This story has all the stereotypes of Southern literature: the decrepit plantation, the old matriarch, the headstrong daughter, the Bible toting pseudo preacher, the young boy straining between puberty and adulthood, and the faint hint of racial prejudice. I enjoyed the story immensely. Kyle, Emma, and Dora display multi dimensional characterizations. The minor struggles between parent and child, good and bad, and truth and falsehood present a life of conflict. Each individual selects the path to follow. The biggest message is that beauty is not always clearly visible, as in all the flower bulbs hidden in the ruins of the old family mansion. Friddle presents that message in the new love between Emma and Dr Burnside, the old love renewed between Dora and Jake, the new freedom of Bobby, and the new confidence of Kyle. ( )

First off I have to say how much I love this cover! I love anything vintage and having to do with gardening, not that I am a great gardener. This book begs to be read on a front porch or in a garden gazebo while drinking a glass of sweet tea. It is a quiet southern fiction book about a family coming to terms with changes in their lives. We meet Emma Hanley who at age 72, is getting ready to take of on a trip of a lifetime with her husband, Harold and mentally ill son, Bobby. Her husband has an accident that takes his life and changes Emma's life. Her daughter, Dora and her husband, Donny have very different plans for Harold's funeral but Emma has her mind set and does things the way she sees fit. Of course this starts a family battle. Donny and Dora belong to a very zealous church set up in a mall built on property once belonging to Emma's grandfather. I can't say how many times I found myself laughing at the shenanigans that go on in this mall where all the stores are involved around the church. When Jake, Dora's high school sweetheart decides to open up his own landscaping business in town things get very interesting. Soon he realizes he needs help and hires an unlikely bunch of characters; Gordon, a homeless veteran, Kyle, Emma's rebellious grandson who hates his parents and Bobby. Soon secret, magical plants and lifetime secrets are revealed. If you enjoy southern fiction and dysfunctional quirky families then I think you will enjoy this book. There is a nice balance between the story and a hint of magic that is not overdone. ( )

This is a lovely story of quirky small town familial strife and healing magic. It concerns the Hanleys--Emma, just widowed at 72 at the cusp of making a dream come true; her daughter Dora who is very unhappy and in the deep grips of compulsive shopping that's bankrupting the family; Bobby, Emma's son, who has a mental illness that has rendered him a loner and a couch vegetable; and Jake who moves back to his hometown with a broken heart and a green thumb. This is a light but touching story of how these flawed but redeemable people grow into being their truer selves with the magic of some long hidden plants and the reality of second chances. ( )

I had high hopes for Secret Keepers. I’m not ashamed to admit I judge books by their covers and this one is fabulous. The synopsis uses words like “wayward past,” and “old flame,” and “mysterious, potent botanicals and resurgent memories.” Sounds good right? Unfortunately Secret Keepers didn’t really find its true potential until the last third of the book, at which point it was nearly over.

Secret Keepers circles around Emma Hanley and her children. Told in alternating past/present snippets, we learn that Emma’s ancestor had a penchant for gardening with foreign plants; her oldest son died in a war; her other son hears voices and sees people who aren’t there; her daughter Dora was once wayward and lost until she became found by a religious zealot; and Dora’s teenage son Kyle is trying to balance his father’s religious demands with dreams of his own. Then Dora’s old flame comes back to town, stirs stuff up, and all hell breaks loose. So much potential, just not a stellar execution.

Secret Keepers plods along until the end when things get fanciful and dramatic and one whiff of a flower sends people reeling in memory to their favorite places and times. It seems like it was trying to be magical realism, but took to long to figure that out. In general, I am left feeling underwhelmed and slightly disappointed that it didn’t peak until the end. ( )

Such an enjoyable slice of southern life complete with characters that still resonate with me. In her latest book, Secret Keepers, Friddle introduces us to Emma Hanley, 72 year old whose life is about to be turned upside down. When her husband Hal dies suddenly just before leaving on the big trip they were planning, Emma feel that her life will go on as uneventful as always; staying in and taking care of her schizophrenic son Bobby.

All that changes when her daughter Dora's first boyfriend, Jake, enters the scene to landscape Emma's yard. There is no more boring to Emma's life. Jake and his landscape crew, which now includeds Bobby and Dora's son Kyle, plant some exotic flowers that bring back special feelings and memories to anyone who smells them; feelings that show them what they have been missing in life. A little bit of flowering magic!

Friddle managed to transport me to Palmetto, South Carolina and kept me captivated with these memorable characters. I loved the plot threads of Dora's struggle with her ultra-controlling husband and her son Kyle's teen rebelliousness. These characters felt so real to me that I can still imagine them going about their new lives. Friddle manages to tie up all the threads neatly with a most satisfying ending. ( )