for supporting more LGBT romances and I wondered how this book would pan out with that weird love triangle alluded to in the summary. Thankfully, this book was excellent and no, I still wouldn't call it a usual romance. I mean, the romance between the main characters, Sophie and Nora, was beautiful. They went through so much and seeing them slowly come back together and learn to trust one another was lovely, but there was a lot of there stuff happening, their romance was just part of it. I think with all the other story happening it meant the romance was brilliant but not completely the sole focus. This was about Nora discovering the secrets of her small town and coming to terms with her father's death as well as realising the importance of love and family. It was also about Sophie reconciling with the fact she was a lesbian and the damage keeping that secret has had on herself, her family, and her relationship with her daughter. It was about the two of them admitting the mistakes of their past but also accepting that their past is behind them and they have no regrets with their choices because it allowed so many good things to happen in their lives despite what they might have missed out on.

The romance between Sophie and Nora was really wonderful to read. They were meant to be together. I loved the slow discovery of everything which happened in their pasts. They had so much history together. It's sad to think they lost so much time together because of their choices, but they wouldn't have been the same people without their years apart. If they had been braver or if the world they had lived in had been more accepting they might have pursued their romance with pride but instead, they took their time, learnt who they were and missed out but there wouldn't have been a great book to read otherwise.

I really loved that the author's note said that this story happened because she had been trying to write the romance for Nora and felt like no one was deserving of her apart from Sophie and that it all grew from there. What's even better is the author asked for help and advice from the LBGTQ+ community as she is neither a lesbian or bi (Nora identifies as bisexual and there is a clear acknowledgement that attraction both sexual and romantic is a varying spectrum for bisexuals. Excellent rep on that front). So she did want to do them justice and write authentic experiences and struggles for her characters. Not only did she take the time and out the work in to give her characters more authentic voices. She knew how to write falling in love, that experience is universal, but she did want to show the impact of being closeted in a small town. And the really great part? A portion of the royalties for this book are going to the It Gets Better Charity as the author doesn't want to barrel in and take one but show support to the community and write a love story which we can enjoy and help others feel seen. How could I not want to support an author who honestly seems like they want to help too?

And the secondary characters in this! This is a small Texas town, you know the types of people you will get here, but there was more to them and they helped give this story depth. There was Kim with her daughter looking to Nora for help. There was Nora's aunt Emmadean who was a marvel. And Nora's sister and brother in law! Her sister, Mary, should have been a total bore with her complaining and hard done by act but she added some light humour to events and you couldn't help but smile a little at her antics. And Mar's husband, Jeremy? He was a saint for putting up with her but he did reveal there was another side to their relationship Nora wouldn't have been privy to. And Sophie's daughter, Logan? Yeah, she was a badass kid who you couldn't help but like.

And that is my attempt at writing a review for a book which came as a total surprise. I had no expectations and it meant I went on a lovely journey with characters I couldn't help but like. I was in small-town Texas with the gossips and the rumours, where high school really doesn't end. It was fun and sweet and really an excellent summer read.

This is not my usual genre but it looked quite interesting from the blurb. Obviously, the plot was slightly different to the one I expected. Without wishing to give too much away, the love triangle between Nora, Sophie and Charlie goes in a different direction to the norm.
I did enjoy the book in parts. It is pretty well written, the plot starts off well but I have to admit to being quite bored after a while. Nora is called selfish by her aunt at one point and I couldn't agree more. Both main characters seemed immature, jumping to conclusions, forgiving one minute and accusing the next. If this only happened once or twice I might not have minded but the second half of the book just seemed to be dominated by it. I ended up feeling that the book is just too long.
The author captures the prejudices of small town, Texas, well and I'm sure that the anyone in Nora and Sophie's situation would come up against them but I didn't like any of the characters enough to care what happened to them.

The Secret of You and Me was definitely an interesting read for me. I didn’t realise it was going to be about women in their late 30s, which is normally not something I read. But I think it’s important to step out of our comfort zones and I also think it’s good to bring more age diversity to romance which can be quite 20s heavy. If you are looking for something that deals a lot more with adult issues, like divorce and raising a child I think this is something that coule be up your street.

