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Fools Point #4
Best-Kept Secrets
He was a man of secrets, and enigmatic newcomer Jake Collins had the whole town talking. Yet one woman knew who he really was. He'd been Amy Thomas's first and only love, and he'd vanished from her life without a trace. But the ex-Navy officer had left her with one precious secret of her own...their daughter.
Now, when the time had finally arrived to reveal the truth, Amy found her life suddenly jeopardized by skeletons of the past. And her only source of protection was Jake's strong embrace. He was a man who'd battled danger daily, who would win at any cost. But dare Amy trust in Jake's honor once moreallowing herself to succumb to him body and soul? For this time, she could be the one to pay the ultimate price.
- GenresRomantic Suspense
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2001
About the author
Dani Sinclair
68 books24 followersDani Sinclair was a 2008 RITA® finalist in the RITA®: Contemporary Series Romance: Suspense/Adventure category for her novel Midnight Prince. She was RITA finalist for her novel Better Watch Out, won a Romantic Times Magazine Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Harlequin Intrigue of 2000 for The Specialist, and was nominated for a Career Achievement award for Series Romantic Suspense.
Ms. Sinclair and her husband reside outside Washington, D.C., where they share their home with four indoor cats, a small feral colony and the varied wildlife that passes through, stopping to feed at their bird feeders on a daily basis. They are active volunteers with a local animal rescue group and urge everyone to be responsible pet owners.
Ms. Sinclair and her husband reside outside Washington, D.C., where they share their home with four indoor cats, a small feral colony and the varied wildlife that passes through, stopping to feed at their bird feeders on a daily basis. They are active volunteers with a local animal rescue group and urge everyone to be responsible pet owners.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 15, 2015
This book definitely kept me hopping. The characters were great (including the side ones), there was suspense, plenty of mystery especially in trying to figure whodunit, some steaminess, plenty of emotions, secrets, sneaking and surviving, and a twist at the end. I really enjoyed reading this and was flying through pages. There were some slower moments but they seemed more like to give you a little break before you started back up again. This was a great movie in my head and kept me a little behind, could figure it til the end. Action and some great 'family' moments. A good book for reading whenever, carefully though cuz you might end up lost in the book and loose track of time. I'm definitely wanting to read more in this series and get to know some of the other characters in this crazy town. Enjoy!
April 17, 2018
Dani Sinclair returns to Fools Point or Mystery Junction or whatever it's called now in "Best-Kept Secrets," this month's second secret child plot. Amy Thomas is shocked twice in one day when her child's secret father appears and a dead body is unearthed at a construction site. One threatens her heart. The secret of the other threatens her life. Can Jake save Amy, win her heart and create a family with her?
"Best-Kept Secrets" is really two books: a fairly good mystery plot and a boring secret child story that uses every cliché in the book. If you can find anything in the circumstances of Amy and Jake's separation that you haven't read in dozens of other books, you haven't read enough of these books (Lucky You!). I spent much of "Best-Kept Secrets" counting all the many cliches. The mystery element is far stronger. There are some juicy secrets to be uncovered and plenty of danger. Late in the book, the story picks up some steam with good action and some twists. Unfortunately, there's more of the secret child nonsense than the mystery. After being pulled away from the mystery too many times, I started to lose interest in it too. The suspects aren't developed enough for us to guess who it could be or why. By the end I was having a hard time understanding why I should care who did it.
I don't think you can dismiss secret child books simply because they involve a secret baby. Recent titles like "The Bodyguard's Baby" and "The Agent's Secret Child" have used this hook effectively to create compelling stories. Unfortunately books like "Best-Kept Secrets" are why many readers are growing unhappy with its overuse. Secret babies by themselves aren't interesting; it's what the author does with it, the emotions she has her characters go through. There is nothing interesting about what Sinclair does with it here. The characters repeat the same arguments we've read a million times before. Frankly I didn't care about them because I've read about these characters before. There was nothing special about Amy or Jake. Without a strong plot, strong characters are critical. This book didn't have them. There is only one interesting character in this book: a teenage boy. I kept thinking about Rafe and Kendra from Sinclair's last book, "The Specialist." They had complicated pasts and much depth. Amy and Jake do not.
