Everyone has secrets.
YouTube baking sensation April Masterson knows the secret to the perfect gooey brownies. Or how to make key lime squares that will melt in your mouth. But if you keep watching her offline, you may find out some other secrets about April. Secrets she’d rather you didn’t know.
Like where did her son go when he snuck out of the house? What was she doing with the local soccer coach behind fogged windows? And what’s buried in her backyard?
Everyone has secrets. Some are worse than others. April’s secrets are enough to destroy her.
I’ll make sure of that.
April The Word Witch
Want To Know a Secret?
by Author Frieda McFadden
Genre: Psychological Suspense, Suspense, Mystery
399 pages
Published by Hollywood Upstairs Press, January 5, 2021
My Review
“I’m worried they might be… in danger.”
“From April?” He snorts. “What’s she gonna do–bake them into a pie?”
Want To Know a Secret? by Frieda McFadden is a suspenseful mystery story about a woman named April with a semi-popular YouTube channel who has much deeper secrets than the “sweet” ones she shares with her viewers. All in all, it held my interest and kept me guessing, but the random and sudden POV change toward the end of the story was jarring and misplaced. And don’t get me started on that epilogue.
I liked that the main character was named April and that she liked to bake. I too am an April who likes to bake, and like fictional April, I think I have all these briliant baking secrets myself. No YouTube show, though… sadly. I like when I can relate to a character, right off the bat. Going into this story I felt it had so much promise and potential. Plus, the reviews had me convinced that this was THEE book to read right now. I also appreciated and snickered at all the adjectives used to describe April, moreover that she seemed sweet but was really evil. I’ve heard that about myself, once or twice! I felt a kinship toward the character.
I no longer felt that relation as the story continued and devolved into hours-long PTA meetings (for pre-schoolers) and concerns over the dresscode at school drop-off. I saw more fire come from some of these women over what other women were wearing, than I did when they learned about various infidelities. April had me convinced Julie was uppity until the POV switched — and speaking of which, why was it so late in the story? I get that her POV was necessary to tie up some loose strings, but that late in the book had me feeling like I was reading another story, and I pretty much was.
The ending I read three times. The first two, I was beyond confused — in fairness it was 3 AM and my eyes were heavy with sleep, but I finally figured it out and had an OMG moment. And like they say, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree!
I’m having difficulty rating this book because it certainly held my interest, even if I was swearing under my breath and repeating, “this would never happen in a million years,” over and over. For example, these women were on the wealthy side/upper middle class yet the author painted a picture of their neighhborhood looking more like mine, with the houses side by side, and an ability to look through into the house through a neighbor’s window. In my neighborhood, houses are spaced apart only by single car driveways. I can see into my neighbors’ kitchens, etc, but not with the pinpoint accuracy that these women can view, nor do I have the ability to see around corners and through doors, and let me tell you, there’s quite a bit of that toward the end which is unfortunate because the story really becomes an absolute page-turner in those last scenes, so the last thing I want is to be taken out of the story, even for a moment, to ponder how these women suddenly have developed X-Ray vision.
Overall, this book held my interest and I finished it within a few days. There are many secrets to be revealed and the ending, once I grasped it, had me floored.
3.5 Stars, rounding up to 4/5
A Well Read Woman Blog 📖 