Susan in Perthshire's Reviews > The Secret That Can't Be Hidden

This has to be a first - a Caitlin Crews that I have not enjoyed! I think CC is one of the most talented writers in the genre, her prose is literary and flows so smoothly that it looks easy. Her dialogue is sparky and intelligent and her characters are always well drawn and her plots are almost operatic in scope and style.

Sadly this story was 90% hostility, angst, cruelty and misunderstandings and the hero was such an unpleasant idiot and so ridiculously blind for 90% of the book, that I could not engage with him. The last two chapters were brilliant - but it was too late. Some indications of a softening and understanding earlier in the book would have helped make him more sympathetic.

I know we have to suspend disbelief in this genre, but there still has to be a sense of it being rooted in reality. Balthazar’s determination to believe the worst of Kendra when the outcome was in fact his fault threw me out of the story. For a man of his experience sexually not to understand what Kendra was experiencing struck me as unreal. His behaviour over the book was just so over the top and melodramatic. Kendra’s ability to stay cool and untouched by his utterly unfair comments also struck me as unreal. She was such a victim/martyr character, I found it hard to sympathise with her in what was a really terrible situation.
I think if the author had dialled back the melodrama, the hostility and aggression a little bit and showed them falling in love - it would have been a great book.