Well-written but uninspired, the book is as unremarkable as its title. Two years after the Intrigue editors renamed Adrianne Lee's "The Real Mac Coy" "The Best-Kept Secret," we get "Best-Kept Secrets." They make it sound like a rehash, and in many ways it is. That isn't to say it's awful. Out of the four books in this series, "Best-Kept Secrets" is probably tied with "My Baby My Love" in terms of quality. It's better than "The Silent Witness," not as good as "For His Daughter." It's not as confusing or muddled as TSW but it's also not as exciting or emotional as FHD. It's boring. More of the mystery, none of the secret child muddle would have improved it. Overall, I would recommend "For His Daughter" or Sinclair's recent Texas Confidential book over this one.
"Best-Kept Secrets" is really two books: a fairly good mystery plot and a boring secret child story that uses every cliché in the book. If you can find anything in the circumstances of Amy and Jake's separation that you haven't read in dozens of other books, you haven't read enough of these books (Lucky You!). I spent much of "Best-Kept Secrets" counting all the many cliches. The mystery element is far stronger. There are some juicy secrets to be uncovered and plenty of danger. Late in the book, the story picks up some steam with good action and some twists. Unfortunately, there's more of the secret child nonsense than the mystery. After being pulled away from the mystery too many times, I started to lose interest in it too. The suspects aren't developed enough for us to guess who it could be or why. By the end I was having a hard time understanding why I should care who did it.
I don't think you can dismiss secret child books simply because they involve a secret baby. Recent titles like "The Bodyguard's Baby" and "The Agent's Secret Child" have used this hook effectively to create compelling stories. Unfortunately books like "Best-Kept Secrets" are why many readers are growing unhappy with its overuse. Secret babies by themselves aren't interesting; it's what the author does with it, the emotions she has her characters go through. There is nothing interesting about what Sinclair does with it here. The characters repeat the same arguments we've read a million times before. Frankly I didn't care about them because I've read about these characters before. There was nothing special about Amy or Jake. Without a strong plot, strong characters are critical. This book didn't have them. There is only one interesting character in this book: a teenage boy. I kept thinking about Rafe and Kendra from Sinclair's last book, "The Specialist." They had complicated pasts and much depth. Amy and Jake do not.
Well-written but uninspired, the book is as unremarkable as its title. Two years after the Intrigue editors renamed Adrianne Lee's "The Real Mac Coy" "The Best-Kept Secret," we get "Best-Kept Secrets." They make it sound like a rehash, and in many ways it is. That isn't to say it's awful. Out of the four books in this series, "Best-Kept Secrets" is probably tied with "My Baby My Love" in terms of quality. It's better than "The Silent Witness," not as good as "For His Daughter." It's not as confusing or muddled as TSW but it's also not as exciting or emotional as FHD. It's boring. More of the mystery, none of the secret child muddle would have improved it. Overall, I would recommend "For His Daughter" or Sinclair's recent Texas Confidential book over this one.
March 7, 2025
I really loved this book. I would recommend any time.
June 24, 2015
Quite a nice story here, although it did waffle at times. Amy and her daughter Kelsey have just moved back to Amy's hometown, only to find that Jake, the man who fathered Amy's daughter nine years ago, has moved to town and opened a restaurant. Amy's shocked, because Jake's not from the area, and the last she saw of him was when he left her to return to his military career. He never responded to the letters she sent about her pregnancy and the birth of their daughter.
But Jake's living in town, and before she can sit down and have it out with him, strange things start happening. Bodies are found in an old cellar underneath the restaurant's parking lot, and Amy's mother seems to know something about them. Amy's nearly hit by a car, and someone tries to break into her house. Then Kelsey goes missing.
Jake never got the letters, and had no idea that he had a daughter. He's been running from commitment for years, and it wasn't until he was landed with custody of a teenage nephew that he decided to settle down in one place. But he's never stopped loving Amy, and the news that they have a child together, and that child is now missing, hits him hard.
Jake and Amy, along with the rest of the town, search for Kelsey. But before they can find her, the search party gets poisoned, with Amy's parents being affected the worst. Then Jake's nephew, Matt, also goes missing. It's becoming clear that someone is trying to keep a secret, and they don't care who they hurt...
