Secrets Don't Keep by Elora Nicole Ramirez Pages: 253
Published by Amazon on August 10, 2015
Genres: Young Adult, contemporary, Suspense/Thriller
Source: eARC from Publisher
My name is Kera Collins, and I would do anything for a golden nod.
At first glance, my life appears perfect: the best friends, the best school, the attention of Dex Albright, the deliciously irresistible grandson to the Headmaster. All I need is the prestige behind La Boheme, an elite secret society formed within the walls of my school, and my life would be complete. Once I’m in, I’ll be the one with all of the secrets.
It’s just…no one told me these secrets could kill.
Oh how I wanted to love Secrets Don’t Keep. It has all the makings of a book that I would love! A scavenger hunt style quest to join a super secret boarding school society, and did a mention a secret society? Not to mention the boarding school society of the super rich reminded me of Gossip Girl. The characters definitely had the entitled bratty thing down pat. I know you can sense a but coming. I wanted to love Secrets Don’t Keep, but I just didn’t. This book fell apart for me pretty quickly and I was really bummed about it. I kept reading because I genuinely love stories surrounding secrets and secret societies. I want to get to that OMG moment. And that aspect of the book was ok. There were lots of twists and turns and the author had unpredictability down pat. It was all the other stuff, the character stuff, that had me grinding my jaw.
Kera and Dex just didn’t do anything for me. They had a bad case of insta love and I just couldn’t back it up. Not to mention I didn’t think Kera was a very good friend. Not that her friends were perfect friends to her either. From the summary and the setting, this book reminded me a bit of Secret of the Sevens by Lynn Lindquist, which I really loved. This one was no where near as good. It felt choppy and the characters majorly got on my nerves.
But if you are a huge fan of secret societies, secrets don’t keep might be worth checking out. I really enjoyed the scene setting. The school sounds like a place I would love to spend a couple of days getting lost in, and the actual secrets in this book were pretty major. And my favorite part of all was the app that Kera’s friend designed for the students of the school to talk to each other. I thought that was really cool. But all of those things that I enjoyed were not enough to save me from the annoyance I felt from the characters.
If you are looking for a great story about a secret society set at a boarding school, try Secret of the Sevens by Lynn Lindquist. Secrets Don’t Keep was not a hit for me, but I do hope that if you read it, you end up loving it! Let me know what you think if you get a chance to check out this book.
This is only my opinion
Check out these reviews from other bloggers that loved Secrets Don’t Keep
Red Hot & Blue Reads gave it 4 stars
FMR Book Grind gave it 4 stars
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
Wonderful honest review Michelle! Normally I would like these type of reads based on the synopsis but I think I will try the other book you recommended instead. 😉 Thanks for the honest opinion and rec! 😀
well that’s disappointing. The blurb sounds intriguing but since you compared it to Secrets of the Sevens which I also loved, I really need to think twice about checking this out. Thanks for the great and honest review 🙂
Meh, I’m glad I read your thoughts beforehand. It does sound really exciting but I had to get excited about a book and then find nothing but disappointment. Thanks for your review.
Rebecca @ The Portsmouth Review
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I do like secret societies, but the insta love makes me cautious….
I absolutely loved Secret of the Sevens. Sorry this one didn’t work out for you. Great review!
Sorry it wasn’t for you. The cover intrigues me and the blurb makes me think I would like it. I would overlook the instalove if the rest of the story came through.
Like you, I am someone who loves initiation stories as well as secret societies. But I can’t stand it when characters are bratty and that seems to eradicate any other character they might have in them. And I don’t like the sound of insta love… so I am going to have pass this one up!