Secret Smile - Nicci French

...to this one. With a SECRET SMILE I picked it up. Nicci French is in fact two people, a husband and wife team, journalists. Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. Nicci French is their pseudonym. The Daily Mail states on the front cover how ‘French is excellent at building up suspense and elegantly exploiting all our worst fears’ I noticed this comment again when I was up to page 155 and thought hmm! Wonder when the suspense will build up? There are 310 ...
...The story In the first chapter, Miranda, our heroine starts with what appears to be quite a strong personality, coming home and finding her new boyfriend reading her diary, she throws him out and the relationship is over. A couple of weeks later the boyfriend reappears in the story as Miranda’s sister’s boyfriend. So he is still very much in her life. Miranda appears to undergo a personality change throughout the next part of the book as she bows ...

teacherofhooch 24.04.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Secret Smile - Nicci French

It only takes about eight days for Miranda to realise that the man she met at the ice skating rink is bad news. When she comes home to find Brendan lying on her sofa and reading one of her old diaries, she immediately throws him out of her flat and hopes that will be the end of it. Not long after, her sister Kerry phones to ask her out for a meal as she has some exciting news: she's met a man and has fallen for him. When she tells Miranda that it's ...
...meal, there is little Miranda can do other than accept the situation and try to appear unruffled, but it's obvious that it's an attempt to get back into her life. Kerry is also under the impression that Brendan finished the relationship with Miranda and this begins a series of untruths about Miranda that he tells both Kerry and her family to try and turn them against her. Kerry sells her flat and her and Brendan plan to move in together, but at ...

Tadders 20.07.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Secret Smile - Nicci French

I first watched the drama of this amazing book on ITV i enjoyed it so much I went straight to town the next day and bought it. The book is marvelous and very well written. It is very easy to absorbed in the story. The story is so detailed and complex and yet it is so easy to follow and read. The story is about Miranda who meets an acquaintance of a friend, named Brendan, at a party and leads to a romance. After Brendan starts to show his true colours ...
...a talk from her sister announcing her new relationship who is none other than Brendan Miranda is in constant turmoil over his antics and tries to tell her friends and family. But Brendan is clever and when he is trying to wind Miranda up and get to her, no-one believes her. It is very easy to feel empathy for Miranda and intense dislike for Brendan. The story is very clever and introduced to me to an author one is now in my top ten! I love that ...

Kimbod 16.08.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Secret Smile - Nicci French

Secret Smile is a very thrilling story which I managed to read in less than 2 days, mainly because I could not put it down.! I found the main character, Miranda Cotton, to be very engaging indeed. The storyline centres around this character who, after ending a brief relationship with a man more than willing to make himself at home in her life, finds that she has become the subject of a stalker. Making Miranda's life virtually his own, Brendan Block ...
...desparate, lonely and living in fear. The storywriting is excellent and, with a few unexpected events along the way, keeps the reader on the edge of the seat. The character of Brendan Block, (I did however think rather a stupid name), is deeply disturbing and as the tale goes along, you find yourself becoming increasingly frustrated for Miranda whose family and friends are sucked in by this monster! My only disappointment however was that I found ...

lece2 28.08.2005 (29.08.2005) · Read full review
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Review of Secret Smile - Nicci French

This book was immensely readable and I couldn't put it down for a second. It's thrilling and exciting. You get to hear about the wonderful aroma of coffee and pastries. London areas are described in detail and the English weather of today. This detail brings out the best in Miranda's character. A dramatic, suspense story of a woman who meets someone and then she enters her flat one day to find him sitting there reading her diary. She tells him ...
...time she sees him it's with her sister. He gets close to her sister and Miranda's family and she can't stop him. The whole situation becomes threatening to Miranda, as Brendan teases her without her family knowing and there is nothing she can do. The strong characters of Brendan and Miranda make the book interesting. The only disadvantage is that it can be upsetting. There is a particular bit in the book that upset me, but I still didn't want to ...

dee2206 23.11.2004 (24.11.2004) · Read full review
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Review of Secret Smile - Nicci French

I bought this book one day before going on holiday and found myself unable to put it down. This story is seriously scary in a way that it could happen to anyone. Nicci French hits the nail on the head with her depiction of someone trying to get people to see a man for what he really is (a psycopath) only for everyone to turn against her in a truly chilling way. It's as though he is always one step ahead of her and manages to twist her life so ...

sevyg18 10.02.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Secret Smile - Nicci French