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Public Secrets
by
Nora Roberts
New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts deftly blends romance and suspense in this compelling novel of a woman whose career, marriage, and very life are threatened by the truth about her own past.
Emma McAvoy may have grown up in the limelight, but some secrets are hidden in a darkness no light can reach. Now on the verge of a successful career, and having fallen in...more
Emma McAvoy may have grown up in the limelight, but some secrets are hidden in a darkness no light can reach. Now on the verge of a successful career, and having fallen in...more
Paperback, 448 pages
Published
July 28th 2009
by Bantam
(first published 1990)
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Aug 15, 2008
Isis FG
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Isis FG by:
favorite author
Public Secrets isn't one of Nora Roberts most popular books. It's not one that gets mentioned much and I know a lot of her readers don't particularly care for it. But there's something about this book that thoroughly captures me. It's one of my all-time favorite books. I think I've read it about 6 times now.
It's a rather atypical romance novel (semi-romantic suspense) because the romance doesn't really come into play seriously until the last 150 pages. This book is more about the heroine, Emma,...more
It's a rather atypical romance novel (semi-romantic suspense) because the romance doesn't really come into play seriously until the last 150 pages. This book is more about the heroine, Emma,...more
This is an oldie but a goodie. I first read Public Secrets over 15 years ago and since then I continually pick it back up for a reread. I just finished rereading the story after a good 7 or 8 year break and I am so happy to say that it's still as compelling, intriguing, and delightful as it was the first time I read it.
This story in particular is a favorite of mine as it follow the story of not just the main character Emma, but an entire cast of characters that you love to love and love to hate...more
This story in particular is a favorite of mine as it follow the story of not just the main character Emma, but an entire cast of characters that you love to love and love to hate...more
Emma. Beautiful, intelligent, and radiantly talented, she lives in a star-studded world of wealth and privilege. But she is about to discover that fame is no protection at all when someone wants you dead.
All Emma has to do is close her eyes and she remembers the day Brian McAvoy swept into her life. A frightened toddler, she didn’t know then that she was his illegitimate daughter or that he was pop music’s rising new star. All she knew was that with Brian, his band mates, and his new wife, she f...more
All Emma has to do is close her eyes and she remembers the day Brian McAvoy swept into her life. A frightened toddler, she didn’t know then that she was his illegitimate daughter or that he was pop music’s rising new star. All she knew was that with Brian, his band mates, and his new wife, she f...more
Emma has spent her entire life growing up in the spotlight, her father Brian has been a rock star for as long as she can remember. She still has flashbacks of the night her little brother died and while she did see what happened she can’t remember. Emma marries a man that she thought she loved, even though she is still hasn’t forgotten the son of the detective who investigated her brother murder. The man abuses her and when she gets away she runs into the detectives’ son who is now a detective h...more
I liked this book ... there was a lot to it and a lot going on.
It starts out in the 1970s in the early years when the English rock band, Devastation, is just starting to become famous. Emma's father, Brian, is the lead singer and she's friends with the other three guys in the band. There's lots of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll along with the times a'changin'.
We follow Emma after her brother dies, until she's in her twenties, and everyone in her family and circle. I liked the characters we are supp...more
It starts out in the 1970s in the early years when the English rock band, Devastation, is just starting to become famous. Emma's father, Brian, is the lead singer and she's friends with the other three guys in the band. There's lots of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll along with the times a'changin'.
We follow Emma after her brother dies, until she's in her twenties, and everyone in her family and circle. I liked the characters we are supp...more
Okay was really unsure of this at first. Its the first time Ive read a stand alone book of Nora Roberts. I love her triologys so was unsure if i would be left unsatisfied at the end..you know wanting more??
Well lets just say WOW!
the story spans 20 years and from the start of Emma's story when she was 3 i was hooked. It draws you in,and you can actually see what Nora is writing about.
I know this book has had mixed reviews, and some feel too much time was spent in the past, building it up to the...more
Well lets just say WOW!
the story spans 20 years and from the start of Emma's story when she was 3 i was hooked. It draws you in,and you can actually see what Nora is writing about.
I know this book has had mixed reviews, and some feel too much time was spent in the past, building it up to the...more
I simply loved this book. I honestly couldn't put it down. The characters were touching and real, not flawless and perfect but real.
