What do you think?
Rate this book
Secrets Within
A mother's lust for power...
A daughter's desire for revenge.
Eleanor Vandelier -- a woman of invincible strength and ruthless determination. She controls two of Australia's most prominent vineyards. Her family has been sacrificed in her lust for power, no one more savagely than Tamara, the unwanted, unloved child of Eleanor's driving ambition.
Tamara Vandelier -- a cold manipulator or a woman whose scars run deep beneath her tough image? For Tamara, the final reckoning with her mother is long overdue. Now she has come back to the family's estate, determined that Eleanor should pay for what she has done to her.
Tamara has embarked on a destructive course, and in the final, fatal clash of wills, no one is safe from the secrets within...
A daughter's desire for revenge.
Eleanor Vandelier -- a woman of invincible strength and ruthless determination. She controls two of Australia's most prominent vineyards. Her family has been sacrificed in her lust for power, no one more savagely than Tamara, the unwanted, unloved child of Eleanor's driving ambition.
Tamara Vandelier -- a cold manipulator or a woman whose scars run deep beneath her tough image? For Tamara, the final reckoning with her mother is long overdue. Now she has come back to the family's estate, determined that Eleanor should pay for what she has done to her.
Tamara has embarked on a destructive course, and in the final, fatal clash of wills, no one is safe from the secrets within...
- GenresRomance
400 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1997
36 people want to read
About the author
Emma Darcy
640 books327 followersEmma Darcy is the pseudonym created by the married writing team of Wendy (1940-2020) and Frank Brennan (1936-1995). Their life journey has taken as many twists and turns as the characters in their stories, whose international popularity has resulted in over sixty-million book sales. With more than a hundred titles, Emma Darcy appeared regularly on the Waldenbooks bestseller lists in the U.S.A. and in the Nielson BookScan Top 100 chart in the U.K.
Wendy was born 28 November 1940 in Australia. Her sister was the novelist Maureen Mary (Miranda Lee). Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. She obtained an Honours degree in Latin and initially worked as a high school English/French teacher. She married Frank Brennan, an Australian businessman born in 1936. She changed careers to computer programming before marriage and motherhood settled her into a community life. She was reputedly the first woman computer programmer in the southern hemisphere.
As voracious readers, the step to writing their own books seemed a natural progression and the challenge of creating exciting stories was soon highly addictive. They were published since 1983. In 1993, for the Emma Darcy pseudonym's 10th anniversary, they created the "Emma Darcy Award Contest" to encourage authors to finish their manuscripts. After the death of Frank Brennan in 1995, Wendy wrotes books on her own. She lived in a beachside property on the central coast of New South Wales, and liked to travel extensively to research settings and increase her experience of places and people.
Wendy Brennan passed away on December 21, 2020. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, and sister, writer Miranda Lee.
Wendy was born 28 November 1940 in Australia. Her sister was the novelist Maureen Mary (Miranda Lee). Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. She obtained an Honours degree in Latin and initially worked as a high school English/French teacher. She married Frank Brennan, an Australian businessman born in 1936. She changed careers to computer programming before marriage and motherhood settled her into a community life. She was reputedly the first woman computer programmer in the southern hemisphere.
As voracious readers, the step to writing their own books seemed a natural progression and the challenge of creating exciting stories was soon highly addictive. They were published since 1983. In 1993, for the Emma Darcy pseudonym's 10th anniversary, they created the "Emma Darcy Award Contest" to encourage authors to finish their manuscripts. After the death of Frank Brennan in 1995, Wendy wrotes books on her own. She lived in a beachside property on the central coast of New South Wales, and liked to travel extensively to research settings and increase her experience of places and people.
Wendy Brennan passed away on December 21, 2020. She is survived by her children, grandchildren, and sister, writer Miranda Lee.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 28, 2015
This was a badly written and unlikeable book. I did not enjoy the prurient sex scenes- they were not erotic they were horrifically objectified. The writing was terrible, the characters walked around in a melodramatic mania the whole time. Noone could have a conversation it always had to be a showdown. Everything revolved around sex and the gender roles were very rigid. Added to that no matter what horrors men did, women were more to blame and just about the only non-redeemed character (after they had all destroyed, raped and seduced each other through 400 tiresome pages) was a lesbian. So let's add homophobia to the list.
