Secrets Lies Family Ties
Posted by LMReviewsApr 28
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With enough scandal to make a soap opera script seem tame, Sylvia Hubbard’s Secrets, Lies and Family Tiesis filled with intertwining plot-lines where everyone is related or connected to everyone else if not by blood then by lust and deceit. Lust and love have more in common in this novel than just being comprised of the same number of letters. The lack of deep love throughout this novel made it difficult to become emotionally invested in any of the characters. Real love, in nearly all of its examples were mingled with unhealthy possessive desires and treacherous revenge-seeking. The complications that the heroine, Grae Reed, finds herself in become too fantastic to bear. While she grows strength and courage as the book progresses, her persistent desire for those who deceive her and her constant self image problems make her personal improvements seem momentary.
While the author is a great storyteller and is capable of structuring a complex plot, I found myself recognizing the plot’s destination before the story took me there. In the end, I had a hard time seeing some of the characters for who they were. The hero, Ezekiel Chambers who seemed like a black man caught in a white man’s body, was definitely sexy but not much of a prize. I came to feel sorry for him. The various parental figures in the story were insufferable. Her engaged best male friend Prince, who was more likable then the rest, seemed conflicted in his effeminate demeanor and his not-so subtle attraction to Grae.
Ezekiel’s friends, Dana, Tyrone and Jerome were much worse as they played tricks on Ezekiel and held petty grudges while romping around as a marital ménage a trois. A lot of the most head-shaking details seem to be weaved in for effect and then explained away as a lie, in an attempt to temper the story’s overall seedy tone.
The antics in this novel may make your grateful for a mundane life.