What I hated was being in Emma's head. Not the writing hate, I just loved the story, but rather the existantial hate. I don't want to think of child abuse, that's just one of the most horrible things out there. And the worst of it was that, even when she grew up in a loving environment with all luxuries etc., in the end she was still the traumatised little girl who...more
What I hated was being in Emma's head. Not the writing hate, I just loved the story, but rather the existantial hate. I don't want to think of child abuse, that's just one of the most horrible things out there. And the worst of it was that, even when she grew up in a loving environment with all luxuries etc., in the end she was still the traumatised little girl who...more
This was one of the first romance novels I read as a teenager.
I absolutely adored it. The characters were engaging and memorable. I went through the ups and the downs of the characters. Sometimes I like and/or love a character, other times didn't like them so much.
There are scenes that stick out for me. The opening chapter when Brian first meets Emma and sees the way she's been living just touches my heart. The brief scenes when Emma and Michael met when they were younger. The part when Emma w...more
I absolutely adored it. The characters were engaging and memorable. I went through the ups and the downs of the characters. Sometimes I like and/or love a character, other times didn't like them so much.
There are scenes that stick out for me. The opening chapter when Brian first meets Emma and sees the way she's been living just touches my heart. The brief scenes when Emma and Michael met when they were younger. The part when Emma w...more
Sep 04, 2012
❀ Mary ❀
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nora-roberts,
my-favorites
Me alegré muchísimo cuando editaron este libro al español y mucho más cuando lo encontré en la librería. Es espectacular, tiene tanta trama y personajes que es realmente difícil comentarlo en pocas palabras, pero a pesar de ser un poco largo, ya que narra la vida de los miembros de una banda de rock y su familia a través de 20 años, el libro es fluido con la perfecta cantidad de detalles para no perderse durante los saltos de tiempo sin llegar a ser tedioso, en otras palabras la combinación perf...more
Oct 19, 2012
Sara Farinha
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
reading-romances-challenge-2012
‘Public Secrets’ gives us a tour through two decades of Emma McAvoy’s life. First as a young child that suffers at the hands of her birth mother and as the unexpected and unwanted daughter of an arising rock star. Then as the foreign element in a pop music’s band road to success. And later as a young woman and her choices and fears that led her to marriage and a new king of hell.
As the only witness of a failed attempt kidnapping, Emma keeps struggling with putting the pieces together. The unavoi...more
As the only witness of a failed attempt kidnapping, Emma keeps struggling with putting the pieces together. The unavoi...more
Read this on my new eReader, and was very disappointed with the number of typos throughout the 46 chapters.
Obviously this 1990's book was scanned using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software and then not proofread again.
It's a story about a father and daughter growing up in the music industry and every Father was spelled as Rather... very troublesome read. Hoping that the publisher fixes all the spelling mistakes for future readers. I can't believe that they don't already know that this...more
Obviously this 1990's book was scanned using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software and then not proofread again.
It's a story about a father and daughter growing up in the music industry and every Father was spelled as Rather... very troublesome read. Hoping that the publisher fixes all the spelling mistakes for future readers. I can't believe that they don't already know that this...more
Jan 27, 2012
Hazel G. ( I ♥ Mr. Grey) *Fifty Shades obsessed* .
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
romance-suspense
Public Secrets is a romance-mystery-suspense novel written by Nora Roberts. In my opinion, even though this is one of Roberts earlier works, its one of her best titles in a long and varied career of amazing material. Ive personally read this title over ten times. Its definitly one of my favorites and one I come back to time and again when I just want a great romance to read the night away with. It follows the life of Emma MacAvoy from age three, up. Her trials and heartache will literally bring...more
Suunnilleen 10 vuotta sitten luin tämän kirjan ensimmäisen kerran. Siitä alkoi romanttisten kirjojen (Roberts, Steel, krantz...) ahmimiskausi, löysin kokonaan uuden lajityypin. Jossain vaiheessa aloin kasvaa rakkausromaanien ohi, mutta silloin tällöin on mukava lainata taattua hömppää ja antaa aivojen levätä. Loppuratkaisu on takuuvarmasti onnellinen, eikä kirja jätä mitään epäselväksi. Tämä kirja oli ensimmäisiä rakkausromaaneja jonka koskaan luin ja on sen takia säilyttänyt asemansa. Vieläkin...more
Aug 01, 2010
KimKirt
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
pick-it-for-me,
romance-suspence
More of a solid 3.5 stars. What can I say? I'm a classic rock lover, I still go see bands from my era in concert, thank goodness they do comeback tours. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed that whole aspect of this book, the whole behind the scenes of a famous rock band, their highs and lows, really read and written well. I liked Emma a lot, loved following her through life and how everything molded her into the young woman she became. This book is very very light on the romance, so don't read it if yo...more
