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    Secret Keepers
    Secret Keepers
    Secret Keepers
    Audiobook9 hours

    Secret Keepers

    Written by Mindy Friddle

    Narrated by Cynthia Darlow

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    With her second novel, Mindy Friddle expertly takes the conventions of a typical Southern dynasty story and transforms them into something wholly original. When her husband dies on the eve of their impending European vacation, housewife Emma Hanley watches her dreams of world travel vanish even as she becomes more immersed in the lives of her two living children. "Friddle's beguiling second novel is a poignant and reassuring tale of regret and redemption."-Booklist
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 23, 2010
    ISBN9781440790461
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    Reviews for Secret Keepers

    3.5/5

    49 ratings13 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This story has all the stereotypes of Southern literature: the decrepit plantation, the old matriarch, the headstrong daughter, the Bible toting pseudo preacher, the young boy straining between puberty and adulthood, and the faint hint of racial prejudice. I enjoyed the story immensely. Kyle, Emma, and Dora display multi dimensional characterizations. The minor struggles between parent and child, good and bad, and truth and falsehood present a life of conflict. Each individual selects the path to follow. The biggest message is that beauty is not always clearly visible, as in all the flower bulbs hidden in the ruins of the old family mansion. Friddle presents that message in the new love between Emma and Dr Burnside, the old love renewed between Dora and Jake, the new freedom of Bobby, and the new confidence of Kyle.
    • 4/5
      First off I have to say how much I love this cover! I love anything vintage and having to do with gardening, not that I am a great gardener. This book begs to be read on a front porch or in a garden gazebo while drinking a glass of sweet tea. It is a quiet southern fiction book about a family coming to terms with changes in their lives. We meet Emma Hanley who at age 72, is getting ready to take of on a trip of a lifetime with her husband, Harold and mentally ill son, Bobby. Her husband has an accident that takes his life and changes Emma's life. Her daughter, Dora and her husband, Donny have very different plans for Harold's funeral but Emma has her mind set and does things the way she sees fit. Of course this starts a family battle. Donny and Dora belong to a very zealous church set up in a mall built on property once belonging to Emma's grandfather. I can't say how many times I found myself laughing at the shenanigans that go on in this mall where all the stores are involved around the church. When Jake, Dora's high school sweetheart decides to open up his own landscaping business in town things get very interesting. Soon he realizes he needs help and hires an unlikely bunch of characters; Gordon, a homeless veteran, Kyle, Emma's rebellious grandson who hates his parents and Bobby. Soon secret, magical plants and lifetime secrets are revealed. If you enjoy southern fiction and dysfunctional quirky families then I think you will enjoy this book. There is a nice balance between the story and a hint of magic that is not overdone.
    • 3/5
      This is a lovely story of quirky small town familial strife and healing magic. It concerns the Hanleys--Emma, just widowed at 72 at the cusp of making a dream come true; her daughter Dora who is very unhappy and in the deep grips of compulsive shopping that's bankrupting the family; Bobby, Emma's son, who has a mental illness that has rendered him a loner and a couch vegetable; and Jake who moves back to his hometown with a broken heart and a green thumb. This is a light but touching story of how these flawed but redeemable people grow into being their truer selves with the magic of some long hidden plants and the reality of second chances.
    • 3/5
      I had high hopes for Secret Keepers. I’m not ashamed to admit I judge books by their covers and this one is fabulous. The synopsis uses words like “wayward past,” and “old flame,” and “mysterious, potent botanicals and resurgent memories.” Sounds good right? Unfortunately Secret Keepers didn’t really find its true potential until the last third of the book, at which point it was nearly over.Secret Keepers circles around Emma Hanley and her children. Told in alternating past/present snippets, we learn that Emma’s ancestor had a penchant for gardening with foreign plants; her oldest son died in a war; her other son hears voices and sees people who aren’t there; her daughter Dora was once wayward and lost until she became found by a religious zealot; and Dora’s teenage son Kyle is trying to balance his father’s religious demands with dreams of his own. Then Dora’s old flame comes back to town, stirs stuff up, and all hell breaks loose. So much potential, just not a stellar execution.Secret Keepers plods along until the end when things get fanciful and dramatic and one whiff of a flower sends people reeling in memory to their favorite places and times. It seems like it was trying to be magical realism, but took to long to figure that out. In general, I am left feeling underwhelmed and slightly disappointed that it didn’t peak until the end.
    • 4/5
