Review, Giveaway, and Guest Post: The Secret Keeper by Angela Carling

I'm so excited to share with you today Angela's new book, The Secret Keeper. This was such an interesting and fun read. I hope you will definitely consider putting this one in your TBR pile for the summer. 

 Series: Book One in the Secret Keeper

Published : May 9, 2015

Blurp:

When Seventeen year old Winter Merrill was compelled to make a bargain with the mysterious Secret Keeper, she knew there were rules.  The most important one, the next time you have a secret, you will not be able to tell it….even if you try.

What she didn’t know is that her next secret if not told, would destroy her life and the life of Liam, the only boy she ever loved. Can Winter find a way out of the dark bargain that binds her tongue or will her deal with the Secret Keeper bring devastating consequences unimaginable even to her?

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The inspiration for The Secret Keeper

Probably the most commonly asked question I get when I’m out hanging with reading peeps is “What inspired you to write book X?” Today, I’m delighted to tell you what or more particularly what place inspired the writing of THE SECRET KEEPER.

There is a place in the mountains of Arizona, a small town by anyone’s standards. The name of the town is Heber. I first came across Heber when my family and I went camping to escape the searing Arizona summer heat. It was so different from the desert we were used to, we may as well have stumbled into a foreign country. Towering pines grew like dandelions on an unkempt lawn. Boulders jutted from the ground and deer and other wild animals traipsed through the neighborhoods like residents.

Then several years ago, I made an author visit to the High School in Heber. A full-sized bronze statue of a regal horse reared up atop a huge outcrop of rocks to announce that I had arrived at their small school. (They are the Mongolian Mustangs) Only two hundred kids and their campus was wide open. There was no safety fences or metal detectors. For PE, students ran down the road a half a mile to the town’s library with no teachers. For me, it felt like a step out of time.

As I spent the day with the students they told me about their life in Heber. I fell in love with them and promised them that I would write a book that used Heber as the backdrop for the story. That day, I also met Winter and her boyfriend Liam. They were charming, obviously very close and most of all incredibly kind to each other. When I went back to the High School two years later, they were still happily together.

These amazing kids weighed on me, particularly Winter and Liam and then one day while looking down the long narrow dirt road called Lejo street, it hit me. What if Winter did something stupid, something that would make her lose everything she loved. Something that would take away the tranquility of this small town and her happy existence. That existence would be worth fighting for. She would do anything to get Liam back…including making a deal with a mysterious Secret Keeper. And that is when The Secret Keeper the upcoming books in the secret series were born.

And yes, Lejo is real as are all of the places I used in The Secret Keeper. If you’re ever in Arizona, stop by this enchanting town. You won’t find a Walmart or McDonalds but you will discover a lovely place and the Secret Keeper’s dilapidated blue house buried deep in the forest.

About the Author:

Angela Carling was raised in Palm Springs California, but lives Arizona with her husband, three kids and five felines.  After years of denial she finally admitted that she is a hopeless romantic which led her to write her first Young Adult book Unbreakable Love. Since then she’s published three more books, Shackled, Becoming Bryn and The Secret Keeper. Shackled won the silver IPGA award in 2012 and has been optioned as a screenplay. She always eats the frosting off her cake and leaves the rest, and can be caught singing in public bathrooms for the acoustics.  When she’s not writing YA novels, she’s mentoring teen writers, making pizza with her family or dreaming of taking a nap, not necessarily in that order. 

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What makes The Secret Keeper stand out, is the very concept behind the actual story of the Secret Keeper herself. Something fresh and never done before, and let's face it, that is always worth pursuing when we are talking about the young adult genre where so many books feel like they are reincarnated versions of a book you're sure you've read before.

Carling takes us into a small town very few have probably ever heard of, let alone passed through and makes the mundane anything but boring. 

Engaging characters and a storyline every bit believable because of the very nature of the gender and ages of the characters, she mixes it up and throws in a paranormal element that is every bit as entertaining and it was creepy to imagine and think about.

A clean read that still manages to have a sweet romance, great friendships, and a creepy mystery that make this hard to put down until the very end. A fast paced plot and quick moving adventure that is every bit as dark as it is creepy will keep you on your toes and make this book worth your time and something that you should put on your to read list for this summer.  

*I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review which is no way affected my review. I was not compensated for this review.*

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