Customer Reviews

The Safety of Secrets

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They met a quarter of a century ago as first graders in Lake Charles, Louisiana over a pair of socks. Fiona Marshall and Patricia Woods became friends with both eluding odious mothers. Whereas Fiona's mother was abusive, Patricia's was negligent. They left Bayou country soon after high school to make it in Hollywood.

Each was married and divorced; they survived the Hollywood night culture that has destroyed so many young. Both share a secret that no one else knows until now. Twenty-five years of best friend sisterhood may end with that secret revealed. Fiona and Patricia reexamine their friendship, other relationships over the years, and the difficult realities that have surfaced for them.

The story line moves back and forth between the present and past in Southern California and their childhood in Louisiana as events today have the lead females looking back in time. Fiona and Patricia are fully developed characters, but it is their deep friendship forged back in elementary school that DeLaune Michael focuses on. Though loving best friends who would do anything for the other, with warmth and caring comes hurts and anger. Healthy relationships have a down side to them even when they are mostly loving, upbeat, and supportive. THE SAFETY OF SECRETS is a deep character study that will leave readers examining their strongest relationships.

Harriet Klausner

In the same vein as Firefly Lane and Beaches, THE SAFETY OF SECRETS is a true to life story of the enduring friendship of two women. It tells how their childhood bond is tested as they mature and their values and loyalties are formed and lives change.

Fiona and Patricia meet in first grade in Louisiana and their family lifestyles are different as Fiona comes from a "normal" family with two parents and a sister, while Patricia is raised by a single mother who has an older son from a previous marriage. Both of the girls' youth is greatly influenced by their mothers with Fiona's mother being abusive, while Patricia's mom neglects her. The girls experience a trauma young in their lives and they agree to keep it a secret for life.

Fiona and Patricia grow up and both pursue acting careers, and they are both successful in their own way. However, Fiona marries and has a baby while having a moderately successful and steady television career compared to Patricia's wild celebrity life filled with all the bells and whistles the paparazzi is crazy for.

The chapters alternate between the past as children and their current lives as adults, and thus the story slowly unfolds little by little until the "secret" that is alluded to finally is revealed. However, the way it happens is what brings us to the climax of the story and forces Fiona and Patricia to face the truth of that secret and the ramifications it has played in their lives for years. Fiona comes to realize how much the secret and her mother intertwined to make her the person she is today. Will Fiona's and Patricia's friendship be able to endure this explosive revelation? How will this affect their current relationships and especially the ones with their mothers?

The Safety of Secrets is relatable and one that will have the reader taking sides and staying glued to the story until the end to find out what the secret is. The reader will want to find out what the secret does to Fiona's and Patricia's adult lives and those they now care about. I found the story to be an interesting, well written, believable tale of two women and their friendship.

Can't-put-it-down readable with a secret at its core, this book is a sensitive, canny portrayal of a decades-long friendship. It works as a great beach read because of Michel's funny insights into the Hollywood actors scene, but like an iceberg, it has unexpected solidity under the surface. It's depth snuck up on me. It's an atypical coming-of-age story in that rather than simply covering the familiar territory of the jump from girl-to-woman; it explores the maturity that is required to jump from young-woman-to-mother. The crisis in the main character Fiona's relationship with her childhood friend Patricia, coming at the same time as the birth of Fiona's first child, enables Fiona to step into her true female adulthood--to access the maturity required to be a stable and loving example to her baby. Having witnessed Fiona's journey into unconditional love and forgiveness, we are assured that her child will be protected from at least some of the pain and tragedy that Patricia and Fiona endured. I loved it from the beginning to the sweet and moving last page. Read it!

Maybe it's because I'm in the midst of deciding what to do about one of my own old relationships that this book hit me so hard. Like Fiona in the book, I'm struggling with a friendship that has emerged as a two-headed hydra--and that's what Michel gets at so trenchantly: just how difficult it is to maintain a long-standing friendship and to keep that monster the ego from taking over and sucking every bit of air out of the garden. Oh, and the mother is quite a piece of work, too.

Michel is a pull-no-punches kind of writer with a terrific way with a metaphor. SAFETY OF SECRETS reads like a thriller, the pacing is so taut, and in fact there is a very real crime committed within its pages. In Michel's hands this scene is both subtle and crushing. A lessor writer would have yielded to its prurient potential; Michel instead reveals her power to pull us deep into the character's feelings. A compelling read.

This book is the story of Fiona and Patricia who have been best friends since the first grade. Their friendship continues into their adulthood and each of them have shared experiences and secrets that have formed who they are as individuals. This is what binds them as friends and also which allows them to continue to bury their secrets unresolved until the point where they must be revealed. This is the main theme of the novel, in my opinion, that secrets can appear safe and hidden but at any moment can be revealed and change the course of your life forever.

The other major theme was one of lifelong friendships and if this type of friendship can survive if a bond is broken. I found Fiona to be the main character and more likeable. Patricia, I felt sorry for but found her very selfish as an adult. They both had unhappy childhoods and distant relationships with their parents. They both follow similar career paths into acting as adults. Fiona marries a wonderful man and then becomes pregnant after miscarrying a child. Patricia becomes more successful in the world of reality TV and a subsequent disastrous marriage. Unfortunately, she discloses a secret that affected both her and Fiona when they were young girls...one that should have been disclosed at the time.

The chapters in the book go back in forth in time between the girls childhood and the present time as adults. I found this style hard to follow and it didn't allow me to connect with the characters and left the story lacking at times. I did find myself drawn to the cover which reminded me of girlhood friendships. It was very appropriate for this book and the black & white color was very effective. I found that when you turn the book over, it's contrast to the front cover was quite striking!

