Can You Keep a Secret?

By: Sophie Kinsella

Narrated by: Kate Reading

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Party Crasher and Love Your Life comes a novel with the same wicked humor, buoyant charm, and optimism as her beloved Shopaholic series.

“Sophie Kinsella keeps her finger on the cultural pulse, while leaving me giddy with laughter.”—Jojo Moyes, author of The Giver of Stars and The Last Letter from Your Lover

Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets:

Secrets from her boyfriend: I’ve always thought Connor looks a bit like Ken. As in Barbie and Ken.

Secrets from her mother: I lost my virginity in the spare bedroom with Danny Nussbaum while Mum and Dad were downstairs watching Ben-Hur.

Secrets she wouldn’t share with anyone in the world: I have no idea what NATO stands for. Or even what it is.

Until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger. . . .

But come Monday morning, Emma’s office is abuzz about the arrival of Jack Harper, the company’s elusive CEO. Suddenly Emma is face-to-face with the stranger from the plane, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her. Things couldn’t possibly get worse. Or could they?

Praise for Can You Keep a Secret?

“Venturing beyond Saks and Barney’s, the bestselling author of Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Ties the Knot entertains readers with backstabbing office shenanigans, competition, scandal, love and sex. . . . Kinsella’s down-to-earth protagonist is sure to have readers sympathizing and doubled over in laughter.”—Publishers Weekly

“If laughing out loud in public places is your bag, be sure to pick up [Can You Keep a Secret?]. Heroine Emma Corrigan is going to be your new best friend.”—Boston Herald

“Kinsella’s timing is so perfect, her instincts so spot-on, that it’s easy to . . . devour the book like the guilty pleasure it is.”—Miami Herald

“Chick lit at its lightest and breeziest . . . filled with fabulous clothes, stalwart friends, and snotty enemies waiting to be taken down a peg.”—Orlando Sentinel

“[Kinsella’s] dialogue is sharp, even her minor characters are well drawn, and her parody of the marketing world is very funny.”—Washington Post Book World

“[A] comedic frenzy of ill-fated events . . . punchy . . . fast-moving.”—Rocky Mountain News ©2004 Sophie Kinsella; (P)2004 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Venturing beyond Saks and Barney’s, the bestselling author of Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Ties the Knot entertains readers with backstabbing office shenanigans, competition, scandal, love and sex. . . . Kinsella’s down-to-earth protagonist is sure to have readers sympathizing and doubled over in laughter.”—Publishers Weekly

“If laughing out loud in public places is your bag, be sure to pick up [Can You Keep a Secret?]. Heroine Emma Corrigan is going to be your new best friend.”—Boston Herald

“Kinsella’s timing is so perfect, her instincts so spot-on, that it’s easy to . . . devour the book like the guilty pleasure it is.”—Miami Herald

“Chick lit at its lightest and breeziest . . . filled with fabulous clothes, stalwart friends, and snotty enemies waiting to be taken down a peg.”—Orlando Sentinel

“[Kinsella’s] dialogue is sharp, even her minor characters are well drawn, and her parody of the marketing world is very funny.”—Washington Post Book World

“[A] comedic frenzy of ill-fated events . . . punchy . . . fast-moving.”—Rocky Mountain News

“Kinsella’s witty take on mundane office and family life will really make you laugh out loud. . . . Move over, Bridget [Jones]!”—Evening Chronicle (U.K.)

“Hilarious.”—Sun (U.K.)

“Kinsella’s light touch keeps this very funny look at life and relationships flying along and builds Emma into a genuinely endearing character. Romantic, but refreshingly witty.”—Sunday Mirror (U.K.)

“Like a riotous gossip with your best friend—it’ll have you laughing, cringing and hopelessly engrossed from the first page.”—Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail

“A delightful new novel . . . Kinsella has another irresistible hit on her hands.”—Booklist

Disappointed

All I can say is, ugh. What a disappointment! The only positive thing I can say is that the narration was wonderful. However, the story itself annoyed me. The whole book I was thinking, "you idiot." If there is a wrong decision to make, she makes it. Honestly, I don't understand why Jack even likes Emma. She lies all of the time and treats him like crap.

Telling Secrets

I bought this book because the narrator, Kate Reading is a great favorite of mine, I think because it is obvious she has fun at work. Like my other favorites, she has a trick of making an author's work her own almost as if she is making up the story as she goes. She is a wonderment with those glorious British words and phrases such as "gobsmacked", "cocked it up", "skivve out" and "fob me off". Was it Mark Twain who said that Britain and the United States were two great nations separated by a common language? Sophie Kinsella's goal in writing this book was not to instruct backward Yanks in current British slang but she sure was an education, a thoroughly enjoyable one.

This book is a big mouthful of pink cotton candy, a light romance all sugar and air. On a plane ride through hell, the heroine spills all her secrets to this total stranger including a few she didn't know she had. For instance, she had never been in love which would be news to her boyfriend. Worse, after she and the total stranger who turned out to be the CEO of her company started the "we", he manages to spill all her secrets on national television. Oh, this is a delicious book. The heroine is absolutely engaging. Her life is a mess. Her career is a mess. She is a mess, an adorable mess. It would be a delight to be around such a woman although she has the morals of an alley cat. One would worry about catching STDs from her. She is sort of a Catherine Morland (Northanger Abbey) kind of heroine, a loose Catherine Morland. Maybe better, she's a Meg Ryan in that modernized "Pride and Prejudice" movie "You've Got Mail" who if you remember could never think of a good retort until it was too late. How little we know about even a prospective mate. Like Darcy and Elizabeth, what we know for sure about each other is often totally wrong.

Laugh out loud funny!

I loved this book! There were times I was listening in the car and would laugh out loud! Then of course, I would look around to see if anyone was laughing at me! The characters are very loveable...I loved Jack! And Emma was very true to life. I think we have all felt akward like she seems to a lot. I highly reccommend this book!

Great build up

The build up was great but the finale was a bit scattered and lacking. I was hoping for a bit more closure.

Loved it!!!!

I was so torn during the last few chapters in regards to what I wanted to happen and how I wanted the book to end.

Overall it was a funny, fun and entertaining book. I couldn't stop listening.