Rating: 
Summary: a significant book for teens
Review: Again, I am amazed by Julie Anne Peters and her ability to create the voice and dynamic personality of a teenager. This book is about comfort zones and how comfort zones can and will change in a teen's turbulent years. Holland, the main character who tells her story, is a great student, a good person, a great daughter and friend. As many teens experience, Holland's mother wants the very best for her, the opportunities she herself did not have as a young mother cast out onto the street by her parents. But Holland is in the process of finding herself, and actually has lost sight of finding herself truly in the business of high school friends, a job, school work, a boyfriend, and applying to colleges. But one day, she meets the "Out and proud" Cece, a new girl at the high school, and in Cece, she finds both herself, and a love she has never before experienced. When Holland comes out, she ponders hwo to tell her mother, but her mother finds out through the grapevine and throws her on the street (ironic, huh?). This book is so significant for teens, teaching the importance of self-respect and acceptance. It is also a book anyone who works with teens, or is a parent to a teen should absolutely read.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic.
Review: Another gay/lesbian young adult book joins the ranks alongside 'Annie on My Mind' and rightly so. 'Keeping You a Secret' is a haunting and realistic love story between Holland and Cece. The dialogue and situations are all very characteristic to the world they encompass, it's sad to say, with the antigay slurs, and the rage Holland's mom expresses. All in all, the book is absolutely engrossing to the last page. I read this in one sitting, and then wanted to re-read it again. We can only hope there will be a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Keeping you a secret
Review: Holland has it all. She has what everyone wants. Her mother is living vicarously through her. Yet Holland has never asked herself what she wants. She has no idea and until the new girl, Cece Goddard, comes to school she has never questioned her ideals. Cece is out, way out and through their developing friendship (and more) Holland finds herself questioning her world and finaly "seeing" who she is and who she wants to be. I couldn't put the book down. It is a great story full of the "bells and whistles" of first love, the heartache of misjudging your friends and family, and the awakening that comes with self-discovery. I recommend this to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Keeping You a Secret
Review: Holland Jaeger's mother's version of Holland's future: Girl goes to school, girl gets good grades, girl goes to Harvard or Stanford or Antioch College, girl meets boy, girl gets married, gets great job, has children and lives happily ever after.
Holland's version of Holland's future: Girl goes to school, girl gets good grades, girl gets rejected from Harvard, girl meets girl? Girl wants to be an artist, or maybe work with kids?
Holland knows she's in love with Cece Goddard the minute she sees her, wearing a t-shirt that says "IMRU" with a small pink triangle underneath. Cece becomes Holland's biggest secret, the source of her greatest happiness as well as her biggest fear. They begin a relationship, but when word gets out that they are dating, Holland faces ostracism. Through all of Holland's troubles, Cece remains a steadfast companion, sacrificing time and energy when Holland's family turns on her. Holland knows her life will never be the same.
Though the writing is smooth and Holland is a likeable, well-developed character, this is not as strong a story as, for example, Nancy Garden's ANNIE ON MY MIND. The peripheral characters are underdeveloped and somewhat stereotypical, except for Holland's friend Leah. The reactions from Holland's friends and family are painfully, undoubtedly real, but the reader ultimately begins to despair as to whether Holland will have any kind of redemption, as she seems to have no support system other than Cece. Holland turns her life in a positive direction in the end, but not without a lot of sacrifice.
--- Reviewed by Carlie Kraft
Rating:
Summary: Couldnt put it down
Review: I dont want to give too much away with a synopsis so I'll just say this books is about the perils of love. Peters puts so much emotion and passion into her book. It makes you happy, sad and laugh all because of one book. She also puts reality into her book but using four letter words that teens really use. An enjoyable book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not That Good
Review: I read half way through the book and then had to start skipping ahead to finish. I like that the book deals with the issues of self realization, coming out, and the pain of rejection, but everything was just too extreme. From the reaction of Holland's mother, to Holland's unwaivering and unbelievable teenage conviction, everything was at the far end of the spectrum. However, the character of Cece was by far the most unbelievable thing in the book. I also couldn't believe that Holland would come out to a mother who was so controlling. She would have been able to guess at the reaction she would get from such a controlling person, so why wouldn't she just lie until they were caught (by her mother) or until she moved away from home? I have read other books that have dealt with teen lesbianism and I think this one was just too dramatic. I also didn't feel much passion between the two, unlike in books such as Annie on Mind or Patience and Sarah. Worth reading if you're a gay teen though.
Rating:
Summary: Truthful, Hopeful, and Poignant
Review: I thought this book did an excellent job of showing what some gay teenagers' lives are like. It captured beautifully how being in love affects a person at first. While it did not show all the more accepting ends of the spectrum, nor the troubles some teens may have coming out to themselves, it gives you hope for the future. I fell in love with the characters and Peter's sense of humor and matter of fact style. I could not put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Uninteresting, barely credible
Review: I was really hoping this would be a lesbian teen novel that didn't resort to cliches of awakening gay feelings, unsubstantiated declarations of love and dimly foreshadowed portrayals of prejudice. Sadly, this novel fails on all three counts. What does Cece bring Holland other than intrigue and attraction? Is it enough for the previously thought-heavy Holland to declare, "I love you, Cece!" in one of their very first romantic interactions? Although Peters does show Holland's friends' opposition to the campus lgb group, the friends don't strike me as so homophobic that their feelings would cancel out their support for their friend. Holland's mother's dramatic reaction struck me as the most absurd. We see the mother as potentially self-absorbed and insensitive, but her hurling Holland out of the house without so much as a shred of ambivalence really takes the cake. This book resembles one of its symbols, a sugar-covered chocolate donut: briefly and superficially pleasurable, but without lasting value and even with some harm for its poor semblance to what it might be -- filling.
Rating:
Summary: I could hardly put this book down
Review: In fact, I finished all 250 pages in approximately 4 hours. Bittersweet -- reminded me of my first love. The excitement of first seeing her, the awe when she told me she felt the same; that first kiss. But it also shows that homophobia still exists in a big way; describes some of the fear that comes with just being who you are. I found myself crying hysterically through half of it. And yet, it points out that support can be found, if not in the places you'd most expect. All in all I'd recommend this book, especially to anyone just coming out.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book You Have Yet To Read.
Review: Julie Ann Peters is pure genius, and she proves it over and over again in Keeping You a Secret. I won't give up too much info. on the book, but wow. The story is touching, the humor is so witty that I found myself dropping the book as I fell to the floor laughing, and best of all the characters are real. The book tackles important issues which are often left untouched and overlooked by most authors. It couldn't be better if she tried- Peters writes brilliance with paper and ink in Keeping You a Secret.
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