Would you like an example of the writing to illustrate how unreadable this was (pity me I was stuck with it, when I'd rather have been reading Norman Fairclough. But instead of blissful discourse analysis I got pp 51-52: " It came, jerking into the moist, warm cavern of her mouth. He shuddered as she sucked it from him [and the reader is shuddering too, but not in enjoyment], intensifying the sheer physical pleasure of being taken with completion. No withdrawal at climax. Not from Tamara. She went all the way [and all the way through this book is 350 more dreary pages]. She made him feel as though she loved every last drop of him. It made him wish....." ergh I can't go on. But to be fair as a reviewer I did wade through the other 350 pages, through a manipulated pregnancy, several deaths, marriage, sex, sex, sex (yawn) oh look someone's bonking again and all the men are insatiable beasts that can't help themselves and rape young girls because their horrible cold-blooded wives don't have sex with them (or variations on the theme) and a couple of women are mousey but loveable but on the whole the heroines are sexy, manipulative and thin and there are some bad women who are dowdy or fat or frigid.
Acts are moral or immoral depending who does them (often determined by gender). Louise's reasoning for turning her back on her own career to marry into power (her dad instructed her to give up her own dreams and do that and then use sex to control her husband) are portrayed as selfish and shallow and her humiliation in not suceeding is gloried in but let's remember this is a girl who WANTED A REAL JOB and got forced into the indirect power game by her father. It's not a good way to be, sure, but I feel she is a victim in all this.
I read fast. Maybe I skipped something. There are white picket fences and piggy backs at the end. I would say more about that but...spoilers....
I knew it was romance, I guess I should have steered clear!
Would you like an example of the writing to illustrate how unreadable this was (pity me I was stuck with it, when I'd rather have been reading Norman Fairclough. But instead of blissful discourse analysis I got pp 51-52: " It came, jerking into the moist, warm cavern of her mouth. He shuddered as she sucked it from him [and the reader is shuddering too, but not in enjoyment], intensifying the sheer physical pleasure of being taken with completion. No withdrawal at climax. Not from Tamara. She went all the way [and all the way through this book is 350 more dreary pages]. She made him feel as though she loved every last drop of him. It made him wish....." ergh I can't go on. But to be fair as a reviewer I did wade through the other 350 pages, through a manipulated pregnancy, several deaths, marriage, sex, sex, sex (yawn) oh look someone's bonking again and all the men are insatiable beasts that can't help themselves and rape young girls because their horrible cold-blooded wives don't have sex with them (or variations on the theme) and a couple of women are mousey but loveable but on the whole the heroines are sexy, manipulative and thin and there are some bad women who are dowdy or fat or frigid.
Acts are moral or immoral depending who does them (often determined by gender). Louise's reasoning for turning her back on her own career to marry into power (her dad instructed her to give up her own dreams and do that and then use sex to control her husband) are portrayed as selfish and shallow and her humiliation in not suceeding is gloried in but let's remember this is a girl who WANTED A REAL JOB and got forced into the indirect power game by her father. It's not a good way to be, sure, but I feel she is a victim in all this.
I read fast. Maybe I skipped something. There are white picket fences and piggy backs at the end. I would say more about that but...spoilers....
I knew it was romance, I guess I should have steered clear!
September 5, 2019
Eh bien. Quelle histoire ! Au vue des quelques critiques négatives, j'ai commencé ce livre avec appréhension. Mais la lecture vaut le détour. C'est une histoire bouleversante et complexe, qui mêle la haine, la colère, la vengeance et quelques horreurs, mais qui traite aussi d'amour et de seconde chance, de pardon et d'espoir. C'est une histoire au final inattendu, malheureux mais plein d'espoir. Je me suis laissée prendre par l'histoire.
October 8, 2023
I found this abandoned at an RV park office and well, i see why.
September 27, 2009
I thought this book was good with the exception of the ending, which I did not care for at all
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews