Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella
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Book Reviews of Can You Keep a Secret?
Book Review: Love it!
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book. It was such a cute and easy read. I really like Sophie's work. :)Book Review: Redefining Laugh Out Loud
Summary: 4 Stars
THREE QUICK POINTS:
* Point 1: Emma Corrigan bears a striking resemblance to Bridget Jones-not necessarily in appearance, but personality, deed and sheer life circumstances.
* Point 2: This book redefines the statement laugh out loud funny. From beginning to end, I found myself pausing to have a good belly laugh at some of the antics and situations in which Emma found herself.
* Point 3: The British quips and expressions were rather charming from my Americanized viewpoint. Although I'm still not entirely certain what a jumper is and am still unsure whether snogging is kissing or having sex, I found reading through it all added to the amusement.
SHORT SYNOPSIS:
From the onset, it seems that Emma Corrigan's life is on the fast track to nowhere and she just can't catch a break. On a fateful plane ride, when she believes they are all doomed to crash and die, she begins blurting every one of her secrets to the passenger next to her and doesn't stop until they land--still very much alive--and part ways. No big deal until she gets back to work on Monday and finds out the founder of the company, Jack Harper, has scheduled a visit and Jack turns out to be the stranger on the plane--and he remembers everything. As you can imagine, much hilarity ensues as he uses the knowledge gained "under duress" to keep Emma on her toes. But he does far more than that, he completely changes her life.
MY THOUGHTS:
From the very beginning, this book was fraught with unfortunate circumstances, miscommunication, misunderstandings, and illogical decisions which all add to its hilarity.
The main character, Emma Corrigan, who narrates the story in a spunky and sometimes bitingly sarcastic way is very sympathetic. More than once, I found myself feeling utterly sorry for her and praying she would get a lucky break or find a secret stash of courage somewhere.
Sometimes, however, the novel became predictable. For instance, when Emma wants to impress Jack by taking him to a posh secret nightclub, she ends up forgetting where it is. It wasn't difficult to see that coming from a mile away. But, for the most part, the situations that crop up keeps the reader on her toes as it does Emma.
The cast of characters was delightful. Lissy, Emma's priggish, quirky, and smart best friend/roommate, Jemima, Emma and Lissy's selfish gold-digging vixen of a roommate, Connor, Emma's really good looking, but slow on the social uptake boyfriend, and even Emma's co-workers were all well-crafted. The notable exception, however, was Sven who seemed to be Jack's shadow. It's not entirely clear who Sven is or what purpose he serves--he just seems random, placed in the story for no apparent reason.
(Confession: Every time Jemima's name came up, I couldn't help imagining Aunt Jemima which made it difficult to connect with her. I finally got over it by mentally renaming her Gemma. She still had no redeeming qualities and frankly, I wondered why Emma and Lissy even put up with her.)
Although the storyline is farfetched-meeting the founder of the company where you work on a flight and blurting out every single one of your secrets to him and then later falling madly in love with him?-it's a smooth and entertaining read. All the pieces, except Jack's big secret which, quite frankly, made me roll my eyes, fit together well.
If you enjoyed the movies 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days', 'The Holiday', 'Bridget Jones' Diary', and 'Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason', then there's a 99.9% chance you'll enjoy 'Can You Keep a Secret?'.
Book Review: Not a spectacular novel but still entertaining and fun
Summary: 4 Stars
Okay, so Can You Keep a Secret isn't the best book on the planet. It's not even the best chick-lit book I've ever read. However, as someone who has just finished finals (they suck the life and soul out of you), I decided to treat myself to a cute and fluffy chick-lit. Can You Keep a Secret? wasn't ground-breaking, but it was extremely entertaining.
This is what I like about chick-lit: it's funny, it's cute, and it's fluffy. Sure, they're wholly forgettable (so much that right now I can't even recall the main character's name) and most of the time they all seem to run together, but guilty pleasures and candy reads are good for the soul and great in moderation. Can You Keep a Secret had all the characteristics a good chick-lit needs and it made me forget about how stressed I've been this past semester and relaxed me somewhat.
