the family secret book review

THE CRAFTY CAMEL

• Apr 20, 2023

Book Review: The Family Secret by Kiersten Modglin

Thank you to @netgalley, @dreamscapemedia, & @kierstenmodglinauthor for the opportunity to listen to this #arcaudiobook in exchange for my honest review! This is available for purchase now as well as on #kindleunlimited .

Recently engaged couple Austyn Murphy and Lowell Bass spring into action when they receive word that Lowell’s parents and heirs to the massive family fortune have passed away unexpectedly. Austyn accompanies Lowell back to his parents’ home mansion. Once Austyn arrives at the Bass mansion she is caught up not only in the grandeur of the home and how it differs from her own life and upbringing but also by its mystique. Will Austyn’s digging land her in trouble she can’t find her way out of?

I couldn’t put this down! I listened on audiobook and I recommend it for those who enjoy audiobooks. I would describe this as The Inheritance Games meets The Family Game. This had the right amount of intrigue, suspense, and payoff. Loved how the intricate web came down all the way back to the spider. Highly recommend!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 - 4.5/5

Recent Posts

Book Review: Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton

Toxic People by S.D. Monaghan

April Reading Wrap Up

• Newsletter Sign Up
• Press & Events
• Text Message Alert Sign Up
• Songs & Scents
• Book Club Discussion Guides
• KMod Book Rating Guide

The Family Secret

Bass industries t-shirt, bass industries long-sleeve shirt.

Novelgossip

Review: the family secret by kiersten modglin.

Release date: January 31, 2023

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Their new home has a terrifying secret… When freshly engaged Austyn Murphy and Lowell Bass receive the news that Lowell’s parents have died unexpectedly, they set out for the historic Bass estate to handle their affairs and lay the former heads of the family to rest. Enshrouded in layers of secrecy and tradition, the Bass estate, and the family residing within its walls, give anything but a warm welcome. When the idea of staying in the home permanently is brought up, Austyn witnesses a side of her future husband she’s never seen before. Late one night, Austyn overhears a whispered conversation, revealing she hasn’t been given the full truth about the world she’s marrying into. And when Emily, an old friend, calls with devastating news of her own, Lowell and Austyn invite her to join them for a visit at the estate. Upon Emily’s arrival, a confession is made, causing a rift in the seemingly impenetrable bond the girls once had. As Emily settles into their home, becoming closer to Lowell than ever before, Austyn fears she’s made a grave mistake. Trapped inside the Bass estate under the ever-watchful eye of the staff and her soon-to-be family, Austyn makes another chilling discovery—something so terrible it changes everything. With distressing revelations hidden around every corner and time running out before final decisions are made about her future, Austyn must uncover the truth about the opulent and powerful Bass family…at the risk of becoming another one of their dark secrets.

Ahh a book about wealthy people and their scheming ways. That never gets old for me and when KMod writes the book it’s even better. When I settle in with one of her books I know I’m in good hands and will be getting ready to take a wild ride of some kind. You never know what to expect or exactly what you’re in for, but I always know I’ll be entertained and surprised. This book was no exception and it had me in its clutches from the start. There were some scenes towards the end that I never could’ve seen coming, so shocking but also so wickedly fun. Another fun read from the queen of the binge worthy thriller for sure!

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the author for my review copy.

Share this:

Leave a comment cancel reply.

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

The Family Secret, a review by Kristin

The Family Secret By: Mikayla Davids

Publication Date: September 1, 2023 Published By: Mikayla Davids 250 Pages

Find It On: Amazon | Goodreads

*This post contains affiliate links. We earn a small commission if you purchase the book through the link.

It was meant to be the perfect escape, a gorgeous winter vacation for sisters Sasha, Erin and Leah Bailey in the snowy French alps and a chance to put their complicated pasts behind them.

But when the body of someone close to them is found in an abandoned chalet nearby to their own luxurious accommodation it becomes clear this is going to be a family vacation to remember for all the wrong reasons.

All three sisters are hiding their own dangerous secrets…

Sasha is a woman on the edge.

Erin has the most to lose.

Leah isn’t as innocent as she looks.

Which woman is prepared to destroy their family to stop the shocking truth from surfacing? Which one of them would kill to protect their lies? And who will end up dead?

The Bailey sisters are back at it in this second installment! This one is more twisty and just as messed up as the first one! Everyone seems to be hiding something. Davids skillfully weaves everyone’s secrets together to paint one giant picture. But it won’t be easy trying to figure out what those secrets are and how they will play out.

Told in multiple points of view, this is a captivating and thrilling read. There were multiple twists that I didn’t see coming. As much as I usually hate cliffhangers for endings, this one sort of has one. I don’t mind it because it made my mind wonder what deviousness Davids is going to cook up for the next installment of the Bailey Sisters.