This wasn't bad. I'm wavering between 3 and 4 stars. I've fallen on the 3-star side for a couple reasons. Firstly, the disappearance of Kelsey and Matt, and the length of time they were gone, seemed to take over the book a bit too much. I am not fond of on-the-run books - just a personal choice - and I found that the focus being on Kelsey and Matt both made me feel like I was in an uncomfortable race against time, and slowed the pace of the book. It's hard to explain what I mean by that. I guess it felt that, because Amy and Jake were waiting at home for a phone call, and then out looking for the kids, they weren't actually doing much to solve the mystery.
Which brings me to my next point. I felt like things just kind of happened in this book. There was a lot of waiting around, and running around, and our hero and heroine didn't actually do much investigating. In a suspense book of such a short length, nothing should be superfluous. But here, much of the action (or inaction) didn't really serve to push the plot forward. It made the ending feel too Deus ex Machina-ish, like everything that happened would have happened anyway.
I still enjoyed the book, though. I liked all the characters - Amy, Jake, Kelsey, and particularly Matt. The plot was intriguing enough to keep me entertained for the day. The reasons behind the kidnapping and killing were convincing.
All in all, I was a little put-off by the similarity to Dani Sinclair's later Heartskeep trilogy - many of the elements of this book, including Amy's name, were repeated in that (excellent) trilogy, to the point that when I started reading this I wondered if I was reading some sort of Heartskeep prequel. That confused me quite a bit. But I did enjoy this well enough on its own merit. 3 stars.
But Jake's living in town, and before she can sit down and have it out with him, strange things start happening. Bodies are found in an old cellar underneath the restaurant's parking lot, and Amy's mother seems to know something about them. Amy's nearly hit by a car, and someone tries to break into her house. Then Kelsey goes missing.
Jake never got the letters, and had no idea that he had a daughter. He's been running from commitment for years, and it wasn't until he was landed with custody of a teenage nephew that he decided to settle down in one place. But he's never stopped loving Amy, and the news that they have a child together, and that child is now missing, hits him hard.
Jake and Amy, along with the rest of the town, search for Kelsey. But before they can find her, the search party gets poisoned, with Amy's parents being affected the worst. Then Jake's nephew, Matt, also goes missing. It's becoming clear that someone is trying to keep a secret, and they don't care who they hurt...
This wasn't bad. I'm wavering between 3 and 4 stars. I've fallen on the 3-star side for a couple reasons. Firstly, the disappearance of Kelsey and Matt, and the length of time they were gone, seemed to take over the book a bit too much. I am not fond of on-the-run books - just a personal choice - and I found that the focus being on Kelsey and Matt both made me feel like I was in an uncomfortable race against time, and slowed the pace of the book. It's hard to explain what I mean by that. I guess it felt that, because Amy and Jake were waiting at home for a phone call, and then out looking for the kids, they weren't actually doing much to solve the mystery.
Which brings me to my next point. I felt like things just kind of happened in this book. There was a lot of waiting around, and running around, and our hero and heroine didn't actually do much investigating. In a suspense book of such a short length, nothing should be superfluous. But here, much of the action (or inaction) didn't really serve to push the plot forward. It made the ending feel too Deus ex Machina-ish, like everything that happened would have happened anyway.
I still enjoyed the book, though. I liked all the characters - Amy, Jake, Kelsey, and particularly Matt. The plot was intriguing enough to keep me entertained for the day. The reasons behind the kidnapping and killing were convincing.
All in all, I was a little put-off by the similarity to Dani Sinclair's later Heartskeep trilogy - many of the elements of this book, including Amy's name, were repeated in that (excellent) trilogy, to the point that when I started reading this I wondered if I was reading some sort of Heartskeep prequel. That confused me quite a bit. But I did enjoy this well enough on its own merit. 3 stars.
September 1, 2013
i really enjoyed the book.theres mystery and suspense.from finding bodies in a sink hole to an attempt to run over Amy,to kidnapping and gunfire.
and trying to find out who the bodies are and how they died and how it happened and why.with some romance thrown in.
my kind of book.
and trying to find out who the bodies are and how they died and how it happened and why.with some romance thrown in.
my kind of book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews