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The Secret Woman
To all appearances, Anna Brett was a quiet, capable young woman whose only ambition was to carry on the profitable antiques business bequeathed her by a spinster aunt. And so she was--until the memory of a cherished moment with a blue-eyed stranger suddenly returned to haunt her with savage intensity. It was then Anna discovered the secret woman who waited within her-- impetuous, daring...and dangerous.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
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About the author
Victoria Holt
365 books1,363 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Eleanor Alice Burford, Mrs. George Percival Hibbert was a British author of about 200 historical novels, most of them under the pen name Jean Plaidy which had sold 14 million copies by the time of her death. She chose to use various names because of the differences in subject matter between her books; the best-known, apart from Plaidy, are Victoria Holt (56 million) and Philippa Carr (3 million). Lesser known were the novels Hibbert published under her maiden name Eleanor Burford, or the pseudonyms of Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow and Ellalice Tate. Many of her readers under one penname never suspected her other identities.
-Wikipedia
Eleanor Alice Burford, Mrs. George Percival Hibbert was a British author of about 200 historical novels, most of them under the pen name Jean Plaidy which had sold 14 million copies by the time of her death. She chose to use various names because of the differences in subject matter between her books; the best-known, apart from Plaidy, are Victoria Holt (56 million) and Philippa Carr (3 million). Lesser known were the novels Hibbert published under her maiden name Eleanor Burford, or the pseudonyms of Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow and Ellalice Tate. Many of her readers under one penname never suspected her other identities.
-Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 155 reviews
October 8, 2017
So maybe I should stop reading Holt? Cause the last few books have been underwhelming to the extreme. I had high hopes for this one, but when it turned into Chantal's journal entries (alternate title) I lost interest in this book. Holt or her publishers should have pushed forth this book is focused on two main characters (Anna and Chantal) and that most of the book is told by Chantal's point of view. I guessed some of what was ultimately revealed. And as Moonlight said elsewhere, this book really isn't Gothic. It's a messed up romantic suspense with barely developed characters besides Chantal.
Holt follows her formula of a main character left orphaned cause of reasons. The main character of Anna is thrust upon her aunt who makes Voldemort look cuddly. Anna's aunt is something of a big deal in the antiquities and starts to teach Anna cause apparently she has no prospects besides taking care of her aunt and her home called the Queen's House.
When Anna is 12 she meets a young man named Red who she finds is the half brother to the heir of the Crediton fortune. Anna for no reason falls in love with Red and can't wait to see him again. She doesn't til years later when he randomly shows up for reasons. Eventually it comes out Red is married and was probably playing with Anna's affections, she becomes resigned to taking care of her increasingly ill aunt til a nurse comes along named Chantal. Chantal is everything Anna is not, lively, pretty, and intelligent. The two become friends and Chantal gets them to both write journals in which they exchange for the other one to read. Chantal demands they be honest with each other in all things and seems interesting t on knowing Anna's every thought.
When Anna's aunt dies leaving suspicions on Anna, Chantal has to find more work which leads Chantal to become employed by the Creditons.
The whole book is mostly Chantal's thoughts on the Creditons and her increasingly affections for the heir, named Rex. Anna at more than the halfway point cause of even more ridiculous reasons is employed as a governess to Red's child and goes on a voyage back to Red's wife's island home.
The writing really wasn't great. It didn't seem written in the correct time period. How Chantal and Anna speak feels wrong. The reactions Chantal has to things reads wrong too.
The flow is awful. I got sick of reading this at the 50 percent point. I was tempted to skip to the end cause I honestly didn't care for anyone and despised Red and Anna and their bs love story. He's still married and you're making excuses. Bah to you both.
The ending which reveals all was kind of a joke. I mean I read the letter and shook my head. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but whatever. This book had way too much going on. I think when we get to the end with Anna, I thought her HEA was tainted as anything. Holt seems to think Gothic books were just terrible men and women who loved them. There is nothing that screams Gothic to me in this book.
Holt follows her formula of a main character left orphaned cause of reasons. The main character of Anna is thrust upon her aunt who makes Voldemort look cuddly. Anna's aunt is something of a big deal in the antiquities and starts to teach Anna cause apparently she has no prospects besides taking care of her aunt and her home called the Queen's House.
When Anna is 12 she meets a young man named Red who she finds is the half brother to the heir of the Crediton fortune. Anna for no reason falls in love with Red and can't wait to see him again. She doesn't til years later when he randomly shows up for reasons. Eventually it comes out Red is married and was probably playing with Anna's affections, she becomes resigned to taking care of her increasingly ill aunt til a nurse comes along named Chantal. Chantal is everything Anna is not, lively, pretty, and intelligent. The two become friends and Chantal gets them to both write journals in which they exchange for the other one to read. Chantal demands they be honest with each other in all things and seems interesting t on knowing Anna's every thought.
When Anna's aunt dies leaving suspicions on Anna, Chantal has to find more work which leads Chantal to become employed by the Creditons.
