Keeping Her Secret by Sarah Nicolas Series: Endless Summer #1
Also in this series: Daring the Bad Boy
Published by Entangled: Crush on August 22, 2016
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance
Pages: 220
Goodreads Buy the Book
Two girls. One Kiss.
The last person Riya Johnson expected to run into at her new summer camp is Courtney Chastain—her childhood best friend and the girl who broke her heart after a secret, mind-blowing, life-altering kiss. She definitely didn’t expect to be sharing a bunk bed with her for four long weeks.
Courtney has what every girl wants—she’s beautiful, rich, and the object of every boy’s desire at Camp Pine Ridge. Too bad none of them make her feel an iota of what Riya’s kiss did all those years ago. But Courtney needs to uphold appearances at all costs—even if it means instigating an all-out prank war with Riya as her main target.
Neither girl can stop thinking about the other…but that doesn’t mean they can give up past hurts and take a chance on a future together.
Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains drinking, sexual situations, and a fairy-tale romance sure to make your heart melt.
Erin: Books that take place at a summer camp always bring back a sense of nostalgia for me. Some of my best memories growing up are from my time at camp and it’s always with a warm heart that I read them now. When I saw the blurb for Keeping Her Secret by Sarah Nicolas, I knew right away I’d be adding it to my must read list, and I’m glad I did.
There was a lot to like about this Entangled Crush book. First that it’s about two girls, one of whom is bi and out and proud of it. Riya’s parents are supportive, she has a strong sense of self (though it gets shaken a bit during her stay at camp), she’s good at sports, and she’s never forgotten her first kiss with Courtney. When these two see each other for the first time years after that life changing first kiss, their reactions couldn’t be different. While Riya is surprised to see her long lost best friend, Courtney is shaken to her core and at first she comes across as bitchy and cold. It took me quite a bit through the book before I warmed up to her.
Second, I thought Nicolas did a super job in portraying Riya’s bisexuality and it came across as genuine and not the least bit preachy or fake. And third, the secondary characters were all really important to the story. Courtney’s brother, Colt, really stole almost every scene he was in, to the point that I was at times way more interested in him than in Riya or Courtney.
I thought that the relationship between Riya and Courtney progressed realistically, with ups and downs, and butterflies in tummies and tears, too. Figuring out their feelings for one another and what that means for them, worried about their friends and families reaction’s, all of it seemed true and pretty spot on.
There were a few misses. I’m not a fan of overused clichés and the poor rich girl who just wants to dance but her parents would never understand that or the fact she likes girls really seemed overplayed at times. Courtney didn’t come off as very sympathetic and even at the end when we got the fairytale ending, it was almost too little, too late. Some of the drama and hurt feelings seemed a bit over the top, and yes I get that we’re talking about teenaged girls here and they don’t always act rationally, but there is a way to portray them a bit more realistically.
All in all, Keeping Her Secret was a really sweet, low angst read that will leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling. It’s also an important book in that there definitely needs to be more f/f books out there, and this one is well written and shouldn’t be missed.
Verdict:
| Rating Report | |
|---|---|
| Cover |  |
| Characters |  |
| Plot | |
| Writing | |
| Swoon |  |
| Overall: | 3.5 |
Low angst is good. I feel like I missed out never going to summer camp. lol Glad you enjoyed it even with a couple little quibbles.