'When Anna, Lizzie Thorne's charismatic sister, is killed in a tragic fall from the roof of her school, her family is devastated. One year on and grief still has a hold on them. Kate, Anna’s mother, has retreated from her family and is desperate to find someone to blame for her daughter’s death. Her father, Jon, is doing his best to care for his family but the pressure of holding his marriage together is pushing him to breaking point. Amid her parents' turmoil, Lizzie, Anna’s younger sister, just wants to leave her sister’s ghost in the past and find happiness again. But then a devastating revelation begins to raise questions concerning what really happened the night Anna died. Whilst Kate and Jon grapple with Anna’s emerging secrets, Lizzie dives headlong into a passionate, but forbidden, first love affair. As the family battle to regain their footing they realise it’s the love they have for each other that has the power to finally heal them.'
Sworn Secret
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
Sworn Secret pulses with real emotion - an intense, relentless story that leaves the reader sated with the author's imagination and distinct characterisation. She displays clear understanding and articulation of the most complicated - and simplest - of human emotions. --Dolly Jones, Vogue.co.uk
a page-turner which makes the reader ache to know the outcome. --Mystery People e-zine
a page-turner which makes the reader ache to know the outcome. --Mystery People e-zine
Book Description
A family's fight to remember what it means to love.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By sakura_b
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Sworn Secret is a stunning debut, the kind of novel that will make you miss your stop on the way to work, and have you discussing it with all your friends.
It follows the Thorne family a year after the death of their eldest daughter, Anna, who fell from the roof of the school. Lizzie is struggling to find her own identity instead of just being `the dead girl's sister', while Jon and Kate's marriage is still reeling from the grief. They are coping - just. But then a secret emerges that shatters any illusion they had of moving on.
What makes this novel so remarkable is the way Amanda Jennings gets inside the head of not only Lizzie, but Jon and Kate as well. The difficult emotions and questions raised are not shied away from, and it is richly layered, with many different threads - there is the touching, tender story of Lizzie finding first love; the raw, unflinching view of a marriage crumbling; the shock of discovering that you may not have known your teenage daughter as well as you thought; and above all, the love that binds a family together despite all odds.
Jennings' prose is beautifully observed, with many tiny moments of stunning clarity that will stick with you. There's also humour, and warmth, and although I don't want to give too much away plot-wise, it would be the perfect novel for a book group, as it raises so many fascinating questions. I can't wait for her next novel.
It follows the Thorne family a year after the death of their eldest daughter, Anna, who fell from the roof of the school. Lizzie is struggling to find her own identity instead of just being `the dead girl's sister', while Jon and Kate's marriage is still reeling from the grief. They are coping - just. But then a secret emerges that shatters any illusion they had of moving on.
What makes this novel so remarkable is the way Amanda Jennings gets inside the head of not only Lizzie, but Jon and Kate as well. The difficult emotions and questions raised are not shied away from, and it is richly layered, with many different threads - there is the touching, tender story of Lizzie finding first love; the raw, unflinching view of a marriage crumbling; the shock of discovering that you may not have known your teenage daughter as well as you thought; and above all, the love that binds a family together despite all odds.
Jennings' prose is beautifully observed, with many tiny moments of stunning clarity that will stick with you. There's also humour, and warmth, and although I don't want to give too much away plot-wise, it would be the perfect novel for a book group, as it raises so many fascinating questions. I can't wait for her next novel.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Barbara Good
Format:Paperback
I've been meaning to read this book for a while, since I saw someone I follow on Twitter saying how great it was and I'm so glad that I did. The minute you start reading, you're immediately drawn into the story and want to keep reading more and more than you'd originally intended - I certainly stayed up reading later into the night than I usually do, simply because I just didn't want to leave without knowing what came next. The short chapters, which often switch between characters, makes you feel as though the story is moving along at a cracking pace which makes you just want to stay with it.
I loved the characters, they're all really well created, with believable flaws and personalities that make you care about them and what happens to each of them. Right from the beginning these carefully crafted people feel very real. Although I started having suspicions about characters or drawing conclusions of my own, I was often very wrong, such is the skill of the author in storytelling. There wasn't a single character that I didn't care about, in one way or another. By turn I wanted to protect, comfort, accuse, support and scream at them, such is the way they are drawn.
The language used is just perfect, I think. The conversations and situations are excellent, they're messy, unfinished, with language that people really use, which I think is such a skill - often flowery language gets in the way of a story because it just feels odd. But here, from the language used by the older generations right down to the teenager text messages, it just felt right. As did the behaviour of people and the various ways in which they responded to grief.
All of the strands of the story from each of the characters draw together really well in the end and although a novel about the death of a young woman cannot be a happy book, I finished it with a sense of optimism, despite my tears! I also had that feeling of loss that I have when finishing a great book, as though the end has left a hole in my life.
Quite simply, this is a really, really good book. Very much looking forward to reading more from Amanda Jennings.
I loved the characters, they're all really well created, with believable flaws and personalities that make you care about them and what happens to each of them. Right from the beginning these carefully crafted people feel very real. Although I started having suspicions about characters or drawing conclusions of my own, I was often very wrong, such is the skill of the author in storytelling. There wasn't a single character that I didn't care about, in one way or another. By turn I wanted to protect, comfort, accuse, support and scream at them, such is the way they are drawn.
The language used is just perfect, I think. The conversations and situations are excellent, they're messy, unfinished, with language that people really use, which I think is such a skill - often flowery language gets in the way of a story because it just feels odd. But here, from the language used by the older generations right down to the teenager text messages, it just felt right. As did the behaviour of people and the various ways in which they responded to grief.
All of the strands of the story from each of the characters draw together really well in the end and although a novel about the death of a young woman cannot be a happy book, I finished it with a sense of optimism, despite my tears! I also had that feeling of loss that I have when finishing a great book, as though the end has left a hole in my life.
Quite simply, this is a really, really good book. Very much looking forward to reading more from Amanda Jennings.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By MamaJHearts
Format:Kindle Edition
Anna Thorne was a happy fifteen year old girl who loved life. She was adored by her parents and idolised by her younger sister. But one fateful night there was an accident and Anna's short life was snatched away after she stumbled from the school roof. A year later and the loved ones Anna left behind are struggling, the family barely holding itself together by a thread. The wounds her death caused her family are far from healed and will be torn deeper as secrets about Anna begin to surface. What really happened the night Anna died? Did she fall or was the so-called accident more sinister? Did she jump or was she pushed?
Anna's family are shocked to learn of the events leading up to her death and they begin to question whether they really knew her at all.
Sworn Secret is an emotional read, dealing with the devastation such a loss brings to a family as it is brought to its knees and struggles to rise again. The book was gripping, urging me to keep reading, not only to find out if the Thorne family could pull together once more but also to discover what really happened to Anna. When her shocking secrets began to surface, I wasn't sure whether they would unite the family as they battled to uncover the truth or whether they would deliver the final blow to crush them completely.
Sworn Secret is a brilliant, well-written and thrilling debut from Amanda Jennings and I can't wait to see what she writes next.
Anna's family are shocked to learn of the events leading up to her death and they begin to question whether they really knew her at all.
Sworn Secret is an emotional read, dealing with the devastation such a loss brings to a family as it is brought to its knees and struggles to rise again. The book was gripping, urging me to keep reading, not only to find out if the Thorne family could pull together once more but also to discover what really happened to Anna. When her shocking secrets began to surface, I wasn't sure whether they would unite the family as they battled to uncover the truth or whether they would deliver the final blow to crush them completely.
Sworn Secret is a brilliant, well-written and thrilling debut from Amanda Jennings and I can't wait to see what she writes next.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mind blowing
I can honestly say that this book is one that I can *hand on heart* recommend to anyone and I defy you not to enjoy every twist and turn of it. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Mrs. Rosemary Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heart stopping
Never have I been so unpopular with my family. This is an impossible book to bookmark, tapping into a world of worst fear imaginings, making you desperate to find some resolution... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lynsie Sinclair
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great read
Intriguing, compelling, hard to put down. Covers so many aspects of life Make sure you have tissues ready for the emotions it evokes
Published 1 month ago by Jocelyn Geany
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Book!
I had this book at home for months before I read it, I'm going to say that most annoying of things now and admit that 'I didn't think it would be my cup of tea'. Read more
Published 1 month ago by CoffeeCurls
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tragic and compelling, an excellent read
It starts a little slowly and I was starting to wonder where it was going and then BAM - it all starts happening! Read more
Published 2 months ago by SJI Holliday
5.0 out of 5 stars
A thought provoking & compelling page-turner
Sworn Secret is a book that, once picked up, I found impossible to put down! It is a gripping story told with remarkable empathy. Read more
Published 2 months ago by SianyKJ
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's okay, but a bit depressing
I read a lot and hate not to finish something so persevered with this even though I thought the first third of the book was slow and very depressing. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Gemma
2.0 out of 5 stars
Don't know
I have not read this bookalthough I did download it. As a result I cannot say if I enjoyed it or not.
Published 2 months ago by Yvonne
4.0 out of 5 stars
Different
I. Really enjoyed this book even though it wasn't particularly uplifting. I was still drawn into it.compelling but looking forward to reading something a little light now. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lynne Manley
5.0 out of 5 stars
Made me a 'book widower'!
I bought this for my wife; for the next two days I was a 'book widower'. My wife is not exactly what one would call an undiscerning reader (did Lit for PhD), but she loved it. Read more
Published 2 months ago by John Lewis-Stempel
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
