Book Review: The Secret Year

Hi 

Today I will be reviewing  The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard. It’s a debute novel.

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I couldn’t believe myself when Syd told me that Julia died

I didn’t want to show the shock in my voice because no one knows about our relationship

Julia lives in the Black Mountain place. It’s a place well-known for its rich residents. She's Austine Chadwick girlfriend. He lives in the black mountain too.

On the other hand, I am Colt Morrissey. I live in the flats. We are not rich as the black mountaineers. In fact we are not rich at all.

For a year, I started seeing Julia secretly. No one was supposed to know about us.

Every time she would promise me that she will break up with Austine but she never had the guts to do it.

I never thought we had real feelings for each other. Until her brother (Micheal) gave me a purple notebook. It was Julia's diary. The entries started with "Dear C.M". These were my initials. I wondered what she wrote about me. Did she have feelings for me after all? Will I get to know secrets about Julia that I never knew from before? Will other girls be able to compete with Julia? Did I have anything to do with her death?

I guess I have to read the notebook to figure it out.

***

I have no idea why but I fall in love with the novel from the first sentence. The way it is written attracts your interest and leave you wanting more. The fact that there was a mystery behind Julia's death, made me interested in reading the purple notebook as much as Colt himself did.

Colt is a character very close to the nowadays guys. He tries to get into stuff- like dating other girls-  to forget about Julia and how she felt about him but never said it to his face. Instead she let it all in a notebook. Secretive notebook.

The novel shows us a conflict between rich and poor people. How both sides see each other.

The rich people point of view: poor people got it all simple. They have nothing to worry about. They have no expectations to meet

The poor people point of view: rich people got it all. Whatever they ask for in less than 24 hours it will be bought for them. They don’t need to worry about money

The fact is rich people are always in need to poor people and vice versa. At least it was obvious from the relationship of Colt and Julia. They fall in love with each other ignoring their parent's level of income.

Tata for now