      Such an enjoyable slice of southern life complete with characters that still resonate with me. In her latest book, Secret Keepers, Friddle introduces us to Emma Hanley, 72 year old whose life is about to be turned upside down. When her husband Hal dies suddenly just before leaving on the big trip they were planning, Emma feel that her life will go on as uneventful as always; staying in and taking care of her schizophrenic son Bobby. All that changes when her daughter Dora's first boyfriend, Jake, enters the scene to landscape Emma's yard. There is no more boring to Emma's life. Jake and his landscape crew, which now includeds Bobby and Dora's son Kyle, plant some exotic flowers that bring back special feelings and memories to anyone who smells them; feelings that show them what they are have been missing in life. A little bit of flowering magic!Friddle managed to transport me to Palmetto, South Carolina and kept me captivated with these memorable characters. I loved the plot threads of Dora's struggle with her ultra-controlling husband and her son Kyle's teen rebelliousness. These characters felt so real to me that I can still imagine them going about their new lives. Friddle manages to ties up all the threads neatly with a most satisfying ending.
    • 4/5
      First of all, the cover design by Michael Storrings is beautiful. I love vintage botanicals and the old seed packets had some of the best. Secret Keepers drew me in quickly with the beautiful epigraph by Katherine Mansfield. “How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you--you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences--little rags and shreds of your very life.”The book is a window into the small town of Palmetto, South Carolina and a few of it’s well drawn citizens; each having growing pains. I am a sucker for quirky characters and Secret Keepers doesn’t disappoint in that aspect. I was a tad disappointed that the mysterious and magical flowers didn’t share center stage with the characters. But, then, I am a huge magical realism fan. Friddle does weave together some beautiful words…..“The perfume, the nectar, the colors, the mimicry, the trickery. I’ve seen lips on orchids that resembles a wasp’s mate. Petals that are landing pads for insects. Exploding seedpods. I’ve seen pleated downy petals fragrant as a woman’s…..”“It was the smell of my baby’s head, that brand new tender skin like nothing else in the world, and the barest whiff of mother’s milk, and Ivory soap, and a smidge of the hospital antiseptic. It was the perfect bouquet of aromas.”A satisfying read, perfect with a cup of tea or two. I will be looking forward to more from Mindy Friddle.
    • 4/5
      I liked Secret Keepers much more than the deceptively quiet portrait of flowers on the covers lead me to hope. It's a book about life, mental illness, death and sex where the most graphic descriptions are botanical and entomological: a botanist discusses "the brazen ruses of orchids to lure pollinators... You've never seen such commitment to living...to multiplying. It never ceases to amaze me the shows they put on. All that finery to entice pollinators. Flowers are scented, glowing, magnificent reproductive organs."' Or, regarding Japanese beetles, "Jake dug out two of the shiny green beetles, their spurred legs clasped together in insect ecstasy. Curling themselves up in the pink petals, like sultans in silk...he flung them--still stunned with pleasure--out into the grass."The flowers are all perfect and beautiful and have glorious sex lives; the people labor through their imperfections: schizophrenia, religious obsession, guilt, back pain, alcoholism, suicide, bankruptcy, regret, Christian consumerism, even a mention of thalidomide. Friddle uses the word "clot" four times to describe things which are physically quite unclot-like: light and clouds. I wonder if that is to further distinguish the plodding, conflicted mammals from the single-purposed and radiant lower orders. Imperfect and conflicted as they are, these people are so appealing, I miss them now that they're gone. The book is full of guilt and humor and perfect perceptions. A teen age boy tunes out "God (who) watches you all the time and knows exactly what you're up to -- like a CIA Santa Claus for adults." and his dad reads "The Nuts and Bolts of Nailing Down the Christian Customer" while his mom heads up "Firm Believers" an exercise class in the Christian Crossroads Incorporated a new center for "faith based commerce". A character remembers attending an anti war protest, "Oh, but the energy! The weed, the wine, the ecstatic anger. The idea something big and awful like a war could be stopped, that you could change things. Things changed all right. Nowadays, Hanoi Jane was busy with the whole aerobics craze, The new enemies were processed sugar and sloth. Trade your sit-ins for sit-ups. Go for the burn."Plants grow, people change, every living thing dies. Secret Keepers looks in on some of their beautiful and painful secrets and follows a brief part of their lives.
    • 4/5
      I received this book as an early reviewer copy from LibraryThing. I really enjoyed this book. It is funny, sad, touching and entertaining. It's about people learning how to change their perspective on things and making new and better choices for themselves and others with this new found knowledge. I enjoyed all the characters and how each one came to life for me. Even Donny, the holy roller uber controlling husband of Dora was interesting to me - although if I met him in real life I know I would just HATE him. I really can't say anything bad about this book - it's quite likable and the characters are all well fleshed out. Recommended for a nice fun read.
    • 3/5
