I was really surprised to learn that this was a Mills and Boon title. It wasn’t what I would’ve expected at all. It’s a lovely love story of friends that has lasted through many years. It’s no great literary masterpiece but it’sa really nice read that gives you faith in love conquering all.

I was really surprised by this book.  Didn't know if I'd enjoy it but was really pleasantly surprised. Loved the characters, loved the story line and loved the characters.  Really enjoyed it and made a real change from my usual type of book.

Wow, what a fantastic book this was to read.  A fantastic story that you a gripped from the start as the story slowly unravelled itself.  Great characters telling a wonderful story and one I'd highly recommend people to read.

A completely different genre to my usual choice of book, but we all need to try something new from time to time.  A story of two girls that shared a history together, finally reunited after years apart. The story deals with some powerful, topics but is well written. Not your usual Mills and Boon of days gone by, but don't be put off from giving it a go.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest reviewl. 

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into crime books and psychological ones too however I wanted to take the opportunity to read something from outside my norm. And I am glad I did!! Thank you for  opening up my mind to something totally different.

I got this book from NetGalley after I read one of their random promotion this book is great emails. I didn’t realise it was a Mills & Boon title until it was on my shelf. I probably wouldn’t have requested it if I’d known. I associate Mills & Boon with cheesy, OTT heterosexual romance. I had no idea they published LGBT fiction. I loved this book. Sophie and Nora’s story is familiar. They fall in love as teenagers and enjoy a passionate summer together. They’re caught and betray each other and Nora moves away and cuts Sophie and their home town out of her life for eighteen years. Sophie marries and forces the truth about her sexuality deep inside herself. Nora returns and things sort of explode. I loved the way the author portrays the power of first love. You never forget your first love, the first person who made you feel something. They always have a hold over you. I loved the setting, Lychfield in Texas, a small town full of small-town prejudice and small minds. Everyone wonders why Nora left all those years ago. If Sophie comes out will she be accepted or become a freak show? What about Sophie’s marriage to Nora’s old boyfriend? This is a complex story, beautifully told. I loved it so much.

Nora and Sophie were best friends in a small American town with plans to go to college together and the whole world at there feet. Until one day Nora and her dad have a huge row and Nora leaves to join the army leaving Sophie in the small American town. Sophie married Nora's boyfriend, Charlie, a lawyer who has his eye on becoming a senator. and Sophie is settled to being a supporting wife.
The story begins with Nora returning home for her father's funeral and of course she has revisit all that lead up to her leaving.
I loved it. Really refreshing angle for a romance.

I enjoyed Nora and Sophie’s story, and it was a refreshing take on the usual romance novels. It was really interesting to read a romance novel that covers LGBTQ+ relationships, and found it really interesting reading about the characters struggle with their sexuality.

This is a fairly safe romance novel, set in the deep south of the USA where homophobic and religious prejudice is still rife. It opened my eyes to the fact that there are still places in the developed world, even in our modern times, where people are unable to be their true selves. The story follows two women, best friends as children, and the events that caused them to follow very different paths in their lives, only to be thrown back together eighteen years later. I really enjoyed the writing and found the book entertaining but predictable - perfect if this is the sort of thing you enjoy. The novel does a great job of analyzing the views of different generations, which in turn highlights how far humanity has come but also how far it has yet to go.

I was pleasantly surprised with this book! When I first saw the title I was given the impression that this book may have a slightly cynical side to it but I couldn’t really be more wrong. 

The character development was amazing and you felt like you really got to know Nora and Sophie (I think Sophie especially) really well. The struggles and emotional turmoils that they both go through is evident from the start and you feel a caring towards them.

My favourite relationship was that between Sophie and Nora, the dynamic was just amazing but I think the relationship between Sophie and her daughter, Logan was a very close second. For me this was the most emotional part of the book and reading Sophie put herself out there really strikes up emotion for every reader. 

