Last month I checked something exciting off my bucket list by starting a BOOK CLUB! I don’t know why it took me so many years of my life before I was in a book club, but here I am and I couldn’t be happier! We kicked things off with The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. This book was a WILD. RIDE. and ended up being a great book to start off with.
I actually read this book the first time a couple of years ago. I found myself thinking about it for months afterward. There were different things that came back to me even after that, which is a big deal since I’m the type of person who forgets what happens in books approximately 2 days after finishing them. The book started off slow for me but is definitely worth pushing through for the end! I refused to let my husband talk to me when I got to the last 30 pages because I was so wrapped up in what was happening. And this was when I already knew what happened!
Quick Summary
The book follows two main storylines. The first begins in 1961 with a 16-year-old Laurel. The Nicholsons are a tight-knit family, but Laurel is at the age where she’s starting to pull away and become more independent. During a family birthday party, she’s hiding from her sisters when her daydreams are interrupted when she witnesses her mom kill an unfamiliar man with a cake knife. Obviously things are not the same for Laurel after that. We fast forward to 2011 as she tries to unravel the event she witnessed in 1961 before her ailing mother dies.
In the second storyline, we follow a set of characters in the 1940s in wartime London, including Laurel’s mother Dorothy. It was so interesting to get a better idea of what London was like during World War II. I had heard of air raids and rationing and the like, but this book made it so much more clear in my mind.
The book has themes of family, secrets (duh), and aging. It’s a beautiful read. Kate Morton’s prose is fantastic. I found myself underlining pretty and insightful sentences over and over. She also does such a fantastic job with character development. The characters feel like real people and the family dynamic is so on point. It led to us discussing our own family dynamics during book club. If you’re looking for a book club book, I’d definitely recommend The Secret Keeper.
Have you ever been in a book club before? Tell me all your thoughts!