Apr 13, 2010
Lori Loves Reading
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-2010
I would rate this book 3.5 stars, but since I don't have that option, I'll give it 4. It's definitely a melodrama which wraps up nicely in the end, of course. It wasn't obvious "who done it" from the beginning so that was a nice bonus. I starting having an inkling of who the culprit might be, but didn't know for sure until the end. This is a long book, could have been shorter cutting out some of Emma's struggles, but part of it's draw is the length. The story begins when Emma is just 2 years old...more
I enjoyed reading this book but man...it took me forever to get through. I picked it up intending it to be a "light" read before jumping into George R.R. Martin's Epic Song of Fire and Ice Series. So much for any preconceived notions that I had about this one. This book tackles some serious issues; domestic violence, alcoholism, drug use, child murder,AIDS, adultery, and betrayal. I wouldn't necessarily label this one a romance, it's more of a fictional family saga about a group of irish rocksta...more
I know Nora Roberts has been around forever, but I'm just now discovering her. 'Public Secrets' is the second novel I've read by her (the first was 'The Witness') and I totally loved it. I have nothing negative to say about this book. If you want to know what it is about, you'll have to go elsewhere to find out because I don't rehash the story or characters in reviews. I can tell you that I thought it was a good read (as was 'The Witness'). Check it out. I read the Kindle edition, which was ridd...more
Nora Robers is one of those prolific writers who cranks out mystery/romance books at an alarming rate. I read her when I want something easy to get through. They do hold my interest but don't take long to read. I got this one as it was very cheap to download on my Nook. A dead little boy, a sister who saw what happened but blocked it out. The girl raised by her rock star daddy with all the priveledges. The killers keeping an eye on her in case she remembers. One lousy marriage then reconnects wi...more
Except for her J.D. Robb series, I've never been a Nora Robert's fan. Her work falls over into the sappy romance category that just doesn't work for me. However, I saw the blurb for Public Secrets and was sucked in and never looked back. The characters were engaging and the plot captivated me from the first word to the last page. Of course after reading it I found out that it was one of her least well received books, which is probably why I like it so much :-) I guess in the future if I give Nor...more
This is the first romance novel I ever read! It's still a sentimental favorite that I'll probably never part with.
A story that's part Beatles, part Lindbergh baby, Emma's young life is shaken up when her baby brother is kidnapped and killed. Her rock star father spirals into drugs, sex and alcohol, and Emma's life is never the same. It's one of Nora's few epic novels, as it follows Emma throughout her life, from the age of four until she is grown and starts looking for answers into her brother'...more
A story that's part Beatles, part Lindbergh baby, Emma's young life is shaken up when her baby brother is kidnapped and killed. Her rock star father spirals into drugs, sex and alcohol, and Emma's life is never the same. It's one of Nora's few epic novels, as it follows Emma throughout her life, from the age of four until she is grown and starts looking for answers into her brother'...more
This was not one of my favorites from Roberts, but it was well written and a good read. Most of the reasoning for my rating has to do with pacing. It's not that the story ever lags, but there was a section I felt lasted too many chapters. That being said, it's more of my personal distaste for the subject matter going on in the story--brutal domestic abuse and violence against children. It makes me sick to even read about such things and know they exist in reality. So, though it may be a bit unfa...more
I don't know why this book doesn't get more credit! I bought on my kindle because i wanted to have read all of Nora Roberts books, and I have got to say, it is in my top five. It's so interesting, and the plot is deep. Most of the time near the end of a NR book, I have a list of suspects and a small idea of what's happened. This one? No. It kept me interested the whole time, and I was NOT expecting the reveal of the 'who done it', but it made sense and kept the story fresh. I'd recommend this bo...more
Mar 27, 2013
Eddy Allen
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
romance-and-poetry
Emma. Beautiful, intelligent, and radiantly talented, she lives in a star-studded world of wealth and privilege. But she is about to discover that fame is no protection at all when someone wants you dead.
All Emma has to do is close her eyes and she remembers the day Brian McAvoy swept into her life. A frightened toddler, she didn’t know then that she was his illegitimate daughter or that he was pop music’s rising new star. All she knew was that with Brian, his band mates, and his new wife, she f...more
All Emma has to do is close her eyes and she remembers the day Brian McAvoy swept into her life. A frightened toddler, she didn’t know then that she was his illegitimate daughter or that he was pop music’s rising new star. All she knew was that with Brian, his band mates, and his new wife, she f...more
Synopsis above, not going to make my own.
