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One Little Secret
An ordinary mother unexpectedly finds herself in the limelight in this uplifting, contemporary tale.
- GenresFiction
336 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 27, 2018
A fun read with an interesting look at the hoop-la, snobbism and priorities in the music industry, with way too much emphasis on top-of-the-line brand names important to the rich and famous and especially to those striving to achieve wealth and fame. (Off-putting to me, as I can't even stand to use a handbag or garment with obvious "snob appeal.")
That being said, this was a good story. Husband is too pre-occupied to listen to wife, until he isn't, and she is too subservient to absolutely insist he allow her to tell him what she's doing while he's working on the opposite side of the country. I liked how it flowed and especially the ending.
That being said, this was a good story. Husband is too pre-occupied to listen to wife, until he isn't, and she is too subservient to absolutely insist he allow her to tell him what she's doing while he's working on the opposite side of the country. I liked how it flowed and especially the ending.
June 17, 2013
I purchased this book secondhand at a used book store while on vacation. I had never heard of the author or the book before, but the cover caught my eye and the very brief back description sounded like it would be a fluffy, fun story. I like music-themed books so this seemed right up my alley!
Oh it was definitely a fluffy book. Here's the plot: A L.A. suburban housewife named Ursula Rhoades gets to fill in for her son Victor's band when the band's lead singer is in the hospital and can't make an important gig. Ursula has always been a singer, having studied voice years before in college. However, she dropped out of college to get married and have a family. Her husband is a muckity-muck entertainment lawyer while she keeps herself occupied with church activities and giving voice lessons.
Her son Victor's band happens to be playing a wedding reception for a celebrity and at that wedding reception comes in Nik Prevel, a rising pop star. Nik is really impressed with Ursula's voice and asks if she would like to sing with him on an album of standards. She reluctantly says yes. Meanwhile, Ursula is dealing with her family leaving: her children Valerie and Victor are going away soon and her husband Don is caught up in an important case involving a major celebrity. So Don is out of the picture then because the case sends him to New York City for the summer. As a newly minted empty-nester, she has the time to devote to a project like this. But she can't bear to tell her family about it, especially her husband because she doesn't want the publicity to jeopardize the possibility of his being offered a senior partnership at his law firm. How will she keep her secret, especially when the album tops the charts and she is asked to sing with Nik himself at the Grammy Awards?
Sounds like the plot for a romantic comedy.
Let's get the good stuff out of the way first. What I liked the most about this book were the descriptions of Nik and Ursula recording and putting the album together. Probably because I'm a musician too and I enjoy reading about such things. And the basic plot is simple but engaging. I read this entire book in about two days and kept going back to the book to see what was going to happen. So I did like those things.
However, there were many parts of this book that I simply found lacking. I found her constant use of similes to be very distracting because they were just not very good. "She stared at the two of them like they were maggots on a dead carcass." "The crowd had grown as thick as Tammy Faye Bakker's makeup." I got the feeling the author was trying to get across, but they sounded very awkward to me. I also didn't care for the way the author wrote the descriptions of people's clothes. I have never read a book with so much designer name dropping. Prada this, Vivienne Westwood that. I like being able to picture what's going on in the story, but I can't do that with the constant name dropping because I don't know what a pair of Miu Miu shoes or a what Roberto Cavalli dress looks like. Maybe this was the author's attempt to reach out to people who are into that sort of thing, I don't know.
I also have no problem with Christian fiction, but there were parts of this book that I felt were shoehorned into the story just to put it under the category of "Christian fiction." If you're going to put Christian elements into the story, put them in because the story is naturally going in that direction. Do we really need a random section about Ursula singing a few CCM songs for Nik and then her going on to think about all the other Christian artists she could expose him to? It added nothing else to the story. Or what about Nik clearly joking about calling on a psychic to help them choose the songs they should record for the project and Ursula ragging on him about soothsayers?
The biggest problem I had with the book was Ursula keeping her recording project a huge secret as if she were ashamed of it. If she's so close to her family like she claims so many times in the story, WHY would she keep such a huge secret? She claims that she tried to tell her husband over the phone multiple times but he would "blow her off," even going as far as to say she'll never ever tell him because she tries to tell him on a night when her husband's law team has won the case and all he wants to talk about is his victory. Well of COURSE he wants to talk about his victory! Why not listen to him for once and then tell him? Or better yet, why didn't you tell him earlier?
I could tell that this was a second book from the writing style (a LOT of telling rather than showing, which drove me nuts) and the awkward phrases (see simile examples above). For a professionally published, and no doubt professionally edited, novel, I expected a lot more. To cap it off, I am sure that the very last sentence of the book was supposed to be a joke ("With God, a loving family, and a forty-five piece orchestra, anything is possible!") but it fell completely flat.