This is the perfect thriller for anyone that wants to read a book that gets straight to the point and is a quick and easy read.

Sharing is caring!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Never miss a review

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Family Secrets by Deborah Cohen – review

T he biggest thing that Deborah Cohen achieves in this book of marvels is to dislodge, once and for all, the whiskery idea that the Victorians were a generation of secret keepers. The image of all those attics stuffed with mad wives, strange sons and idiot siblings waiting for modernity to shine its cleansing light on festering family shame will no longer do.

Cohen argues that for the past 200 years Secrecy has been engaged in a frisky gavotte with its first cousin Privacy. First one leads, then the other takes a turn. And in the 19th century Privacy, that classic constituent of political liberalism, mostly had its best foot forward. What went on in an Englishman's [sic] home remained a family's own business, which meant, paradoxically, that there was nothing much to hide. It was only once the 20th century started to breath down everyone's neck that a retreat into lock-down seemed necessary. Now any family that wanted to shield its sadnesses and embarrassments from public view was obliged to take refuge in a thick wadding of camouflage, misdirection and pointed silence.

This sounds confusing, but Cohen's great strength is the way she puts flesh on theory, making it come to life before our eyes. Take her chapter on mental disability. In the mid-Victorian period, she argues, well-resourced families found themselves able to cherish mentally handicapped children. God had chosen you to care for one of His less finished creatures, and that was that. Such children joined in family life, appearing at the dinner table, splashing in the sea, becoming Mama's special pet. If they were sent away to a school, such as the progressive Normansfield Training Institution in South London, they went wrapped in love and with the promise that everyone was counting the days until the holidays.

By the time the apparently permissive Edward VII was on the throne, it was all quite different. "Imbeciles" were increasingly left at Normansfield all year round and for decades at a time. Communication between school and parents, once suffused with loving chatter, had dwindled to the occasional chilly letter from the family solicitor or doctor. Children who did occasionally come home, such as clergyman's son Percie Weldon, were told to keep out of sight when visitors arrived. Cohen finds tragic evidence of handicapped children systematically expunged from the record, their names left off parents' obituaries, ending their lives in unmarked graves.

All this had happened because heredity had replaced God as the driving force in human history. The turn to eugenics in the early years of the 20th century made families with a mentally handicapped child, gay uncle, or criminal cousin frantic with worry about a possible "taint" in their bloodline. Would anyone want to marry into a family that might be deemed "contagious"? In this new age of curtain twitching the only solution was to behave as if your mentally handicapped child, alcoholic brother or adulterous mother simply did not exist. If it was too late for that, you could simply kill them off in an accident and pray they never turned up to embarrass you.

Cohen finds a similar pattern when it comes to those permanent bachelors without whom no Victorian home was complete. A flamboyant uncle who always arrived with a "best friend" in tow was easily accommodated at a large family gathering where a variegated palette of appearances and behaviours was on show. But by the mid-20th century, and with families smaller in size, a homosexual son or brother was harder to hide in plain sight. And even when heredity was replaced by theories that favoured "nurture" over "nature", there was no let-up in the potential for shame. As ideas derived from psychoanalysis began to circulate in educated families, mothers of gay sons and shoplifting daughters blushed at the thought that their clued-up friends must surely be wondering about their parenting skills. Cohen is too subtle an historian to suggest that every kind of family issue fitted one cultural pattern. Or, as she succinctly puts it, "secrecy tends to run in circles rather than straight lines." In the case of adopted children, the Edwardians' insistence on total discretion seems to have worked a treat. Before the Adoption Act of 1926, childless couples who used the services of a private agency such as The Haven of Hope for Homeless Little Ones regularly passed off the new arrival as their own.

Adoptive mothers resorted to large winter coats or long holidays by the sea in order to disguise the fact that they had not given birth. The decision never to tell the child about her origins served to graft her seamlessly on to her new family tree. It also dealt with any neighbourhood gossip about her moral make-up and the worry that, once she hit puberty, the little stranger might go the same way as her mother.

While the new act of 1926 certainly shored up the legality of the adoption process, its formalised paperwork also blew away the chance to keep things private. No matter how discreet the new parents were, someone usually found out and, from there, it was a short step to whispers over the coffee cups and taunts in the playground. Legislation designed to eradicate the earlier nightmare in which the birth mother might reclaim her infant had the unintended effect of exposing the adopted child to the trauma of knowing that someone had once given her away.

