The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept

by Robin Cain

All Sophie’s life, her abandonment as a newborn left her feeling unwanted. Now sixteen years old, she’s convinced she’ll fit right in with all the other ‘toss-aways’ when she takes a job at a nursing home. But lessons in dying aren’t what she had in mind. The work tough, the residents crazy, Sophie is ready to quit.
An introduction to Mable Rabbit, the 75-year-old woman who refuses to speak, along with a mysterious warning from a co-worker to ‘just let the poor woman be’, provides her motivation to stay.
Determined to break Miss Rabbit’s silence, Sophie gets more than she bargained for when an unexpected gift propels her on a journey through Miss Rabbit’s ugly past and brings her face-to-face with truths she never expected to find.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 23, 2013

About the author

Robin began her writing ‘career’ as a child. Penning plays for neighborhood friends’ performances, she was paid in popsicles. Though Robin’s love of plays and popsicles continued to adulthood, she concentrated on writing human-interest articles and book reviews for an online publication until a newspaper headline about a woman’s body -- found in a local lake and long unidentified -- supplied the idea for her first novel. Spurred by the question, ‘What kind of man doesn’t know his wife is missing?’, Robin wrote WHEN DREAMS BLEED.

A wife, business partner, mother, stepmother, and Ya-Ya (because she can't quite wrap her eternally youthful brain around the G-word), Robin also plays the role of alpha female to her family of horses, dogs, and a noisy donkey named Sophia. You've likely heard her bray (the donkey, not the author).

Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, Robin currently resides in Scottsdale, AZ with her husband – and her herd. If she’s not working on her latest story, you can find her cooking, reading, watching home improvement television shows, or indulging in her unhealthy addiction to Facebook.

THE SECRET MISS RABBIT KEPT is her second novel and is now a Quarter0Finalist in the 2014 ABNA contest.

For more information, visit her website www.robincain.com

Reviews

[Guilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant. Absolutely. Yes, I cried. Again. I read this as a work-in-progress (the author is part of my writers' group), so you'd think reading it as a finished product would feel more like revisiting familiar landscapes. True, I love Sterlingwood and its residents, I love the protagonist and her two main supporting characters--Emma Jean, especially, is one literary persona I don't think I'll ever get enough of. I love the impossible redemption of this story, and I love how the author produces rabbits out of golf caps--the problem seems insurmountable, and yet at the end, without lapsing into melodrama or sappiness, here we are: redemption.

Speaking of melodrama, one of the main reasons I'm a fan of Robin's is because she seems to hate melodrama as much as I do. She deals with tough subjects, situations that seem impossible to deal with without soap-opera-ish bouts of dramatic close-ups--if only because the cut-and-dry theatrics serve as a prepared response, a way to distance our vulnerable selves from the horror of tragedy--but Robin does it without ever losing sight of the realness, the tangible humanity, of her characters. They leap off the page and move into your house and your head, fight you for the covers at night, comment on your daily routine, give unsolicited advice that you might resent but, like it or not, you'll end up heeding.

Don't read this book in public. The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept will make you laugh--no, not just smile or chuckle quietly, but out-loud cackle. And, if you're any sort of sentient organism, it will make you cry. And no, not just at the end. Most of all, though, this is a book that will stay with you for as long as you live. It will, quite literally, change your life.

[Pat Bretheim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really good! People who are familiar with what goes on in nursing homes will get a kick out of it. Sixteen year old Sophie decides to take a summer job in a nursing home. The year is 1975. What she sees there is really eye-opening for a young person. Most young people quit, but Sophie sticks it out and really grows up quickly. In the process, she helps people in the home and finds her "niche" there.
At first the home seems like a strange place to be, but by the end of the book the characters are all real people with lives and stories to learn. The human aspect comes out - people are not "numbers" who fill beds, like one administrator seems to think, but they have names, wants and needs.
Sophie accepts them right where they are at, and even throws a birthday party for one resident who is suffering dementia and losing "who" she is quickly, forgetting her past one memory at a time. So Sophie does something for her now, while she is still in the present.
If you want to know what Miss Rabbit's secret is, you will have to read the book.

[Carol Kean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book passes the page-one test, chapter-one test, and "is it worth reading" overall: YES, yes, a thousand times, yes!

Robin Cain nails *voice* -- and character. Not a one is predictable or flat. The setting, the people all seem 100% authentic and real. At times the 16-year-old protagonist sounds too wise for her years, but this is the 1970s. Sophie has grown up with a mom quoting "Old Man Wisdom" every day. She's worked with a woman who spouts advice that a girl would do well to internalize. As a mother of three, it warms my heart to see a teenager parroting her mother's words to some elderly grouch. Sophie is wise beyond her years. I'm not sure today's teen readers would be able to identify with her, but this is women's fiction, gritty and hard-hitting, not for the dreamy young fans of Twilight.

The nursing home scenes are NOT for the faint of heart. The most gruesome details are the most likely to be true, and I've heard worse than what this book delivers. Most of the fictional staff do their very best to treat their elderly charges with dignity and compassion. When a young father comes in as a vegetable, when a 50-year-old wife is admitted, it's harder than ever for a teenager working at an "old folks' home" to cope. Life is filled with horror and injustice. The nursing home scenes will ring hauntingly true for anyone who's seen a loved one die there. Putting a 16-year-old heroine there is a riveting way for an author to torture her protagonist.

Other horrors hit close to home when the heroine's nemesis, snooty Penny, suffers the trauma of parents divorcing. Sophie, no longer able to silently suffer through Penny's whining, finally tells her off--sounding like her wise co-worker, Emma Jean, the most endearing fictional Black woman I've seen since The Help.

The story of Miss Rabbit unfolds gradually, and its connection to Sophie's own story (abandoned at birth and left at a church) is handled with subtlety and compassion. Robin Cain never does reveal the story of Sophie's birth mother (a sequel would be nice, hint, hint), but the point is how Sophie's judgment changes. This is a coming of age story, from the opening page, when a girl's sixteenth birthday is spent at Day One of the hardest job in town, to the final page, when the heroine has grown and matured and made her peace with some heavy issues. Plot spoilers prevent me from saying more. Suffice it to say, the vivid and memorable characters in the nursing home are not too old to "come of age" themselves and grow up, or compromise, or learn to adapt.

The quiet star of the novel is dear, silent Mable Rabbit. Her story is all too familiar for so many women who suffer in silence as victims rather than risk the consequences of "outing" their abuser. The theme could occupy many hours of discussion in classrooms, book clubs and group therapy sessions.

One complaint: stylistically, the author uses a certain syntax too often for this reader. E.g., "Breakfast finished, I left them to finish their endless debate." Okay, but when three sentence per page follow that style, it wears on me. The word order can be confusing: "Pete no longer in his seat, an orderly had joined Roy," or "Squinting at the sunlight coming in through the curtains, I stumbled into the hallway and picked up the receiver." However, these are minor stylistic concerns, not enough to make me knock a star off the novel.

This is a story that deserves the attention that Kathryn Stockett's "The Help," Ann Hite's "Ghost on Black Mountain," Sue Monk Kidd's "The Secret Life of Bees" and other novels have earned. Not that the stories are the same, but the characters are that memorable and real. Robin Cain's "The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept" should be taught in schools, shared in book clubs and treasured by readers for years to come.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life for a teenage girl is always, well, awkward. Out of school, nothing going on and wanting to solve the heavy problem of why her birth mother dumped her as a baby Sophie had little patience with the nosey new girl down the street. So to avoid explanations she couldn’t give answers too she announced her mother had been murdered. After all that was better than thinking she was a throw away.
Didn’t really help much though so as part of her exploration of why someone could just cast off another human being Sophie took a job at a local nursing home, a place where old people where dropped off and forgotten. Cain then takes us on an exploration through a world that is seen through the eyes of the care-givers that labor to help those less fortunate than most.
Set in the South, in the race-torn years of the 1970’s, we are treated to story where the color of your skin has no bearing on the status of your life, where thrown away people and adopted girls have little consequence as to what goes on in the daily lives of those who only live for today, not by their choice but by the hand of their creator. As the small town folks lives meld, Sophie learns that life is fragile but relationships are stronger, that we all have a place even if it is not what you hoped or imagined.
The community deals with death and divorce, adoption and adaption. In a story that is reminiscent of the similar-styled time and setting, Fried Green Tomatoes, we see a teenager become a young lady with depth and understanding, and we meet Miss Rabbit. The afore-mentioned secret keeper has a story to tell but has chosen to not speak for the last four years. Can Sophie and her secrets draw out what has been hidden for years and how will revelations from the past affect Sophie’s future journey.
The mystique of untold secrets and unsolvable pasts, have drawn us to stories for ever and this is no different. Cain has excelled in the presentation of her latest novel and I highly recommend taking the time to discover Miss Rabbit’s secrets.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

