Customer Reviews

Three Little Secrets

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Reading through reviews of "Three Little Secrets", I was almost convinced I wouldn't like the book. Accusations that Carlyle recreated the same storyline as in the previous title, "Two Little Lies", the same emotional turmoil, well, it almost made me dislike the book before I'd even read it. Who does want to read the same story when they're expecting to get something new? Yes, the third in Carlyle's latest series does bring to mind some of the same emotions and heartaches that the couple went through in "Two Little Lies", but I firmly believe that the author did a splendid job of creating fresh characters with totally different circumstances.

In the foolish frenzy and emotional rush that is youth, Merrick MacLachlan and Lady Madeline elope under the influence of their first love. A hasty marriage in Gretna Green though, is not enough to keep the hands of fate from ripping them apart most cruely. In this case, they have Maddie's father to thank for that. The meddlesome lord, who has political aspirations on the brain, is furious that his daughter, his one chance at a grand political alliance, has lowered herself to marry a businessman. Thinking that Merrick accepted payment to leave her from her father and signed papers for an annulment, she tearfully returns home and weds a man of her father's choosing. Thirteen years later, with a troubled son in tow, she comes back to London to find help for him. When fate brings her together once more with Merrick, old bitterness and hurts cannot help but come to the surface. And Merrick is bitter beyond imagining. Neither want the other, neither wants to feel anything for the other, but both are helpless to deny that under all the anger and grief, there may still be something worth fighting for.

Merrick and Maddie's story is very different from the previous book's. Sure, the intense emotions will bring to mind Viviana's intense temper (heroine in "Two Little Lies"), but Maddie's situation couldn't be more different. She and Merrick had the kind of strong and intense love, that once denied, twisted over time to the kind of gut wrenching agony that can only ignite when they once meet again. Of course, they must still care for one another if they are bothered by eachother still. I do agree with some reviewers' assessments about Merrick: he was very cold, very cruel and I did not like the way he treated Maddie or the names he called her at times. I cannot blame him though for his other intimate relationships he had aside from her. After all, she does marry another man and lives with him for many years. My only other complaint is that I do wish their resolution could have been reached before the very end of the book. Other than that, this is just the kind of historical I enjoy, but only occasionally. The intense and sometimes disturbing emotions that are rampant throughout this book are not for the faint of heart and not for me with every book. But I do enjoy a good tear jerker from time to time and I enjoyed the in-your-face emotional storm that Carlyle has taken readers through with her latest series. Maddie's son, Geoffrey, was very interesting as well and his own personal dilemma is not one readers usually see in these mainstream historical romances. If you like characters that are well-rounded and emotionally engaging give this one a try. Don't forget about the previous two, "One Little Sin" and "Two Little Lies". A great series and one for my keeper shelf.

I've read all three of the Sins, Lies and Secrets Trilogy. Since I read them all out of order, I can tell you they are still good stand-alone but much better to read in order since they over-lap. Also the characters are recurring and it is nice to revisit them all later! The third book also mentions "the gypsy's curse," but it is not the overwhelming premise. This book was a shade darker emotionally than the others.

Merrick MacLachlan is the most tormented of the three men in the trilogy. He has loved and lost ... his wife, his looks, practically his humanity! He lives only to work and also there is the warped thought of revenge. His wife, Lady Madeleine has also lost what she once had. The most weak-willed of the three heroines in these stories, she has good reason to be. She was very young when she and Merrick eloped and beatings from her father after the marriage was annulled have done serious damage to her spirit. But these many years later, after marriage to an older gentleman and travel around the world, she has come back as a widow to settle in London with her young son. Her son is "different" and she seeks to find out what is wrong with him. She is not the same woman as when she was young and meetings with Merrick lead to fights - but later to a realization that they both had been lied to! Can the years of self-loathing be overcome? What of her son's illness?

I felt this couple had the most to overcome for there to be a successful reconciliation. It was accomplished in a very interesting way. I liked when they moved to Scotland and granny. This was a wonderful finale to the series ... you mean there are no more???? Well worth reading.

I'd heard bad things about Three Little Secrets and I thought...no, certainly not, Liz Carlyle is too good to write a really bad book. I was wrong. Three Little Secrets is awful.

The worst thing about the book, what struck me as being unforgivably sloppy, is how ham-handed the plot is.

Madeleine's son Geoff has "fits" and "strange notions" - but neither she nor anybody around her nas noticed that he manages to tell the future through his fits, averting peril to life and limb numerous times. It is staggeringly obvious whatis happening, but nobody has put two and two together. Since Geoff saves Merrick's life twice during the book with his visions, I was pretty stunned that it took him 300 pages to figure out what was going on.