Can You Keep a Secret was a hilarious chick-lit. This is coming from someone who could never get into Brit chick-lit. Don't ask me why, but everytime I've tried to read a Brit chick-lit, I end up being really bored. But Can You Keep a Secret entertained me from beginning to end. Sure the main character was mildly pathetic (even more so than most chick-lits) and most of the time I kept thinking, "Grow a backbone!", I still found her mildly endearing.
However, I absolutely loved her friends (whose names also escape me). I always end up liking the supporting characters more than the actual main characters when it comes to chick-lit. I absolutely loved the bitchy, fashionable roommate. Okay, she was a major bitch and a complete snob, but she was a good friend. Plus her whole "Mummy says that's the way to get a rock on your finger" and the "Well, they shouldn't have messed with Mummy" response to the horrible things her mother did to numerous men was just hilarious.
Anyway, so Can You Keep a Secret won't win any awards and it definitely wasn't the best thing ever written. However, it served it's purpose to keep me entertained and keep me laughing out loud. It was just what I needed at the time and it gave me a break from all that thinking I usually do when reading heavier books
Book Review: Reading with Tequila
Summary: 4 Stars
Can You Keep a Secret? completely captivated me. I sat down to read a few pages before bed and didn't put it down until I finished it hours later. I expected humor, and got lots of it, but I didn't expect to care about Emma as much as I did.
Emma's your average girl. She's always willing to tell a little while lie or a lie of omission in order to spare someone's feelings or avoid her own embarrassment. When she believes her plane is going to crash, she tells the man next to her every secret she's ever kept. She goes back to her life, thinking nothing of it until she learns her plane buddy is the CEO of the company she works for. And Jack seems to delight in hinting about those secrets at every opportunity.
Can You Keep a Secret? seemed so predictable until a huge twist made me question everything in the book so far. It was a wonderfully shocking surprise. The relationships between the characters were what made Can You Keep a Secret? so delightful to read. Emma and her boyfriend Connor. Emma and Jack. Emma and her roommates. Emma's parents and cousin. Emma's coworkers. Each character brought something special to the book, some insecurity or secret of their own, that really made them more than just side character's orbiting Emma.
You love and hate Jack right along with Emma, but she seemed to fall too hard, too quick. She needed to fall for him so the twist would invoke strong emotions, but it was too Wham-Bam-I-Love-That-Man for my taste. Sex causing immediate love is a huge pet peeve of mine, so I would have rather it all worked out some other way. Of course, this immediate love goes to show Emma's issues, quite obviously as her roommate points out that she can't love him having only known him a short while.
I will definitely be checking out more books by Sophie Kinsella after having be so thoroughly sucked into this one. Can You Keep a Secret? is a light, fun book that'll lead to both laughter, tears and questioning your own deeply hidden secrets.
Book Review: Fun to Read
Summary: 4 Stars
Emma Corrigan is in her mid-twenties, she is in a relationship and has a stable job. Like everyone else, she has secrets that is unbeknownst to anyone else - (that's why they are called secrets). They seem light and comical but if the people involved find the truth, then, there will be unfavorable consequences. Some of Emma's secrets are: she actually thinks her boyfriend looks like Ken (as in Ken and Barbie), her boyfriend thinks that she is two sizes smaller than what she actually is and Emma does not correct him, when Artemis her workmate annoys her (this happens daily anyway), Emma poisons her plant with orange juice, so again, she would rather keep these things to herself. That is, until a turbulent plane ride gives her the courage to confess most - if not all to an attractive stranger who is sitting next to her. As the plane safely lands, Emma found comfort in the fact that the American seated next to her will be gone since he was not from around. But of course, things are not that easy, the stranger is Jack Harper, an American CEO of the company she works for. He is visiting their UK Branch and of course Jack also has some secrets of his own.
As Jack unravels Emma's secrets the more he realizes that he does agree with her honest assestment on things. More importantly, their attaction for each other becomes evident.
Can You Keep A Secret is filled with humor, I literally laughed aloud several times, to think I started reading this book in the middle of the night. Sophie Kinsella is a wonderful author with a great sense of humor, this book is fun, light and an easy read. Emma is a wonderful character despite her quirks, she is easy to identify with.
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