What marks out Family Secrets as an important book is not so much its breadth – there are also chapters on race, divorce and family therapy – as its depth. Each chapter has a painstaking architecture of original sources, Cohen having spent years working through the archives of institutions including the Tavistock Clinic and the Edinburgh Marriage Guidance Centre. The result is a clear-sighted investigation into what our forebears felt was private, and what they kept secret – and, most importantly, the difference between the two.

• Society books
• History books

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

Naomi Krupitsky’s ‘The Family’ is a Mafia tale with a unique perspective

Some words come with baggage.

Charged with emotions and associations, a word like “family” sets up expectations — the idealized ’50s television version is especially powerful. So there’s a kind of kick to seeing those automatic assumptions overturned. In her debut novel, Naomi Krupitsky takes a deep dive into the meaning of family — both the idea and the reality — and emerges with a tale that’s vivid, authentic and filled with the unexpected.

Antonia and Sofia are the best of friends; they live next door to each other, and their fathers are both high-ranking members of the Family — the mob Family. Sofia’s father, Joey Colicchio, is bold and powerful. Carlo Russo, Antonia’s father, is thoughtful, even sensitive: He detests the brutality of his work, the internal contradictions of trying to keep his terrifying boss happy while nurturing his young family. The girls, close as sisters and bonded by more than blood, spend holidays and Sunday dinners together, their bedrooms separated by a shared wall. They seem to float in a kind of ideal union.

15 books to read this fall

But their quiet, stately lives will soon be transformed by tragedy. When Carlo abruptly disappears, Antonia’s world is shattered, and the peaceful coexistence of the neighboring families is destroyed.

From “The Godfather” to “The Sopranos,” the mafia has loomed large in the popular imagination, thanks to characters of startling intensity — ferocious yet filled with ambivalence and subtlety. Krupitsky’s novel has a different flavor. It’s less concerned with scenes of shocking violence and more with the emotional ripples surrounding that violence. Filled with sharp descriptive details of New York City, it focuses on homes, church, school, and the lives of women and children — people who’ve found themselves, mainly through marriage or inheritance, affiliated with the mob. The men, too, are viewed through the lens of family and the unique, impossible tension of trying to balance brutality and love.

This tension is what makes “ The Family ” so striking — the way a life of violence becomes a backdrop for what is, in many respects, a rich yet ordinary human story. The two friends grow up and experience the classic predicaments and struggles of girlhood: They fight with their parents, fall in love — sometimes with the wrong people — and agonize over the trajectory of their futures. The difference is that their extremes are more extreme. It’s fascinating to watch a figure of terror like Joey Colicchio almost completely undone by his sullen adolescent daughter. When Sofia falls for Saul, an unexpected and unsanctioned suitor, her confession to her parents unfolds in a scene of almost unbearable suspense. Joey is like all loving fathers — overprotective and mistrustful of the new beau; the difference is that Sofia’s father might literally murder the object of her affection. Krupitsky describes Joey’s reaction with chilling precision:

Sign up for the Book World newsletter

“Joey’s eyes are on Saul. His face is unreadable. His gaze is a needle, pinning Saul where he sits in his chair, like a specimen on a corkboard. He is silent for a moment, and when his voice comes it is clear and calm.”

Krupitsky depicts complex, internal states with restraint. This is the real pleasure of the novel — its careful, painstaking portrayal of emotional depth. Sometimes the narrative can feel a little stretched: Its omniscient narration leaps from character to character and perspective to perspective, often within the same paragraph, and it can be taxing to try to keep up with the story’s momentum. This is less of an issue as the novel proceeds and the characters’ personalities become increasingly, inevitably familiar.

More book reviews and recommendations

There is a special challenge to portraying intense, outsized acts and emotions in a way that feels immediate and true. By bringing readers into the intimate lives of these women, Krupitsky has achieved just that. There is a steady and timeless vitality to these stories. The savagery hanging over their lives is always there but remains just offstage, close yet artfully cloaked. Once you read this novel of blood and love, promises and betrayal, you may never look at family in quite the same way again.

Diana Abu-Jaber  is the author of “Birds of Paradise ” and “ Origin .” Her most recent book is the culinary memoir “ Life Without a Recipe .”

By Naomi Krupitsky

G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 368 pp. $27

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

• Share full article

The Memoir That Exposed a Family’s Secrets. And a Society’s.

A best seller in France, Camille Kouchner’s “The Familia Grande” is an indictment of incest that started a national reckoning.

Credit... Marta Monteiro

Supported by

By Claire Berlinski

• May 15, 2022

THE FAMILIA GRANDE, by Camille Kouchner Translated by Adriana Hunter

It is hard to write a book about incest that is neither grotesque nor lurid, even more so when the family in question is famous, wealthy and powerful. Camille Kouchner ’s memoir was a sensation in France for its unsparing portrait of gauche caviar , a sociological class with a distinct ideological heritage. Free of voyeurism and elegantly written, “The Familia Grande” is also an artistic success.

