Every Single Secret: A Novel

3.75. May need more time to digest this one. It was definitely a book that was a bit of a slow-burner for me, it took me a little longer than normal to really get into it and at times I found myself annoyed at Daphne while still rooting her on.Daphne is a damaged young woman who meets a handsome man she feels an instant connection with as she senses he is damaged too. Things progress quickly for them, but their relationship never gets deep as both hide from their pasts, which we are only given hints of.Daphne reluctantly agrees to go on a couples retreat in order to save her relationship with Heath after he begins having terrifying nightmares. From the get-go the whole thing feels off to her and the longer she stays, the more weird things seem to get.I have mixed feeling about this book, from a pure plot perspective it was strong and I was intrigued as to where this was going the whole time, enjoying theorizing even as all my guesses were wrong, so it's nice to have it end different than expected. However, as I said initially, I had my issues with Daphne and her childish behavior. I know it's an outcome of her childhood, but she often came across as petulant and her reaction to the retreat was over dramatic (considering, in theory, she and we don't know how it will end.) She was street-smart in one sense and naive in other ways. For instance, she was (rightly) suspicious of Cerny and the cameras, but she "secretly" traipses around snooping as though there isn't anyone watching. She indicated numerous times her distrust of Cerny yet accepted his word at face value that the cameras were limited and would be turned off at certain times??Also, and I won't spoil anything, but I felt her secret was a bit of a letdown, but maybe it was supposed to be so we can see how hard Daphne was on herself. It allowed her character to be able to grow by accepting and moving on. Maybe it ended up being too straightforward for my likingI enjoyed the book overall and found it hard to put down after I got about half way through. I think the combination of Daphne sometimes annoying me, lack of action in the middle of the book, and some plot holes for me (not clear on who killed Cecilia, unclear about what was happening with Omega or why Chantal was not living with relatives if she had them, Mr. Als fate) I knocked it down a bit.Recommend if you like thrillers.

Beautifully written! Wow the twists and turns and creativity! Thank you for another work of art Emily! Bravo! This will keep you on the edge of your seat. You will not want to put it down.

This book intrigued me; and even though the plot was vague I decided to give it a go.Truthfully it started slow, and I honestly wasn’t quite sure I wanted to finish it so I put it down. However, With my 2nd half of 2021 goal to finish every book I’ve started this year (& there have been many) I decided to pick it back up again.For this, I am truly glad I did; because I was not expecting this book to gain the tempo nor for it to end the way it did. If you want a fairly quick, and thought provoking thriller then this may be the book for you.

I loved the eerie, creepy feeling in this story. I loved how the author started the story out in chronological order, but switched every few chapters to go backwards from the end with the timing coming together near the climax. That was a cool touch that kept me in suspense and turning pages.The story was captivating for me up until Daphne's explanation of why she thinks she's "so messed up". Any adult would look back and realize that she did not do what she thought she did...it was at that point where I lost traction. More traction slippage when the "experiment" was explained. That was just too far fetched and ridiculous. The final loss of footage for me was Luca's character that was used as a too convenient too, and seemed only to exist to provide the getaway car and cash, and wow, how convenient that he was in the exact right place at the right time and knew to run into traffic and lure the bad guy into getting hit, then ran over and yet not die. Weird.Luca was described as an "illegal"....yet he shows up in Canada, educated and now speaking English ...how did he survive and thrive so well and then cross into Canada? Seriously?If Luca's character could have made more sense I think I could have overlooked the other things, but that actually just derailed me to the point of distraction.I can see this book playing out on the movie screen as a fun & suspenseful movie. I personally, couldn't buy into the Luca character or the "experiment". But the writing was great, the eerie buildup was great, the characters were interesting. Good, quick read if you can let go of some of the reality points.

I liked the characters in this book and the ending was a bit of a surprise. Heath and Daphne were a great couple or so I thought in the beginning but there was something neither of them wanted to share with each other. We find out in the end that is was a big secret. Will they still be together once this book ends? It was a slow burn book for me but not bad. I love audiobooks and this one was great for me. I think the narrator did a great job!

The use of Applied Behavior Analysis techniques to try and turn a neurodivergent individual into a neurotypical teaches a psychopath to perfectly mask. Who is the psychopath? Who is the person gathering data? Who comes out alive?

Easy reading, and it kept attention and I looked forward to picking it up when I had time to read.

That was seriously good. Absolute page turner, couldn’t put it down. Don’t start reading at night because you won’t sleep, because you’ll have to stay up reading.

This book has the potential to be really good but I just found it all a bit too far-fetched and ultimately irritating.Daphne accompanies Heath to a couples retreat for counselling before their marriage to sort out issues with his past which are causing aggressive nightmares, although Daphne declines to partake in the counselling as she has a few issues with her own past that she doesn’t want to come to light.This is when it starts to become a bit unbelievable. There are supposedly three couple at the retreat, but they are forbidden from talking to the other two couples, they have to hand over their mobile phones and car keys and there are cameras monitoring them in their room. So why does Daphne not find it odd that Heath has so many sessions every day leaving no time for the other couples to be seen, why is a private door to the attic which houses the camera monitors always left open so she can creep up and watch them, and why when she has been told not to talk to the other couples does she follow one of the women and then promptly spill her life story.None of the characters are particularly likeable, but then I don’t think they are intended to be, so I didn't really care what happened to them. Daphne is particularly annoying, always snooping around where she shouldn’t be and getting away with it but then not seeing what is patently obvious.The book starts at the end and skips back and forth throughout, so you know things are not going to end well. The epilogue, which takes place eight months later, ties things up just too conveniently for me.

I went into this book unsure that I was going to like it. I'm not one for sappy girl cooing over boys style books and for a glimmer there I felt that's exactly what I had walked into. At times I felt like in the earlier days there was too much emphasis on their sex life. But half way in when the story really began to unfold and it became more of a psychological thriller than I expected that I started to really enjoy it.There were times where I felt events were too quickly thrown into the mix without a lead up to them being established. And I liked that the ending didn't feel rushed and was explained.

This starts gradually, a couple that seem ideally suited and soulmates. Nightmares that are very vivid and physical are causing concern and Heath wants to attend a couples therapy retreat to resolve. She has a secret, that she has kept since childhood and doesn't want to be exposed through therapy. They attend, he with enthusiasm and she with reluctance and with the proviso that she won't do any therapy. There are 2 other couples there and stringent rules about contact between other couples, cameras to observe all and nothing is at it first appears.I enjoyed this immensely, the characters well drawn and little snippets of childhood slowly revealed through descriptions of the stages of Daphne's early childhood and after being taken into care, the children's home and the destructive influence of Chantel on the confused and hurt child Daphne.I was not sure initially of how it would end and that after the revelation of the abuse and the depth of coldness in the actions by several of the characters and the consequences of this.

I was torn between 3 and 4 stars for this novel. I would say 3.5 stars would have been a perfect score for it. The plot for the story is very good, there are twists that I didn't see coming although it is clear from early on that something at Baskens couples retreat isn't quite right and it's also clear that all the main characters in the novel have dark secrets hidden in their pasts..... it's just how dark they are and just how much of these secrets have been left in the past.The biggest problem for me was the same story could have probably been told in 50 pages less than it was. Certainly worth a read though.

Well written.... Pace a bit slow in the middle ... More plot driven than character driven with the back story necessary I guess to explain why the main protagonist makes the irrational choices she does, although she becomes stronger as the story progresses. For me, more melodramatic than thriller. I can see it as a film script but as a book, for me, the characters didn't seem very realistic or believable.