Keeping You a Secret

I bought this book for my Kindle ages ago. Ages and ages. I finally got around to reading it.I don't really go through my Kindle that often, except when I swear I can't find anything to read among my six billion physical books. This time, I think I decided to read this one as I waited at one of my doctor's appointments and needed a book to read, and I didn't have one with me, so I used the Kindle app on my phone. I wanted something light and fun, a contemporary that would make me smile and feel all kinds of feelings.So I picked Keeping You a Secret. I thought it would be a great contemporary with a sweet f/f relationship. Luckily, it really did have a cute relationship, so I was on board with that. There are just a lot of other things about this book that I wasn't really feeling, though.“Cut the ending. Revise the script. The man of her dreams is a girl.”Holland Jaeger is not only student council president, she also has friends and an amazing boyfriend whom she loves, and who loves her. To everyone else, her life is perfect. To Holland? Not so much.Holland isn't sure what school she wants to go to. She isn't sure what she wants to do with her boyfriend. She just isn't sure.And then she meets Cece. Cece comes to her school and takes Holland by surprise, watching her at her locker, and making Holland feel...unsure. While being unsure isn't exactly something new to Holland, she's questioning her sexuality now.Since Holland knows what happens to girls and guys who come out - they get tormented - she isn't sure she wants anyone to know about the feelings she's developing. Cece, on the other hand, does everything she can to protect Holland from the scrutiny that she faces by trying to keep her at a distance in public - as though they are only friends.“Yet, when we talked, when we were together, she seemed so familiar. Seemed to know who I was, where I was coming from. She knew me better than I knew myself, I think. She was easy to be with. And I wanted to be with her, like all the time.”But Holland and Cece both want more than friendship. And Holland is falling fast."They got it wrong when they called it 'the closet.' This was a prison. Solitary confinement. I was locked inside myself, dark and afraid and alone."When the truth does come out, Holland's former friends are the least of her worries. Holland's mother, who constantly tells her about her own poor choices as a teenager (i.e. getting pregnant with Holland and actually keeping the baby), doesn't like the idea of Holland being with Cece. She liked Holland's ex just fine, but that's because he was a guy. Holland's mom loses her mind when she finds out that she is actually dating Cece, and Holland feels more lost and alone than ever."'It's about getting past that question of what's wrong with me, to knowing there's nothing wrong, that you were born this way. You're a normal person and a beautiful person and you should be proud of who you are. You deserve to live and live with dignity and show people your pride.'"But Cece helps her stay on track. She helps Holland get back to herself, remember who she is, and helps her learn that she is perfect just the way she is. She encourages Holland to embrace who she is, even if those around her don't agree, don't understand.Keeping You a Secret was a good story. It was sweet, and it dealt with a lot of issues, such as questioning sexuality, coming out, and dealing with how parents react. It also deals with topics such as homelessness and the loss of friends, as well as depression. I loved the relationship between the two girls.I honestly don't remember the name of Holland's boyfriend, well ex-boyfriend, I guess, because he didn't stand out. He just felt like a cookie-cutter boyfriend/ex boyfriend who is angry.I also despised Holland's mother from the first moment I came across her in this book. Who tells their child that they regret having them?! And then, not to mention how she treats her when she finds out that she is dating a girl...what was that? It truly sickens me that there are many parents out there who actually act this way towards their children when they come out. I came out as bisexual when I was fifteen - to my friends, and to my mom a year later. Now, it isn't something that I hide. It often comes up in conversation with my own daughters when they hear someone say a word, or when I explain to them what LGBTQ+ stands for. Like I said, I never dealt with any kind of backlash about my sexuality, and I would never be the kind of mother who would do that with her kids, either. So it just astounds me that some parents do this.Anyway, back on track. I'm done ranting now.While I did enjoy this book, I guess it felt kind of...short? in some areas. I wanted more - especially at the end. I wanted to see what happened next, and I felt like it ended at kind of an awkward place.While I liked this, I can't say that it really satisfied my "I need a sweet and cute romance with no heavy stuff" kind of book, because of all the negativity and...well...heavy stuff. It definitely did have a lovely romance going on with Holland and Cece, but the name calling, shaming, and horrible parenting thing just made it feel less like what I was hoping for. The worst part is is that I didn't feel like it was handled like it should have been. I think the author could have written some situations better than others to make the story more believable and easier to follow.

Well written story about a young woman's journey in discovering love and herself and how fraught that can be. I enjoyed this one.

