Tell Me A Secret by Jane Fallon

3.5 Stars

The novel starts with Holly getting a longed for promotion at work, moving up from Script Editor on a Recurring Drama to a management role.  Most of the "action" centres around her office relationships - her best friend Roz, the office pariah Juliet, the put upon PA and the intern Lorraine.  There are a couple of others thrown in for good measure - fellow script editor Jim, a slimy boss, Giles, and a few of the cast from the soap.  Just as Holly thinks her life is coming together it seems that someone "has it in for her" and is sabotaging her position.

The biggest issue I had with this book that it is clear from Chapter One where the problem lies and it does get frustrating waiting for Holly to come to her senses and figure it out.  This does lead to some rather bizarre scenes featuring her non-office best friend Dee and her husband Gav which, to be honest, are completely implausible.  However, they are fun and leant an air of frivolity to the book which it needed or it could have been tedious in the extreme.

It is quite hard to write a review on this one as so much of the plot centres around relationships that it would be all too easy to give things away.  Yes, it isn't exactly difficult to work out for yourself very early on in proceedings but for that you need to read it and I don't want to spoil that.

I did find Holly a difficult character to get along with.  She is such a mish mash of personality traits that I found her quite wearying at times, I also wanted to give her a good shake and tell her to get her head in the game.  There is also a lot of time spent mulling things over in her head which did get a little repetitive.

Over all it was a decent enough read and the author certainly understands how toxic relationships, in particular friendships, can be.  Yes, it is all overblown and slips seamlessly in to out and out ridiculousness occasionally but I did still enjoy making my way through it all.