This was a great book from Nora Roberts, better than some of the others I have read. It is one of her time progression novels, so a lot of the book is about Emma's childhood and the lives of the band members. The major romance between Emma and Michael doesn't really begin until after half of the book is already over with, somewhere in the last 175 pages or so.
I loved reading about all the lives in this book, though. Usually NR focuses on the main two cha...more
This was a great book from Nora Roberts, better than some of the others I have read. It is one of her time progression novels, so a lot of the book is about Emma's childhood and the lives of the band members. The major romance between Emma and Michael doesn't really begin until after half of the book is already over with, somewhere in the last 175 pages or so.
I loved reading about all the lives in this book, though. Usually NR focuses on the main two cha...more
Jan 28, 2013
Shauni
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
reading-romance-challenge,
old-favorites
I have great memories of this book and decided it was time to take Nora Roberts Public Secrets off the shelf and enjoy it once more. While it was definitely as good as I remembered there was so much more to this book than just a romance. In fact I wouldn't really even call this book a Romance but because NR wrote it, the publishing industry lacks imagination and insists on calling it so.
This book is a retrospective of life, love, family, connections and how you learn to deal with it all.
At the...more
This book is a retrospective of life, love, family, connections and how you learn to deal with it all.
At the...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Emma McAvoy met her rock star father for the first time at the age of three when her mother, a pitiful but vengeful mess, forced the interaction. Brian McAvoy had no idea of her existence and fell in love with his daughter, his spitting image, at first sight. From here on out, the tale unfolds about their lives, a saga of heartache, betrayal, love and commitment.
It's hard to capsulize this book into a one-paragraph summary as it chronicles the lives of this family over a 20-year time span. Even...more
It's hard to capsulize this book into a one-paragraph summary as it chronicles the lives of this family over a 20-year time span. Even...more
Public Secrets is more of a family saga than a traditional romantic suspense novel, although there is romance and there is plenty of suspense. It follows the McAvoys, through the eyes of Emma, from the time she is three years old, through childhood, the school years, marriage, and adulthood. All this against the background of the life of rock-and-roll legends. It is pretty good, but not light reading.
It is 440 pages long, with very small print. 150 pages could easily be cut and the book wouldn'...more
It is 440 pages long, with very small print. 150 pages could easily be cut and the book wouldn'...more
When I purchased the book last year, it looked vaguely familiar. Let me be clear; I have read a LOT of Nora Roberts. Between haunting the library shelves in Germany for her books and purchasing almost all of the rest, I do believe that I have read most of her books. There are only a few I have not gotten around to reading. When I bought Public Secrets, I thought this was one of those that remained unread. After reading the first page, I remembered the story. It turns out I did read it more than...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
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aka
J.D. Robb
Sarah Hardesty
Eleanor Marie Robertson was born on October 10, 1950 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. She was the youngest of the five children, also the only girl, of a marriage with Irish ancestors. Her family were avid readers, so books were always important in her life. She attended a Catholic school and credits the nuns with instilling in her a sense of discipline. During her sopho...more
More about Nora Roberts...
J.D. Robb
Sarah Hardesty
Eleanor Marie Robertson was born on October 10, 1950 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. She was the youngest of the five children, also the only girl, of a marriage with Irish ancestors. Her family were avid readers, so books were always important in her life. She attended a Catholic school and credits the nuns with instilling in her a sense of discipline. During her sopho...more
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“Shall I tell you what rock and roll is, Johnno, from someone who doesn't perform, but observes?
It's restless and rude. It's defiant and daring. It's a fist shaken at age. It's a voice that often screams out questions because the answers are always changing. The very young play it because they're searching for some way to express their anger or joy, their confusion and their dreams. Once in a while, and only once in a while, someone comes along who truly understands, who has the gift to transfer all those needs and emotions into music.”
—
11 people liked it
More quotes…
It's restless and rude. It's defiant and daring. It's a fist shaken at age. It's a voice that often screams out questions because the answers are always changing. The very young play it because they're searching for some way to express their anger or joy, their confusion and their dreams. Once in a while, and only once in a while, someone comes along who truly understands, who has the gift to transfer all those needs and emotions into music.”
Aug 15, 2011 09:30am
Aug 15, 2011 09:46pm