Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Over the past few days, I finished re-reading Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella more than ten years after it was published. I was able to purchase a paperback copy from PowerBooks in Metro Manila back in 2006, read it and subsequently forgot about it. I only saw the book again in a recent visit to one of the Borders outlets in Muscat.

Can You Keep A Secret? is Kinsella’s follow-up foray into the chick lit world sans Becky Bloomwood on the heels of the first four books of the Shopaholic series. I must admit that I was disappointed with the book. It is not as humorous as the Shopaholic novels, or at least the first few books of the series.

The book’s heroine is marketing assistant Emma Corrigan, who has a few too many secrets to comfortably keep.

There are also too many parallels with the Shopaholic series, such as:

1. A ditzy heroine who believes there is so much more in life awaiting her

2. A dark, brooding love interest who built his own company, is rich and is reputed to be a genius

3. A scandal through mass media that badly damages the heroine’s reputation and already flimsy pride

4. An irritating female co-worker occupying a nearby desk: Artemis for Emma and Clare for Becky

5. The heroine’s immediate supervisor whose name begins with the letter P: Paul for Emma and Philip for Becky

6. The heroine’s ability to quickly incur financial debts

7. The heroine is an only child

8. The presence of a sister figure who outshines the heroine: Kerry for Emma and Jessica for Becky

There are other similarities that I will probably recall later on, however, Can You Keep A Secret? is nonetheless fun enough on its own, if you approach it with no high expectations.

Here is the summary of Can You Keep A Secret? at Amazon.com:

When her plane en route from Glasgow to London experiences horrible turbulence, Emma Corrigan is convinced she is going to die.

She babbles all of her most intimate thoughts and secrets to the handsome American man sitting next to her. But the plane lands safely, and Emma bids him an awkward good-bye.

When she enters the office on Monday and learns the CEO of the company, Jack Harper, is in for a visit, Emma is horrified to learn Jack is actually the man in whom she confided on the flight. He knows everything, including that she hates her job and that she is not quite sure she loves her boyfriend.

But Jack does not fire her on the spot; instead, he quietly replaces the office coffeemaker she hates and gives her advice about her personal life, which she finds infuriating. So why can’t she stop thinking about him?

Image credit: Pixabay