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The Secret Of Everything (2009)

by Barbara O'Neal(Favorite Author)
3.89 of 5 Votes: 5
ISBN
0553385526 (ISBN13: 9780553385526)
languge
English
genre
publisher
Bantam
review 1: Tessa can't remember the first few years of her life. It is only when she has an upsetting incident as an adult that she really questions her past. Memories start flooding back to her, but no answers come along with them.She runs back to the town where she was born. She hasn't been there in over 30 years and she can barely remember a moment of her life there. Her dad warns her that it's a bad idea, that it will bring up old demons.She uses a partial truth, that she is scoping the area out for her tour group. This leads her to a restaurant called 100 Breakfasts. You'll wish you could eat there, so it's very nice of the author to include some recipes :)Without giving anything away spoilerwise, I will say that there was a period of time in this book that I was disappointed th... moreat it was starting to sad and filled with dark secrets. I have a personal bias against sad books, so it's nothing negative about the book itself, but I'll admit that I've come to know this author's writing as happier.Now, that being said, there was a great twist towards the end of the book. I loved the twist and I loved the way the storyline wrapped up. All in all I enjoyed it, it's not my very favorite book by this author, but I loved how important pets, family and food were to the story.
review 2: The characters were interesting - all - to a person- emotionally damaged to one degree or another and searching.... The story line, about lost childhood memories of traumatic events surfacing in the present was entertaining, if not finely nuanced - it relied alot on improbable coincidences - so you were either into it or not. The descriptions of the New Mexico scenery were compelling, and there were the requisite steamy love scenes. As with other O'Neal books food was a key part of the story, and there were some good recipes included, although including a recipe for hot oatmeal cereal seemed kind of unnecessary - more like part of the story's mystic. The fact that everyone 'lives happily ever after' seemed a bit disingenuous given all the baggage each character brought to the tale.I found this in my EReader, which indicated I had already read the book- but I didn't remember it, so read it again. Once a got into it a bit I began to remember the story line and characters, and decided to finish reading it again. That about sums it up- an interesting read - not super-memorable. less
Reviews (see all)
hanavien
A light read, a bit of romance, food, photography and a bit of a mystery as well.
Navomi
Interesting twists and turns in this novel, as well as a very sweet love story.
leilavm
The books started slowly for me, but then I couldn't put it down!
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