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The Safety of Secrets | 
 enlarge | Author: Delaune Michel
Publisher: Avon A
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $6.75
You Save: $7.20 (52%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 382736
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0060817364
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780060817367
ASIN: 0060817364
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: NEW- GREAT BOOK! SHIPS SAME DAY! MUST READ
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Product Description
"Now we're just alike." So begins Fiona and Patricia's friendship that warm autumn morning in first grade in Lake Charles, Louisiana, their bond forged ever closer by Fiona's abusive mother and Patricia's neglectful one. Their relationship is a source of continuity and strength through their move to L.A. to become actresses; through Fiona's marriage and Patricia's sudden fame. When husband and career pressures exact a toll, the women wonder if their friendship can survive. Then a dark secret from their past emerges, threatening to destroy not only their bond, but all they've worked for as well. The Safety of Secrets is a beautifully written exploration of the bonds forged in childhood and challenged decades later, of the fulfillment of dreams and the damage they can cause, and of secrets being uncovered and the truth we find inside.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Is There Ever Safety in Secrets? August 23, 2008
Fiona and Patricia have been friends since the First grade. Growing up in Lake Charles, Louisiana they were inseparable. Fiona grew up in a large house with her parents and housekeeper. Far from perfect, Fiona's parents were cold and strict. Patricia lived with her twice-divorced mother and half-brother in an apartment. Patricia's mom was never home and her brother would rather spend his time beating her up than actually speaking to her. In a world that wasn't very kind to either, the girls forged a bond that held the test of time.
Now, both girls are in their 30's and living in Hollywood. Fiona is married, expecting her first child and working as an actress with moderate success. Mostly TV movies and guest appearances in series. Patricia is now the host of a famous reality show and a bigger star than she had ever dreamed possible.
But the main focus of this book is not the careers of each woman, but relationships. The relationship between the two friends; the relationship between the families; but most importantly, the relationships between the woman and their husbands. Because there is a secret between the women that has been held since they were 10 years old....when they swore never to tell. But what happens to all the other relationships if this one secret ever sees the light of day?
I liked this book. Delaune Michel has written a lot of Fiona's inner dialogue in a way that made it a bit confusing to me at first. Then I realized it's written just like I think.....goes a bit in circles! But when I finally settled down, I was very impressed at the deep character study she has put to paper. Fiona is a bit of a fractured soul. As an actress, she has learned to keep a very positive exterior, while holding everything inside. She is rather neurotic, and you can see as Michel takes you into the past for looks at her childhood, the reasons for her self-doubt. Patricia, on the surface, comes off as an insensitive, career-driven user. And in a way, she is. But there is more to her than that.
Drifting between the past and present, The Safety of Secrets is an intense look at how secrets can bind you together....and how they can tear you apart. At first, it's a light book about Hollywood. But when the past comes into play, there is an evolution. And light, it is not. If you are looking for a good book about friendship, relationships, and life, this one might be it. If nothing else, it shows you that the little things a parent does, can affect a child for the rest of her life!! And that itself, is worth the price of admission!
 I was surprised that this is Chick Lit August 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book looks like literary fiction with the artsy cover and the back-cover description. Don't be fooled, though. This is Chick Lit. Those of you who enjoy Chick Lit will probably like this book (see the positive reviews), but since I'm not a fan of the genre, I didn't enjoy it.
 The malignant effects of secrecy July 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Reviewed by Lisa Heidle for RebeccasReads (7/08)
In "The Safety of Secrets" by Delaune Michel, we meet Fiona, a working actor in Hollywood, who is married and expecting her first child. Although this should be an exciting time, her closest friendship is unraveling and her marriage is strained. She has spent much of her life holding a life-altering incident from her childhood so close that nothing can penetrate, showing the malignant effects of secrets and how they contaminate all that we love and desire most.
She and Patricia, her childhood friend, were drawn together out of a shared understanding of what it's like to be unseen, not considered. Both become actors in order to gain the acceptance they never had as children, a natural progression for two unwanted women who learned to play roles and wear masks at a young age. The experience they shared and chose to lock away has bound them together, more out of necessity than devotion. Due to their troubled early lives, neither Fiona nor Patricia learned how to separate from one another and create boundaries as they moved into adulthood; the interactions between them and others are juvenile at best. When Fiona shares the news with her husband that they are going to have a baby, he asks that she postpone sharing the news until the pregnancy progresses. Having already told Patricia, Fiona has "...a sudden impulse to cross my fingers behind my back." She justifies the telling to herself by saying, "And she's my best friend, for Christ's sake. Telling her is like telling myself."
Michel uses Fiona's progressing pregnancy in parallel to the disintegrating relationship between the two women. As the burden of concealment builds in them both, communication turns into competition and devotion turns into animosity until the pain and resentment is palpable. They skirt around the secret they share, unwilling to delve into the pain from the past. The author also refers to acting approaches to mirror Fiona's interpersonal relationships, reinforcing the belief that all is not what it seems with the struggling character. After a difficult encounter with Patricia, Fiona muses, "I want to slap her. And rewind this to the beginning when she walked in to see if we could do a better take, like happy best friends. Like that acting technique of working from the outside in: do the physical and the emotions will follow. Not that I ever believed in that technique, but maybe it could work this time."
When Patricia divulges their shared history on national television, Fiona is forced to question what occurred so many years before and to explore the difference between secrets and privacy. Delaune Michel's "The Safety of Secrets" shows that safety is only an opaque illusion if it does not reside within the truth.
Loyalty and Friendship Grow Up July 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In the same vein as Firefly Lane and Beaches, THE SAFETY OF SECRETS is a true to life story of the enduring friendship of two women. It tells how their childhood bond is tested as they mature and their values and loyalties are formed and lives change.
Fiona and Patricia meet in first grade in Louisiana and their family lifestyles are different as Fiona comes from a "normal" family with two parents and a sister, while Patricia is raised by a single mother who has an older son from a previous marriage. Both of the girls' youth is greatly influenced by their mothers with Fiona's mother being abusive, while Patricia's mom neglects her. The girls experience a trauma young in their lives and they agree to keep it a secret for life.
Fiona and Patricia grow up and both pursue acting careers, and they are both successful in their own way. However, Fiona marries and has a baby while having a moderately successful and steady television career compared to Patricia's wild celebrity life filled with all the bells and whistles the paparazzi is crazy for.
The chapters alternate between the past as children and their current lives as adults, and thus the story slowly unfolds little by little until the "secret" that is alluded to finally is revealed. However, the way it happens is what brings us to the climax of the story and forces Fiona and Patricia to face the truth of that secret and the ramifications it has played in their lives for years. Fiona comes to realize how much the secret and her mother intertwined to make her the person she is today. Will Fiona's and Patricia's friendship be able to endure this explosive revelation? How will this affect their current relationships and especially the ones with their mothers?
The Safety of Secrets is relatable and one that will have the reader taking sides and staying glued to the story until the end to find out what the secret is. The reader will want to find out what the secret does to Fiona's and Patricia's adult lives and those they now care about. I found the story to be an interesting, well written, believable tale of two women and their friendship.
 Read it! June 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Can't-put-it-down readable with a secret at its core, this book is a sensitive, canny portrayal of a decades-long friendship. It works as a great beach read because of Michel's funny insights into the Hollywood actors scene, but like an iceberg, it has unexpected solidity under the surface. It's depth snuck up on me. It's an atypical coming-of-age story in that rather than simply covering the familiar territory of the jump from girl-to-woman; it explores the maturity that is required to jump from young-woman-to-mother. The crisis in the main character Fiona's relationship with her childhood friend Patricia, coming at the same time as the birth of Fiona's first child, enables Fiona to step into her true female adulthood--to access the maturity required to be a stable and loving example to her baby. Having witnessed Fiona's journey into unconditional love and forgiveness, we are assured that her child will be protected from at least some of the pain and tragedy that Patricia and Fiona endured. I loved it from the beginning to the sweet and moving last page. Read it!
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