Meeting Delaune Michel at her book-signing was like making a new friend. And reading her book, "The Safety of Secrets," was like making another. The story is told in present tense by a first person narrator called Fiona - and no; there is really no other way it could be told. Fiona is the reader's new friend, narrating her life story, just as it happens.

When we first meet, Fiona is just finding out that she's pregnant. Of course, the first person she tells is her best friend. We, the readers, are probably third or fourth on her list, since her husband has to be second. And we have to keep it secret because - well, she'll explain.

The trouble is, the best friend doesn't react quite how Fiona hopes. And while Fiona's telling us this, she's also saying how they met and why they're best friends. In fact, a lot of what Fiona reveals is told while telling something else. It's not confusing; it's just how she is. She gets side-tracked and wanders off in random directions, but she always leads the way back and makes her point before the end of the chapter, and she always sounds real.

I like the way the chapters are self-contained - convenient when I have to stop and walk the dog, cook dinner, or find the shirt that I forgot to wash - and natural, like conversations with a friend. I like the way the focus in each chapter is always something that's just happening, giving the story a real immediacy.

Fiona's an actress who lives and works in Hollywood. It's exciting, and it's a world I'll never know, so I feel awed to have a friend describe it to me. I forgive the tangents and diversions because it's such fun being Fiona's friend. And when I begin to suspect she's not terribly sympathetic - maybe a bit self-centered - when I begin to wonder what she's saying to her friends about me - that's when Delaune so cleverly also lets me recognize Fiona's need, and the way the words and stories are hiding secrets she hasn't yet told.

As a reader, or friend, I start to understand Fiona just as she begins to understand herself. I feel like I know what she's going through, and I want to help her out. But she'll never listen to me I know, so I read on to an end that's satisfying, true to life and true to what the reader wants for her.

I remember Delaune saying she didn't know how the novel would end when she started to write. I believe her. After all, Fiona couldn't possibly have known, and it's Fiona who's telling the tale. Nobody's pulling her strings to make things happen. But she's pregnant, and secrets have a way of forcing their way into the light at such a time.

"The Safety of Secrets" is a very believable book, an enjoyable read, a thought-provoking concept, and a tale of everyday friendship, secrets and courage. I'm glad I read it. And I'm glad I met Fiona (and Delaune).

I loved this beautifully written book. Michel takes us into the heart and soul of Fiona, through whom we explore a complex friendship between herself and Patricia, childhood friends in a small Louisiana town and later actresses together in Hollywood.

I was touched by Michel's insights into relationships between women and found myself reflecting back on my own relationships, past and present. As Fiona and Patricia transition from girlhood to adulthood, the challenges they face ring true -- this book is a delicately drawn portrait of characters that could be drawn from real life and will stay with you long after you finish turning the last page.

This book is a beautifully written portrayal of two women and their lives. If you're looking for a National Enquirer style smash-you-over-the-head-and-make-you-gasp kind of "secret" book, read something else. This book is about true-to-life characters (including a horrific mother) and is presented with glorious subtle details and nuance.

I won't be giving this book away. Read it.

The Safety of Secrets is a very interesting look at the friendship between women. It's an exploration of how deep these bonds go and a hard look at the trust between two people. What happens when that trust is betrayed? Can you ever go back to the way things were?

I have to say, I am a little confused as to what genre this book actually is. On one hand, I can't classify it as purely chick lit because it's much more about friendship than anything else. It's not really about a romance or anything like that. On the other hand, it's not really women's fiction either. I settled at contemporary fiction, but it definitely has elements of chick lit and women's fiction, so if you don't like those genres, keep that in mind as you approach this book.

Despite that confusion, I really enjoyed The Safety of Secrets. I've had friends that have been there for me since childhood, and it's easy to underestimate the complexity of these relationships, especially among women. This book tries to dive through the layers of secrets that make up these bonds - secrets between the two of you, but also the secrets you keep from each other. The novel shows how these secrets affect can affect friendships, positively and negatively. I'd definitely recommend this book to any fan of chick lit who wants something a little bit deeper.

We have all kept a secret at one time or another. Some of us even thought keeping secrets with our friends when we were little was a fun game. But I'm talking about fun secrets such as "Don't tell Neil I like him". The Safety of Secrets explores what happens when two girls, Fiona and Patricia, promise each other they will hold on to a dark secret forever. They formed a close bond when they met in the first grade and kept that bond through adulthood. The book begins when they are both actresses in Los Angeles. Fiona is a successful working actress and Patricia is famous for hosting a sports reality show. Fiona finds out she is pregnant at thirty-five after having a miscarriage in the past. Fiona and Patricia have their friendship tested after a dark secret that may be revealed during Patricia's wedding to a famous movie star.
The Safety of Secrets explores many themes. The first and main theme is that of lifelong friendship. Fiona and Patricia both come from abusive mothers, which helps them bond. The chapters that go back during that time period are heartbreaking. The abuse that Fiona goes through from her mother one summer was especially moving. I could also relate with Fiona's present day anxiety of being pregnant after experiencing a miscarriage. The Lamaze class Fiona and her husband go to was a laugh out loud chapter. I found it highly interesting to learn about the Los Angeles acting culture and could picture the city from Delaune's vivid descriptions. The heart of the story, though, was about forgiveness and mothers. Since most of us can relate to both, I highly suggest you put this lovely book on your reading list