The book documents the relationship between Kouchner’s stepfather, the political scientist Olivier Duhamel , and her twin brother. Upon the book’s publication, Duhamel swiftly admitted his guilt. Had the statute of limitations not expired, he would have been prosecuted.

But “The Familia Grande” is less about incest than it is about May 1968, the relationship between a daughter and mother, and the destruction of a family. It was an illustrious family: Camille Kouchner is herself a respected lawyer. Her mother, Évelyne Pisier, was a pioneering feminist who had a relationship with Fidel Castro; her aunt, Marie-France Pisier, was a darling of French New Wave cinema. Her father, Bernard Kouchner, is a renowned humanitarian who co-founded Doctors Without Borders and served as a senior minister in several French governments. And Duhamel, her stepfather, was a politician, a professor of constitutional law and one of France’s best-known media figures.

The book begins with her mother’s death. The Pisier sisters, Évelyne and Marie-France, were women of “astonishing sexual arrogance,” the author says. Évelyne teaches her daughters to urinate in the grass; she plays with words, puns, Freudian slips. She loathes domesticity. Both venerate their mother, Paula, who discovered Simone de Beauvoir and fled her marriage, putting “a rocket under bourgeois conventions.”

The student protests of May 1968 inform all they do. These protests, organized by French students, quickly spread beyond academia. Protesters objected to capitalism, consumerism and imperialism. Paris was awash in slogans. But the real energy of the movement derived from what was arguably its primary agenda: sexual liberation. In practice, France was culturally conservative, Catholic, stultifying, hierarchical and authoritarian. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness and divorce a taboo. The control of sexual desire, many protesters believed, was an instrument of domination, and indeed a source of aggression and greed. The French Communist Party sympathized with the workers on strike but denounced the students as bourgeois imbeciles.

The uprising would ultimately give rise to dramatic changes in French family life: abortion, contraception, no-fault divorce, premarital cohabitation, out-of-wedlock births. Some of the revolutionaries would have gone further. It seemed to them obvious that sexual liberation must begin in childhood. In 1977, Le Monde published an open letter, signed by eminent intellectuals, philosophers and psychoanalysts, in support of decriminalizing sexual relationships between adults and children under the age of 15.

Bernard Kouchner was a signatory.

Kouchner gives the narrator a dual voice, that of child and adult. (The translation, by Adriana Hunter, is tonally faithful and frequently creative, though on occasion Évelyne loses a bit of her sparkle.) We understand that Kouchner’s mother put “women’s freedom” above child care. Évelyne is repulsed by breast-feeding. Nannies take care of children while adults swap spouses. But Kouchner doesn’t demand we be revolted by her mother’s egotism. Their family is envied by other children. “Everyone can say what they think at your house. You’re so lucky … there’s never any orders or punishments.”

At the large estate in Provence where they vacation, children sleep in a dormitory papered with May ’68 posters. “La familia grande” was her stepfather’s name for the extended clan of children, stepchildren, adopted children and acolytes who gathered every summer to bathe naked in the family’s pool. Though the nickname pays homage to Castro, as a title it evokes the Mafia code of omertà .

Kouchner’s short sentences and simple diction evoke a child’s point of view; but if her prose is spare, it is not childish. Every member of the family is fully drawn — except her twin brother. He is assigned a pseudonym, to protect his privacy; she has also, perhaps unconsciously, effaced his personality. The women in the book outshine the men, and the men seem unable to survive them. We know of her grandfather only that he was a Maurrassian and, in the view of the family’s women, “a bastard.” He kills himself. Bernard Kouchner, her father, “was never around. My birth in 1975 did nothing to change that. Nor did my brother’s.”

When the twins are 6, Évelyne leaves her husband. “You’re not allowed to cry,” she tells the children. “I’m much happier like this.” When her brother expresses sadness at the separation, their grandmother abandons them on the sidewalk and tells them to walk home alone. Évelyne concurs: “No way I’m having stupid children or caricatures of children. Divorce is a freedom.”

When their father remarries, the twins’ relationship to him becomes still more attenuated. The charismatic Duhamel is eager to fulfill the young Camille’s longing for paternal affection: “You are my life, my new life, the one I was waiting for, the one I wanted. You’re my children, and more besides.”

Although the book has achieved renown for its indictment of incest, it is equally an indictment of suicide. Part 2 begins with her grandfather’s death, recounted in the same spare style. “Bullets to the head, with a revolver or a rifle. Two, I think.”

