Jan Mcclung-short's Reviews > Secrets

Excellent book! I had a hard time getting to where I enjoyed the character Rese Barret, but that was just because she was so damaged and hard to read. Lance Michelli, the main man in the book is care free and lives life to the fullest and he describes Rese as an onion with all the layers. You keep peeling and you finally get a soft sweet onion with less fire. Lance is easy to like, easy on the eyes, and easy to be around. He tells a good tale, doesn't really lie, but just doesn' t tell everything, what you would basically call a white lie. He keeps his mission a secret and it isn't revealed until the end of the book to Rese. He is a musician traveling with his best friends around the country, playing music, writing songs, and breaking girls hearts unintentionally when his grandmother has a stroke and asks him to search out answers for her. He falls in love easy bringing him and his family heartache. He has a deep faith in Jesus and lets his faith guide his life. His faith is deep and overfills where it leaks out. Others are drawn to him and his personality. He is like the Bible song we sang as kids where you can't hide your light (faith and trust in Jesus) under the basket. The light leaks out guiding others to him whether he wants them to or not.

Rese is a carpenter by trade who is with her father when he dies in a tragic work accident. Rese is drenched in his blood; and feels responsible for not being able to save him. She thinks she hides her pain well: she keeps to herself. Not talking, not trusting anyone now that her dad has died and wanting to do something that doesn't rely on her carpentry skills daily while working with her fathers crew. She has one friend who is as warped as she is: she wanders in and out of Rese's life. They are childhood friends who bonded to shelter each other from the severely dysfunctional family members and cruel school children in their lives.

Lance answers Rese's sign in the window for a cook in her new career running a bed and breakfast/inn in the Sonoma wine valley. He will cook and basically run the inn while she renovates the inn...or that's the plan. Lance doesn't tell the real reason that he wants to be able the cook only at this inn. Rese doesn't tell the real reason she began her new career. The attraction is there and strange things begin to happen at the inn and to them.

The twists and turns along with the other characters kept me reading this book. I didn't like Rese at all until I began to discover what she had survived. What a strong woman/child she had to be to cope with the obstacles in her childhood and life up until now whenbeverything began to cave in on her. She has no faith in anyone but herself, until her body begins to tell her she has to deal with her past. She can't sleep. She only eats what is there and requires no effort. She doesn't do conversations. Her career choice is slapping her around making her question how she is going to survive and be successfull in this job. Being a perfectionist, leaves her no choice but to face her past or to live in the past. Lance isn't allowing her to not face her past. She cannot trust anyone so why does she trust him. This book is like a wild ride in a fast car, the radio up loud, and you have had a couple drinks.