The whole book is mostly Chantal's thoughts on the Creditons and her increasingly affections for the heir, named Rex. Anna at more than the halfway point cause of even more ridiculous reasons is employed as a governess to Red's child and goes on a voyage back to Red's wife's island home.
The writing really wasn't great. It didn't seem written in the correct time period. How Chantal and Anna speak feels wrong. The reactions Chantal has to things reads wrong too.
The flow is awful. I got sick of reading this at the 50 percent point. I was tempted to skip to the end cause I honestly didn't care for anyone and despised Red and Anna and their bs love story. He's still married and you're making excuses. Bah to you both.
The ending which reveals all was kind of a joke. I mean I read the letter and shook my head. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but whatever. This book had way too much going on. I think when we get to the end with Anna, I thought her HEA was tainted as anything. Holt seems to think Gothic books were just terrible men and women who loved them. There is nothing that screams Gothic to me in this book.
October 8, 2017
First published in 1970, The Secret Woman was written by the prolific Eleanor Hibbert under her Victoria Holt pen name. While this book was published in “Holt’s” early period, it was actually published in the middle period for Hibbert. There were a total of 32 books published under the “Holt” name, and of those 32, approximately 23 of them were published after The Secret Woman.
Victoria Holt tends to be very hit and miss. This one is a miss.
I think that, perhaps, Holt was going for an homage to Jane Eyre with this one, with Redvers as the Rochester character, the conveniently orphaned Anna as Jane, and Redver’s wife, Monique, as the ill-fated Bertha. Like Bertha, the mildly mentally ill, consumptive Monique comes from an apparently fictional island named Coralle. Bertha, of course, is from Jamaica, and is the daughter of a wealthy family.
The issues with this book start with the pacing. The plot summary is misleading in that most of the elements referenced in the summary do not appear until the 50% mark of the book. The first 50% of the book felt relatively superfluous, focusing on Anna’s childhood and young adulthood, being first sent to England without her parents, later being orphaned, and then being raised by her unpleasant, unloving, bitter Aunt Charlotte. This, again, may be an ill-advised attempt to copy Jane Eyre. Few writers have the skill to write a Jane Eyre character, and Holt fails completely.
The “meet cute” between our hero and heroine also fails. Redvers and Anna meet when she is 12 and he is 19. I can understand her romanticizing him, since he is a dashing young man. I cannot understand, and am entirely grossed out, by his apparent romanticizing of her. She was twelve. There is nothing at twelve to attract a young man of nineteen.
It isn’t until around the 55% mark that Red & Anna end up in one another’s company consistently. From there, the book devolves into a shipboard travelogue. Way too much of the narration is delivered through the diary of the third-wheel Chantel, which ground the story to a halt. The suspense/gothic elements don’t appear until around 75%, and by that time, I am done. That section could’ve actually been pretty interesting, if it had been expanded to be more of the book, and if Holt hadn’t decided that the best way to deliver the reveal was through a letter.
Note to authors: telling us why and how something happened through a letter written by the perpetrator is generally not an emotionally resonant method of storytelling. Again, the tension, the suspense, the drama grinds to a freaking halt while I read a three page letter written by the villain/ess (no spoilers here) as he/she is in his/her death throes.
The romance is also not very romantic. Redvers is basically a manwhore who gets himself into trouble and knocks up Bertha, and then he is afraid to leave her because reasons so he marries her and treats her like shit. This is exactly the sort of person that I a looking for in a romantic hero. Right? I'm still trying to figure out what was wrong with alternative hero, Dick Callum, because he seemed like a fairly decent guy, even if his hotness quotient was not quite so high as that of Red.
As an Eyre retelling: fail. As a gothic/romantic suspense: fail. As a period drama: fail.
If you aren’t a Holt completist, don’t bother with this one. First you’ll be bored, then you’ll be irritated. And you'll probably hate everyone.
Victoria Holt tends to be very hit and miss. This one is a miss.
I think that, perhaps, Holt was going for an homage to Jane Eyre with this one, with Redvers as the Rochester character, the conveniently orphaned Anna as Jane, and Redver’s wife, Monique, as the ill-fated Bertha. Like Bertha, the mildly mentally ill, consumptive Monique comes from an apparently fictional island named Coralle. Bertha, of course, is from Jamaica, and is the daughter of a wealthy family.
The issues with this book start with the pacing. The plot summary is misleading in that most of the elements referenced in the summary do not appear until the 50% mark of the book. The first 50% of the book felt relatively superfluous, focusing on Anna’s childhood and young adulthood, being first sent to England without her parents, later being orphaned, and then being raised by her unpleasant, unloving, bitter Aunt Charlotte. This, again, may be an ill-advised attempt to copy Jane Eyre. Few writers have the skill to write a Jane Eyre character, and Holt fails completely.
The “meet cute” between our hero and heroine also fails. Redvers and Anna meet when she is 12 and he is 19. I can understand her romanticizing him, since he is a dashing young man. I cannot understand, and am entirely grossed out, by his apparent romanticizing of her. She was twelve. There is nothing at twelve to attract a young man of nineteen.