This too was freedom. “Stop overthinking it, he was absolutely free to kill himself,” her mother tells her.

Her grandmother, a member of the Association for the Right to Die With Dignity, has a ghoulish enthusiasm for volunteer work. “She would disappear to Switzerland and return serene.” She and her granddaughter stroll “around the pool for more than an hour, both in just our bikini bottoms, bare-breasted. My arm hooked through hers, our hands clasped behind our similar-looking backs.” They talk about books and boyfriends and feminism. “I’m proud of your grades, and so proud of your freedom already,” her grandmother says.

Kouchner adds, “My grandmother killed herself soon after that.”

It’s the second funeral in the book — “a militant, heartbroken crowd who’d come to pay tribute to my grandmother’s freedom to kill herself.” The suicide leaves Camille’s mother an alcoholic shell. She drinks herself blind every night: “This is absolutely not up for discussion. It’s my freedom.”

The book is a sharply focused portrait of a certain kind of privileged French family of its era, first revolutionary and then bourgeois: their sexual mores, their thirst for power and fame, the collateral damage to children. The violation of her brother is explained, midbook, in one sentence: “He started stroking me, and then, you know …”

From this point, the narrator’s voice ages as she comes to understand what this means, and the book takes on aspects of a psychological thriller. The twins keep the secret for years. At last, fearful for the safety of their own children, strangled by a “hydra” of guilt and shame, they confide in other members of their family, to decidedly mixed reaction.

The book finishes, effectively, in the most adult voice of all, that of the law. Camille Kouchner addresses her stepfather directly, reciting the text of the French penal code on incest. “Let’s be clear about this,” she writes:

Article 222—31—1 of the criminal code Rape and sexual assaults are classified as incestuous when committed by: 1) an ascendant; 2) a brother, a sister, an uncle, an aunt, a nephew, or a niece; 3) or any other person, including a partner or family member, having legal or de facto control over the victim.

Claire Berlinski is the editor in chief of The Cosmopolitan Globalist. She lives in Paris.

THE FAMILIA GRANDE, by Camille Kouchner | Translated by Adriana Hunter | 214 pp. Other Press. | $24.

Advertisement

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Book Reviews

'the familiar' is a romance, coming-of-age tale, and a story about fighting for more.

Gabino Iglesias

Leigh Bardugo's The Familiar is an entertaining slice of speculative fiction wrapped in historical fiction and delivered with heavy doses of magic and wit.

At once a love story, a coming-of-age tale full of secrets and tension, and a narrative about wanting more and doing anything to get it, The Familiar is a solid entry into Bardugo's already impressive oeuvre.

Luzia Cotado is a scullion with callused hands who sleeps on a grimy floor and constantly dreams of a better life where she has more money, complete freedom, and love. Luiza works for a couple who are struggling to maintain their social status, so she doesn't make much and owns almost nothing. To help her get through her days and take care of menial tasks, Luzia uses a bit of magic, which she keeps secret from everyone.

On Netflix, Leigh Bardugo's 'Shadow And Bone' Celebrates A Diverse Grishaverse

Luzia learned how to perform little miracles from her aunt, a strange woman and the lover of a very powerful man. When Luzia's mistress discovers her servant can perform "milagritos," she sees it as the perfect opportunity to improve her social status and forces Luzia to work her magic for their dinner guests. But what begins as entertainment soon turns into something much more serious when Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king, enters the scene and sees Luzia's magic as an opportunity for himself.

The king is desperate to improve his military prowess, and Pérez thinks Luzia's powers might be the thing that puts him, once again, in the king's good graces. There will be a competition, and if Luzia wins, everyone around her might gain something. But winning won't be easy, and Luzia fears her newfound fame will get her and her Jewish blood in the Inquisition's crosshairs. Surrounded by people with secret agendas, learning to use her magic, caught in a new romance with a mysterious undead man, and an unknown pawn in a plethora of self-serving machinations, Luzia will soon need more than a bit of magic to survive.

Author Interviews

'farewell for now:' leigh bardugo on 'rule of wolves'.

PG-13: Risky Reads

Reading 'dune,' my junior-high survival guide.

'King Of Scars' Muses On The Monstrous

'Six Of Crows' Is A Well-Turned Heist Tale

The Familiar drags readers into a world of servitude, magic, power struggles, and intrigue. There isn't a single character in this story that doesn't have a secret agenda or something to win—or lose!—that's directly tied to Luzia. The desires of some clash with those of others, and those battles slowly make the narrative more complex while simultaneously increasing the tension and the sense of doom. Despite the many elements at play and the bafflingly large cast of characters she juggles here, Bardugo delivers every twist and turn with clarity, plenty of humor, and charming wittiness, the latter of which fills the novel with superb, snappy dialogue that shows Luzia lacks everything except a quick intelligence and a sharp tongue. Also, while many of the plot elements here like the magic battle, someone being trapped by a curse, and an impossible love are far from new, Bardugo mixes them well together and manages to make them feel fresh.

