Book Spotlight – Secrets

Every year for Indie April, I buy ten books from Indie Authors. This year, I have decided to shine the spotlight on one indie book per month until the end of the year in support of indie authors.

Last week, I had the opportunity to read Secrets a collection of short stories by Susan M Lane. Susan shared her book with me during the #IndieApril twitter promotion. Here’s my full review of Susan’s book ‘Secrets’.

Secrets is a collection of short stories that revolve around human nature and humanity in general. Through these stories, the author Susan M Lane takes the reader on a private view of the current conditions of our civilization. With each story the reader is given an insight into how emotions such as Love, Happiness, Fear, Misunderstandings, Faith, Judgements, and impromptu decisions can affect human lives. There are important messages attached to each of the stories. I believe that’s what makes this book a wonderful read.

There are 15 stories in the book, but my favorites were Spider Follies, Squeaky Wheels, and Open Minded Freaks.

In Spider Follies, I enjoyed reading the nuances of a father-daughter relationship and how life comes a full circle.

With Squeaky Wheels, it was the wheels of karma that caught my interest. I absolutely loved how the author managed to take the story in a full circle before bringing it back to the starting point. The protagonist had a choice to make at the beginning of the story and her choice impacted the rest of her life.

Open Minded Freaks provides the reader a peek into the struggles of a teenager in the harsh world today, especially if they are different from the “norm” that is expected of them. It is a story that fills you with sadness, sympathy, and hope all at the same time.

I enjoyed reading almost all of the stories, however, I thought a few stories ended too soon. The first story ‘And We’re Done’ is an example of that. It is a great story that had a lot of potentials but ended too soon and was predictable. It would’ve done well with a twist or with a bit of explanation about the complex male character that the author introduced but did not do anything with. There were also a few stories that would have benefitted from an explanation of what or why certain events took place. Perhaps, the author was trying to leave them open-ended, unfortunately, the ending was confusing to me as a reader. Poker Face is an example of a story where the ending left me confused as I was not able to figure out what had actually happened. Having said that, there are stories like Perfect Strangers, The Fire Escape, Spider Follies, and others that leave the reader fully satisfied.

The writing is impeccable yet easy to read and follow through.  The stories are all paced well and moves through with interesting characters that we see in everyday lives.

If you enjoy reading short stories, then I highly recommend Secrets by Susan M Lane. 4.5 stars for this wonderful collection of short stories. 

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Secrets. is currently available on Kindle Unlimited for Free. Click HERE to grab your copy. You can follow the author Susan M Lane on Amazon and  Twitter for updates on her books.