Or, alternatively, Madeleine believes that her marriage to Merrick was annuled. Now, apparently at the time of her marraige she didn't know what an annulment was; fine, I'll buy that. What I had a hard time believing is that at the age of 30 she still doesn't know what an annulment is - or what the conditions of getting one are.

She's perfectly stunned when Merrick tells her they're still married, and that a couple who have married and consummated their marriage would have an almost impossible time getting an annulment. So she tells Merrick that he's lying, leaves, vows to find out the truth herself...yet days and maybe even weeks go by and she hasn't found any way to figure out what annulment is or how to get one. This means that during subsequent meetings she can continue to insist that Merrick is lying, and their marriage was annuled.

There are plenty more examples. The plotting is just sloppy, and unbelievable enough to make it hard to get into the novel.

I was also really unsatisfied with the romance. Madeleine comes across as a meek coward, very timid and unhappy after a life of being bullied by one person after another. She occasionally has flashes of backbone - when she mostly seems brittle and cold.

And Merrick very quickly steps into the role of a bully - yelling at her, controlling her, taunting her. Madeleine does her fair share of taunting in return, but she is so fragile and weak, while Merrick is so confident and strong, that all of these exchanges were depressingly lopsided.

Merrick and Madeleine do nothing but fight. They have those really painful, no-holds-barred fights that leave deep internal wounds. They seemed to me like a couple on the verge of a divorce, not a reconciliation - and I didn't want them to get together. If it meant anything like a continuation of what was happening in the novel, it would be a truly miserable marraige.

I liked Merrick well enough; he's a hard, ruthless, brilliant man who only thinks about making money and is very good at it. He comes across as self-controlled, emotionally deadened, but the demons of his past and their lingering effect on his present are believable.

But I did not like Merrick with Madeleine. I couldn't see how Merrick's disciplined and dominating personality could do anything but oppress Madeleine's much weaker one. I didn't understand what Merrick saw in Madeleine, other than her looks - he occasionally says that he loves her for being a strong and capable woman, but he's delusional if that's his reasoning.

All in all, the worst Liz Carlyle yet.

Carlyle brilliantly caps off her latest connected series with THREE LITTLE SECRETS-- a lively and gripping tale featuring Merrick MacLachlan, the dour `black' Scot brother of Alasdair MacLachlan, hero of the initial book in this series, ONE LITTLE SIN.

Thirteen years ago, Merrick MacLachlan eloped to Gretna Green with seventeen year old Lady Madeline Jessup. Tracked down by her ruthless father, Merrick was set-up, brutally beaten, and left for dead. Lady Madeline was led to believe Merrick was a grasping rotter, whose sole purpose in marrying her was to, ruin her, blackmail her father into financing his architectural dreams, and then annul the marriage.

By the time Merrick was able to travel to reclaim his wife, he discovered he was weeks too late. She'd been married off to a man twice her age and shipped off to parts unknown. Despising her for having so little faith in him and with additional lies told to him about her, any visage he had of a heart was torn to shreds. In the intervening years, Merrick became an embittered, ruthless but overwhelmingly successful and prosperous businessman.

Now, coming face to face, their secrets would be revealed with a finality that both had dreamed of, but never dared hoped for. Guilty of pride, they believed the worst of each other, yet, in their innermost hearts, Madeline and Merrick still harbored the deepest passion they once felt for one another. In order to save their son, they would come to an accord, which would finally let them sort through the secrets in order to reclaim a passion that never fully died.

*** As always, Carlyle weaves magic into her sensual laden prose, giving the reader a bonanza of a treat and completely mesmerizing the reader from the very beginning. Since her very first novel, I have been hooked by this author! Her writing is sensual, passionate, and will hook you from the very first pages to a most satisfying and heartwarming end. This is definitely another book for my `keeper' shelf and one I most HIGHLY recommend!

I have never been more surprised by a book than I am by Three Little Secrets. I wasn't particularly interested in reading the last of this trilogy (books one and two were pretty good).

There isn't a lot of romance in the traditional sense here until the end. It is the story of two people terribly hurt by each other and their coming to terms with this after finding themselves unexpectly together again.

The development of the characters in this book is so complete that I fully understood their emotions. This was a big misunderstanding that I felt was completely believable (which is rare). I was as excited about Geoff's storyline as I was about Merrick and Madeleine's.

I couldn't put this one down. I highly recommend!!!