Known mostly for her Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, and the King of Scars duology—all of which are part of her Grishaverse universe—Bardugo delivers an entertaining standalone here with a strong female protagonist that's very easy to root for. Through Luzia, we get a critique of religion, a look into the lives of those who have no option but to serve to survive, and a romance that's as full of passion and sensuality as well as lies and treachery. Lastly, the magic system Bardugo created, which is Jewish magic based on phrases sung or spoken in mixed languages, is interesting and allows the author to talk about otherness without straying from the core of her narrative.

While Bardugo accomplishes a lot in this novel, the crowning jewel of The Familiar is Luzia, a memorable character whose most personal aspirations possess an outstanding universality. We watch her suffer, emerge from her cocoon, fall in love, and then receive her ultimatum: "Your life, your aunt's life, your lover's future all hang in the balance. So do your best or I will be forced to do my worst." Through every single one of those steps, we want her to triumph and to learn to hone her powers, and that connection keeps the pages turning.

At times the endless descriptions of clothing and the increasing number of characters and subplots—some with a satisfying arc and some that just fizzle out—seem a bit excessive and threaten the pacing of the story. But Bardugo is always in control and her masterful use of tension — and that, along with her talent for great dialogue, more than overpower the novel's small shortcomings.

The Familiar is full of "milagritos" and pain, of betrayal and resentment, of fear and desire. However, the novel's most powerful element is hope; Luzia is all about it, and her feelings are so powerful they're contagious. That connections makes this a book that's hard to put down.

Gabino Iglesias is an author, book reviewer and professor living in Austin, Texas. Find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @Gabino_Iglesias .

• Kindle Store
• Kindle eBooks
• Literature & Fiction

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Audiobook Price: $20.32 $20.32

Save: $12.33 $12.33 (61%)

Buy for others

Buying and sending ebooks to others.

• Select quantity
• Buy and send eBooks
• Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

The Family Secret: A gripping historical mystery from the USA Today bestselling author (Cat Carlisle, Book 2) Kindle Edition

Get ready for another gripping read from usa today bestselling author of the silent woman will she find the truth.

England, 1940

After a sudden unexplained disappearance, Thomas Charles comes back into Cat Carlisle’s life with the suggestion she leave London – and the threat of bombs – to move to back her childhood village in Cumberland.

Back in her hometown Cat discovers her childhood friend, Beth Hargreaves, is suspected of murder. As Cat tries to prove Beth’s innocence, she discovers a scheme of deception that affects the whole village. Can she uncover the family truths behind the murder and expose the enemy hiding in plain sight?

Readers LOVE Terry Lynn Thomas:

‘ Intriguing and page-turning .’

‘I really enjoyed this fascinating historical thriller.’

‘an absorbing novel’

‘a marvellous historical suspense that had me engrossed from the start.’

‘I read it in just one sitting .’

• Book 2 of 3 Cat Carlisle
• Print length 286 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher HQ Digital
• Publication date March 1, 2019
• File size 2028 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• See all details
• Next 2 for you in this series $13.29
• All 3 for you in this series $21.19

• Customers Also Enjoyed
• In This Series
• By Terry Lynn Thomas

Editorial Reviews

What readers are saying about The Silent Woman :

‘Riveting… I read the entire book in one sitting… It beomes a movie in your head.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘Wow. I did not want to put it down…There are some truly great twists… I absolutely loved this book.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘I couldn’t stop reading this book!… Will keep you turning pages long into the night.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘What a wonderful book… Ridiculously addictive… Fast and furious… Stylish, clever and completely engaging… Brilliant.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

About the Author

Product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07H3G9MNK
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HQ Digital (March 1, 2019)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 1, 2019
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 2028 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 286 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0008330832
• #1,435 in Historical World War II Fiction
• #2,724 in Women's Historical Fiction
• #3,439 in Sisters Fiction

About the author

Terry lynn thomas.

Terry Lynn Thomas is the USA Today bestselling author of six historical mysteries and two contemporary legal thrillers. The Drowned Woman (previously published as Neptune’s Daughter) won an IndieBRAG Medallion. The Silent Woman and House of Lies released to critical acclaim and became USA Today bestsellers. The Betrayal and The Witness are Terry’s first foray into the world of domestic suspense and introduces attorney Olivia Sinclair.

