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    The Secrets We Carried
    The Secrets We Carried
    The Secrets We Carried
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Secrets We Carried

    Written by Mary McNear

    Narrated by Amanda Dolan

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Readers who love Susan Wiggs and Susan Mallery will adore New York Times bestselling author Mary McNear newest novel. A young woman travels home to Butternut Lake, confronting her past and the tragedy she and her friends have silently carried with them for over a decade while also facing an unknown future.

    Butternut Lake is an idyllic place—but for one woman, her return to the lake town she once called home is bittersweet…

    Sometimes life changes in an instant.

    Quinn LaPointe grew up on beautiful Butternut Lake, safe, secure, sure of her future. But after a high school tragedy, she left for college and never looked back. Becoming a successful writer in Chicago, she worked to keep out the dark memories of an accident that upended her life. But now, after ten years, she’s finally returned home.

    Butternut is the same, and yet everything is changed. Gabriel Shipp, once her very best friend, doesn’t want anything to do with her. The charming guy she remembers is now brooding and withdrawn. Tanner Lightman, the seductive brother of her late boyfriend, wants her to stick around. Annika Bergstrom, an old classmate who once hated Quinn, is now friendly. Everyone, it seems, has a secret.

    Determined to come to terms with the tragedy and rebuild old relationships, Quinn settles into Loon Bay Cabins, a rustic but cozy lakeside resort, where she begins writing down her memories of the year before the accident. Her journey though the past leads her to some surprising discoveries about the present. As secrets are revealed and a new love emerges, Quinn finds that understanding the past is the key to the future.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateSep 25, 2018
    ISBN9780062867247
    The Secrets We Carried
    Author

    Mary McNear

    Mary McNear, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Butternut Lake series, writes in a local doughnut shop, where she sips Diet Pepsi, observes the hubbub of neighborhood life, and tries to resist the constant temptation of freshly made doughnuts. Mary bases her novels on a lifetime of summers spent in a small town on a lake in the northern Midwest.

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    Reviews for The Secrets We Carried

    4/5

    29 ratings10 reviews

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    • 4/5
      ARC from the publisher; After a HS tragedy, Quinn leaves Butternut Lake thinking she's run away from all that occurred. But on the tenth anniversary of the drowning accident on the lake, she returns for a dedication of a monument at the site of the accident - and stays on trying to determine why some of her old friends are still there...and finds that each of them has a secret piece tied to the drownings.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars.

      The Secrets We Carried by Mary McNear is an engrossing journey of recovery.  Although this newest release is the sixth installment in the Butternut Lake series, it can be read as a standalone.

      Following the tragic deaths of boyfriend Jake Lightman and his friends Dom Dobbs and Griffin Hoyer ten years earlier, Quinn LaPointe leaves her small hometown for college. After graduation, she begins working as a freelance reporter and stays as far away from Butternut Lake as possible. After receiving an anonymous announcement that a memorial is going to erected at the scene of the accident, Quinn decides it is time to try to put the incident behind her. Hoping to renew her friendship with Gabriel Shipp, she is surprised by his slight animosity towards her but she continues her efforts to find common ground. Quinn is also taken aback when Jake’s brother Tanner and Annika Bergstrom seem pleased to spend time with her. As she sifts through her memories with hopes of finally assuaging her guilt over her self-perceived role in the events that led to the three boys’ deaths, will Quinn finally make peace with her past so she can finally heal?

      Quinn may have a successful career, but her personal life is lacking. She has not had any lasting relationships and her friendships are somewhat superficial. She is close to her dad and stepmother and they are concerned by her decision to return to Butternut Lake. The memories of her romance with Jake easily rise to the surface after she arrives in town and she hopes embracing these recollections will help give her a better understanding of the past. Will writing down these memories provide her the perspective she needs to come to terms with what happened?

      Quinn is shocked when she learns Gabriel’s life took a dramatic turn after she left town. She is troubled by their encounters and she is at a loss as she tries to understand why he keeps trying to push her away. Quinn is also quite concerned by his appearance and reactions to her attempts to renew their friendship. Unbeknownst to Quinn, Gabriel is harboring his own secrets from their shared past.

      Quinn is also quite curious about Tanner’s surprising friendship with Annika. She is equally puzzled by Annika’s friendly overtures towards her. The two women have never been friends and Quinn is stunned by Annika’s revelations.

      The Secrets We Carried is a very engaging novel with a wonderful cast of characters and an enjoyable storyline. Quinn is very introspective as she tries to reconcile her guilt so she can move forward. Gabriel, Tanner and Annika must also come to terms with their perceived culpability in the tragedy. This latest installment in Mary McNear’s heartwarming Butternut Lake series is an endearing novel that features a winsome storyline, appealing characters and an uplifting conclusion.
    • 3/5
      I was unaware this was a part of a series. I feel like if I had known and had an opportunity to read the other books in this series I would have felt more connected to the story. Unfortunately, this one fell a little short for me.
    • 4/5
      I've read many books by the same author about Butternut Lake and I really enjoy the inter-connected-ness between the characters. This one actually felt most like a stand-alone novel than the others although McNear still references characters from the other books. While I enjoyed the novel, I think I prefer her other novels more.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this story, it keeps you guessing just enough so you want to keep reading and find out what happens. I would recommend this to readers who like light suspense and contemporary fiction.
    • 5/5
      Very good read. Lots of secrets. Great charactersThanks to LibraryThing for the advance copy.
    • 5/5
      Quinn fled from Butternut Lake, determined to escape her past. But those ghosts will not be laid to rest. When Quinn returns to Butternut Lake for a dedication ceremony for classmates who perished her senior year, she believes it will be a quick visit. However, each time she begins to leave, she learns a new piece of information that leads her closer to what happened that fatal night on Butternut Lake when her boyfriend and his 2 best friends were killed. While the mystery deepens, Quinn tries to make amends with her best friend from high school, Gabriel. He is only a shadow of the man he once was and seems to be intent on not rekindling his old friendship with Quinn, no matter how hard she tries. The twists and turns in the novel will leave you turning to the last page! Thank you LibraryThing Early Reviewers for the copy of this book! I loved it and am interested in the other books in the Butternut Lake series.
    • 3/5
      Main character Quinn returns to her hometown Butternut Lake for a dedication to high school friends who died in a tragic accident 19 yr earlier. She has struggled with guilt all those years, thinking her actions led the boys to foolishly drive out onto a frozen lake and go thru the ice. She is determined to meet her demons head on. As she meets up with various friends and relatives of the boys, she discovers she is not the only one who has had feelings of guilt and regret all this time. Turns out it was not just one but a number of events that led to the ill fated ride on the ice. While it was an interesting and relatable premise I felt the first half of the book really dragged on and seemed to go over the same ground again and again. Once things started to move and come to light, I was glad I kept reading. All in all not a bad book but only 3 stars for this one.
    • 4/5
      Thank you LibraryThing for the opportunity to read and review Mary McNear’s novel The Secrets We Carried. It took a bit to really get into the novel, in the beginning it seemed a bit repetitious. After getting through this, the novel is well worth it. The main character Quinn is suffering from guilt over the death of her high school sweetheart, 10 years prior. She is sent a clipping to go back to Butternut for a dedication to him (Jake) and 2 others who drove his truck out in the middle of a frozen lake stopped in the middle of it and broke through the ice and drowned. Now Quinn needs to come to grips with what happen, and why. This is the premise of the complete novel, finding out if she really was the blame for his death, which may or may not have had a part in his crazy act of driving out on a frozen lake. As a reader, Mary McNear lets you feel all the heartache and pain but also, she lets you go wow in the ending. Love those kinds of novels.
    • 2/5
      The Secrets We Carried by Mary McNear is a part of her great Butternut Lake series, except this one wasn't so great. The story dragged on and on about a long-ago mystery involving three high school guys who drowned while driving a truck across a frozen lake. The ex-girlfriend of one of the deceased guys returns to town after a ten year absence to resolve some of her feelings of guilt. She learns there were many other factors to blame for the deaths, than her breaking up with the driver of the truck, the day he died. The story limps along for much of the book and only picks up in the final two chapters. By then, you don't care so much.