At first I wasn’t hooked on this and if I’m honest, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it as you could predict the main ending to a certain extent. However I was soon hooked and there were so many events in the book that I really didn’t see coming. 

I would definitely recommend this if you enjoy love stories - this also feels more realistic and isn’t a classical fairy tale romance! It reminded me of Cecelia Ahern’s books to a certain extent

Nora is returning to her home town in Texas, after eighteen years away. It's the last place she wants to be, as she will have to face seeing her ex-boyfriend, Charlie, now married to her best friend, Sophie. Nora felt completely betrayed by the events of the summer eighteen years ago, when all she held dear was destroyed. Can she move past her hurt to find her way back to her best friend? As they spend time together, it becomes clear that Nora's certainty about the betrayal, is beginning to waver. 

There is a surprise in this story, and I really liked that I didn't predict it. It's hard to review without giving away a spoiler, so I will say only this. The Secret of You and Me is a wonderful exploration of love, forgiveness and courage in the face of judgement and narrow-mindedness. It celebrates love in all its guises and shouts out loud - be you - unapologetically!!

First off, this book is a Persuasion retelling! Persuasion is one of my favourite Austen novels so you just know that's a point in its favour. But this is a lesbian retelling of Persuasion about childhood best friends, Sophie and Nora, who fell in love in a small town in Texas. Best friends who had a massive falling out and then Sophie married Nora's high school boyfriend and stayed in said small town. Yeah, I know, it's a lot. It had all kinds of drama going on and that is what made it fun to read.

I had no expectations going into this. It was marketed as an LGBT romance which immediately drew me in. That's all I knew, I read the book's summary and that's it. I wasn't certain it would be a usual romance (the romance waters are getting murky with women's fiction sneaking up in there) but I am here for supporting more LGBT romances and I wondered how this book would pan out with that weird love triangle alluded to in the summary. Thankfully, this book was excellent and no, I still wouldn't call it a usual romance. I mean, the romance between the main characters, Sophie and Nora, was beautiful. They went through so much and seeing them slowly come back together and learn to trust one another was lovely, but there was a lot of there stuff happening, their romance was just part of it. I think with all the other story happening it meant the romance was brilliant but not completely the sole focus. This was about Nora discovering the secrets of her small town and coming to terms with her father's death as well as realising the importance of love and family. It was also about Sophie reconciling with the fact she was a lesbian and the damage keeping that secret has had on herself, her family, and her relationship with her daughter. It was about the two of them admitting the mistakes of their past but also accepting that their past is behind them and they have no regrets with their choices because it allowed so many good things to happen in their lives despite what they might have missed out on.

The romance between Sophie and Nora was really wonderful to read. They were meant to be together. I loved the slow discovery of everything which happened in their pasts. They had so much history together. It's sad to think they lost so much time together because of their choices, but they wouldn't have been the same people without their years apart. If they had been braver or if the world they had lived in had been more accepting they might have pursued their romance with pride but instead, they took their time, learnt who they were and missed out but there wouldn't have been a great book to read otherwise.

I really loved that the author's note said that this story happened because she had been trying to write the romance for Nora and felt like no one was deserving of her apart from Sophie and that it all grew from there. What's even better is the author asked for help and advice from the LBGTQ+ community as she is neither a lesbian or bi (Nora identifies as bisexual and there is a clear acknowledgement that attraction both sexual and romantic is a varying spectrum for bisexuals. Excellent rep on that front). So she did want to do them justice and write authentic experiences and struggles for her characters. Not only did she take the time and out the work in to give her characters more authentic voices. She knew how to write falling in love, that experience is universal, but she did want to show the impact of being closeted in a small town. And the really great part? A portion of the royalties for this book are going to the It Gets Better Charity as the author doesn't want to barrel in and take one but show support to the community and write a love story which we can enjoy and help others feel seen. How could I not want to support an author who honestly seems like they want to help too?

