The Secret Place

About the Book

Book: The Secret Place

Author: Camille Eide

Genre: Contemporary women’s fiction/romance

Release date: April 15, 2021

The Secret Place (1) How far can love bend before it breaks?

Josie Norris became an instant mommy when her twin sister Nadine handed over her newborn son and vanished. What Josie saw as a temporary arrangement grew into a mother-son bond too deep to uproot. But with her irrational sister threatening to steal him back, Josie has been living the last few years with Kennedy in hiding, afraid to go home.

When Aunt Libby—the only person who knows the truth about Kennedy—suffers a traumatic head injury, Josie rushes to her McKenzie River home to help Gram care for the woman who raised her. But not only is Libby’s injury causing family secrets to spill, it’s forcing Josie to see the women in her life in a new light.

Will—a ranger who Kennedy adores and who Josie is determined not to—is desperate to help the woman who has stolen his affections. But can Josie ever truly be authentic with the man she loves? With her son’s fate hanging in the balance, she is faced with the choice to risk everything she loves in order to bridge the most impossible gulfs.

In this story of mothers, daughters, and sisters, Josie must find the grace to forgive people for not being who she needed them to be…and the courage to surrender her fears to the God who has never once left her side.

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About the Author

Camille Eide (EYE-dee) is the award-winning author of poignant, inspirational love stories including The Memoir of Johnny Devine. Camille lives in Oregon with her husband and has three adult kids and five grandkids. She loves baking, muscle cars, and the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. She also loves the liberating truth and wisdom of God’s word, and hopes that her stories will stir your heart, strengthen your faith, and encourage you on your journey.

More from Camille

Secrets That Won’t Stay Hidden

Josie, the heroine in The Secret Place, faces more than one dilemma as a result of imperfect confidantes and their unkept secrets. So what inspired this story?

Many years ago, my late father-in-law suffered a traumatic brain injury and was life-flighted to a hospital 150 miles away. Family members gathered and were told to prepare for the possibility that he wouldn’t last the night. In an answer to many prayers, he made it through the night, but was in a coma, and no one knew what his future held or what long term effects his injuries would have.

His recovery was long, strange, and uncertain. In the first two weeks, he went from unconscious to incoherent to muttering. Then he progressed to forming real words, but what he said made no sense.

As his communication began to improve, his speech turned into an ongoing narrative. He talked about events and people and things long ago—including things we hadn’t heard before, things that confused and surprised family members young and old. We realized that these revelations were not simply a product of his addled brain, but in fact true. To our dismay, his social filters and verbal etiquette were gone, which made his kids and grandkids more than a little nervous. What kinds of memories and expressions would we hear from this beloved man of faith whom we all suspected had been a bit of a rascal as a youth?

To everyone’s relief, though my father-in-law said peculiar things and told us stories no one knew about, he didn’t have any shocking skeletons in his closet, and after eight weeks, he was pretty much back to his sensible, knowing self. But the fact that his private thoughts and potential secrets had at one point been so completely exposed sparked some intriguing “what if” questions in this writer’s mind:

What if you lost the ability to keep your private thoughts and secrets safe?
How might your life change if your secrets or some hidden past were exposed?
What if the person to whom you’ve entrusted a most crucial secret suddenly couldn’t?

The book’s title refers to several kinds of secret place. I look forward to hearing how many secret places readers can find in this story.

-Camille

MY REVIEW

Sometimes there aren’t adequate words to write to explain how powerful a book is. I find myself emotionally drained after reading this story, yet I also feel renewed. Within the pages I found hope when things seemed unsalvageable. I loved getting to know Josie and her heart to always keep her twin sister, Nadine safe. In an instant that bind was broken and fractured by a broken promise. Oh how I cried for Nadine who never felt good enough. Even though they were twins one took a path of destruction while the other became the responsible one.

Getting to look inside the dynamics of this family we find many secrets that have caused pain and jealousy. For one family member a loss became too much as they blamed themselves for the unthinkable. I won’t say much about this part because as it unravels the author creates a storyline that tugs on the soul. This person found her secret place where her mind protected her from the truth. Her heartbreaking journey shows how damaging blame can cause someone to crawl into their lonely world.

Love is something that we all want to feel, but for some it never appears. The author shows us how love runs deep and always forgives. The faith elements in the story are strong with a message of forgiveness. I wanted the characters who were wavering in their faith to surrender to God. My heart was heavy as Josie wanted so hard to keep Kennedy safe. I didn’t miss the reference in the story about the two women who both claimed the child was theirs. The author uses this illustration in a beautiful way to show how much Kennedy was loved.

I know there are other characters I should mention but I think I will let readers discover them on their own. The title of the book was something I really thought about. We all have our secret place and I began to think how the author subtlety showed us some of them. Our secret place could be when we are talking to God as he comforts us. We can go to our secret place in our journal or diary or in church where we pray and feel His presence. Or maybe our secret place is just being surrounded by family. Whatever your secret place is let it be a place of peace, grace, forgiveness and unconditional love.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.