In Bokchito, Oklahoma, you know everyone and trust no one…
Emily Matthews swore she’d never expose her son Jack to her dysfunctional family that sent her running from Bokchito at only seventeen. The sins of her past still haunt her, but when her brother lands in jail, she has no choice but to go back and face her old demons.
Miller Anderson has never forgotten about the girl who ran out of his life thirteen years ago…
And with the secret he’s keeping from Emily, he knows he most likely never will. But when his daughter Abby plays matchmaker to set him up with his lost love, he can’t resist the resurgence of emotion that has them reliving their high school glory days.
Evil has a way of waiting for what it wants…
Just when Emily and Miller discover their old flame hasn’t died, they learn another fire has been smoldering in Bokchito. Her family’s long line of sins, kindled with a generation-old grudge, ignites when Emily discovers the truth about Miller’s daughter and is forced to choose between protecting Miller’s secret and the one thing she can’t afford to lose…her son Jack.
Caught up in a game of lies and dirt road scandal, Emily must risk everything to save her son and preserve Miller’s good name, or let her family’s darkest secret ruin them both.
Secret, after secret, after secret is revealed as you read on. Many are a jaw dropping ones that you need to put down the book in order to digest! Miller and Emily's lives has been nothing but a tragedy for fourteen years, nothing could have prepared them for all the lies they will begin to discover. Nothing would have prepared them for the heartache they will face in order to live a normal life. This book isn't only about the two main characters in the story, it's also about the two children that have to suffer in order to have a happy ending.
Everyone has their skeletons. Some are little sins, some so much larger. In a small town, even the smallest of sins is fodder for gossip. Everyone is certain they know everything there is to know about their neighbor and yet we all have our secrets. Emily's family is chock full of secrets and skeletons, the closet bursting at the seams. Sometimes an obsession with secrets truly drives a person over the edge. Such is the case with Emily's grandmother and mother. Their obsession with cleansing Emily of imagined sins by whatever damaging and abusive means necessary led to her running away at seventeen on the night her best friend committed suicide. She left behind the boy she loved and a younger brother. They were the only ones she cared about. But Emily knew it wasn't safe to stay and she couldn't drag Miller down with her into the insanity that was her family. He had goals in his life and staying with Emily would ruin them all. So she let him go and ran. With no high school diploma, life wasn't easy but she managed to get her GED and hold down a receptionist job until she married and became a mom. Jack is her joy and perhaps her bane on some days. When her husband couldn't deal with an autistic child he left them for a new wife and a new family. It's been fourteen years and she's never been back to the podunk town of Bokchito. That is until she got a call that her brother was in jail for assaulting her father. She could never have expected to run into Miller again or the many skeletons that would escape their closets when she did.
Miller has his secrets too. He's loved Emily since the third grade, even when he thought she was his best friend's girl. Then Emily became his girl in the secret of the night. That is until the night his best friend Daniel committed suicide. That same night Emily left after having promised she'd talk to him first. He's never forgotten his one love and he's never forgiven her either. Nor has he gotten over the guilt of betraying Daniel. Now he's a single father of a lovely thirteen-year-old Abby. She is the light of his eyes. She's also not above a bit of manipulation when she decides that Miller and Emily make a nice couple. Now Miller is seeing what drove Emily all those years ago to run. The boy has become a man and his love is that of a man as well. Then secrets start spilling and everything Miller holds dear is at risk.
Neither Miller or Emily expected their secrets to come to light. Nor did they expect the deeper secrets that spill forth at the hands of evil when they find their children held hostage to a madman's greed. Secondhand Sinners is full of twists and turns. The danger and action will keep you on edge as each new secret is exposed. You'll fall totally in love with Jack and Abby. Having children with mental health disorders, I had a healthy appreciation of Emily and Miller and the challenges they faced. Ms. Lynne penned a wonderful story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. *****Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions*****
Years ago, Emily fled her small town in Oklahoma right after starting her senior year in high school. Not only was she pregnant, but her boyfriend, Danny, had just killed himself. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't keep the baby and gave her up for adoption. Years later, she was blessed with a new child, a son named Jack. But he is autistic and her husband left them because he couldn't handle it. Emily is a single mom just trying to survive.
However, she just received a call from her mother. Her brother Levi beat up their father, Norman. He is in a coma and Levi is in Jail. Emily always felt a connection with her brother so she feels it is her responsibility to save him. Her father...well Emily's relationship with her parents and grandmother was rocky to say the least. Luckily, her grandfather was always good to her. So Emily packs up her autistic son, Jack, and leaves Dallas.
Now that Emily is back, old feeling start to creep up as she runs into Miller. The man she cheated on her boyfriend with. The first man she made love too. The first man she truly loved. His wife left him but luckily he still has Abby. She is thirteen years old but is wise beyond her years. I liked Abby so much that I'd love for Lynne to fast forward a few years and give her a new adult romance. Though Miller would quite possibly pop out of the literary world and kill Lynne for even suggesting it.