And the secondary characters in this! This is a small Texas town, you know the types of people you will get here, but there was more to them and they helped give this story depth. There was Kim with her daughter looking to Nora for help. There was Nora's aunt Emmadean who was a marvel. And Nora's sister and brother in law! Her sister, Mary, should have been a total bore with her complaining and hard done by act but she added some light humour to events and you couldn't help but smile a little at her antics. And Mar's husband, Jeremy? He was a saint for putting up with her but he did reveal there was another side to their relationship Nora wouldn't have been privy to. And Sophie's daughter, Logan? Yeah, she was a badass kid who you couldn't help but like.

And that is my attempt at writing a review for a book which came as a total surprise. I had no expectations and it meant I went on a lovely journey with characters I couldn't help but like. I was in small-town Texas with the gossips and the rumours, where high school really doesn't end. It was fun and sweet and really an excellent summer read.

This is not my usual genre but it looked quite interesting from the blurb.  Obviously, the plot was slightly different to the one I expected.  Without wishing to give too much away, the love triangle between Nora, Sophie and Charlie goes in a different direction to the norm.
I did enjoy the book in parts.  It is pretty well written, the plot starts off well but I have to admit to being quite bored after a while.  Nora is called selfish by her aunt at one point and I couldn't agree more.  Both main characters seemed immature, jumping to conclusions, forgiving one minute and accusing the next.  If this only happened once or twice I might not have minded but the second half of the book just seemed to be dominated by it.  I ended up feeling that the book is just too long.
The author captures the prejudices of small town, Texas, well and I'm sure that the anyone in Nora and Sophie's situation would come up against them but I didn't like any of the characters enough to care what happened to them.

The Secret of You and Me was definitely an interesting read for me. I didn’t realise it was going to be about women in their late 30s, which is normally not something I read. But I think it’s important to step out of our comfort zones and I also think it’s good to bring more age diversity to romance which can be quite 20s heavy. If you are looking for something that deals a lot more with adult issues, like divorce and raising a child I think this is something that coule be up your street.

This is a story about messy relationships hampered by past traumatic experiences that came from living in backwater Texas in the 90s whilst being queer. And I do want to flag that there is A LOT of infidelity in this book. This wasn’t something that bothered me because as I just mentioned it was a book about messy relationships, but if you are someone who is uncomfortable reading about cheating, I think this is something to be aware of. Whilst I did think the cheating was a little on the heavy side and could have been lessened, it was an interesting look into the lives of people who lived through the 80s and 90s when there was a serious amount of crap thrown at the gay community. With threats of conversion therapy and being kicked out of the house, it’s understandable in a way that a person would be scared to leave their marriage.

I found the characters quite interesting and it was pretty evident the ways that their pasts had shaped their lives. Nora was pretty afraid of commitment, from running away from home at a young age, and Sophie lives her life in fear due to her awful mother.

Something I definitely noticed in this book was the subtle moments that dealt with Nora’s PTSD. It wasn’t discussed a lot but I noticed that when she heard a loud bang Nora would flinch, and I really liked that it was embedded in the story this way, as this is a problem for a lot of veterans.

All in all, I would say The Secret of You and Me is an engaging read, with some fascinating character dynamics!

The Secret of You and Me is an adult contemporary romance that features: two stubborn women, a love they cannot forget, and some chickens that Nora DEFINITELY DOES NOT LOVE.

“Nora smiled at the camera, and I looked down at her with an expression of such blatant adoration it stunned be the entire town hadn’t know I was desperately in love with my best friend.”

I really enjoyed this book. While it’s clear that it’s a romance novel, it’s also very character driven. Nora and Sophie are both adults who have been through so much.

Nora joined the military after she’s forced to leave home by her father. However, staying away from their small conservative town she learned to grow and become happy in herself while finding and figuring out her sexuality. Nora is proudly bisexual. She’s stubborn and strong, and while she hates that’s she’s too come home again, she handles it like water of a ducks back.