      I received Secret Keeper's through Early Reviewer's and I was excited to get started on it since the author is from South Carolina as well. The beginning of the book starts off with how one event changes the life of one character and then ultimately impact the whole family to the inevitable end. As much as I tried to enjoy the book overall, I had a hard time becoming interested in all of the characters. I know that the book wasn't supposed to be about one character, but there were a few too many characters with their back stories and separate instances to keep track of. Overall though, I enjoyed the idea of the story, but maybe this kind of narrative isn't my personal taste.
    • 4/5
      Emma Hanley is about to go on a trip of a lifetime. She’s waited her whole life to see the world. And then the unexpected happens. As a result, Emma starts to make decisions on her own and refuses to back down. This impacts Emma’s family and they are not pleased.One day a man from the past knocks on Emma’s door. Jake was her daughter Nora’s first boyfriend and now he’d like to tend Emma’s yard. Jake runs a lawn service that employs people who seem to be down on their luck. Eventually he hires Emma’s son and grandson. Bobby (son) is a bit of a savant but also struggles with schizophrenia that seemed to grow worse after the death of his brother in Viet Nam. Kyle (grandson) is fourteen and is feeling frustrated living under his parents’ careful watch. In a small way, working for Jake opens up a new world to them.Jake soon finds his lawn service in demand all around the small town of Palmetto. One of his workers starts to plant an amazing flower in all the gardens they work on. People are thrilled with the resulting blooms and the effect they have when smelled. A specialist is called upon to explain the what and why about this magical flower. He turns out to be a man that can teach Emma about more than just the flower. He can help her discover secrets about herself she hadn’t faced in the past thereby allowing her to find a wonderful future.There is so much more to this quiet novel. I really liked the atmospheric story of people who thought life may have passed them by. It’s a hopeful story that would be a good book club selection. Discussion questions are provided.
    • 4/5
      The Secret Keepers, by Mindy Friddle is the story of a dysfunctional family coming to grips with who they really are and where they should be heading in life. "The Secret Keepers" are a species of flower capable of reviving memories in those who inhale their rich scent, but only once a year. These beautiful, magical blooms are in part what leads each character to understanding the emotional barricade holding them back from moving ahead with their lives. Emma, the recently widowed matriarch of the family finds real love and happiness within months of her husband's death. Her grown daughter, Dora, an unhappily married spend-aholic, faces her own marital crisis with her spiritually superior husband. Mentally unstable Bobby lives on the edges of reality, and must face the permanent loss of older brother, Will. Then there's Jake and his landscaping crew--a motley pack of down on their luck men just looking to get through the day. Friddle keeps the emotional turbulence rolling, with a few surprises tossed in to heighten the storyline. A solid piece of fiction with uniquely interesting characters who seem like they could be your neighbors--you never know what secrets live in the heart of the common man.
    • 3/5
      I received this book to review and so I continued reading long after I realized this was not the type of story I enjoy. It was a plodding along experience in reading. The book became more interesting in the last two chapters, which is the only reason I gave it three stars...too little,too late. If you like disagreeable and eccentric Southern characters and misguided religious fanatics,you might enjoy this story: the magical plants that were an integral part of the plot, never seemed to give the book the umph it needed.
    • 3/5
      Taking place over one hot 1987 South Carolina summer, “Secret Keepers” by Mindy Friddle is a perfect summer read. But rather than the typical beach read it’s more suited to the screened porch or to be read under the gazebo by the summer garden, as much of the action of the book revolves around a disheveled group of novice gardeners who call themselves The Blooming Idiots. But first we meet seventy-two-year-old Emma just as her dream of departing on her first overseas vacation, a trip with a capital T, is thwarted by the untimely death of her almost-unfaithful husband, Harold. Instead of fulfilling her lifetime ambition of travel, Emma is stuck at home still caring for her schizophrenic son Bobby and watching as her born-again daughter Dora, (married to ultra-controlling Donny), loses control of, first her son Kyle, and then her marriage.Into the mix, and affecting all their lives, comes Jake Cary, Dora’s high school boyfriend returning to his roots after his stint in Vietnam and his own failed relationship. Jake starts up a landscaping business and hires both Bobby and Kyle, along with odd old Gordon, and soon the whole town is abloom with new gossip, new ways of looking at life, and new ambitions. Just as the unusual plants begin to bud, so do the many secrets being held by the characters. It seems that Emma’s grandfather, an amateur botanist, cultivated some very intriguing plants and when Gordon manages to unearth them, no one’s secrets are safe.“Secret Keepers,” with its whimsical edge and quirky characters, is a lightweight antidote to summer doldrums.