It isn’t until around the 55% mark that Red & Anna end up in one another’s company consistently. From there, the book devolves into a shipboard travelogue. Way too much of the narration is delivered through the diary of the third-wheel Chantel, which ground the story to a halt. The suspense/gothic elements don’t appear until around 75%, and by that time, I am done. That section could’ve actually been pretty interesting, if it had been expanded to be more of the book, and if Holt hadn’t decided that the best way to deliver the reveal was through a letter.
Note to authors: telling us why and how something happened through a letter written by the perpetrator is generally not an emotionally resonant method of storytelling. Again, the tension, the suspense, the drama grinds to a freaking halt while I read a three page letter written by the villain/ess (no spoilers here) as he/she is in his/her death throes.
The romance is also not very romantic. Redvers is basically a manwhore who gets himself into trouble and knocks up Bertha, and then he is afraid to leave her because reasons so he marries her and treats her like shit. This is exactly the sort of person that I a looking for in a romantic hero. Right? I'm still trying to figure out what was wrong with alternative hero, Dick Callum, because he seemed like a fairly decent guy, even if his hotness quotient was not quite so high as that of Red.
As an Eyre retelling: fail. As a gothic/romantic suspense: fail. As a period drama: fail.
If you aren’t a Holt completist, don’t bother with this one. First you’ll be bored, then you’ll be irritated. And you'll probably hate everyone.
July 11, 2012
Ya know, when Victoria Holt went to write a Goth Rom in 1970, she didn't mess around. Brooding architecture? Check. Native curses? Check. Swapped at birth twins? Check. Long sea voyage? Check. Evil adventuress? Check. Costume ball leading to nefarious deeds? Check and checkmate. There are only 2 real problems here - 1: If you can't figure out who the eeeeeevil doer is by about, oh, page 30 then you need more help than gothic romance can give you and 2: The denouement. Or, um, the lack thereof. It's kind of anticlimactic, you know, when you've got the whole set up and the diamonds have been found and the crazed sickly wife is raging around with her evil crazed native servant and the collapsing house in the tropics is still collapsing and the dashingly handsome sea captain has just returned from his voyage and . . and. . then, just as you're expecting a riot and the curse to come true and at least a shark attack, it all just ends. The eeeevil doer drinks poison by mistake, which fortunately leaves her time to write a three page letter detailing her deeds and give it to the somewhat dim but loyal and true heroine and then expire in a pale and glamourous way. And that's all she wrote. Damn. I was hoping for at least the house falling in or something.
September 16, 2021
Me encantan los libros de Victoria Holt, y en casa de mis padres hay muchos de ellos desperdigados por las estanterías. De vez en cuando descubro alguno que no recuerdo haber leído y lo leo (o lo releo, más bien). Eso me pasó con éste. No me sonaba el título y lo releí.
Victoria Holt tiene novelas magistrales. Es una maestra de la intriga romántica y los ambientes góticos. No son libros de alto nivel, pero son efectivos y tremendamente entretenidos. "La señora de Mellyn" puede que sea el mejor de todos los que he leído de ella, pero no es el objeto de esta reseña.
El caso es que sus historias te atrapan desde la primera página, y, aunque el esquema se repite hasta la saciedad, consigue que quieras leer todas sus novelas de un tirón.
Peeeero...(y aquí viene la pega) no ha sido así con ésta, que puede que sea una de las más flojas para mi gusto.
"La mujer secreta" arranca con el mismo esquema, como digo: la señorita de más o menos buena familia pero venida a menos, que tiene que ganarse la vida ejerciendo de institutriz o restauradora de arte o similar. Siempre es algo así. En este caso, tiene que aceptar un empleo de institutriz para la familia acaudalada de la zona.
Sin embargo, se mezclan demasiados elementos aquí. La intriga es demasiado forzada y de todos modos, se ve venir. En este caso hay dos protagonistas: Anna Brett y Chantel Spring, la enfermera. Ambas se hacen muy amigas y el relato en primera persona se va alternando de una a otra al principio del libro. Luego todo el peso vuelve a recaer sobre Anna, la protagonista habitual.
La historia romántica no tiene fuerza aquí. No existen esos diálogos chispeantes y agudos que hay en otras de sus obras. Demasiado directo todo desde el primer momento. No hay intriga en ese punto. Y, por otro lado, la trama se desarrolla en tres escenarios distintos: Inglaterra, un barco y una isla de la Polinesia. Personalmente, no me gustan nada esos cambios de escenario cuando lo que busco es una novela ambientada en la Inglaterra Victoriana, pero a las escritoras inglesas les chiflan los países exóticos, y tienen cierta tendencia a mezclar.
Total, que hay demasiados elementos, y la historia principal se queda floja, plana y previsible. Es entretenida, como siempre, pero se me ha hecho más pesada de lo normal. Para la próxima vez, espero acordarme de que esta novela ya la he leído (y no picar de nuevo).
Victoria Holt tiene novelas magistrales. Es una maestra de la intriga romántica y los ambientes góticos. No son libros de alto nivel, pero son efectivos y tremendamente entretenidos. "La señora de Mellyn" puede que sea el mejor de todos los que he leído de ella, pero no es el objeto de esta reseña.
El caso es que sus historias te atrapan desde la primera página, y, aunque el esquema se repite hasta la saciedad, consigue que quieras leer todas sus novelas de un tirón.
Peeeero...(y aquí viene la pega) no ha sido así con ésta, que puede que sea una de las más flojas para mi gusto.
"La mujer secreta" arranca con el mismo esquema, como digo: la señorita de más o menos buena familia pero venida a menos, que tiene que ganarse la vida ejerciendo de institutriz o restauradora de arte o similar. Siempre es algo así. En este caso, tiene que aceptar un empleo de institutriz para la familia acaudalada de la zona.
Sin embargo, se mezclan demasiados elementos aquí. La intriga es demasiado forzada y de todos modos, se ve venir. En este caso hay dos protagonistas: Anna Brett y Chantel Spring, la enfermera. Ambas se hacen muy amigas y el relato en primera persona se va alternando de una a otra al principio del libro. Luego todo el peso vuelve a recaer sobre Anna, la protagonista habitual.
La historia romántica no tiene fuerza aquí. No existen esos diálogos chispeantes y agudos que hay en otras de sus obras. Demasiado directo todo desde el primer momento. No hay intriga en ese punto. Y, por otro lado, la trama se desarrolla en tres escenarios distintos: Inglaterra, un barco y una isla de la Polinesia. Personalmente, no me gustan nada esos cambios de escenario cuando lo que busco es una novela ambientada en la Inglaterra Victoriana, pero a las escritoras inglesas les chiflan los países exóticos, y tienen cierta tendencia a mezclar.
Total, que hay demasiados elementos, y la historia principal se queda floja, plana y previsible. Es entretenida, como siempre, pero se me ha hecho más pesada de lo normal. Para la próxima vez, espero acordarme de que esta novela ya la he leído (y no picar de nuevo).
October 22, 2018
Günümüzde okuduğum çoğu yazarsan iyi yazıyor. Okuduğum üçüncü kitabı bunu da begendim. Kitapçıya sorduğumda Barbara Cartland gibi yazıyor demişti. Ben de hayır onun gibi yazmıyor dedim zira Cartland bildiğimiz masal yazıyordu.. Victoria Holt un kalemi daha keskin...
May 3, 2020
3.5 stars rounded down. I enjoyed this, but by the end, it was getting tedious. This isn't one of Victoria Holt's best books, and I'm a big fan.
The good: the excellent descriptions, character building (though it wasn't as strong as other books of hers), family drama and secrets are all here. And in this book, we get to follow the heroine to many different locations around the globe on board a ship, likely inspired by VH's own love of cruising. We also get a chapter mostly from the point of view of another character.
But if you aren't already a big VH fan, this is not one I would recommend starting with. For starters, the heroine's hand-wringing and worrying gets repetitive as hell. Secondly, the spookiness factor is very low. I love when VH does a super creepy setting and she just didn't hit the mark here with that. The book had gothic elements sure, but it was more about the heroine's dramatic star-crossed love story than it was about any serious Gothic suspense. I suspect some readers will find this very boring.
I figured out what was probably going on very early, and looking back, I do think that this affected my enjoyment of the book. By the end, the story was dragging and I was sorely needing a mega dramatic ending. It felt like it was taking too long to get to what I thought was the obvious conclusion, and then it got there and just ... that was that.
(Cover note: My cover looks just like this one, except it's baby blue instead of Pepto Bismol pink. At some point they were putting out all kinds of oddly pastel-colored versions of the VH "bodice ripper makeover" covers of the 80s.)
The good: the excellent descriptions, character building (though it wasn't as strong as other books of hers), family drama and secrets are all here. And in this book, we get to follow the heroine to many different locations around the globe on board a ship, likely inspired by VH's own love of cruising. We also get a chapter mostly from the point of view of another character.
But if you aren't already a big VH fan, this is not one I would recommend starting with. For starters, the heroine's hand-wringing and worrying gets repetitive as hell. Secondly, the spookiness factor is very low. I love when VH does a super creepy setting and she just didn't hit the mark here with that. The book had gothic elements sure, but it was more about the heroine's dramatic star-crossed love story than it was about any serious Gothic suspense. I suspect some readers will find this very boring.
I figured out what was probably going on very early, and looking back, I do think that this affected my enjoyment of the book. By the end, the story was dragging and I was sorely needing a mega dramatic ending. It felt like it was taking too long to get to what I thought was the obvious conclusion, and then it got there and just ... that was that.
(Cover note: My cover looks just like this one, except it's baby blue instead of Pepto Bismol pink. At some point they were putting out all kinds of oddly pastel-colored versions of the VH "bodice ripper makeover" covers of the 80s.)
November 15, 2010
It's been a very long time since I read a Victoria Holt book. I was a big fan of hers back when I was in my twenties, but don't remember now what I've read and what I haven't. Anyway, once I started this, I remembered why I loved her so much. However, towards the end the story began to drag for me, and when it was over I was glad to be able to move on to something else. I don't remember feeling that way about Holt before.