I adored Nora but Sophie was my favourite. Externally Sophie has it all- good husband, nice house, money, and a wonderful daughter- but internally, Sophie struggles with alcoholism and is a lesbian. Sophie’s growth had me cheering. The inner strength she displays throughout the novel was phenomenal. She’s ready to take on her mother, battle her addiction to alcohol, and save both her relationship with Nora and her daughter. SHE IS A QUEEN.

“ This isn’t a disaster waiting to happen; it’s a challenge. I’m Sophie fucking Wyatt. Bring it on.”

The romance develops slowly throughout the novel and as a lover of slow burn- I was in my element. Nora and Sophie take their time coming back together but when they do, sparks flied. It was clear that these two never fell out of love.

“When I think of falling in love with Nora, it isn’t our first kiss, or the first time we, you know,  but it’s those moments when she read to me.”

The plot is quite angsty; especially in the beginning. Sophie and Nora have to fight for each other, against the town and within themselves but the ending makes all the pain worth it.

The Secret of You and Me is a book I don’t think I’ll ever forget. It’s messy, and emotional. However, Nora and Sophie are ingrained on my heart. While their were times I wanted to throw the book against the wall- mainly when Sophie’s mother opened her mouth- I adored this book.

The Secret of You and Me by Melissa Lenhardt is a story of what ifs. What if Nora never left. What if Sophie had stood up to her mother. What if Nora's dad had not sent her packing. What if Nora had come home again. What if Sofie had not hooked up with Charlie. What if Nora had read Sophie's letters. 

When Nora's father dies she returns to the town she grew up in for the 1st time since leaving, all those years ago. She planned an in and out trip, with no desire to revisit the past. Nora wasn't prepared for the string of events that led to her trip being extended. She also wasn't prepared to see Sophie again, even after all this time.

Sophie seems to have a perfect life. She is married to a popular man with political ambitions and they have a wonderful daughter about to start her last year of high school. But she has secrets.

As per small town expectations, the rumour mill was alight over what happened all those years ago. After all, Charlie was Nora's boyfriend 1st. But is that really what happened? A few think there is a juicier story - one that many wouldn't be too happy about. 

Whatever caused the rift & led to Nora leaving & staying away so long, everyone is watching when she comes back to town. Especially when her & Sophie come face to face.

I could nit-pick how a character seems to suddenly know something, driving the plot forward, so it needed mentioning earlier. I also feel the ending wraps up a too quick & neat for me. However, I enjoyed this book. I like the distinctive voices of the 2 MCs who tell the story. There is character background & depth, & the premise is one that is completely believable. Personally, I recommend it as a fantastic summer read.

Rounding up to 4/5🌟 from me.

Thank you NetGalley and Mills & Boon for a free copy of this book in exchange for an impartial review!

I appreciated that the prose was of higher quality than is usually found in this genre but that was about the only positive thing I found when reading this. 
I'm sick of reading stories about homophobic and abusive parents. I realise that that situation is a reality for some people and it has been successfully used as a plot point in many novels but good god it has been done to death. For a straight woman to be writing a novel, aimed at queer women, utilising that narrative just leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I think it's bile.
Also who proofread this book? There were a couple of typos and some grammatical issues, but my biggest gripe in that area was the author using the word mike as short form of microphone and then two paragraphs later using mic. I mean, mike is just wrong but how did no one pick up on that? Am I being petty? Possibly.

Came for the sapphic love story, stayed for the compelling narrative, characters that are just so messily human, powerful sapphic yearning (bisexual rep!) and strong themes of love, family and honesty. 

This was a peak portrayal of the friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-possible lovers again narrative arc. My heart lifted and fell with Sophie and Nora. The eighteen years yawning between Nora and Sophie then and now made the intensity of their forbidden love truly searing. The near-decades long development reminded me a little of Rosie and Alex from 'Love, Rosie' by Cecelia Ahern, one of my favourite contemporary romances.