Miller was best friends with Danny and he blamed Emily for everything. She had just told Danny that she was pregnant with Miller's baby before he died. Ok, maybe he blamed himself for that a little too. But he wanted to make it right with her. Miller was willing to give everything up to make it work with Emily and the baby. Too bad Emily left before giving him a chance.
That's where I am stopping with the summary. This barely gives you any detail but I refuse to ruin any of the crazy twists and turns that Lynne provides. I have to say that they threw me for such a loop. Initially, I thought this was your standard romance. Boy and girl reconnect and they forgive each other. Just add water and it grows. I have never been more wrong.
I couldn't put the book down because I had to see what happened. OK, I'll give you a hint. Someone is kidnapped in order to find a long held treasure. However, along the way, everyone finds out several long held family secrets. Legit, several. Lynne took this little town and turned it upside down.
This was not a heavy on the sex book. It was more about the feelings and emotions behind teenage lovers. Though, that isn't to say Lynne doesn't steam up the pages...
I would recommend this book to anyone with a pulse. It may start a little slow but that is just to pull you into a false sense of security.
One last thing I will comment on was Lynne's use of a child with special needs. I have known several children with varying degrees of autism and I can honestly say that her portrayal of a young boy struggling to make it in the world was spot on. He becomes such a lovable character but not because of his disease but rather because Lynne pushes past it to show you just what kind of boy he really is. Plus his name is Jack and that's my twin brother's name.
Note: This ARC was provided by Author's Pal in exchange for an honest review.
Miller Anderson loved his ex-wife but never as much as he did the first girl who laid claim to his heart when they were seventeen. His life now is all about his teenage daughter Abby, but when he finds out that Levi Collins has landed in jail after physically assaulting his father, his life shifts yet again with the return of Emily, Levi's sister and the girl he loved. The anger and hurt over her abandoning him more than thirteen years ago still lingers. He wants to know why she did what she did, but demanding answers from her may require him to reciprocate and share his own secrets, and that's something he can't afford to do. But being around Emily brings back memories--both good and bad--and the dream to create all new ones.
I really quite liked Secondhand Sinners! You always take a gamble when you read a book written by an author you're unfamiliar, and with Genevieve Lynne making this her initial foray into the book world, I really had nothing to go on. How happy am I that the risk paid of?! This was such an entertaining story, one that lulls you into complacency before throwing something your way that has you sitting up and taking notice. The writing is fluid and keeps you interested in what happened to the characters in the past, what's happening to them now, and what may end up happening to them in the future. I loved Emily and Miller, but Abby really was a dear and I so adored her! I'm highly recommending Secondhand Sinners. 4.5 stars! ♥
I read this book in one sitting. The characters invite you into this twisty-turny plot with gentle smiles and hints of romance. Once, you're all settled and cozy, they lock the door and that gentle smile turns into a maniacal laugh of victory. You're hooked until the very last page.
I was so engaged during one particularly intense scene that I missed my youngest daughter creeping into my room...until her head appeared over the top of my computer screen with a stage whispered, "Mom!". Cue primal scream of terror. She screamed because I screamed which sent the two, furry alarms systems barking and brought my older daughter sprinting down the hall, sobbing because she was sure we were being attacked. Just fair warning.
The author's fabulous voice gives each character an authentic uniqueness. Emily is like a fellow mom that you want to meet for coffee (or margaritas, honestly, the woman could really use a margarita). Her chemistry with Miller instantly ignites but is complicated by deep secrets stemming from events set in motion long before they fell in love.
Abby, Miller's teenage daughter, encapsulates the complex personality of a young teen with just the right amount of maturity and sass to present a fully-rounded character and not the caricature of a teen that often appears in adult books.
Then there's Jack. Sweet, precocious, Jack. Emily's son with autism. Her love for him pours off the page so vividly, I forgot they were characters and not a family living down the street.
So, grab this book, a good snack and settle in for a story that will keep you reading until way past your bedtime.
This book has all the things I love in a story: realistic characters, witty dialog, a fast paced storyline, and a plot with more twists and turns than Lombard Street. Plus a happy ending!
Secondhand Sinners made me cringe, hold my breath, and my heart pound as I read. All the finest qualities of a great suspense book. But there were also the parts that made me laugh, and smile, and hope for the best for Emily and Miller and their children. Which also made this a good romance as well. Between the two genres, the author did a fantastic job of keeping the story moving but also giving us enough backstory so we cared about the characters. And wow, does this author know how to write despicable, evil people!
I am really looking forward to reading more from this author - I think she has an exciting career ahead of her.
The story itself was fairly decent, a bit predictable but not terrible. My problem with this is that there were so many unanswered questions left at the end that it didn't feel finished. Some things weren't explained properly and as nice as the epilogue was it just didn't seem to fit and raised more questions than it answered.
This book was full of secrets, one after the other. It was an enjoyable story despite some hard content. There were quite a lot of grammatical errors and mistakes which I didn't enjoy. I did feel that the ending wasn't quite right, it just seemed to lack something.
This mystery has so many twists and turns that it was almost impossible to figure out who the bad guys vs the good guys. So much deception and bodies kept adding up. This was not of story that I normally read. Nor do I plan on reading again.
