La famille secrète

by S.L. Harker, Isabelle Wurth (translator)

Le monde de Peter s'écroule lorsque son épouse bien-aimée, Stella, lui est arrachée lors d'un soudain accident de randonnée. Alors qu'il navigue dans le paysage semé d'embûches du deuil, un inconnu, Andrew, se présente sur le pas de sa porte en prétendant être le mari de Stella.

Ce qui n'est pas possible, car, Stella, Katy, leur fille adolescente et lui forment une famille parfaite. À moins que tout cela ne soit qu'un mensonge.

Les pires craintes de Peter se réalisent lorsqu'il découvre que Stella avait une vie secrète... une famille secrète. Y compris un fils, Theo.

Comment est-ce possible ?

Le deuil de Peter se transforme en période de confusion. Alors qu'il est confronté à l'étonnante réalité de la double vie de Stella, il est attiré par Amber, l'énigmatique meilleure amie de cette dernière, qui lui apporte du réconfort pendant cette période tumultueuse.

Mais au fur et à mesure que la vérité déconcertante se dévoile, Peter se retrouve à tout remettre en question. La mort de Stella était-elle vraiment un accident ? Si ce n'est pas le cas, qui l'a tuée et pourquoi ?

Après tout, Stella était une menteuse, et les menteurs ont tendance à se faire des ennemis...

Genres: Thriller, Psychological Thriller

232 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2023

About the author

Even as a young child SL Harker would conjure up stories to share with her family. That love of books and storytelling never went away, but her skills have improved since then.

As a lover of twisty fiction, her books are fast-paced domestic thrillers with a little spice added in.

Reviews

[crinaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

the plot twist thooooo i love it ❤️

[Marie-Eve Anctil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un peu décevant comme livre. L’histoire est banale et sans surprise …

[Christina Faris (books_by_the_bottle) · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Why? Because you’re a bad person, and bad people don’t deserve good things”.

When Peter opens the door to two police officers, his whole world crashes down as they tell him his wife, Stella, is dead. Trying to navigate his grief while being strong for his teenage daughter Katy is no small feat. But making matters even worse is when a man named Andrew also shows up claiming to be Stella’s husband. He has a teenage son that’s only a few years younger than Katy. Peter is stunned; how could his wife have been hiding a whole other family - a whole other life - from him? And did somebody find out the truth and kill her for it?

When I started reading this book, I could not put it down! It opens with a letter written to “mom”; similar letters are interspersed throughout the story and it was fun to try to imagine who was writing them. While I had an inkling of who it could be, the way it was revealed in the end totally threw me for a loop! Told primarily from Peter’s point of view, we do see a few chapters from Katy, which added an more depth to the grief of Stella, who was pretty unlikeable to me (even though she was dead before the story started). The only thing I felt that wasn’t resolved was why - why did Stella have two families? Why did she lie to her husbands and children ? I wish there had been some flashbacks or something from her point of view, but otherwise I really enjoyed this story!

“The Secret Family” is out now! This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly.

[Kay Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast paced page turner. I thought I knew how this would turn out but I was quite surprised by the many twists. I loved the second family plot played by a woman instead of a man, and then the aftermath it left behind. Great suspenseful thriller.

[La Bande de Livres · Rating 1 out of 5]

Je n’ai malheureusement pas terminé ce livre. Il n’a pas réussi à m’embarquer sur les premières centaines de pages. J’ai trouvé l’écriture pas assez captivante et l’histoire assez plate. Les réactions des proches ne sont pas non plus très réalistes selon moi. Ils viennent d’apprendre la disparition d’un proche qui menait une double vie (pas un spoil, on le sait dès le résumé) et ils sont assez… calme face à ça ? Pas convaincue.

[Jenna Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn’t put this book down however the twist wasn’t a huge surprise but definitely kept me in suspense!

[ilana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sympathique mais prévisible

[Vicky Therrien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 • Short family thriller. Very fast paced with short chapters, none were above 8 minutes long to read.

I enjoyed my read, though the story was very predictable for me.

[Alison G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG, SL Harker did it again. This is only the second book by them that I've read but I'm definitely reading more. This one took a twist at the end that I don't think anyone was expecting!!!

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent thriller ! J’ai adoré

[Jade Charlebois · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️ Habituellement, je suis naïve quand je lis et ne vois pas la twist arrivée, mais avec ce livre, je l’ai su rapidement. Tout de même, l’histoire était bonne!

[CammieOH · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one was not so great. Our main character, Peter, lost his wife to a fall then a guy and a kid show up at his door and say they are his wife’s family too. Okay, sounds interesting. But, my lord! That guy Peter was an idiot. He never looks into his wife’s other life. We never get any details about her at all. How did she pull it off? That’s important to the story, isn’t it?

We get cryptic letters to “Mom” but all we learn is that she is “bad.” Bad how? It sounds like she’s some kind of psychopath but do we learn about it? No.

So anywhoo, things get out of hand when the other “husband “ winds up dead and Peter is taken in for questioning. It takes like 8 hours for him to even ask how this guy died. And don’t even get me started on his parenting skills. He’s too timid to stop his daughter from sneaking out every night, which leads to creepy stuff.

Overall, this had potential but it came across as a sketch of a novel. No depth or thought as to what the reader needs to know to get invested.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book had so many twists, and it kept me reading. I'm not going to spoil it but it is worth the read! Now I need to find more of this author's books!

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This starts out with Peter and his daughter Katy waiting for Stella, their wife and mom, to join them for dinner. Stella doesn’t show. Peter and Katy aren’t that concerned. Seems Stella often doesn’t show up for things, saying she had to work late. This is told mostly from Peter’s perspective, with a few chapters from Katy, and some from someone writing a letter to mom. I went back and forth thinking who was writing the letters to mom. Police show up at Peter’s door and tell him Stella has had an accident and has passed away. She was hiking on a trail and fell to her death. First of all, accidents do happen, but she was an experienced hiker, so it seemed suspicious. Second, with all she had going on I was surprised she had time for hiking. Peter finds out pretty quickly that Stella had a 2nd family. Peter meets them and then Katy and Theo, the son, start hanging out. Stella’s best friend Amber spends a lot of time with Peter and Katy. At first it seemed nice, she was just trying to help out her friend’s family, but then it started to seem odd.

I started to suspect who was responsible for what was going on but didn’t suspect who they really were.

[Inexia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ce fut une lcture rapide mais efficace. Le roman est assez court et se lit rapidement en bon page turner je l'ai d'ailleurs lu en une traite.

L'intrigue en elle même est intéressante, j'ai apprécié le point de vue de Peter et j'ai facilement pu me retrouver dans ce personnage perdu au décès de sa femme. Les autres personnages ne sont pas forcément les plus creusés qu'il soit mais pour une lecture ayant pour principal objectif de me distraire entre deux partiels cela m'a suffit.
Quant à l'intrigue en elle même je l'ai trouvée sympathique bien que j'ai assez vite déterminé le pourquoi du comment, j'ai tout de même apprécié de voir l'intrigue se dérouler.
J'ai bien aimé la fin qui en dit juste assez pour laisser notre imagination travailler et je regarderais peut etre les autres travaux de l'auteur si je cherche un livre rapide à lire pour me détresser

[SKP · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might have enjoyed this book a bit more if some inconsiderate person hadn’t left a brief review on Amazon which, without warning, managed to give away a major spoiler. I read a lot of thrillers and this had potential with such an unusual premise. However, I didn’t really like the characters very much and the plot ended up being a little bit too convoluted for my liking. I was glad it was a shorter book. I may give another of the author’s books a try though as there were a few that did sound interesting and they aren’t really long either, so I wouldn’t waste much time if they didn’t end up being that good.

[Hannah ZR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow the book pulled me in and I wasn't able to put it down! It seemed like a straightforward story but it kept twisting around into a weird plot which led to an ending that sideswiped me. Usually I'm good at figuring out what is going on, who's the culprit or where the twist is coming from like with "The Silent Patient" for example. But I didn't see this one coming and actually liked there wasn't too much background regarding Stella and only bits of info that pieced together easily at the end if you paid attention. I'm looking forward to getting another book by this author. 😍

[Olivia Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick strange read

This was pretty good. I wouldn’t say it was great. There was a couple of typos, and a time where the characters were referred to as other characters names, but the storyline was good. I kind of predicted the plot twist, but I still enjoyed the storyline. I like this author a lot

[Jean Stillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good read! I think the author could have written a couple of elements differently to make the plot stronger. My biggest thought was: "Are these cops for real?" I mean, where is the investigation? What about evidence?

Those points bothered me, and so did the lackadaisical attitude of the father. Even with all that, I did enjoy this book!

[Amelia · Rating 2 out of 5]

[2.25⭐️]

I got this book for free in a box set and i kind of understand why…

Although the plot was quite interesting, it was very rushed and everyone’s emotions felt very superficial and surface level. Because of that, i didn’t care for the characters, didn’t feel for them at all. I think the only reason i finished this book is because it’s only 200 pages.

[A.B. Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decently fast read. The storyline has great potential. Up until the major twist, this book was a 2 star for me. The twist made the book what it is.
There are some typos and jumps in the storyline, but one of the biggest pet peeves is weird words. I feel like the author uses a thesaurus and chooses the most outrageous word possible.

[Dina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Secret Family by S.L. Harker completely wowed me! The story kept me hooked from the start, and I had no idea how it would end. It’s full of mystery, twists, and surprises. Just when I thought I had it figured out, something new happened. The characters felt real, and the emotions were strong. A great, gripping read!

[Vanessa Fermin · Rating 4 out of 5]

the twist

Wow it was good i give it a 4/5 because it was kinda predictable i kinda predicted wat was happening before it happened but over all it was really good enjoyed the book very much couldn’t put it down.

[Barbara Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprise Surprise

Now this is the kind of mystery I like to read. Had to keep reading, couldn’t put it down. Great storyline and very interesting. Never expected the end, loved the surprise.

[Denise Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter’s world shatters when his wife, Stella, dies in a hiking accident. But then Andrew, appears on his doorstep claiming to be Stella’s husband. His worst fears come true as he realizes Stella had a secret life and a son. This was a fast paced thriller with an outstanding plot!

[lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave this book 5 stars but it should have gotten more! I started this book this am and finished this evening. It usually takes me a few days to read a book but I just couldn't put it down. Loved it!

[Lauren Farren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again, a very quick and entertaining read. Some of the twists were predictable, and while I was still shocked by it I did guess the ending. Nonetheless it was still a fun book to read and I look forward to reading more of Harker’s books.

3.75/5 stars

[Shrut · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sad plot. Some chapters with Stella’s perspective of WHY she did it would be really useful.

[Sara Waldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG

OMG!!!! this book had me at the edge of my seat. I really love this authors books. This is the second one I've read.

[Chrissa 🍉 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The twist was so easy to guess. I had a fun time reading it but I wouldn’t say it was that much of a surprise honestly