Liz Carlyle is a remarkable writer. Her singular talent is showcased in this emotion-filled finale to the "Sins, Lies and Secrets" trilogy. Merrick MacLachlan and Lady Madeleine Howard - young and madly in love - are ruthlessly torn apart after only one day of marriage. They eloped to Scotland because her father, the powerful Earl of Jessup, would never give his consent. The Earl wants Madeleine to wed a man who will gain him political influence, whereas Merrick is poor and untitled and, though a promising architect, the Earl views him as a nobody. The morning following their wedding, when Merrick goes out to check on his horses, the Earl arrives and abducts Madeleine from her sleep. He tells her that Merrick is a fortune hunter who has agreed to annul their marriage in return for 30,000 pounds. In reality, the Earl and his henchmen viciously attacked Merrick in the stables, then ran him over with a horse and carriage and left him for dead. Several months pass before the badly broken Merrick recovers enough to pursue his wife, but by then she has married an earl and has moved with him to the continent. Merrick is left to believe that Madeleine abandoned him for greener pastures.

Thirteen years pass with no contact between them, but neither has ever forgotten or forgiven the other. Merrick has become a cynical and bitter man for whom work is everything. Although hugely successful in his business enterprises, his life is joyless. He has never married, believing himself still bound to Madeleine. Madeleine has been widowed for four years, following an indifferent marriage. She has a son, Geoff, who is twelve years old (raising the obvious question of his true paternity). She has returned to England and has contracted to buy a new home in a London suburb, not realizing that Merrick's company is the builder. They meet accidentally one day at the building sight, and soon all hell breaks lose with their lives and emotions, as years of pent up anger and frustration - as well as longing - come rushing to the fore.

This emotionally charged story grabs the reader from the very first page and never lets go. Every thought and word and deed of the characters only further draws one in. The depth of the couple's loss, and the weight of their memories, skillfully sets the stage for their passionate reunion. The chemistry and sexual tension between Merrick and Madeleine is tangible. They clearly care more for each other than they are willing to admit, even to themselves. The author makes fine use in vital roles of characters from her previous novels. These include Helene from "Beauty Like the Night" and Alasdair and Quin from the two previous books in this series. Geoff is also a delight - intelligent and thoughtful the way adolescents so often are - with an intriguing touch of the mystical. This book completes one of the best romance series I have read. It is passionate, well-written and very satisfying. Highly recommended.

I really can't believe this book got a single bad review I absolutely positively loved it. the plot in three little secrets was wildly engaging, more so than the first two books of the series, and the prose definitely lives up to the usual Carlyle style. please give this book a chance.

I loved this book. As usual, Ms. Carlyle's writing is riveting and full of nuances. I loved the emotional tone of the novel and to me both the hero and heroine felt real and well developed. The author transported me to the time and place without needless repetitions and minute descriptions. As always, all the characters contribute to the story and are written in a believable manner. Also as usual, Ms. Carlyle writes about a child and this does not detract from the plot at all, but enriches it. My only complaint, as with all her other novels, is the lack of an epilogue. The last chapter is too short and seems rushed. An epilogue would have allowed the reader to enjoy the lovers' happiness and the family's reactions. Other than that, I appreciate that this author writes beautifully and intelligently. Please, Ms. Carlyle, keep them coming!

Three Little Secrets by Liz Carlyle is a historian romance based around Scotsman Merrick Maclahlan and his estranged wife Lady Madeleine. They were married very young and torn apart by her father. Merrick has become cold hearted and focused on making money. Lady Madeleine is a widow and mother of 12-year-old psychic boy. Merrick and Madeleine meet again after 13 years and sparks fly - but they are so much for fun to watch.... The order of the series is One Little Sin, Two little Lies and Three little Secrets.

Merrick "Black" MacLachlan is a self-made wealthy individual who is cold and uncaring except when it comes to attaining more money and with his brother and granny. He shows one of the new houses he designs to a customer, but inside is a woman whom a stunned Merrick introduces as his wife Madeleine who has purchased the house. Madeleine and Merrick argue as he insists she is still his wife and she claims her father annulled their marriage.

Merrick formally meets her twelve years old son Geoffrey, who has Madeleine very worried as he seems more depressed each day. They had met earlier at Merrick's construction site where the kid saved several lives. He also knows what "ails" the lad, which means Geoffrey is his offspring as he has the "Gift" of sight and not the late Besset whom Madeleine married when she dumped him. He persuades Madeleine to take their son to his granny for her to teach him how to control his Gift. They both begin to learn what really happened in Gretna Green, but will the truth set each one free to grasp the love that still exists between them?

The fine lead couple's past led to tragedy and bitterness and now makes for a wonderful historical romance with a touch of the paranormal as the "Gift of Sight" is deftly interwoven to enhance the tale. The return of characters especially the male leads from previous tales (see TWO LITTLE LIES and ONE LITTLE SIN) add to the overall understanding of Merrick. Though Madeleine's late father was a cold hearted villain whose actions including attempted murder seem over the top for preventing a marriage, romance readers will appreciate this delightful second chance at love romance.

Harriet Klausner