Nora Roberts

Emma, a celebrity child who grew up amidst painful secrets, struggles to break free from her past, but her newfound love for a caring detective is challenged by repressed memories, murderous secrecy, and seduction. Reprint.

Public Secrets

Shay

Last year, probably around spring, one of the groups that I was in posted a picture of this book and Genuine Lies, and they sounded so good that I bought them both. I read Genuine Lies as soon as I got it because it reminded me of Evelyn Hugo, and I had so much fun reading it. I just now picked up Public Secrets, and I had so much fun with this book! This one is also really, really long! So we follow this family that just starts in a tragedy because we first meet Emma when her mother is trying to reunite them with her father, she is already three years old, and the two have never met. To be fair, Brian didn't even know he had a daughter, and the second he meets Emma, he ends up taking her with him to live and raise her, and I love it so much. Not necessarily what Emma had to go through, but the fact that Brian did whatever he could to do right by her from the very second he met her. In the book, things stay pretty bumpy for Emma. We see her father become famous as his band Devastation takes off. We see how her family deals with this, and then the family is rocketed by tragedy after tragedy along the way. There were moments where I felt like the book dragged, but to be fair, this thing is over 500 pages, and we see Emma go from only three years old to at least her late 20s-early 30s by the time the book comes to an end. I compared the other book a lot to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo because as the book goes on, we follow Eve Benedict's life as she helps write her memoir. As the story goes, many things come out about her life, and I feel like it just went a few steps further than Evelyn Hugo did.
I hate to compare Public Secrets to another Taylor Jenkins Reid book. Still, I really think this book combines Reid's Daisy Jones and the Six and Malibu Rising because, in this book, we see the rise of Devastation, almost from the very beginning, albeit through the eyes of Emma. Then we also get to see her family life as that fame has affected it, but I think Public Secrets took it even further because it went darker. We had the regular rock star stuff, parties, drugs, etc. But we also had deaths, weddings, divorces, and so on. I just think there was so much that happened in this book that you never really know which way to look next. I had a lot of fun with this book, and I think this one was just so stunning and a great read. I enjoyed this book more than Reid's books for a few different reasons, but the biggest thing for Daisy Jones was that formatting just tore that book apart for me. It was hard for me to stay in the story with that format. Then with Malibu Rising, I loved the first part of that book when it was focused more on the past and telling how the family got to where it was, but when it switched to the today's version at the family's big party, it just fell flat for me. But this book took those same stepping stones because we started at the beginning for this family, but we watched it all build up and where the story went on instead of just flash forwarding back and forth. I just think this book is easily compared to those two books, this one just came out in 1990, so some things were outdated in it. 

Sara Gaspar Farinha

‘Public Secrets’ gives us a tour through two decades of Emma McAvoy’s life. First as a young child that suffers at the hands of her birth mother and as the unexpected and unwanted daughter of an arising rock star. Then as the foreign element in a pop music’s band road to success. And later as a young woman and her choices and fears that led her to marriage and a new king of hell.

As the only witness of a failed attempt kidnapping, Emma keeps struggling with putting the pieces together. The unavoidable murder kept her haunted by the confusing memories and on the target list for her brother’s killers. A life tainted by violence and mental blocks, while struggling to find a mature sense of being and self-respect.

My second Nora Robert’s book, once again I kept getting that feeling that she does know what she’s doing. Strong characters, full of frailties and messed up personalities, reflecting the music business in all its facets. A world that keeps showing us how dazzling and ugly it can be, particularly when we see its evolution from the sixty’s to the ninety’s frame of mind.

In ‘Public Secrets’ we get to see a lot of what surrounds a pop-rock band and what it implies to all the people around them. We get to appreciate all their personal but not so private sufferings while time enfolds until the worst moment of their lives is finally explained.

It’s a very good story that can be accused of sustaining an enormous span of time but I assure you that it was put to good use here. Nora Roberts, once again shows the knack for capture each personality in its truest frame of mind, show us an loving father and a substance abuser, a scared child and a confident young woman, a substance addict personality and all its evolutions. A thrilling story, full of life’s little and major quirks, that kept me hooked from the first to the last page.

Original review here: http://sarinhafarinha.wordpress.com/2...

Danielle Crain

Rating 2 stars because I don't have the heart to rate a NR novel 1 star. Honestly - her writing here was very good, I just have trouble reading romantic suspense when there are children involved in the story. I would love to return to this again once my children are a bit older.

My Ratings:

5*****I loved this book, consider it an all time favorite
4**** Thoroughly enjoyed the book and will recommend it
3*** I liked it well enough,
2** Brain Candy - It was okay. Writing mediocre, will
keep/re-read if part of a series
1* didn't like/possibly not finished. (less)

Cortni Bell

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London Lynn

Emma, the illegitimate child of a pop music star, is rescued from her violent, alcoholic mother by her famous father and brought into a world of glamour, wealth, and dark secrets.

Public Secrets

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