September 15, 2019
I have read all of the books by Victoria Holt, Jean Plaidy, and Philippa Carr but it was over 20 years ago. It's fun to re-read them. If you like historical fiction and mystery, books by Victoria Holt books are one of the best.
abandoned
May 12, 2014I am just too bored (nothing is happening) and there are too many patrons waiting behind me for library copies.
September 8, 2021
Wow…not only was there a secret woman, there was also a secret man and several women and men WITH secrets! This book was wild time. I loved the authors Victorian-era like narration. Her setting descriptions as well as dialogues were always very on-theme with the novel and I felt very transported while reading! Looking forward to reading more by Holt!
July 8, 2024
Like all of Victoria Holt’s books, it’s pretty racist and very pro-colonial, so, you know, caveat lector.
That aside, I’m increasingly convinced that, while Miss Holt’s male/female relationships are generally not hugely compelling and pretty flat, her female/female relationships are both more dynamic and much more ambiguous, both in terms of whether or not the relationship is actually good, and whether or not it’s romantic. The relationship between the heroine (whose name escapes me) and Chantal, the beautiful and exciting angel of mercy who nursed the heroine’s aunt, feels much more romantic than the heroine’s relationship with the hero, who basically just pops up occasionally to talk about how much he’s in love with the heroine and how his wife is terrible and he’ll marry the heroine when the wife finally dies. I mean, he does it in more romantic terms, but it’s still really bad, especially since most of his wife’s problems are presented in really racial terms. Which is... not great. Anyway, the hero and heroine have maybe five exchanges over the course of the book, and so I didn’t find the romance that compelling or believable.
In contrast, the majority of the book is devoted to the relationship between the heroine and Chantal. Much time is spent outlining their dependence on each other and the extent to which they are involved in each other’s lives. It’s very difficult to read an not think that the two women are at least half in love with each other. It is also this relationship that brings out some of the most sophisticated mystery and suspense writing I’ve ever seen by Miss Holt, as well as the only use of the unreliable narrator that I’ve ever seen in a romance novel.
That aside, I’m increasingly convinced that, while Miss Holt’s male/female relationships are generally not hugely compelling and pretty flat, her female/female relationships are both more dynamic and much more ambiguous, both in terms of whether or not the relationship is actually good, and whether or not it’s romantic. The relationship between the heroine (whose name escapes me) and Chantal, the beautiful and exciting angel of mercy who nursed the heroine’s aunt, feels much more romantic than the heroine’s relationship with the hero, who basically just pops up occasionally to talk about how much he’s in love with the heroine and how his wife is terrible and he’ll marry the heroine when the wife finally dies. I mean, he does it in more romantic terms, but it’s still really bad, especially since most of his wife’s problems are presented in really racial terms. Which is... not great. Anyway, the hero and heroine have maybe five exchanges over the course of the book, and so I didn’t find the romance that compelling or believable.
In contrast, the majority of the book is devoted to the relationship between the heroine and Chantal. Much time is spent outlining their dependence on each other and the extent to which they are involved in each other’s lives. It’s very difficult to read an not think that the two women are at least half in love with each other. It is also this relationship that brings out some of the most sophisticated mystery and suspense writing I’ve ever seen by Miss Holt, as well as the only use of the unreliable narrator that I’ve ever seen in a romance novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 4, 2016
Although The Secret Woman is only my second book by her, I must say that Victoria Holt is one of the queens of Gothic romance. I love the old English mansions and good old fashioned murder mysteries mingled with very conservative, yet somehow still passionate, romances. In this particular novel, I felt like us readers were given some pretty awesome bonus features on top of the typical recipe for gothic romance...
Not only did we get the cool old mansion full of antique furniture and collectibles (seems perfect for a haunting, right?) and a castle built by a family of great wealth and power with dark secrets in excess; but we also got a voyage across the seas to an exotic island. There's just something about stolen moments with a handsome (and unavailable) captain on a ship out at sea that makes a girl feel a little whimsical. While I enjoyed the parts of the book that were set in England, I must say that the island alone could have made the book a success with its witchy natives, malevolent curses and superstitions, and foreboding atmosphere. I also found the romance between Captain Stretton and Anna Brett to be more suspenseful in itself than what is found in most romance novels, but that actually really added to my enjoyment of the book overall. As many readers pointed out, it was extremely easy to identify the "villain" of the story, but that's really my only complaint.
If you're craving gothic romance, this is sure to hit the spot!
☆☆☆☆
Not only did we get the cool old mansion full of antique furniture and collectibles (seems perfect for a haunting, right?) and a castle built by a family of great wealth and power with dark secrets in excess; but we also got a voyage across the seas to an exotic island. There's just something about stolen moments with a handsome (and unavailable) captain on a ship out at sea that makes a girl feel a little whimsical. While I enjoyed the parts of the book that were set in England, I must say that the island alone could have made the book a success with its witchy natives, malevolent curses and superstitions, and foreboding atmosphere. I also found the romance between Captain Stretton and Anna Brett to be more suspenseful in itself than what is found in most romance novels, but that actually really added to my enjoyment of the book overall. As many readers pointed out, it was extremely easy to identify the "villain" of the story, but that's really my only complaint.