Was this a fun read, though? Yes. Did it deliver on what it promised from the brief synopsis on the back ("An invitation to record a CD with a hunky, young pop star? It's the stuff dreams are made of… right? For Ursula Rhoades, a suburban wife and mom, one little secret is about to change her whole life")? Yes. However, I will be donating this book. Maybe someone else will get more out of this book than I did.
Oh it was definitely a fluffy book. Here's the plot: A L.A. suburban housewife named Ursula Rhoades gets to fill in for her son Victor's band when the band's lead singer is in the hospital and can't make an important gig. Ursula has always been a singer, having studied voice years before in college. However, she dropped out of college to get married and have a family. Her husband is a muckity-muck entertainment lawyer while she keeps herself occupied with church activities and giving voice lessons.
Her son Victor's band happens to be playing a wedding reception for a celebrity and at that wedding reception comes in Nik Prevel, a rising pop star. Nik is really impressed with Ursula's voice and asks if she would like to sing with him on an album of standards. She reluctantly says yes. Meanwhile, Ursula is dealing with her family leaving: her children Valerie and Victor are going away soon and her husband Don is caught up in an important case involving a major celebrity. So Don is out of the picture then because the case sends him to New York City for the summer. As a newly minted empty-nester, she has the time to devote to a project like this. But she can't bear to tell her family about it, especially her husband because she doesn't want the publicity to jeopardize the possibility of his being offered a senior partnership at his law firm. How will she keep her secret, especially when the album tops the charts and she is asked to sing with Nik himself at the Grammy Awards?
Sounds like the plot for a romantic comedy.
Let's get the good stuff out of the way first. What I liked the most about this book were the descriptions of Nik and Ursula recording and putting the album together. Probably because I'm a musician too and I enjoy reading about such things. And the basic plot is simple but engaging. I read this entire book in about two days and kept going back to the book to see what was going to happen. So I did like those things.
However, there were many parts of this book that I simply found lacking. I found her constant use of similes to be very distracting because they were just not very good. "She stared at the two of them like they were maggots on a dead carcass." "The crowd had grown as thick as Tammy Faye Bakker's makeup." I got the feeling the author was trying to get across, but they sounded very awkward to me. I also didn't care for the way the author wrote the descriptions of people's clothes. I have never read a book with so much designer name dropping. Prada this, Vivienne Westwood that. I like being able to picture what's going on in the story, but I can't do that with the constant name dropping because I don't know what a pair of Miu Miu shoes or a what Roberto Cavalli dress looks like. Maybe this was the author's attempt to reach out to people who are into that sort of thing, I don't know.
I also have no problem with Christian fiction, but there were parts of this book that I felt were shoehorned into the story just to put it under the category of "Christian fiction." If you're going to put Christian elements into the story, put them in because the story is naturally going in that direction. Do we really need a random section about Ursula singing a few CCM songs for Nik and then her going on to think about all the other Christian artists she could expose him to? It added nothing else to the story. Or what about Nik clearly joking about calling on a psychic to help them choose the songs they should record for the project and Ursula ragging on him about soothsayers?
The biggest problem I had with the book was Ursula keeping her recording project a huge secret as if she were ashamed of it. If she's so close to her family like she claims so many times in the story, WHY would she keep such a huge secret? She claims that she tried to tell her husband over the phone multiple times but he would "blow her off," even going as far as to say she'll never ever tell him because she tries to tell him on a night when her husband's law team has won the case and all he wants to talk about is his victory. Well of COURSE he wants to talk about his victory! Why not listen to him for once and then tell him? Or better yet, why didn't you tell him earlier?
I could tell that this was a second book from the writing style (a LOT of telling rather than showing, which drove me nuts) and the awkward phrases (see simile examples above). For a professionally published, and no doubt professionally edited, novel, I expected a lot more. To cap it off, I am sure that the very last sentence of the book was supposed to be a joke ("With God, a loving family, and a forty-five piece orchestra, anything is possible!") but it fell completely flat.
Was this a fun read, though? Yes. Did it deliver on what it promised from the brief synopsis on the back ("An invitation to record a CD with a hunky, young pop star? It's the stuff dreams are made of… right? For Ursula Rhoades, a suburban wife and mom, one little secret is about to change her whole life")? Yes. However, I will be donating this book. Maybe someone else will get more out of this book than I did.
March 7, 2008
One Little Secret
By Allison Bottke
Allison Bottke was new me when I read this book. She has a personality that will blow you away, and that personality flows over into her writing.
"One Little Secret" is a book that took me by surprise. Not because the story was so shocking as much as it hit so close to home. We all have lost dreams. Dreams that we have allowed to die because of circumstances, people or just life in general. My dream was the same dream as the heroine in "One Little Secret". Ursula had the dream to sing professionally. I did too,however, I will not be so vain as to say that I have the talent Ursula has; but I still have the dream.