I also loved how through Nora the book respects the fluidity of sexuality 'labels' and their unique meaning to each individual - plus I really appreciated having a bisexual lead whose attraction to men and women isn't erased, regardless of how her love story ends. Several explicitly and implicitly homophobic stereotypes were also addressed, as well as misogynistic double standards.

Plot-wise, there were so many dramatic twists and backstory exposition was done excellently, with little crumbs to keep me hooked. It was almost like a murder mystery in how it unfolded layer by layer, new pieces slowly slotting together and reframing the narrative we thought we had. The ending was a little neat but I really liked it, and given how many times those two fought (A LOT) and all the obstacles they faced, for most of the book I wasn't even sure if Sophie and Nora were endgame!

All the characters are flawed, complicated and entangled with each other in this small Texas town. The theme of mother-daughter relationships was particularly significant here, from Sophie and her deeply homophobic and conservative mother Brenda, Sophie and her teen daughter Logan - when does 'protectiveness' cross over into hurt? - and Nora and her surrogate mother Aunt Emmadean. Even the relationship between a secondary character, Kim (an old schoolmate of Nora and Sophie) and her daughter Erin factored importantly into the plot (I actually welled up slightly!). I loved that you could see similarities and differences in each and the ways they try to be better. Well...some of them, anyway.

This story is told in dual POV, starting with Nora, and because I read fast when I'm intrigued, I often missed the title indicating whose POV it was and sometimes got confused. However, as they both have pretty strong character voices, it wasn't hard to figure it out quickly. I think my favourite is Sophie - she's so resilient and her arc made me so proud. I enjoyed Nora's gradual character development too, working on her stubbornness, selfishness and trust issues - though she never loses her savage streak! Do not get on the bad side of this woman. 

I really enjoyed this book, and it makes me want to read more complicated contemporaries - bonus if it's queer! This is also inspiring me to hurry up and read Austen's 'Persuasion', which this is loosely inspired by (initially, anyway). I'll definitely be looking into Lenhardt's other work!

I received a digital review copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Nora left her home town at 18 to get away from her father’s temper and the conservative gazes of small-town residents. She’s freed from that life, but can’t forget the girl she left behind. Nora is called to return home after tragedy strikes and forces her to confront her past. Sophie appears to have everything, the perfect family, the perfect career. But she still yearns for Nora, despite their years apart, and the animosity between them. They’re both forced to confront their remaining feelings for their first loves, and discover how family affects their lives and judgement. To figure out what their futures hold.

Overall, I thought this was an okay romance novel. The story mainly revolves around the relationship between Nora and Sophie and the judgement of their small conservative town.

I enjoyed the scenes where Nora and Sophie discussed their sexualities with certain other characters. These scenes felt really tender and heartfelt. Especially the scene with Erin was absolutely beautiful.

I found it a little hard to root for Sophie and Nora as a couple. The story had a pretty damning pattern around their relationship. It felt to me a little toxic: cycles of hate, forgive, love and repeat, which didn’t really sit right with me. At times it felt like they were making greater sacrifices to be together than they got out of being together.

I know that the book is set in American and written by an American, and they have a greater appreciation for their military than I guess I’m used to, but I felt that the referencing to Nora’s time in the military was a little over-glorified. That said, I liked the inclusion of PTSD, and that Nora had previously battles with this mental illness, but it had a little real impact on the wider plot.

I really enjoyed reading a book about a woman who’d hidden/denied her sexuality for years, it’s not something I’ve read before. It’s interesting to read from a different perspective as opposed to the usual YA LGBT+ books I normally read.

I would recommend to anyone who enjoyed other romance novels, especially if they’ve featured LGBT+ romances.

Thanks again to Netgalley and the publisher, Mills & Boon.

I was unable to finish this due to my Kindle breaking. However, I managed to read over 50% and what I did experience was something way more enthralling than I could have imagined. The prejudice Nora and Sophie experience throughout this novel made me so angry, but that's what sadly made it all the more realistic. The love story is so beautifully written and Lenhardt does a fantastic job at creating two female characters who have so many layers to their story. I was hooked.