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Can You Keep a Secret?

Can You Keep a Secret?

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $19.77
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: SO cute!
Review: I loved the shopaholic books by Kinsella so my friend let my borrow Can you keep a secret I was all for it. At first the book was a little boring in the beginning but towards the middle it started to pick up. It was really funny and I liked most of the ending except like the last 1 1/2 pages. But you should definitly read it anyway!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Every Girl has a Jack Harper
Review: I loved this book-it was endearing, realistic, smart and funny. I found myself laughing aloud at the clever situations Kinsella created. The description of the characters and the attention to detail was flawless. The way the author spun all of Emma's little revealed secrets into everyday was life was never predictable and always witty. I think any twenty something girl will relate to this book having once been or behaved to some degree like the main character, Emma. Jack Harper is not just a character study- he embodies that older, successful, handsome alpha-male every girl is bound to encounter at some point in her life.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not quite as good.... but still a fun one-day read
Review: As soon as I saw this novel by Sophie Kinsella, masterful author of the Shopaholic series, I grabbed it off of the shelf and shirked all weekend chores to polish it off. Kinsella has not lost her ability to get her character into a sticky "I can't believe this is happening" situation.

It was a fun read - that's for sure. But the ending was rather disappointing - lots of build-up for a predictable, not-completely-satisfying conclusion. It almost seemed like Kinsella tried to cop-out of developing the ending, as if she were tired of writing the book.

Emma, the main character, is likeable and believable, but just so similiar to Becky from the Shopaholic series. Sure, she's got her own quirks... but I think the problem is in Kinsella's wonderful writing voice - the writing style between the novels is so similiar that the reader is bound to make comparisons, even when the descriptions are different. I didn't think Emma was quite as engaging as Becky; when reading Shopaholic, I began to feel like I was the one with an overdrawn account.

This is a good read, but some of Kinsella's creativity was lost. I almost wish she'd focused her efforts on a fourth Shopaholic book. I mean, can you imagine what Becky would be like trying to decorate a nursery and preparing for motherhood?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Always Think Twice About What You Say to Others!
Review: Believing she is about to perish in a plane wreck, Emma Corrigan babbles out her secrets, desires and idiosyncrasies to the handsome and reassuring man seated next to her. Having survived (Emma, with her own jangled mind, was doubtful of this), she shows up for work the next day only to be introduced to that seatmate. He's the CEO of the U.S.-based Panther Cola she's been marketing.

As she tries to recover her professional stature with her boss Emma finds herself enmeshed in a tangled web of her own weaving as she tries to get to know more about Jack. It should be noted that Emma has considerable help at her crazy loom from her flatmates Lissy and Jemima. At the same time Jack is trying to get to know Emma, but his thoughts are more business-based than romance-based. Emma to him is a fine marketing specimen of a young working woman in her twenties. This part of the plot wears thin.

The early chapters, in which Emma's flight from Glasgow begins a precipitous plunge and she begins her ill-considered true confessions, are quite engaging and spring out of a genuinely sympathetic perspective: so many people are prone to chatter when in shock. And the comic element of having Emma's business-class seatmate wind up being her boss is classic stuff.

But Jack's "betrayal" of Emma does not seem genuine. Perhaps it's a cultural divide, but it's difficult to believe that any television show, even one on "Business Inspirations," would allow a CEO to go on and on about the tiny details Jack reveals, from Emma's Barbie bedspread to her borrowing her roommate's shoes (not to mention the other information about her roommate --- mortification alert!) Jack uses the elements of Emma's character that have made her so believable as a business ploy --- but what ensues feels like forced farce.

Kinsella previously gave us the light, bright and laugh-out-loud funny Shopaholic books (CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC, SHOPAHOLIC TAKES MANHATTAN and SHOPAHOLIC TIES THE KNOT). Kinsella's "shopaholic," Becky Bloomwood, is a fictional descendant of both Thackeray's Becky Sharp and Austen's Emma Woodhouse, living by her wits but also living for others (in Becky Bloomwood's case, the suave Luke). She is known as one of the quintessential Chick Lit characters along with Bridget Jones and the Nanny Diaries nanny. Those books set a really high bar. Those books were really funny; this new one is just fun. However, one has to think if the writer were not Kinsella would we be judging CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET in the same way? And there are times where just fun is just fine.

One thing we know. After reading CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? you will use an edit chip when talking to your seatmate on airplanes, trains or other mass transit and think twice about what you share.

--- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Mildly Entertaining, but it's a weak version of Shopaholic..
Review: I was eagerly anticipating Sophie Kinsella's "Can You Keep a Secret?" after greatly enjoying all 3 books in the Shopaholic series. However, this new novel did not meet my expectations. While there were a few parts that made me smile or laugh out loud, overall, I thought the book was a flop. As another reviewer stated, Emma does just not have the charm of Shopaholic's Becky Bloomfield. And yet, in so many ways, Emma seems to just be a watered down version of lovable Becky....rather than being her own person. It's like she's Becky, but without Becky's wit and personality and charm and spark. It just seemed as I kept reading the book that it was following the SAME format of Shopaholic....and while some parts were quite humorous, this novel just didn't have the charm. Instead of the romance with Luke the boss, it was the romance with Jack the boss; instead of Becky's cute parents, it was simply a less warm version of parents; instead of annoyingly successful next door neighbor Tom, it was annoyingly successful cousin Kerry; instead of annoying co-worker Claire Evans, it was annoying co-worker Armetris; instead of sweet, ditzy, supportive flatmate Suzie, it was sweet, smart, supportive flatmate Lissie....and so on. Throw in a little more spunk, and this very well could have been another story about Becky. I just wasn't all that impressed with this book. And the BIG secret was pretty lame.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Can't wait for the sequel
Review: Sophie Kinsella proves that with true inspiration, formulas work every time! Thoroughly enjoyable to read this ridiculous story about yet another good-hearted but clueless character. Guilty pleasure - yes! But one I'll never give up as long as she's writing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Side-Splitting, Smart & Lively
Review: I love Kinsella and the Shopaholic series; I love Vicki Iovine and Jennifer Weiner and all the chick-lit books where the woman is in control or her life and not a victim. Plus, I just love books that are funny and real and well-written. This book is Kindella's best yet. Oddly enough, I just read a hilarious book about marriage and kids and work written by a man, "I Sleep At Red Lights: A True Story of Life After Triplets," by Bruce Stockler, given to me by a friend with twins. Wish my boyfriend was more like this guy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another hit
Review: I'm sure there's at least one thing about you no one else knows, am I right? Everybody keeps secrets and most of them are way too embarrasing to talk about. But imagine there's one person in the world who gets to know every little thing about you, and worse still, this someone is you boss! Well, that's what Emma, the main character in the book goes through and as much as I sympathize with her, let me tell, it's hilarious! Shopie Kinsella does it again and will make you laugh out loud. Just don't read it in public or everyone will get to know you snort while laughing and no one wants little secrets like this out there, right?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY
Review: This is the funniest book I have ever read. I stayed up all night reading it, laughing out loud till about 3 am. Emma is such a funny character and the story is so light hearted, easy to read, and engaging. Every time you turn the page, you get excited and anxious to read what hilarious situation Emma will find herself in next.

Plot: Emma, a young working girl in London, currently works in the Marketing Dept of the London version of Pepsi Co. On a plane ride home, she tells all her secrets to the stranger next to her, since she is afraid the plane will crash. She tells this guy everything, and it really makes you wonder about your own secrets. She tells him how she pours orange juice, instead of water in one of her co-workers plants, she tells him that she tells every1 shes a size 6 when really she's a 10, she tells him shes never been in love, (...) etc. It's really very, very funny. (...) Their love story is very cute and fun to read.

Overall, excellent book to read when you're stressed out or looking for a good laugh. You can read it again and again, and it won't fail to make you laugh. Kinsella is truly a gifted author. I personally thought that this latest venture, was even better and funnier then her Shopoholic series--which I didn't think would be possible. Total chick lit, sometimes hard to believe, yet totally engaging and laugh out loud funny. I recommend this to every woman out there.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Shopaholic fan, but disappointed in this book.
Review: I have read all three of the shopaholic books, in fact I've re-read them! I'm a HUGE fan of that series! I was so looking forward to seeing what the author would do in this book. But in all honesty, I thought "Can You Keep A Secret?" was a total re-tread of the shopaholic books, except the main character is not addicted to shopping. The whole set-up, the main character's personality, the supporting characters (co-workers, sexy leading man who happens to be a corporate big-wig, room-mate), were so similar to the shopaholic books. I was really disappointed, and felt this new book was just a watered-down "shopaholic" story.


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