What an eye opener. I found this story really good and readable. The best part for me is how she brought in the struggles all, or rather most homosexual people go through. She writes about the inner struggles, and how differently each person handles it, how it effects one's day to day living, how parents handle it and of course the public. Some people have it worst than others, but how they all help each other in various ways to get through everything and helping one another manage their difficulties.I love how she made Seth such a decent honest guy, to show that being gay is not always influenced by bad relationships and the fact that Holland had a not to bad step dad in which most cases they are usually bad and take sexual advances. In this story that is just simply not the case.I love how Cece and her family supports Holland and that Faith (of all people) becomes such a good character in the story. Where we actually get to know her true self. How one should not judge a book by it's cover but accept each other for who you are. Unfortunately I thought that Holland's friends would turn out still to be her best friends and accept her for who she has become, but that also shows another quite honest truth about getting out of the closet.All in all I really loved and enjoyed the story. It was a really nice read. And to be honest, I couldn't put the book down. A HAD to finish it. I think I expected the ending to be a bit different, but in the end I really do not have a complaint what so ever.I would really encourage people to read this book as it brought joy to my world.

When I was 19, my ex-girlfriend in college passed this book onto me. I read it one night. I'm a learning disabled author, so reading is difficult for me. It makes me picky about what I invest my time on to read. This book was life. It became the treasure around our GSA. We passed it around to everyone, and by the end, we'd forgotten who originally owned the copy. The story also served as a foreshadowing of what would happen when one of our members came out and got kicked out. Not only did this book help me realize I wanted to write YA LGBTQ+ Fiction, but it also helped us understand the value of support systems and what showing up looked like. This is so much more than a book for me. This story is a piece of my history and has characters that are so relatable, open, vulnerable, and honest. The novel was coming of age and helped me in a time where I was still figuring out who I was. If you haven't ready Keeping You a Secret yet... well, I don't know what you're waiting for.

I purchased this, trying to dig myself out of the fantasy rut that I had firmly put myself in and went on a complete blind turn. Turns out this was quite an enjoyable read.It was definitely written for people of a younger age than me (20 years) but the subject matter involved is thought provoking enough for anyone into the twenties and possibly older. The story of a young girl in school who is finding her sexuality and finding herself. The characters are good and well thought and the story has its merits. It carries an awkward topic, a topic many people find taboo, and places firmly in a situation we all know very well, the school life of a a teenager.This story is short enough but sweet along the way and it had me empathizing with the characters well until the book ended.It has been a while since I actually read the book as I bought it some years ago now but the story etched itself into my mind as being one that I thoroughly enjoyed and one that I would go back to read soon... In fact I'll pick it up now and I advise you do the same, however old you are!