If you're craving gothic romance, this is sure to hit the spot!
☆☆☆☆
February 23, 2024
This is another book by a favorite author,Victoria Holt. This is the first I have read by her in quite a while. This one was very good, with many twists and turns. I thought I had figured it out several times along the way but it was always not quite right but often, almost right. I thought it to be a little slow at times but the ending was quite good.
April 3, 2016
Books written by Victoria Holt are so cheesy, but sometimes that's exactly what you need. I've read a loooot of her books when I was 14/15 years old..that was the last time I've read them. I absolutely loved them at the time. I'm thinking of reading one of her books just for the old times sake! =)
March 1, 2024
Victoria Holt definitely never got over Jane Eyre because The Secret Woman has another Caribbean wife squirreled away (kind of) and a hemmed-in heroine. This one was odd because the POV was shared between two women, and the guy was absent 80% of the time. Not my favorite of hers, but worth the read.
January 6, 2022
Maybe you shouldn’t go back and read a favorite book from high school. It was okay, just not as good as I recall.
June 1, 2019
Not the usual Victoria Holt read. It wasn't a bad story -- but lagged. Hints as to the outcome are there throughout the book, but there was maybe a little more repetition than was needed. It's not a quick read, not if you want to enjoy the descriptions and work on solving the mystery. That is part of what makes it enjoyable.
October 3, 2019
The Secret Woman had all the components to make a great read. It has the forbidden love, the Agatha Christie-like murder mystery, and characters you love to hate. However, somehow I found myself unenthused for about 390 pages. Even the moments when she comes into contact with her love interest (and believe me, they’re scarce) it’s just so...lukewarm.
I had much higher hopes for this one. Really unfortunate.
I had much higher hopes for this one. Really unfortunate.
April 17, 2014
3.5 stars
Lately I’ve been on a old school Gothic romance kick. I recently read The Mistress of Mellyn and the India Fan both by Victoria Holt. All of her novels follow a similar formula but for me, that formula never gets old.
This book had an exotic feel. I loved the setting and the high seas adventures. The South Seas is such a romantic and enchanting setting for a novel like this. I thought it worked well! It made the reader feel like they were on an adventure as well.
Comparatively, the house where Anna is living at in Langmouth is dingy and unexciting. Since Anna’s life before she accepts the post is so drab, the South Seas adventure seems even more colorful and exciting.
The characters were likable enough. Anna was the sensible heroine which I always have a soft spot for. Captain Stretton was dashing and wonderfully charming…though I was a little creeped out that he was into Anna even when she was a child, that was a little weird but I could justify it as more of a connection versus as sexual attraction.
Chantel on the other hand I never liked her. I never trusted her and I just could never warm up to her. I couldn’t stand how Anna adored her, that was beyond annoying for me.
The mystery was interesting, though at times predictable, I still found it worth reading. This book was a little slower than some of the others I’ve read by her. It took a little while for the ‘adventure’ to begin and I didn’t always feel that Anna was in ‘danger’.
The murderer was obvious, but the real mystery was more about the ‘why’. The motives of the murderer weren’t exactly clear for me. The motive was clear but the overall plot wasn’t quite as clear as I had hoped….I still wasn’t sure how Aunt Charlotte tied into it all.
Overall the novel held my interest and it was a nice lighthearted read. Enough substance and mystery to keep me guessing and wondering what the big ‘secret’ was.
This wasn’t as Gothic as some of her other novels but it certainly had Gothic influence….the deranged wife and a shocking family secret, not to mention a femme fatal! So over all this book had a lot to love.
If you are a Victoria Holt fan or a fan of the romantic/Gothic suspense genre then I am sure you will find lots to enjoy in this exotic novel!
See my full review here
Lately I’ve been on a old school Gothic romance kick. I recently read The Mistress of Mellyn and the India Fan both by Victoria Holt. All of her novels follow a similar formula but for me, that formula never gets old.
This book had an exotic feel. I loved the setting and the high seas adventures. The South Seas is such a romantic and enchanting setting for a novel like this. I thought it worked well! It made the reader feel like they were on an adventure as well.
Comparatively, the house where Anna is living at in Langmouth is dingy and unexciting. Since Anna’s life before she accepts the post is so drab, the South Seas adventure seems even more colorful and exciting.
The characters were likable enough. Anna was the sensible heroine which I always have a soft spot for. Captain Stretton was dashing and wonderfully charming…though I was a little creeped out that he was into Anna even when she was a child, that was a little weird but I could justify it as more of a connection versus as sexual attraction.
Chantel on the other hand I never liked her. I never trusted her and I just could never warm up to her. I couldn’t stand how Anna adored her, that was beyond annoying for me.
The mystery was interesting, though at times predictable, I still found it worth reading. This book was a little slower than some of the others I’ve read by her. It took a little while for the ‘adventure’ to begin and I didn’t always feel that Anna was in ‘danger’.
The murderer was obvious, but the real mystery was more about the ‘why’. The motives of the murderer weren’t exactly clear for me. The motive was clear but the overall plot wasn’t quite as clear as I had hoped….I still wasn’t sure how Aunt Charlotte tied into it all.
Overall the novel held my interest and it was a nice lighthearted read. Enough substance and mystery to keep me guessing and wondering what the big ‘secret’ was.
This wasn’t as Gothic as some of her other novels but it certainly had Gothic influence….the deranged wife and a shocking family secret, not to mention a femme fatal! So over all this book had a lot to love.
If you are a Victoria Holt fan or a fan of the romantic/Gothic suspense genre then I am sure you will find lots to enjoy in this exotic novel!
See my full review here
April 19, 2016
4 and 1/2 Stars! Gothic Romance with Many Secrets and a Sail to the South Seas
First published in 1970, this is a wonderful story that begins in England but eventually sweeps you to the South Pacific. Set in the late 19th century in the Victorian era, it’s the story of Anna Brett who was born in India but whose parents sent her to live with her maiden Aunt Charlotte, an antique dealer who populates her old house with furniture in the process of being sold.
Anna’s one solace is her friend Chantal Loman, the beautiful nurse who tends Anna’s ailing aunt. When Aunt Charlotte suddenly dies, Anna takes a job suggested by Chantel, as a governess in the home of a wealthy English family in the shipping business. The family has two sons, one legitimate, Rex Crediton, and one a bastard, Redvers Stretton. Anna is very attracted to Red, but then she learns he is married.
Rex is the heir apparent, consumed with the business, but Red is not unhappy about that since he loves his ships and the sea. It was on one of those South Pacific islands, however, where Red met his wife, and island beauty whose family forced him to wed her when she came up pregnant.
In this fascinating story, it seemed everyone harbored secrets, even Anna, who hid from her friend her love for Red Stretton. And even though I knew Chantel was capable of doing wrong to accomplish her purposes, I was surprised at all the twists at the end.
Holt did a good job of bringing us into the drama and the places to which the characters traveled. I could feel the heat of the island and Anna’s exhilaration with the wind on her face while they were at sea. As she and Red finally admitted their love, I could feel her emotion at finding herself in love with another woman’s husband.
No one does Victorian suspense and mystery like Holt and this is a great one!
First published in 1970, this is a wonderful story that begins in England but eventually sweeps you to the South Pacific. Set in the late 19th century in the Victorian era, it’s the story of Anna Brett who was born in India but whose parents sent her to live with her maiden Aunt Charlotte, an antique dealer who populates her old house with furniture in the process of being sold.
Anna’s one solace is her friend Chantal Loman, the beautiful nurse who tends Anna’s ailing aunt. When Aunt Charlotte suddenly dies, Anna takes a job suggested by Chantel, as a governess in the home of a wealthy English family in the shipping business. The family has two sons, one legitimate, Rex Crediton, and one a bastard, Redvers Stretton. Anna is very attracted to Red, but then she learns he is married.
Rex is the heir apparent, consumed with the business, but Red is not unhappy about that since he loves his ships and the sea. It was on one of those South Pacific islands, however, where Red met his wife, and island beauty whose family forced him to wed her when she came up pregnant.
In this fascinating story, it seemed everyone harbored secrets, even Anna, who hid from her friend her love for Red Stretton. And even though I knew Chantel was capable of doing wrong to accomplish her purposes, I was surprised at all the twists at the end.
Holt did a good job of bringing us into the drama and the places to which the characters traveled. I could feel the heat of the island and Anna’s exhilaration with the wind on her face while they were at sea. As she and Red finally admitted their love, I could feel her emotion at finding herself in love with another woman’s husband.
No one does Victorian suspense and mystery like Holt and this is a great one!
November 22, 2019
I started this series when I was in my twenties but only read ones here and there so decided a couple of years ago that I would start from the beginning and read all of the books under the pen name Victoria Holt. She is a master of the gothic mystery/romance. This one starts in England, her favorite location, but then the two friends travel by ship to the South Pacific, one as a nurse to the Captain's wife, and one as a governess to his son. I really did not see the ending coming. I will continue to read her books when I need a break from the more tense mysteries and crime books that I read.
May 26, 2020
The backstory on this took too long to get through, but by that time you’ve committed 100 pages+, so I hung on thinking that the action would begin. Then, I had moral issues with the underlying theme. I thought the story was going to be a little less repulsive, but I guess I should have paid more attention to the title. This book went in the trash after I was done - not even worthy to be passed on.
June 19, 2020
So you love a good romance, but are tired of the graphic sex scenes? Try Victoria Holt. Her books went out of fashion when readers demanded explicit sex, but now, I see that many women are tired of them. Time to dust off some oldies.
July 4, 2022
Esta es una historia sencilla, pero con misterios que te mantienen atento todo el tiempo. Definitivamente, lo mejor es el final: digno de un thriller.