Ursula put her dream on hold for her family, and then God moved and opened the door for her dream to come true. that is so like Him! Just when we give up, He takes over and blesses us more than we could ever imagine. But her path was not without obstacles. First, she had a husband who didn't understand her dream. Second, she had to pursue her dream in secret, i.e. the titile, to protect her husband's career, which caused some deceit. However, she was true to her faith and used it to witness to her singing partner who happened to be a leading pop star that her daughter was crazy about!
There was a section in the book that hinted at infedility on her husband's part, and I was glad to keep reading and find that he too stayed true to his vows. I especially loved how he opened his eyes to see his wife for the woman she was and not just as the woman God chose for his helpmate. It was a magical touch when the husband, who had already pursued and achieved his dream, gave it up to help her pursue her own (and not unrealistic either). Men like that do exist, perhaps not in the world's eyes. I know, I married one.
You will love "One Little Secret", and you will want to collect all of Allison's books. I am definitely going to!
Tammy Varner Hornbeck, Christian Author/Speaker
By Allison Bottke
Allison Bottke was new me when I read this book. She has a personality that will blow you away, and that personality flows over into her writing.
"One Little Secret" is a book that took me by surprise. Not because the story was so shocking as much as it hit so close to home. We all have lost dreams. Dreams that we have allowed to die because of circumstances, people or just life in general. My dream was the same dream as the heroine in "One Little Secret". Ursula had the dream to sing professionally. I did too,however, I will not be so vain as to say that I have the talent Ursula has; but I still have the dream.
Ursula put her dream on hold for her family, and then God moved and opened the door for her dream to come true. that is so like Him! Just when we give up, He takes over and blesses us more than we could ever imagine. But her path was not without obstacles. First, she had a husband who didn't understand her dream. Second, she had to pursue her dream in secret, i.e. the titile, to protect her husband's career, which caused some deceit. However, she was true to her faith and used it to witness to her singing partner who happened to be a leading pop star that her daughter was crazy about!
There was a section in the book that hinted at infedility on her husband's part, and I was glad to keep reading and find that he too stayed true to his vows. I especially loved how he opened his eyes to see his wife for the woman she was and not just as the woman God chose for his helpmate. It was a magical touch when the husband, who had already pursued and achieved his dream, gave it up to help her pursue her own (and not unrealistic either). Men like that do exist, perhaps not in the world's eyes. I know, I married one.
You will love "One Little Secret", and you will want to collect all of Allison's books. I am definitely going to!
Tammy Varner Hornbeck, Christian Author/Speaker
April 28, 2008
I didn't realize it when I selected this book, but it's in the Christian Fiction category, which I didn't even realize existed. At any rate, while it involves a woman newly an empty-nester with an attorney husband out of state for an extended case, the fact that she would follow an old dream without letting the family she's supposedly so close to in on her new adventure just doesn't ring true and makes no sense to me...she's not doing anything wrong or inappropriate, yet it's treated as though she's having an affair or doing something illegal....I made myself finish reading it just to determine if there was some sort of explanation for her actions but it never happened. Disappointment.
December 30, 2012
A Christian book which is a bit idealistic about following your dreams. I liked it well enough. It was interesting. It was about Ursula Rhoades, Hollywood housewife who had once dreams of winning a Grammy. An unforseen incident leads her to sing with her son's band and she is then discovered by Nik Preval, a star of Justin Timberlake proportions with a famous father to boot. Together they go on to make an album of classic love songs unbeknownst to anyone including Ursula's entertainment lawyer husband or her family. How will her friends and family react when they find out that she is the famous Alexandra Arcana?
January 5, 2010
Listened to on my Mp3 player. Christian Inspirational Fiction at it's best. You leave the book feeling uplifted and happy. The book did kind of drag on in the middle but all the great spots made up for that. A book about marriage, secrets, hollywood, and dreams come true. Great ending!!
June 16, 2008
Very inspiring! Can't put the book down!
July 11, 2008
own
I didn't think I'd like this one, but I was pleasantly surprised!
The only "issue" I had was that a lot of brand names were mentioned, and I was "lost" because I'd not heard of any of them.
I didn't think I'd like this one, but I was pleasantly surprised!
The only "issue" I had was that a lot of brand names were mentioned, and I was "lost" because I'd not heard of any of them.
April 2, 2009
Listened to Audio CD
June 5, 2009
Listened to the audio of this book, Christian fluff. Lots of inconsistencies in the life of the main character. Just like me.
March 3, 2013
It is a get away there is no intricate story not so many deep characters as it is described it is upbeat and changes your mood. loved the song references. Over all not bad :)
January 30, 2014
Sweet. A bit preachy. I'm glad it eventually got away from the message that a woman's place is in the home and turned toward a message of mutual respect and love. Ursula was a great character.
March 23, 2008
It is a fas read that everyone can love.
June 6, 2011
audio book
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews