An enjoyable story of second chances from Clare Connelly. I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of the secret child trope, but the story was well structured and the second chance element of the plot did work in making the story engaging, Alicia and Graciano worked well as a pair dealing with the fallout of their teenage relationship and their reunion ten years later. I always enjoy the author’s books and will look out for the follow up story of Graciano’s brother.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

This is a new author to me
I really enjoyed this

The Secret She Must Tell The Spaniard is written by Clare Connelly and published by Mills and Boon Modern. The novel combines several themes including secret baby, young love, betrayal, abandonment and reconciliation.
Alicia was 16 and Graciano, 18, when they had an affair. Alicia’s father, a minister for the church, accuses Graciano of assaulting Alicia and she stays silent. Graciano leaves, lives on the streets for a while and then slowly builds a financial empire. Alicia is thrown out by her father and sent to live with her Aunt and has a baby. She rings Graciano to tell him that she is pregnant but he rebuffs her. Her father tells her that if she ever has contact with Graciano he will have him arrested for sexual assault. She has established a charity and is a well known event planner.

They meet 10 years later at Alicia’s charity event. She is auctioning her services as an event planner to raise money for her charity. Graciano wins the auction and takes her to his private slabs to plan his event.

The attraction between the pair is still there and as they compare notes over what happened in the past they realise both have made mistakes and misunderstandings are ironed out. They succumb to the attraction but Alicia has to rush home when her daughter has accident. This is when Graciano discovers he has a nine year old daughter. He threatens to take Anne away then he reads the baby book Alicia has made for him and declares his love for her.

Reading back the synopsis I have just written I should have enjoyed this book but I didn’t. The characters weren’t particularly likeable. Even by the end of the book Anne (the daughter) didn’t know Graciano was her father. The daughter is hardly mentioned throughout the book which is strange considering it is a secret baby trope book. Alicia made one phone call to tell him he was going to be a father then for the next nine years didn’t bother making contact, but she thought about it every day. The ending seem very rushed without the characters properly processing the fact that all their lives had changed now Graciano was in the picture. I think this is the first one of her novels that I have struggled to reach the end of.

I liked this story and I liked that it revealed their past gradually, I did feel however that 10 years was a long gap, and this meant that their daughter was now 9 and had never been told who her father was. For someone who had taken such care over creating albums and pictures it didn't fit her character to not tell him he had a daughter, even if you excuse the previous ten years, even now that they had met again she still didnt tell him until she had no choice.

A bit of a dance around in time keeps the suspense up around the original meeting of Graciano and Alicia which adds to the story telling. A tale that relies on a child and yet doesn’t drag her into everything was refreshing and made for a strong romance.

I’ve read loads of books by this author and loved them. So when I read this one, I was expecting the same pleasure. Sadly I was disappointed in it.

Firstly - I hated the ten year gap. Garciano has a child Annie who is 9 years old.. He has missed out on everything. How can that be caught up? We know that despite the excuses she’s made, Alicia could have found a way of letting Graciano know he was a father.

By the end of the book, Annie still hasn’t been told that he’s her Dad.

Alicia was a very unsympathetic character. No matter what she says to excuse herself (shock, fear etc) - nothing explains why she didn’t immediately reject her father’s accusations and stick up for Graciano. Yes, she’s had a difficult time but she is in the wrong, o matter how many times she tries to put it on him. The fact that once they reconnect, - she has so many opportunities to tell him he’s the father of a 9 year old girl, but doesn’t. He finally finds out by accident, in the worst possible circumstances and then has to stand to one side because he’s not officially acknowledged as the father. Alicia is a cold and self serving woman.


Even at the end when he’s trying to build a future, she’s all ‘oh I can’t trust you’. What? Sorry lady, you were the one who lied.

Overall, I felt the book was poorly structured. I kept waiting for stuff to happen, but it didn’t. It was almost as if the author wasn’t sure how to end it. We have black moments then things seem to get sorted out. Then we have a series of dates. Then we have Graciano having a. Conversation with the Granny substitute Diane about asking Alicia to marry him and then we have the proposal and the we have more about the missing brother. It was so bitty.

I am sorry but this just didn’t work for me as well as CC’s books usually do. I’ll still probably read the brother’s story though! 2.5 stars. I received an ARc from NetGaleey and Mills and Boon in return for an honest review.

Not my favourite Clare Connelly book.

I love the secret baby trope, and this was a well written story, the problem I had is that I didn't really warm to the author's characterisations of Alicia or Graciano.

The former because she had ample opportunity to tell the latter that he was a father, many times before they started sleeping together again, but kept dragging it out and justifying her reticence with weak excuses, until he eventually found out due to his 9 year old daughter having an accident and her being called to the hospital while they are having sex. The latter just came off as a bit of a douche in parts, although all was well by the end of the book and that's generally why we read M&B/Hqn offerings, this is just not one I'd read again.

Having a Sheikh for a brother though, I'll be all over that when that book releases!