This book is a story of high school friends and their strong bond. The mix of twins Emily and Levi along with good friends Daniel and Miller that act like family more than their actual family ever did. The name of the book itself gives you a little insight to the twists and turns and guesswork of who did what. The small town busy buddies and how word and rumors spread fast is told expertly throughout this story. I had not read anything by this author before but I most definitely will seek out other books she has written. Well done!
I usually prefer crime novels so it was a nice change of find a romance novel I really enjoyed. There are no porn scenes & the characters are well written. Highly recommended for a relaxed read
I wanted to give a "honest evaluation" of the book and its contents, but my feelings are all tied up in my memories of the author herself. I started out reading it a piece at a time, but binge read the last 2/3 of it, drawn along by the exciting plot and the desire to unravel what really happened. So proud of my high school classmate, and thrilled to finally read her published work!
Wow what a roller-coaster ride with this book. For sure a page turner. Skip house work and doing anything but reading the whole day away when u pick it up because this one you just can't sit down and walk away from. You have to read every page til it's over. My favorite parts are finding out paternity and the secret that Daniel was hiding. Poor Levi can we get a book for him? Wonderful must read. 1 click now.
I started this book 2 days ago. It's one of the best ones I have read this year. Loved the plot and the surprising things we learned in the story. This is a must read.
Emily Matthews left Bokchito, Oklahoma with a secret but it was the only way to protect herself and those she cared about. Years later she is back, divorced and the mother to an autistic son. She can't believe her brother is in jail, he was always the calm sweet one. Determined to help him out, Emily's appearance starts a domino event that uncovers old betrayals and puts Emily in the direct path of the love she left behind, Miller Anderson.
Miller wants answers, Emily left and he knows of one secret he wants the truth about. He is angry, but one look at Emily with her son leaves him confused. Miller wants to figure out if there is really something they can build upon, but someone else is determined to keep Emily for himself.
Several twists and turns in this book. I felt for Emily, she grew up in a horrible atmosphere only to have to come home to more turmoil. Liked Miller, he is trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together while keeping his feelings for Emily protected. Great read, look forward to more by this author.
1. The plot is so twisty-turny-full-of-surprises that half the time I sat amazed at how the author came up with it all. This is a very complex plot that left me on the edge of my seat until the amazing conclusion.
2. The humor! Sometimes laugh-out-loud clever and sometimes so subtly snarky you can't help giggle to yourself remembering it later on.
and finally,
3. The characters are so well written. The overwhelmed main character and her lovable but challenging autistic son were so authentic you felt like you knew them. The villains (no spoilers here) were flawed in a tragically believable way. And who can forget the swoon-worthy Miller (let me take a moment for myself here to say Ahhhhhhhh), probably my favorite romantic male lead of all time.
Oh my gosh, I have not been able to focus on much this week, hurricane Matthew has made life nuts here in north Carolina. This book was so good for the first time in a very long tragic week I relaxed with a book. I have many downloaded nothing has allowed me to sit still. I devoured this could not put it down. Absolutely amazing writing. This book was so intense, gripping, and unique. Loved it. Thank you to this author for a book that gave me a day to forget for a few hours. Needed this. Highly recommend
I received this book free through a Goodreads.com giveaway by the author. I really enjoyed this book, the plot was well written and the characters were well developed. It was a romance with a mix of mystery and suspense thrown in. Every time I thought I had it figured out, the author threw in another twist. I would definitely read another book by this author.
This book was one crazy ride. The twist and turns in this story had me spinning and re-reading pages because I was not sure I read it in the first place. The story was different yet intriguing. All I can say is a lot happens in this book that you just have to read it to understand. Very interesting and good read.
I read this book entirely while staying up too late at night! There are some very likable, down to earth characters and there are some real son-of-guns you want to punch in the face. Overall, really entertaining!
I enjoyed this book. The main character is strong and has a joy for life in spite of the challenges that she faces. Genevieve is a friend and I think she wrote a wonderful book! Congrats!
Blurb: In Bokchito, Oklahoma, you know everyone and trust no one…
Emily Matthews swore she’d never expose her son Jack to her dysfunctional family that sent her running from Bokchito at only seventeen. The sins of her past still haunt her, but when her brother lands in jail, she has no choice but to go back and face her old demons.
Miller Anderson has never forgotten about the girl who ran out of his life thirteen years ago…
And with the secret he’s keeping from Emily, he knows he most likely never will. But when his daughter Abby plays matchmaker to set him up with his lost love, he can’t resist the resurgence of emotion that has them reliving their high school glory days.
Evil has a way of waiting for what it wants…
Just when Emily and Miller discover their old flame hasn’t died, they learn another fire has been smoldering in Bokchito. Her family’s long line of sins, kindled with a generation-old grudge, ignites when Emily discovers the truth about Miller’s daughter and is forced to choose between protecting Miller’s secret and the one thing she can’t afford to lose…her son Jack.
Caught up in a game of lies and dirt road scandal, Emily must risk everything to save her son and preserve Miller’s good name, or let her family’s darkest secret ruin them both.