Mi instinto no me falló en cuanto a la naturaleza de los personajes.
Mi instinto no me falló en cuanto a la naturaleza de los personajes.
March 4, 2008
gripping.... one word to describe this book.... very amazing would read it over and over again
October 13, 2009
This was excellent! I love the twist ending. This was a page turner and so much about the characters was not so obvious.
March 25, 2014
My review for this book will be posted on Romancing The Book Blog soon!
August 9, 2017
Kind of slow but so many crazy reveals at the end. That's what I love about Victoria holt, what seems so ordinary and almost boring becomes something so unexpected. Always a twist!!
October 21, 2017
Secret Woman
It took a while for me to get involved in the story, but when I did, it was difficult to put down. Guessing until the end.
It took a while for me to get involved in the story, but when I did, it was difficult to put down. Guessing until the end.
July 19, 2018
4 volumes
23 chapters
355 pages
First let me begin this review by saying that I read this book back in 2012. However, after I read a book, I always try to write out my feelings on the story when I finish. Sometimes, I’m moved to write a great deal to type up later. Other times, I just feel up to writing a very basic review. I never intended for it to take me almost six YEARS to get it on my GoodReads account, but it has. Obviously, by now, I don’t really remember much about the story, though sometimes my notes help jog my memory. So, if the following review doesn’t really say much or deal too much with the story or plot, that’s probably because I wasn’t moved by one or the other or both to write more than I did. However, such as it is I give to you.
My Review—Intricate weave to a very good tale. The heroine, Anna Brett, is thrust into an orphan’s life with a dour old-maid aunt, even though, for several years, her parents are alive and well and living in India. But her mother was too silly to be an unselfish mother and her father too doting on the mother to care about his plain daughter. So, she lives with her aunt and learns her aunt’s trade: antique sales. It’s at her aunt’s house she has the chance to meet Redvers, who turns out to be the hero of the story and her love interest, though he’s married to a woman with whom he’d had a “moment of indiscretion” and then was obliged to marry her, two-months pregnant. As if the love triangle weren’t complicated enough, Victoria Holt throws in suspicious deaths, blackmail, a mystery surrounding missing diamonds, a patriarch who seems to’ve had a problem keeping out of other women’s beds and siring half of England (a bit of an exaggeration, I’ll own, but not much), a jealous wife, and an overly helpful nurse with beauty and brains (that prove to be a very bad pairing, especially when combined with ambition, greed, and the selfish audacity to do anything to get what she wants).
All in all, an excellent story and a good love story fraught with drama and suspense but delivered up at the end with a happy finale. (Though this was my second time reading this story, it was long enough between readings that I didn’t remember how it ended. I was pleasantly surprised. As I read, bits and pieces would come to me (“didn’t she do this?” or “wasn’t he married?”) and then, a couple chapters later, I’d learn my recollection(s) was (were) right. But the ending still remained elusive and caught me by surprise.)
Grade: A
23 chapters
355 pages
First let me begin this review by saying that I read this book back in 2012. However, after I read a book, I always try to write out my feelings on the story when I finish. Sometimes, I’m moved to write a great deal to type up later. Other times, I just feel up to writing a very basic review. I never intended for it to take me almost six YEARS to get it on my GoodReads account, but it has. Obviously, by now, I don’t really remember much about the story, though sometimes my notes help jog my memory. So, if the following review doesn’t really say much or deal too much with the story or plot, that’s probably because I wasn’t moved by one or the other or both to write more than I did. However, such as it is I give to you.
My Review—Intricate weave to a very good tale. The heroine, Anna Brett, is thrust into an orphan’s life with a dour old-maid aunt, even though, for several years, her parents are alive and well and living in India. But her mother was too silly to be an unselfish mother and her father too doting on the mother to care about his plain daughter. So, she lives with her aunt and learns her aunt’s trade: antique sales. It’s at her aunt’s house she has the chance to meet Redvers, who turns out to be the hero of the story and her love interest, though he’s married to a woman with whom he’d had a “moment of indiscretion” and then was obliged to marry her, two-months pregnant. As if the love triangle weren’t complicated enough, Victoria Holt throws in suspicious deaths, blackmail, a mystery surrounding missing diamonds, a patriarch who seems to’ve had a problem keeping out of other women’s beds and siring half of England (a bit of an exaggeration, I’ll own, but not much), a jealous wife, and an overly helpful nurse with beauty and brains (that prove to be a very bad pairing, especially when combined with ambition, greed, and the selfish audacity to do anything to get what she wants).
All in all, an excellent story and a good love story fraught with drama and suspense but delivered up at the end with a happy finale. (Though this was my second time reading this story, it was long enough between readings that I didn’t remember how it ended. I was pleasantly surprised. As I read, bits and pieces would come to me (“didn’t she do this?” or “wasn’t he married?”) and then, a couple chapters later, I’d learn my recollection(s) was (were) right. But the ending still remained elusive and caught me by surprise.)
Grade: A
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