When she’s not writing, Terry likes to spend time outdoors with her husband and her dogs.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Reviews with images

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

• lol Badge Feed
• win Badge Feed
• trending Badge Feed

Browse links

• © 2024 BuzzFeed, Inc
• Consent Preferences
• Accessibility Statement

28 Spilled Family Secrets That Changed Lives, Broke Hearts, And Rewrote History

"I was the family secret. My birth father didn't know about me. He does now, and it has hurt his relationship with his wife. I feel terrible."

BuzzFeed Staff

Reddit user u/kaushman2 asked the community, "What family secret was finally spilled in your family?" The thread quickly filled with many shocking revelations that altered some families forever. Here's what people shared:

1. "one of my uncles might have been a serial killer. after he died, my cousins found a journal in his remote cabin in northern minnesota with a bunch of dates and what seemed like descriptions of people. he was known for picking up hitchhikers. they turned stuff over to the fbi, but the boundary waters area is huge and remote, so it'll never be fully investigated unless someone stumbles across something. i was only 11 when he killed himself. so i don't remember much about him. this all came out during a drunken night at a bonfire.", 2. "my aunt didn't lose her teaching job due to budget cuts like she'd always claimed. turns out she never had a valid teaching license to begin with, regularly had affairs with the dads, and embezzled pta money".

— u/itsjustmo_

3. "My grandpa was a drag queen. When he returned from the war, he would take 'trips to the city' on weekends with his military friends. My aunt found his drag costumes (wigs, heels, etc.) in his closet, and my grandma scolded her and told her never to discuss it again. It slowly came out that he was actually taking all this stuff to perform in the city on weekends."

— u/plzadyse

4. "When I was a kid, we had a huge, surprise 50th wedding anniversary party for my grandparents on my dad's side. Everyone wanted my grandpa to give a speech when it came time for cake/dessert. The surprise was on all of us because they weren't actually celebrating 50 years of marriage. They secretly divorced and then got back together, but no one knew. Everyone was shocked, to say the least. I don't remember all the details, but they got remarried at some point in secret and just carried on life as normal."

— u/Prestigious_Pop_230

5. "After 25 years of marriage, my dad announced his divorce to my mom, then married her sister two months later. So, my aunt is now my stepmom and my cousins are now my stepsisters. I guess they’ve had a thing going since before my parents even started dating."

— u/Skeeze_Kneez

6. "My dad cheated on my mom and almost missed my mom giving birth to me because he was with his affair partner when she went into labor. And, he was trying to get my mom to meet the person he cheated on her with."

— u/Minute-Aioli-5054

7. "My great-aunt was a nurse supervisor at a mental hospital in the 1920s. She fell in love with a guy who was being evaluated for a murder trial. She helped him escape, and they went to Florida, where the police caught up with them. My aunt got off easy, but he got the electric chair. I found all this in a newspaper archives while working on family history. I showed it to my mom, who admitted it was all true."

— u/p38-lightning

8. "I was conceived using a sperm donor. I found out that my dad was not my biological father when I was 38, and that (at the time) I had 18 half-siblings! We are up to 32 and counting because they keep rolling in. It actually created a cool new social group."

— u/mynuname

9. "The story was always that my two cousins were adopted and not related to each other even. People sometimes would ask them if they were twins. They would say, 'Nope, we're adopted.' Somehow, it got out that their bio mom was their younger aunt. The older sister adopted and raised both girls as her own. The younger aunt/mom got married and started a family before all this came out, too. It was a wild journey. I have heard this is common in Catholic families. They hide the illegitimate pregnancy, and someone in the family adopts the child or pretends it is an older married family member's child. This was in the early '80s, so I guess it was possible to get away with it."

— u/thrax_mador

10. "My parents got divorced in secret, yet we all lived miserably under the same roof my whole life. Eventually, they remarried…also in secret. I found their re-marriage license."

— u/buffythebudslayer

11. "I found out I was adopted when I was 32 years old. My mom's cousin is my real dad. They tried to take me back when I was 3, but my mom refused. Now, my birth parents are both doctors, live in a mansion, and have six more kids. I grew up in poverty."

— u/ReallyGlycon

12. "I was always told that my mother's father had died in the war. After my mother died, my cousins found out that our grandfather was alive and had divorced my grandmother when my mom was young. My grandmother, being a good Irish Catholic, told the nuns at the school that she was a widow because the church wouldn't let a divorced woman's kids go to Catholic school. My grandfather had remarried and had a whole other set of kids and grandchildren. My cousins tried to meet him, but he wasn't interested."

— u/Johnny_B_Asshole

13. "My father wasn't my bio dad. My bio dad, his father, etc., were in organized crime. I made my siblings get tested. Three of the seven of us tested, and we all had DIFFERENT fathers — not the one who raised us. It ruined my entire identity. Wild."

