Debbie has written much better books.
923590
A OK book, not impressed with the story line.  Debbie has written much better books.
704199
Very average...mediocre writing...too much Melissa and little else
4278644
I'll state it up front: this book was disappointing. I'm not arguing the whole "Hunter dies in the beginning" point. I actually thought that made for an interesting plot element. Tiernan had started setting something to this extent up in the previous book by mentioning Colm & that ending his job as a Seeker meant that Hunter would be unguarded. It's just that this book is very poor in quality when held up against the other Sweep books. It read more like a fanfiction you'd find on the internet than something by Tiernan herself.

This book finds Morgan reeling over the death of her beloved Hunter in a freak ferry accident. Years pass and Morgan has managed to heal, marry one of her fellow witches of Belwicket, as well as give birth to her daughter Moira. The story picks back up six months after the death of her husband, with Moira going through many of the same issues Morgan herself went through as a new dark force threatens their peace & whispers of secrets held for sixteen years.

As a standalone book, this wasn't bad. It's readable & entertaining for the most part. However, when I compare it to the rest of the Sweep books, it frankly sucks. The previous books were all of high quality (even when I didn't like them that much), so this one was incredibly disappointing to read.

The #1 failure of the book is that it runs through too many plot elements too quickly. Another reviewer stated that the book has Moira going through all of Morgan's issues in the span of a few days, which is the truth. So much happens so quickly that it's really not all that believable & very little of the plot is fleshed out enough to make any of these elements have any life of their own. Moira is pretty much a watered down version of Morgan, with little personality of her own. She's not an unlikeable character by any means, but the book goes by so quickly that very little of Moira's personality shows through. She pines after a boy, she mopes over her father's death, she anquishes over the "is he or isn't he evil" signs. Other characters are trotted out, but are so thinly written that you pretty much ignore them for the most part.

If this had been fleshed out more & put into 2-3 books rather than one book, the story would have been far better. It's just that the book is "this happens, oh now this happens & this happens". The ending is frankly ridiculous when you realize how quickly everyone supposedly moves & realizes things.

I liked the book enough to give it 3 stars, since Tiernan's writing ability shines through & manages to polish this lackluster entry with as much gusto as she can. I know that the publishing company had an unreasonable amount of control over the series length & plotting, so it is them that I blame for this book. At times it felt like I could really sense Tiernan's frustration over having to cram 2-3 books (600-900 pages)worth of plot into 300 pages.

If you are a Sweep fan, I recommend getting it & reading it just so you can finish the series. I just recommend getting this from the library instead & sticking to just volumes 1-14 for the basic story. This book just could have been so much better, which is where this story really disappoints- you know the potential it could have had.

2.9/5
3302086
This book was very disappointing.  I can't tell if the author was manipulated by Brents or she felt guilted into "telling his story."  Either way, the author seemed to go out of her way to defend Brents without making it look like she was defending this animal.

She also made it too much about herself.  It's funny how the author felt abandoned by her parents and then did the same thing to her kids by working all the time.  The fact that the author can't see that and has horrible self-awareness makes me absolutely question her views on Brents.

A lot of the storyline in the first half was confusing and out of order. It was almost unreadable.  I think this could have been a lot better done.  Not worth the time to read.  The author should stick to news reporting.
3945980
I was really disappointed when I started reading this book and found out the first 1/3 of it or so is really about the author's breast cancer! I was hoping for a feel-good pet story. I found the author to not have much of a sense of humor, or humilty which might have made me feel more sympathetic to her. Instead she seems very entitled and whines about how she and her husband - wealthy Manhattanites - can only afford 2 weeks in the rich enclave of Martha's Vineyard each yr (but the owner of the rental cottage pities them and throws in 1 week free each yr!). Even though the author writes/edits for the NY TIMES she is not a good writer IMO. The end of the book, when they are searching for the lost dog, is filled with minute details of every encounter they have with the local townspeople helping them look for the dog (like he was married in 1946 after graduating from Harvard and they have 5 kids, Evelyn, etc.). All of these details MUST have been garnered in later interviews, when she knew she was writing this book, yet she never mentions this so as you are reading its like she has stopped to do in-depth interviews while they should be out searching for the dog! A much better cute cat book is Homer's Odyssey.
4893944
I did not like the main character, I thought the content was often tedious, and the ending "wrap up" predictable.  I really liked her previous book better.
3544446
Very disappointed in this book.  It was a compilation of the stories of her other books, as well as a long narrative of cave descriptions - a few are interesting, but it goes on and on.
2394381
I liked her first book much better, I didn't care for her recipes in this book and how it is laid out.
4369442
Christine needs to take a step back and quit writing just sex books.  I have all her books but this one won't be residing on my shelf.  Its just more junk.  Shes got so many books out there with great ways to make better stories but she just develops a new ghostwalker or carpathian.  She's getting lazy or just burnt out.  They never go anywhere.  Look at those Norton brothers with there special kids, easy to take a story of that but no she's gotta make a spider lade???  Christine needs to come up with something where's she put a little effort or maybe she's just having the kids write them.
4893305
I read her last book and enjoyed it thoroughly. I didn't like this one at all. The format was annoying and every story seemed to be about Kathy acting like an obnoxious child and how charming that behavior is. Turns out its not.
1635172
First of all, Im surprised Best Kept Secrets is rated as high as it is. I have read more than a dozen of Sandra Browns books and this certainly is not one of her best. As I plodded through, it occurred to me that I was reading one of her earlier booksonly the characters names and venues had changed. The mini sex-laced scenes between Alex and Reede quickly became boring and tedious to wade through. The heated quarrels became repetitive. The characters were superficial and often the dialogue was meaningless and disgusting. The saddest thing is that the plot had great potential but Brown overdid every scene, running them into the ground. The 425 page book would have been much better if written in 200 pages.
I rate Best Kept Secrets a 2.
2086393
The first book was better, won't be reading anymore of her books and wouldn't recommend it to anyone else either.
3425810
I wasn't as excited about this book.  The others were do much better
247685
Rather boring.  Really liked her first book much better.
1323452
Not worth reading...Her other Carpathian books are much better.  This book is pretty much all about sex..if that is what the reader wants, then by all means read it.
2958114
Boring.  Things too drawn out. She has written much better books.  I like her books mostly and have read quite a lot of them.
1053675
A little disappointing.  Like some of her other books much better.