'Keeping You A Secret' has been called the successor to Nancy Garden's 'Annie On My Mind' - I beg to differ. The two books both deal with similar themes (coming out, LGBT rights, discrimination, first love) but they deal with the subjects very differently, and they're set in completely different times. 'Annie On My Mind' deals with coming out in a homophobic but somewhat progressive American private school in the 1980's, whereas 'Keeping You A Secret' deals with coming out in a homophobic but somewhat progressive American non-fee-paying school in the 21st century. Although they deal with almost exactly the same situation, they do it in completely different ways. Whereas 'Annie' is the story of finding your feet and coming to terms with the fact you're a lesbian in a society that isn't likely to accept you straight away, it focuses much more on the relationship between Annie and Liza, and I think it paints a better and more realistic picture of a first relationship, 'Keeping You A Secret' focuses far more on LGBT rights and issues - portrayed through the character of Cece, who is a tad too stereotypical for my likings.Where 'Annie' won my heart by having likeable, realistic characters who I could relate to and who I wanted to see happy, the character of Cece in 'Keeping You A Secret' really put me off. She is out there to the point of offence, almost to the point where she's shouting "Have I mentioned yet today that I'm gay!? Because I am! I'm really, really gay! And you all have to know about it!". Yes, recognising that gay people exist is important, but screaming it in people's faces is very off-putting. Yes, it's a stage some of us go through when coming out to really solidify our identities to ourselves and our peers, but unless you're the one doing it it can be rather awkward. She was almost entirely defined by her sexuality, which is just objectively wrong in a book for LGBT youth - it should be highlighted that sexuality isn't the be all and end all of of your personality, it's just one little bit! I may be judging her unfairly, but I found her character not so likeable, which I find lets down the romance between her and Holland.Another problem I have with 'Keeping You A Secret' is the treatment of male characters. There are pretty much only two male characters worth mentioning - Holland's boyfriend Seth, and her mother's partner. Upon coming out and splitting up with Seth, Seth goes nuts and becomes completely and irredeemably evil. Yes, it is understandable why he would be very angry at Holland, but the extent the author goes to to show how awful and homophobic he is makes you wonder why Holland ever went out with him in the first place, if he's such an awful and horrible person. Holland's mother's partner, whose name I've forgotten, is basically completely useless and pointless. There is no point to his character. He is completely ineffectual. He only exists to establish that Holland's mother is heterosexual and to introduce his gothic daughter for Holland to mock in her mind (which is pretty horrible - it's an LGBT youth novel, isn't it supposed to be accepting of all minorities?). When Holland's mother kicks her out, he does nothing to stop it besides protesting for like two seconds, even though they've been shown to be on good terms. It was never indicated that he would be homophobic enough to condone kicking a child out of their home before. It would have been better handled if he'd helped Holland secretly afterwards, or been shown to be working on her mother to try and make her see things differently. So what is this novel saying about men? That they're either evil or ineffectual? This is another point where 'Annie' is much better - there are more male characters, notably Liza's father and brother, who are much more sympathetic than the men in 'Keeping You A Secret', and are characterised far better. Liza's little brother reacts like my little brother did to my coming out - with nervousness, uncertainty how to react, but determination to stick up for his sister no matter what. How her parents will react is one of Liza's major concerns (thus accurately reflecting one of the biggest concerns of LGBT youth) and her father's reaction was much more logical and well characterised than I expected. The other boys in the story do act with a greater range of emotions to Liza's coming out, as expected, but there is a reason behind it other than "they're the designated bad guy you're supposed to dislike".'Keeping You A Secret' is unashamedly preachy. Or at least, I found it to be so. As I suggested before, this is characterised very much through Cece, who is out to the point of being obnoxious, and her previous girlfriend who is portrayed negatively for becoming more active in supporting other LGBT students. That raised my eyebrow. But it's mainly preachy in that everyone who is against Holland and Cece is B-A-D bad without looking at the reasons they object to their relationship or sexuality in proper depth - they're just designated bad guys, or if they do have reasons they're very shallow. I suppose this is accurate for some people in real life, but these are the kind of people who can be changed, rather than those who have such deep-seated hatred that they would take years to realise that sexuality is only one aspect of a character. In contrast, 'Annie' is the opposite - it demonstrates through the trial that happens at the climax of the book that all of the concerns (religious, moral, etc.) have no bearing on anything, and that discrimination is wrong and can be overcome with common sense. It makes you think more about why the characters who oppose Liza do it, and though they are the bad guys, you can understand better why they are bad because of it - they're also bad for other reasons, other than just opposing homosexuality. It doesn't shove any message in your face.I know I pick up some books for LBGT teens looking for advice on life, sex, relationships, coming out to people, school, etc, but I think this book actually might scare some people back into the closet. The way Holland's mother reacts is a reality for some people, but is not the reality for all people.Okay, so I've pretty much listed my major complains with 'Keeping You A Secret', so here are the good bits: Holland is a character you can relate to, and you can understand her position and her choices. She's put in a situation which a lot of young people find themselves in - choosing between their popularity and friends or being themselves. I can't really think of many good things to say about this book, and other reviewers have said already what is good about it in more detail than I have. I didn't enjoy it as much as I have other books aimed at LGBT youth, but it was okay. Just okay.

It was readable, though I wouldn't read it again. Echoing others, Cece isn't likable whatsoever, she's flirtatious, but actually really annoying. I get that it's supposed to be a coming-out story, but given that this is aimed at teenagers who are probably trying to come out, having Holland's mum react in the way she did was a bit harsh- most parents wouldn't react THAT badly and it's probably going to scare a lot of readers back into the closet. Holland's hunger/obsession with Cece was well-written and did portray what it's like to fall in love, so the first half of the book was good. But once they'd kissed, everything happened extremely fast, they'd literally kissed once or twice and they were already telling each other they loved each other, without any real further build up of their relationship. And then the book just ended completely at random. The writing style was good though, short, impacting sentences etc. Not bad, but not as good as Annie on my mind.

I wish there had been something of this calibre out there when I was coming of age and wished to express my identity. For so many who struggled to express how they found joy and strength in acknowledgement of their lesbianism but such difficulty with others disparagement. I think this book would help many young women begin to identify the path they might take in coming out.

Really enjoyed this read. A good drawn out story where the main characters are believable. Writers need to be aware that some of us do not know how the American eduction system works, but that does not spoil the story in my view.Could have made more of their first night together, but all in all a good read.Can we have part two please as I think there is more to this story that remains untold.