(full disclosure: the author is my aunt)
A beautiful read. I laughed, I cried, I ignored everyone around me so I could read this book.
This is the story of Sophie, a 16-year old white girl in 1970s Georgia. Her birth mother left her at a fire station when she was an infant, and she was adopted. At the outset of the story, she is struggling with insecurity about her origins. She takes on a summer job at the nursing home, where she befriends Emma Jean, a middle aged black woman. She quickly begins a quest to find out why one of the residents, Miss Rabbit, won't talk.
I have to say, I was not immediately drawn to the protaganist, Sophie. She just didn't seem like any 16-year old I had ever known. For instance, she stuck her tongue out at someone once or twice, and I thought, "who does that?" Maybe teenagers in the 70s did this. Her immediate need to make Miss Rabbit talk struck me as a bit odd too.
I loved all of the other characters, particularly Emma Jean, the head nurse Smith, and Sophie's dad. They were beautifully and truthfully written as complex people.
There was a turning point in this book after which I could not put it down. But can't tell you that point without spoiling it...
In the end, this is a beautiful story that contains important lessons about life and love. A very good read.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book through the Goodreads giveaway program. I was enticed by the title of "The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept" and driven to uncover her secret.  The story focused on Sophia, a young girl who began working at a nursing home, and on Miss Rabbit's decision not to speak.  Her silence prompted Sophie to uncover the reason for that decision and brought Sophie closer to the other employees.  Through Miss Rabbit's journal, her secret slowly emerged through the book.  Issues of love and abandonment were intertwined through every subplot in the book, which made Sophia face her own issue regarding being adopted.  The themes of the book and the obvious way they were presented reminded me a little too much of an after school special.  I liked Sophia, but wasn't overwhelmed with any of the characters.  Sophia's parents were kinda dorky, and her mom's constant uplifting phrases were weird.  The writing was good, and the author did create a gang of personalities at the nursing home that challenged Sophia's patience and brought out her kindness.  This book was a solid three stars for me because it was good, but not great.  The story was interesting enough that I read the entire book, but I was left feeling underwhelmed when I reached the end.

[Cilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept by Robin Cain is a coming of age story of sixteen year old Sophie. Sophie is struggling to understand and come to terms with the fact that her birth mother chose to not raise her. This novel centers around Sophie getting her first job at a nursing home. While working at the nursing home, the residents teach Sophie some valuable life lessons and open her eyes to the realities of her life.

Cain has written a heart-warming novel that engulfs the reader. Each character is vividly described and their storyline is well written. Cain strategically introduces the residents of the nursing home and carefully weaves their role into Sophie’s life.

The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept appeals to a diverse audience. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys observing the evolution of an individual’s life journey. While the main character is a sixteen year old, this book deals with mature topics that solicit the emotions of the reader. The lessons of life and death are driving forces that lead Sophie acceptance.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is not as much about the secret an elderly women keeps, that is eventually revealed, as it is about the profound effect that it has not only on her relationship with her estranged brother, but also on the attitude of a sixteen-year-old working at the nursing home where Miss Rabbit resides. The teen can't shake the feelings of sadness and abandonment that overwhelm her, knowing that her birth mother left her on the steps of a church when she was an infant. While the teen's parents do everything they can to make their adopted daughter feel loved and wanted, their efforts don't compare to the life lessons she learns from Miss Rabbit and the others at the nursing home. Ms. Cain is adept at storytelling. Her writing will hold your interest from the very first sentence, and her thorough research adds depth and reality to this a wonderful coming of age story. I highly recommend it.

[Cindy Massaro]

This book was so heartfelt and touching. It has a life lesson for anyone who reads it. It could not put the book down. Everyday a character from the book comes into my head and I think of them. This book should be made into a movie. It was brilliantly written book and far better than The Help or any other boom I have read. I laughed and I cried and the book kept me interested and curious the whole time. I could picture who would play each character if made into a movie. Everyone needs a Emma Jean in their lives. Well done author Robin Cain!!

[Peggy Niles · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept by Robin Cain
I am sorry this book was on the bottom of my "To Read" pile because when I reached it, I really enjoyed the book. By the title alone, I was prepared for a mystery. I guess it was, but it was so much more. It was about a teen aged adopted girl who grew up one summer with the help of the wonderful characters of Emma Jean and Miss Mable Rabbit at a retirement home.

[Tanna Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in the first reads giveaway. I thought it was a really well written book and I really enjoyed the story. It was a book that will definitely make you feel a lot of different emotions.

[Elaine Littau · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept (Kindle Edition)

I really enjoyed reading "The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept" by Robin Cain. The characters were realistic and sweet. I could picture them easily. The story moved at a good clip and held my interest.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with the characters in this book. The people at the nursing home remind me so much of the residents I would see at the home my mother in law lived in. I could not wait to get back to this book when I had to put it down. It was a very easy and enjoyable read.

[Edith Parzefall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gripped me from the start and held me under its spell until I'd read the last word. Really charming, touching and funny. Even tragic events turn into uplifting experiences. Although I'd never have wanted to trade places with Sophie, I enjoyed every moment I was allowed to accompany her.

[Jennifer-Eve Workman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this through Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.