This is a story about messy relationships hampered by past traumatic experiences that came from living in backwater Texas in the 90s whilst being queer. And I do want to flag that there is A LOT of infidelity in this book. This wasn’t something that bothered me because as I just mentioned it was a book about messy relationships, but if you are someone who is uncomfortable reading about cheating, I think this is something to be aware of. Whilst I did think the cheating was a little on the heavy side and could have been lessened, it was an interesting look into the lives of people who lived through the 80s and 90s when there was a serious amount of crap thrown at the gay community. With threats of conversion therapy and being kicked out of the house, it’s understandable in a way that a person would be scared to leave their marriage.

I found the characters quite interesting and it was pretty evident the ways that their pasts had shaped their lives. Nora was pretty afraid of commitment, from running away from home at a young age, and Sophie lives her life in fear due to her awful mother.

Something I definitely noticed in this book was the subtle moments that dealt with Nora’s PTSD. It wasn’t discussed a lot but I noticed that when she heard a loud bang Nora would flinch, and I really liked that it was embedded in the story this way, as this is a problem for a lot of veterans.

All in all, I would say The Secret of You and Me is an engaging read, with some fascinating character dynamics!

The Secret of You and Me is an adult contemporary romance that features: two stubborn women, a love they cannot forget, and some chickens that Nora DEFINITELY DOES NOT LOVE.

“Nora smiled at the camera, and I looked down at her with an expression of such blatant adoration it stunned be the entire town hadn’t know I was desperately in love with my best friend.”

I really enjoyed this book. While it’s clear that it’s a romance novel, it’s also very character driven. Nora and Sophie are both adults who have been through so much.

Nora joined the military after she’s forced to leave home by her father. However, staying away from their small conservative town she learned to grow and become happy in herself while finding and figuring out her sexuality. Nora is proudly bisexual. She’s stubborn and strong, and while she hates that’s she’s too come home again, she handles it like water of a ducks back.

I adored Nora but Sophie was my favourite. Externally Sophie has it all- good husband, nice house, money, and a wonderful daughter- but internally, Sophie struggles with alcoholism and is a lesbian. Sophie’s growth had me cheering. The inner strength she displays throughout the novel was phenomenal. She’s ready to take on her mother, battle her addiction to alcohol, and save both her relationship with Nora and her daughter. SHE IS A QUEEN.

“ This isn’t a disaster waiting to happen; it’s a challenge. I’m Sophie fucking Wyatt. Bring it on.”

The romance develops slowly throughout the novel and as a lover of slow burn- I was in my element. Nora and Sophie take their time coming back together but when they do, sparks flied. It was clear that these two never fell out of love.

“When I think of falling in love with Nora, it isn’t our first kiss, or the first time we, you know, but it’s those moments when she read to me.”

The plot is quite angsty; especially in the beginning. Sophie and Nora have to fight for each other, against the town and within themselves but the ending makes all the pain worth it.

The Secret of You and Me is a book I don’t think I’ll ever forget. It’s messy, and emotional. However, Nora and Sophie are ingrained on my heart. While their were times I wanted to throw the book against the wall- mainly when Sophie’s mother opened her mouth- I adored this book.

The Secret of You and Me by Melissa Lenhardt is a story of what ifs. What if Nora never left. What if Sophie had stood up to her mother. What if Nora's dad had not sent her packing. What if Nora had come home again. What if Sofie had not hooked up with Charlie. What if Nora had read Sophie's letters.

When Nora's father dies she returns to the town she grew up in for the 1st time since leaving, all those years ago. She planned an in and out trip, with no desire to revisit the past. Nora wasn't prepared for the string of events that led to her trip being extended. She also wasn't prepared to see Sophie again, even after all this time.

Sophie seems to have a perfect life. She is married to a popular man with political ambitions and they have a wonderful daughter about to start her last year of high school. But she has secrets.

As per small town expectations, the rumour mill was alight over what happened all those years ago. After all, Charlie was Nora's boyfriend 1st. But is that really what happened? A few think there is a juicier story - one that many wouldn't be too happy about.

Whatever caused the rift & led to Nora leaving & staying away so long, everyone is watching when she comes back to town. Especially when her & Sophie come face to face.

I could nit-pick how a character seems to suddenly know something, driving the plot forward, so it needed mentioning earlier. I also feel the ending wraps up a too quick & neat for me. However, I enjoyed this book. I like the distinctive voices of the 2 MCs who tell the story. There is character background & depth, & the premise is one that is completely believable. Personally, I recommend it as a fantastic summer read.

Rounding up to 4/5🌟 from me.

Thank you NetGalley and Mills & Boon for a free copy of this book in exchange for an impartial review!

Came for the sapphic love story, stayed for the compelling narrative, characters that are just so messily human, powerful sapphic yearning (bisexual rep!) and strong themes of love, family and honesty.

This was a peak portrayal of the friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-possible lovers again narrative arc. My heart lifted and fell with Sophie and Nora. The eighteen years yawning between Nora and Sophie then and now made the intensity of their forbidden love truly searing. The near-decades long development reminded me a little of Rosie and Alex from 'Love, Rosie' by Cecelia Ahern, one of my favourite contemporary romances.

I also loved how through Nora the book respects the fluidity of sexuality 'labels' and their unique meaning to each individual - plus I really appreciated having a bisexual lead whose attraction to men and women isn't erased, regardless of how her love story ends. Several explicitly and implicitly homophobic stereotypes were also addressed, as well as misogynistic double standards.

Plot-wise, there were so many dramatic twists and backstory exposition was done excellently, with little crumbs to keep me hooked. It was almost like a murder mystery in how it unfolded layer by layer, new pieces slowly slotting together and reframing the narrative we thought we had. The ending was a little neat but I really liked it, and given how many times those two fought (A LOT) and all the obstacles they faced, for most of the book I wasn't even sure if Sophie and Nora were endgame!

All the characters are flawed, complicated and entangled with each other in this small Texas town. The theme of mother-daughter relationships was particularly significant here, from Sophie and her deeply homophobic and conservative mother Brenda, Sophie and her teen daughter Logan - when does 'protectiveness' cross over into hurt? - and Nora and her surrogate mother Aunt Emmadean. Even the relationship between a secondary character, Kim (an old schoolmate of Nora and Sophie) and her daughter Erin factored importantly into the plot (I actually welled up slightly!). I loved that you could see similarities and differences in each and the ways they try to be better. Well...some of them, anyway.

This story is told in dual POV, starting with Nora, and because I read fast when I'm intrigued, I often missed the title indicating whose POV it was and sometimes got confused. However, as they both have pretty strong character voices, it wasn't hard to figure it out quickly. I think my favourite is Sophie - she's so resilient and her arc made me so proud. I enjoyed Nora's gradual character development too, working on her stubbornness, selfishness and trust issues - though she never loses her savage streak! Do not get on the bad side of this woman.

I really enjoyed this book, and it makes me want to read more complicated contemporaries - bonus if it's queer! This is also inspiring me to hurry up and read Austen's 'Persuasion', which this is loosely inspired by (initially, anyway). I'll definitely be looking into Lenhardt's other work!

I was unable to finish this due to my Kindle breaking. However, I managed to read over 50% and what I did experience was something way more enthralling than I could have imagined. The prejudice Nora and Sophie experience throughout this novel made me so angry, but that's what sadly made it all the more realistic. The love story is so beautifully written and Lenhardt does a fantastic job at creating two female characters who have so many layers to their story. I was hooked.

This book just wasn't for me, I just didn't care enough about the characters to be bothered about what happens to them.
The writing was good, but the characters weren't endearing to me.

First of all, I didn’t realise this was a Mills and Boons book. Therefore I don’t think I’m their target audience but I would pass it onto my mother!
It took me a while to get into the story but once I was into it, I had to finish it to find out the ending (but it’s Mills and Boon so I knew what the ending would be!).
The story focuses on two women driven apart in their teens for being in love, who come back together eighteen years later. You discover why they were driven apart and I can imagine this still happens, even now due to different viewpoints of society.
It was an interesting read but I do think it was a bit drawn out in parts. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

A beautifully written LGBTQIA novel by lendhart.

The book follows Nora and Sophie were best friends as teenagers. eighteen years later Nora has returned to the town she once called home and her feelings for Sophie resurface.

Great quick summer read. Not a huge fan of the cheating trope but it was one of the better written I’d read

“ you pierce my soul I am half agony half hope I have loved no one but you “ Jane Austen persuasion

The secret of you and me by Melissa Lenhardt

Here it is my review of this wonderful book that mills & boon kindly asked me to review as today is my turn on this blog tour here goes 😍

This is the first for me to have read a romance novel that is a LGBTQIA 🏳️‍🌈❤️ so when I asked to do a review of course I said yes why not’ romance is romance and I need something uplifting after the year we all have.

So again I’m trying very hard not but in spoilers as I really do think you should give this book a try you will enjoy this 🥰🥰🥰🥰

So the heroines in the story is Sophie and Nora

Sophie married to Charlie nora’s ex boyfriend has a daughter, good career life is good of is it. (Spoilers)

Nora comes back to lynchfield after her dad died (difficult relationship you found out as you read more why that she hated her father) she left under the cloud and wanted to leave as soon as the funeral was over but her father left the property to her so she had to stay in lynchfield so there is no avoiding Sophie (as you read more the novel you can understand why).

I found that Nora was hurting and had guarded her heart and as you read on in the book you can understand why and you can’t help but feel for her but I loved her attitude she did not care and I think the author wrote this character so brilliantly and I could not help myself rooting for her especially in the last few chapters.

Sophie I felt for her and I thought she really suffered by not following her heart the 1st time . she is in a loveless marriage with Charlie (the husband) but loves her daughter Logan. The husband is a serial cheater and I found him very controlling and very selfish I definitely did not like this character at all the author white him very well.

I found myself feeling for Sophie she had it hard (spoilers) because she has to pretend to be someone she was not to please everyone but ended up herself very unhappy and the author writes this well and as you read more of the novel the more you found out how much she is suffering.

“If only Nora read Sophie’s letters”

I found myself as I was reading this novel at times annoyed with how Sophie and Nora was treated especially by Sophie’s mother who I really disliked in the book . I found her also very controlling and a little spoiler , i was very happy when Sophie finally stood up to her 👏👏

So my thoughts
I really enjoyed this book and was hooked by the 1st few pages, I felt it was more than a romance novel it was about acceptance and prejudice that face both Nora and Sophie but so happy they got their happy ending ❤️❤️.

You can fell the passion in the book as well and the author wrote this very well, and how made each chapter spoken ether from Nora of Sophie point of view.

At time it really felt like I was reading a modern day version of a Jane Austen novel ( loved the references to persuasion) full of emotions, regrets, anger, etc and the author does not hold back on things which I liked made the story feel real.

My Rating.
5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I definitely recommend this novel I was hooked, the story was brilliantly written and I really enjoyed reading this I really hope that Melissa Lenhardt continues to write more novels like this as I for one will read them

2.5 stars

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Nora and Sophie were best friends as teenagers and became something more but Nora had boyfriend, Charlie and no one knew of the girls romance. When Charlie and Sophie had a fling that resulted in a pregnancy Nora left town and had not returned since.

Now eighteen years later Nora has returned to the town she once called home, feelings have resurfaced but can she ever be with the woman she truly loves?

Trigger warnings in this book for homophobia, biophobia, alcohol abuse, cheating, emotional abuse

This book I did think I was really going to love It the plot seemed like something interesting to me however from the beginning it felt almost like a soap opera, nearly every character in the book was cheating on their partner and the amount of homophobia and slur words used was a lot, I did expect a few but there was a lot. Over all the story between the two woman was fine and the writing was OK but it wasn't my favourite read

Rating~ 3.5 stars
TW: Homophobia, alcohol addiction, racism, islamophobia and cheating (quite a lot). Brief mentions of PTSD as heroine was in the military.

Generally, I don’t go out of my way to read cheating stories but occasionally I’ve come across some done really well and because the blurb promised some angst and pining I wanted to give it a try. I hadn't anything before from Melissa Lenhardt either.

Set in a small town in Texas, The Secret of You and Me introduces us to Nora and Sophie. Nora Noakes was kicked out by her father at 18 after finishing high school. She went on to join the army and later becomes a language specialist. Sophie Wyatt at 18 got pregnant by her best friends boyfriend, went on to marry him and become the town’s Convention and Visitors Bureau president.

Nora and Sophie had been best friends since they were children and fell in love in their senior year. They had grand plans before everything came crashing down. They now have completely different lives than they once imagined. Coming face to face after 18 years of separation at Nora’s fathers funeral shows them their love and passion never died and this threatens their now safely constructed lives.

The Secret of You and Me falls under the second chance romance and friends to lovers trope.

This was a pretty easy book to get lost into, the drama and angst of it all keeps you intrigued. We see old hurts and lingering love in Nora and Sophie as soon as they meet. Clearing up their past and making up though might destroy their current lives and that is something they are both afraid of. The characters in this book are very flawed. Neither Nora and Sophie nor the rest of the characters are perfect. They are very complicated characters with baggage and old hurts still raw. We also see the struggles of finally coming in terms with who they are and yearning to be with the one person you always wanted and loved but couldn’t.

I enjoyed seeing Nora and Sophie finally come together, be honest, more open and finally committing to each other. It took them quite a lot of time to get there, with their stubbornness, their fights, family and ‘loved ones’ making it more difficult but they are finally happy and completely in love. I also enjoyed seeing/hearing young Nora and Sophie together, they were adorable. I was happy that Sophie finally

Quibbles (cause when don’t I have them): There are some pacing issues and the last few chapters of the book felt pretty rushed to me. Wasn’t a big fan of the language especially the terrorist comment towards her Alima, just cause she’s muslim? and some other instances. I also felt they were having the same argument over and over again.

Anyone looking for character driven romance who likes their romance to be a bit more messy and complicated along with the its always been you aspect would enjoy this one!

Also I do hope that Alima finds her HEA with someone deserving of her love. And that Charlie loses his election in this fictiony world.

If I'm totally honest, I did not realise this was a Mills and Boons until I started reading it. It was quite fun but maybe just not what I was expecting.
I did enjoy the idea of Persuasion set in Texas with a lesbian couple but something kept pulling me out of the story for some reason. Maybe I'm too much of an Austen fan, because the relationship between Nora and Sophie across time was moving. I'm so sorry that it just wasn't quite my cup of tea. I think I'm probably not the target reader.

4.5 stars

This is a wonderful story of Nora and Sophie who secretly fell in love as teenagers, were caught together and separated for 18 years.
It is a story of love against all odds, of friendship and of defeating the haters.
It is wonderful to read a lesbian love story where the characters are in their 30s. It gave the story real depth and so much meaning to their love story.
Nora and Sophie are both incredible characters. Nora is fierce and unapologetic about who she is. She was an absolute gem of a joint lead character. I loved her background being in the army and her journey to the present day. She held so much emotion and it was so great to see her character change.
Sophie is kind and yet very broken. She has lied about who she is for 18 years and married the father of her child. Sophie's story was my favourite. From her relationship with her daughter to her alcoholism as a way to cope. I wanted the best for her, she deserved every happiness despite her mistakes.

The writing is beautiful and the storyline simple and very character driven. It was so emotional and really made me feel. I adored it and highly recommend this beautiful love story.

Please note that I was gifted this book in exchange for an honest review.

It looks like the release date has been pushed back to 29th October.

3.5 STARS

The story of Nora and Sophie is more than just a romance - it explores friendship, family, loyalty, and acceptance with the backdrop of a small, conservative southern town.

I absolutely loved the first half of this book. Getting to know the characters and the background of their story was addicting. I was so excited to see where it would go and honestly thought this would be my first 5 star read in awhile. However, the second half fell a bit flat for me and I felt that there were some loose ends that didn't get tied up. I beginning to think my expectations in the realm of character development are just too high!

Thank you to Mills & Boon for providing me with an e-arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!