secrets by darcia helle

Title: Secrets

Author: Darcia Helle

Rating: 4.5/5

Cover Rating: 4.5/5

Published: August 2012

Summary (GoodReads):

SURVIVAL; Samantha’s monsters aren't under the bed; they’re the people she calls Mom and Dad.
ESCAPE; She makes it out alive, her sanity barely intact.

LIES; She creates a new past that fools everyone, including herself.

HOPE; A life filled with love and security teeters on its base of lies.

SECRETS; When it all comes crumbling down, will Samantha make it out alive?

My Say:

This book is actually kind of psycopath-ish. I have no idea what it would be to be in the character's shoes. It was definitively draining my emotion to really feel her. Can you imagine the whole family members are crazy? Like literally crazy? The writing of the story is actually quite straight forward, straight to the point, of course you will not get the whole picture first, but that's the beauty of reading an unpredictable twist story. The characters are realistic though quite unbelievably mean. Now I know why secrets are so important to Samantha. What to tell if the past of your life will be a threat towards your future? Yeah, it sounds too unrealistic, but I don't think it's impossible to not to happen to anyone. A fiction could be from a real life story, don't you think? I'm quite impressed with Samantha of how she could bear all the burden of her secrets, even more when her secrets are near to be exposed. It was very intriguing that every page I turn to made me feel nervous. This is my first book of Darcia Helle and very impressed. The book is really recommended.

Note: I received a copy of the book for an exchange of an honest review.

**have adult content and language not suitable for below 16**

Author Guest Post 

What's your opinion about white lies? Seems like everyone lies when they want to keep the secret unbroken. 

This is an interesting question. The vast majority of people tell white lies every day. Imagine what life would be like if we were forced to tell the complete truth all the time. Your coworker brings her new baby to the office to show him off, and asks, “Isn’t he beautiful?” You say, “No, actually he’s the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen.” Or you visit your parents and your mother excitedly asks, “What do you think of the new living room furniture?” Your reply is, “The color is hideous. What were you thinking?”

In these instances, most of us will opt for the white lie. We’ll agree the baby is beautiful and tell our parents the living room looks great. We don’t do this as much for our own benefit as to spare the feelings of the other person. No one is getting hurt by these white lies. I think of them as a form of social etiquette.

Sometimes what we consider to be a white lie is more about a keeping secret. Maybe you don’t want your best friend to know you’re still in touch with her ex-husband. You keep that secret from her in order to preserve your relationship. This kind of lie of omission is different than a white lie in that it is often more about benefiting the person telling the lie or keeping the secret. There’s more of a gray area here. In a sense, you’re still lying to protect the other person’s feelings, but you’re also being deceitful to protect yourself. And someone is often hurt by this type of lie, which makes it less a white lie and more an outright lie.

When I did the final edit for my novel Secrets, I did some research into the science and psychology of keeping secrets. Of course, lying isn’t necessarily involved in secret keeping. Sometimes we choose not to speak on the issue at all, hiding whatever the secret is in silence. Other times keeping a secret involves telling elaborate tales, lies woven together that stretch far beyond the white lie. What I found in my research is that the main reason we keep secrets is to avoid judgment. I think this is often true of why we tell lies, as well. Maybe you’d be embarrassed if your coworkers knew you’d been married to the same man three times, having divorced him twice early in your relationship. You lie to them, using your first wedding date as your anniversary. You ask your husband to do the same. Clearly, you and your husband are both lying and keeping a secret. But you’re not hurting anyone by doing so. It’s not anyone else’s business how many times you marry and divorce the same person.

A white lie is typically defined as a lie told to avoid upsetting the other person. This is not a lie told for self-gain or to hurt someone else. Given these parameters, a lot of the lies we tell each day, the ones we claim are white lies, are just plain lies.

To answer your original question, I think true white lies are a harmless and often beneficial part of our daily interaction. But we need to be clear in our own minds about the reason we’re telling them. 

About the Author 

Darcia Helle lives in a fictional world with a husband who is sometimes real. Their house is ruled by spoiled dogs and cats and the occasional dust bunny. Suspense, random blood splatter and mismatched socks consume Darcia’s days. She writes because the characters trespassing through her mind leave her no alternative. Only then are the voices free to haunt someone else’s mind.


Find her here:
Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads | Blog | Website

Giveaway Details:
 • 2 print copies of Secrets
• 10 ecopies of Secrets in any format Giveaway is worldwide.


  a Rafflecopter giveaway