— u/Aggravating-Pea193

14. "My grandfather was not a struggling immigrant who toiled away in a dress factory upon arrival in America. He was, in fact, a high-ranking member of a powerful crime family."

— u/Express_Hotel2682

15. "I found out a couple of years ago that when I was 3, my father divorced my mother and picked me up from kindergarten. He told the caretakers I wouldn’t return to the kindergarten again, then drove off with me. The caretakers called my mother, who of course knew nothing about this. She then realized my father was taking me to another area in my country (three hours away). My mother was at home with my baby sister (my father's daughter), and he split us from each other."

"The most messed up thing is that when my parents went to court, the judge let me stay with my father and let my sister stay with my mother because I had already gotten used to being without my mother. They officially split my sister and me apart. I had 'only' been away from my sister and mother for three months. I love my father; he's a good man and raised me well, but I can never forgive him for this act alone. Because of this, my mother has never had another husband/boyfriend, and I have only visited my mother and sister on holidays for my entire childhood."

— u/Practical-Region-138

16. "I, by mistake, found out that my mother had an affair and got pregnant with me. Neither my dad nor I had any clue about this. I figured this out when I was 37 years old. My dad and I did a DNA test, and it came back that there was a 0% chance he was my biological father. This caused my parents to get a divorce after 47 years. My entire life was turned upside down. I went through a very dark time. I now know my entire biological family; we all have much in common. I am thankful that I found out since I always had questions about why I didn't look like my dad's family and why we didn't have similar interests. My biological family and I spend time together, and I feel like the missing piece of me was finally found."

— u/hotrodstew

17. "My 65-year-old dad found out his mother wasn't actually his mother. She was his grandmother, and his sister was his birth mother. She had him when she was 15; it was extremely frowned upon back then. They sent her away while pregnant, and she returned when he was born. He was raised as if he was another sibling. His entire family knew but kept it a secret, even after the 'mother' and 'grandmother' all died. He only found out by chance when he got a passport and needed his birth certificate. He doesn’t even know who his birth father is. It's so sad."

— u/Happy-Grapefruit-007

18. "My dad was previously engaged and called off the wedding the day before because his fiancée's parents bought them a house next door to them. My mom found out for the first time (as did I) in family therapy after 25 years of marriage."

— u/sogedking

19. "My grandpa had a quarter that was warped from a bullet hitting it. He showed it to me when I was a kid and said it was in his pocket and could have saved his life. It wasn't until way later in life that I found out it was my grandma who shot him."

— u/burntreynolds33

20. "My parents were married for 28 years. Each had an affair very early in the marriage, then things settled down. A few years after my father died, my mother met and married a man. But, my father's aunt recognized him as the man she had an affair with many years prior. The aunt spilled the beans and fractured the entire family. Drama, drama, drama."

— u/tiger5765

21. "We found out after my grandfather died that none of his seven children with my grandmother were his. They all likely had different fathers."

— u/ProudMedusa71

22. "At age 43, I learned I had a half-sister. My father had an affair, and she was conceived after my brother was born, but before I was. She reached out to me and is a lovely person. We have been in contact ever since, have traveled together, and I have visited her several times."

— u/greekmom2005

23. "When my dad's mom died, we learned she was actually 10 years older than anyone thought she was. She was embarrassed to marry a man younger than her, so she lied for like 80 years."

— u/LeastCleverNameEver

24. "My mother-in-law was once engaged to a high-up mafia guy, and personally hung around with some of the most notorious mobsters in Europe. Eventually, things got quite dangerous. They ended things and she moved back home. No one would expect this from a simple grandma in Florida, but she just revealed the whole thing to my husband in case when she dies, he finds the wedding dress photos, letters, and other things in her belongings."

— u/HuckleberryLou

25. "My dad's little sister wasn't really his little sister. It was his sister's baby, raised by his mom. The girl didn't know until she was 21."

— u/Ok-Thing-2222

26. "My mother is kid #7 out of 10. My aunt (kid #4), who was born in 1945, did her DNA and found out that she has a different father from everyone else. She was devastated. There was always a rumor that there was an affair, but nobody talked about it. She has so many questions, but nobody's alive to answer them."

— u/bossykrissyCC

27. "On my father's death bed, I learned he had a second wife, and children, and the worst part was dad was taking his little secret to his grave. The secret kind of slipped out."

— u/Rich-Appearance-7145

28. And: "I was the family secret. My birth father didn't know about me. He does now, and it has hurt his relationship with his wife. I feel terrible."

— u/xprovince

Sheeeesh. Have you ever learned about a wild family secret? Tell us in the comments!

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.

Share This Article